Figment of Dreams
Dornatill is Trouble (2)

The Dunnager was so crowded, it was hard to maneuver through. My shirt already sticking to my back. They had beaten Dornatill and everybody was celebrating like it was their last night breathing.

Sebastian, Bron and Dexar were throwing beers back like it was their job. Sky and Olive were already dancing on the bar. Nexxar, Lenn both staring at Sky as if she was a snack.

I was chatting to Dean about Leo, at one of the high tables. Chris had joined us a while back but couldn’t really talk about Leo since he knew nothing about our little adopted Wolvaby. Ash and Oak joined us after two rounds. Ash had not been at the game since he was banned from it for life. ‘Congrats Oak, great victory.’ I said to the amazing football coach he was. He cheered with me and we clashed beers. Ash took the high chair next to me, his knees touching mine. ‘You had a good time at the game?’ he asked and sipped from his beer. ‘Yeah, it’s a lot different than on earth. But it was greatly entertaining.’ Ash handed a pint to Dean. He interrupted us. ‘I just told Lux I had my first one on one with Leo. It was amazing.’ Dean had so much adoration for Leo, it was the cutest thing in the world to me. Ash, however, rolled his eyes dramatically. Still annoyed at the fact we were meeting ‘that monster’ every other night in the woods. I hit his arm roughly. ‘Be nice.’ I hushed.

‘Sweet cheeks, you know I’m not nice.’ He sighed, double meaning lacing his words. Making my lower body do a low hard flip.

I quickly sipped from my beer again. The buzz of the alcohol already getting to my head. Chris had rolled out the poker deck and we started concentrating on that.

‘Well, that’s a royal flush my friends.’ I greedily claimed all the chips on the table and made sure to release an obnoxious creepy laugh to emphasize my win.

‘I swear to god, you are not human.’ Said Chris solemnly and he threw his cards on the table hard. I had just beat every one of them. Rainers versus human, zero to one.

‘A very capable liar perhaps.’ Oak added his two cents. My biggest critic, but recent newfound friend, couldn’t help himself. ‘Jees, Thanks Oak.’ I dryly said and downed my drink. Ash rubbed my lower back soothingly and whispered in my ear, his hot breath caressing my earlobe and sending goose bumps up and down my arms. ‘Don’t worry about him.’ I saw Sky and Olive motioning towards me, from on top of the bar, shouting my name from the top of their lungs, to join them up there. It was starting to get embarrassing so I rose up. Those two were something else.

Ash clamped unto my waist. ‘Sweetheart, don’t go yet. Oak will behave. I’ll make sure of it.’ He looked his brother dead in the eye while hugging me to him. ‘It’s fine, I’m not leaving because Mr. Perfect.’ I stared at Oak and gave him an equally cold stare. ‘My other friends need me too.’ I ruffled through his white hair, which he hated. He shook his head and gave me that crooked smile. Dimples popping. This man was criminal. I almost didn’t want to leave but I was beginning to walk away, his hand on my waist made it difficult though. Until it hit me. ’Oh, I almost forgot, Rupert, and shit I forgot the other name, Bill? Morgan?-’ I snapped my fingers and frowned but the other name just wouldn’t come up again. Damn, those beers.

‘Bobby….’ Added Ash with a stone-cold voice. His beer was dropped on the table. The others stopped talking.

‘Yeah, him! Said Hi.’

The mood instantly dropped a few degrees. Dean, Chris and Oak all stared at me as if I had grown three heads. Ash’s eyes had widened and he had become as pale as his hair.

‘What did you just say?’ he had tightened his grip on my waist and didn’t let go.

‘What?’ I looked around at the others for backup. Dean didn’t look me in the eye anymore. ‘Why are you acting like this?’

Ash put both of his hands in his hair. Chris muttered to Oak something I couldn’t understand and Dean looked really worried all of a sudden.

‘Follow me.’ Ash said, grabbed my hand, and let me towards the backyard terrace where there were fewer people. ‘Ash, what is going on.’ My voice higher than usual from the sudden dreadful feeling they were giving me. A few people were smoking and Ash told them to fuck of. So they scurried away quickly. He closed the terrace door and sat us down on this bed underneath a patio. ‘Those guys are dangerous.’ He opened immediately with the cliff-hanger, still holding both my hands in his and rubbing small circles on the back of them with his thumbs.

I swallowed back a lump. ‘But they said they were your friends.’

He sighed and dropped his hands. ‘Lux, they wanted to let me know… that they know about you...’

‘I don’t understand?’

He grabbed my hands again. It remained silent for a few beats. He was contemplating how to formulate his words. ’They know that. I care about you. They know somehow.’

Those words hit me straight in the heart and it felt really good to hear.

‘You care about me?’ I squeaked. So far for the plan of letting him go a little.

He laughed out loud and rearranged his hair. ‘Sweet cheeks, seriously? That’s what you focus on?’

