Chapter 167

Chapter 167
Allie: 

“We don’t have time for this. You should be training. We don’t know what’s going on,” I tried yanking my hand free from his. 

The dark cloud that was the looming threat of the coven and Denver had soured my mood for days now. I wish I could be calm and happy and just lie and wait for them to bring their horrible surprise on us, but instead, I was barking and snapping at everybody, including Green.

Seeing my dad‘s finger lying in that box, slowly rotting, I think it had done more damage to me than I wanted to admit. I didn’t have a lot of care for him, but I didn’t want him to be going through this torture. More so, I didn’t want my brothers to have to see something like that. Luckily, we had gotten the box out of the room before they saw it, but the image was frozen in my head, haunting me. 

It wasn’t going to be these peaceful days that were keeping us alive much longer. It didn’t matter if it was Denver or the coven who struck first. We were headed towards the blood and the fighting. The laughter that filled our apartment was slowly going to fade, the horrible realization that some people in there might not return.

My stomach lurched at the thought of any one of our people dying. 

“You need a break. You nearly took your sister’s head off,” he disagreed with my pleading to turn back around. Instead, he led me further into the woods, which seemed to have become a ritual for us.

Taking these hidden moments amongst the trees to try and keep ourselves sane. As much as I was desperate for another moment alone with him, I just didn’t have the time for it. 

They’ve gone over every inch of the walls in the land trying to find if there were any booby traps placed, but we couldn’t find a thing. Granted, it wasn’t like we could x-ray the ground and figure everything out. I felt like there was this great big hint that we were missing. We couldn’t find any trace of walls around any other date or any other part of the walls. They had focused strictly on the northern gate and hadn’t gotten in at all.

“You are allowed to be angry, you are allowed to be upset, but what you’re not allowed to do is take it out on everybody because you’re bottling it all up,” he snipped at me. 

I stopped in my tracks. He was right, I had totally snapped at my sister, and I’ve been snapping at everybody lately. All of this pressure was finally getting to me. I’ve been handling it so well up until now, and I pouted, frustrated with myself for being so childish.

“Don’t,” his voice and his face softened as he cupped my cheek. 

I leaned into his touch and the healing effect that it had on me. A few stolen moments with him, and my mind will return to normal. I decided to stop fighting and pulled him closer to me.

“We have to keep our guard up,” I repeated my mantra to him. 

“ I know, and we will, but right now let’s just focus on you and me. I’m your mate. You can lean on me,” he assured me. 

I couldn’t help but chuckle. I already knew that I could lean on him, but I didn’t know if we were going to make it out of this alive. If he was going to make it out of this alive, I could feel the seconds slipping by as if Denver was right around the corner. My mind was racing like he was already here. 

“I know I’ve been acting crazy, but I can’t help it. I feel like it’s too late, but there’s nothing we can do to stop it anymore, as if we’re tumbling over a cliff and I can’t save you,” I revealed my inner turmoil to him. 

“For the last time, it’s not your job to save me. You can’t fight this battle, but I can, and I’ve been doing everything I can to prepare for it,” he reminded me. 

I knew he was right, and he was doing a phenomenal job of training. Jeremy told me how Green had stopped pulling his punches finally, but he actually believed that Green would do what was necessary in the fight. 

I know part of Green hated the thought of killing a man with his bare hands, of feeling the life drained out of him. He didn’t want to be the monster that Denver was, but I also knew that his desire to protect me was greater than that. Though Jeremy wanted to tap into Green’s rage and his anger, I wish that he would try to use Green's love of me instead. 

I leaned up on my tiptoes and kissed him softly. “I trust you with everything. My life, my heart.” I murmured against his lips, our noses brushing as he pulled me back in for a deeper kiss. 

“Don’t let them get to you. That’s exactly what they want. They want us undone by this threat, but we won’t let them win,” he encouraged me. 

He was right, I was playing right into their hands, getting so stressed out by this idea that they were going to be ahead of us. It was bad enough that I didn’t know what threat we were facing, but I was relying too hard on my visions, I was just like everybody else. Right now, I couldn’t know everything. 

A smile actually returned to my lips, and a great big grin broke out on his face. “I’m glad we’ve got that settled. I need you, I need your faith. That’s the only thing getting me through this,” he admitted, my heart clenching. We were desperate for each other, and yet here we were waiting for the world to end. 

I pushed away from him before we gave in to the desire we had to ignore. Instead, he pulled me back to him hard and kissed me like I'd never been kissed before. I could feel the hunger that he had in him, the weight of all of our problems wearing his patience ever so thin. 

“Green,” I gasped as he sucked softly on my neck. A deep need in me blossomed for more of it. 

“Say that again,” he chuckled as a hand went into my hair. 

A breathy gasp escaped me as another hand snaked around my waist, keeping us tightly together. Part of me wanted to pull away, but for the first time, it was being drowned out by the insensible part of me. 

He started backing us up against a tree, and I didn’t argue. I needed more. Caution and reason be damned. 

We hit the tree with a hard thud, and just as clothes were about to be undone, a twig snapped. I looked around, and Green went from passionate and possessed to guarded and ready. 

That was when I realized the clothes we were wearing. I hadn’t thought about it this morning when I pulled them on, but I had seen these clothes hundreds of times before. I had seen the clothes he was wearing. I had seen this clearing. 

What had I done? How had I not realized it?