Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen
DAMIEN'S POV

"do you need me to tell you that you should go get the girl?" Liam asked, and I gave hm the stink eye.

"well, if you hadn't gone ahead to be bringing up things you have no busy bringing up, I wouldn’t have to chase the girl, now would I?"

"well, in my defense, I thought talk of the wedding would make her happy."

"wedding talks only pleases a woman, when she's marrying the love of her life, you dimwit."

"huh. I didn't think of that." Liam said, and sat back in his chair.

"of course, you didn't." I responded, and sat back in mine.

"well, she looks like she's about to have a crying jag. Wouldn't you like to at least, step in and be her knight in shining armor?" he was teasing me, but I shook my head furiously,

"I don't do well with tears and emotions. You know that. She needs  me to fight a century old vampire? Of course. In a heartbeat. But I don't do well with tears."

"I see." Liam responded as he rose, "well, lucky for us all, I can handle them."

"seeing as you're the one who brought this one upon us, you should be able to."

He walked away from the table, before turning to me.

"but you're the one marrying her. You're going to have to figure out the tears as well." he said, before turning away to go find her.

"why?" I groaned in frustration. Why did everyone have to complicate things this way?

This whole marriage thing would not have been my decision if anyone asked me. But was I crying about it?

No, I wasn't. I was dealing with it, and dealing with everything the marriage stood for.

Unless she was crying about who she had to marry. Now that's something I truly had no power over.

"more juice, sire?" one of the maids asked, and I looked at my empty glass and shook my head, "no , thank you."

I didn't need  more juice.  I needed everyone not to more emotional than they had to be about everything that was going on around us. Life was already hard enough as it was.

"hey." Liam called out to me, about two hours later, while I was out training in the sun. I was very in tune with my wolf side, but when I was constantly pommeling my body to be the worst beast I could be, I practiced my swordsmanship. That's what I was practicing now.

"what do you want Liam?"

"to ask you why ?"

"why what?" I sliced my sword through the air, before placing it in its scabbard, and hit Liam with a death glare. He'd been on my case all morning.

"why you won't try to have a relationship with the girl?"

"oh for the love of all that is good. She just got here! She just got here, and I'm supposed to be on my way to have a loving relationship with her? All of a sudden?"

"not all of a sudden. Of course, it isn’t all of a sudden, but a situation presented itself today, you should have taken it."

"a situation that you caused! Why did I have to be the one to fix up your mess?"

"really? Is that really how you see it? Yes, I admit, I should have thought twice before bringing up the wedding-"

"well, there you go!"

"but the honest truth is, the girl is simply struggling with adjusting to her new life. One she didn't ask for, or plan for, might I add. It was simply just dumped on her. Now she has to deal with it, and it's hard for her. Does that mean anything to you?" he asked, punctuating each word with emotion, and I had to wonder what was discussed during whatever discussion they might have had.

But because he was right, I turned away from him.

"I was willing to give her time to adjust to all this, Liam. Of course I didn't expect her to be okay, all of a sudden."

"all by herself? In an entirely new environment ?"

"what do you want from me?" I asked, turning to Liam, feeling a little bit disarmed.

"go to her. Talk to her. Have a bond with that wasn't dumped on you both, but was actually born out of choice and not need."

I said nothing, just looked away from him into the horizon.

"she's a sweet girl, Damien. She doesn't deserved to be on her own right now. Right now, she has no one else, just us."

"I know. I know." I said, and swiped some sweat off my fore head, walked to my water tank to drink some water.

"good. Now wash up, and go talk to her."

"I'll do that. But what do you say to one match with me?" I asked, drawing up another sword.

He eyed it as he took it from me, "I'm way out of practice. But yeah." he replied, and sliced it through the air, "one match wouldn't hurt anyone."

I found her while she was taking a walk through the stables. She looked truly caught up with the horses. Especially a chestnut, that I had taken the liberty of naming, Gracie.

"you're really beautiful." I heard her say and I was content to simply watch her. She, was really beautiful. I wonder if she knew that.

" I wonder what Damien would say, if I asked to take you for a ride."

"he'd say yes." I aid in a heartbeat, and made her jump, watched as she stilled her possibly racing heart by pressing her hand to her breasts.

"I didn't know you were there."

"I'm sorry to intrude. You just seemed so mesmerized by the horses… I couldn’t help but watch." I said sincerely, and she slowly nodded.

"I don't think I should be here." she wore a flowy white dress, that fell to her ankles, making her look ethereal. She looked perfectly right where she was.

"Jasmine, these land is yours too. You're my luna. All that I have is yours." I said, quietly as I walked toward her, "and this horse, is Gracie, and she's yours as well. So you don't need my permission to take for a spin."

She let out a sigh, "well, thank you. Thing is, I can't ride."

"but do you want to?" she looked up at me, and I was caught off guard by the vulnerability and sincerity I saw in her eyes. It all but weakened the man that I am.

"because if you want to, I could ride with you."

She pressed her lips together before nodding.

"I'd like that. So very much."