I shrugged. ‘I just wasn’t really sure-’ he grabbed me suddenly. Raised me up and out of my place and on his lap. Lips on me instantly. I was straddling him, hands in his hair. He roamed my mouth with his tongue with all the passion and longing that had been building and building all these months. His hands kneading my ass. Grinding my body on his pelvis. He softly moaned in my mouth. ’Sweetheart, you are literally everything to me.’ He whispered against my lips. I kissed him again, just for those words alone. He kissed my neck slowly, planting butterfly kissed on my neck and he was making his way towards my breasts and I moaned. ‘Ash…’ I panted. ‘We can’t…’

I moved back a little, still breathing hard. Lips flushed. Cheeks too. Even my hair was sticking out at rough angles from that one kiss.

’They know that you are mine. They want to hurt me so you are in danger and they wanted me to know that.’ His thumb caressed my swollen lips. His eyes never leaving them.

’Yours, huh.’ I snorted, while holding onto his arm that was caressing me, I kissed his thumb. He wasn’t playing.

’Mine. You.. are… so… mine… and you have been for a long fucking time, sweet cheeks.’ He put his words into motion by smacking one of my ass cheeks a little and he tried to kiss me again. I gasped into his mouth at the audacity and he chuckled at that.

‘Ash!’

I remembered who I was in that moment and he wasn’t going to be getting it so easily. I had my own life. He had been very difficult at times and had pushed me away more times than I could count. I scuffled out of his lap, rearranged my frazzled hair and sat back against the other side. I hugged my legs. ’So what do you want from me exactly?’ I had to ask. Since he has never been clear. Ever. There was also that mate oath.

He just stared at me. Pupils dilated. He licked his lips slowly.

’First of all, I want you. And only you. I haven’t even looked at anyone else since I met you. It’s driving me insane.’

That was not the case for me. My mind flashed to Dosch first but I quickly put that thought away.

’Sebastian.’

‘Sebastian is a boy.’

‘Well, anatomically you are correct. So are you.’

He barked another deep laugh.

’Oh baby, you have no idea how not a boy I am.’ He was referring to some very dirty things. I wanted to say that Sebastian knew his way around the bedroom and that he wasn’t the only one. But somehow I had always known that this beast of a man would be in an entirely different ballgame than all the others. Which were exactly two boys. So I hadn’t really had much to compare to anyway.

‘I’m not sharing.’ He stated coldly.

I sighed. ‘Ash, that’s too bad. Because I’m not going to let Sebastian go.’ I really wasn’t. It was perfectly clear to me in that instant that I cared about Sebastian and I had been denying it for weeks. I would not drop him. Not because Ash had suddenly decided he wanted me. We had been there a few weeks back and then he had dropped me like a sack of potatoes a few days later. Ash was as wishy-washy about me as his brother was as hard as a stone. Besides, I could never be his mate. So I needed to uphold my promise to Oak and try to get him to back off a little bit. This was clearly not going in the right direction.

Ash shook his head in disbelief as if he couldn’t believe I would say such a thing. He was so full of himself sometimes.

He grabbed my legs and dragged me over to him. I cried out in shock. He slammed my lower body over his and grabbed my face with both of his hands. ‘Come home with me tonight.’ He uttered tenderly. ‘We could finish what we started at those hot springs.’

After all these weeks of dreaming about this moment. About him finally making the move. It didn’t feel as good as it should have. I could also clearly feel his arousal poking through his pants straight at my core. My stomach made a low flip thinking about him. I was very attracted to him, I could not deny that. But would I really risk another great friendship as I had with Kai, as I had with Jax? Ash was my best friend and it had taken me this long to realize that. That friendship with Jax and Kai was once upon a time the only thing that kept me sane and it was basically non-existent now. At the moment Ash was my rock and I had never experienced a friendship like this before. I could not lose him too.

‘No…’ I answered. He dropped his hands.

‘No?’ His voice became an octave higher.

’Yes… no.’

He breathed out through his nose. ’I want you Lux, I can’t stress it enough. I want you.’ He thought by clearing that up one more time that it would change my mind.

‘I can tell.’ I dryly added.

He chuckled and kissed me again and I had to push him back. ’But I’m controlling this.’ I motioned towards our bodies, overlapping and needing each other. ‘You aren’t getting it that easily, Ash. Not after what you did to me in those mountains.’ I stepped off his lap.

‘Sweet cheeks, you know why I had to do that right?’ he pleaded. Not letting go of my hand. ‘You already paid me back for it, remember?’ Those Rainers and their tit-for-tat ways. Made my eyes roll.

‘Goodnight.’ I shrugged out of his grip and stared him down for a few seconds before I casually walked back to the bar. I turned my back on him and I’ve never been more proud. But hell, if that didn’t take all my self-restraint because I would have climbed that man like a tree tonight.