Shadow Guardians: The Promised
Chapter 8

Mari woke to the sound of Uriah’s heartbeat, and she wondered if her poor mate had been laying in the exact same position for the entire night while she slumbered away. When she lifted her head, she met his eyes and a tender smile.

“I’m sorry,” she said, placing her flat hand underneath her chin.

“I’m not. You should probably get ready for class. I didn’t want to wake you until it was absolutely necessary.” He used one arm as a pillow, while the other held her close. “I think you have around thirty minutes.”

She flew out of bed. “What?! Thirty minutes, are you nutty? How am I ever supposed to finish?”

Uriah laughed as she stumbled over her bare feet. She hastily opened the dresser’s doors, plundered through hills of clothing and threw a whole mess of them on the bed. “Thirty minutes is a long time, beauty.”

“Not for a woman!”

She scurried into the bathroom and turned on the shower, all the while fiddling with her hair to fit it into a shower cap. Blow-drying her long locks would take hours.

While she was jumping around in the shower between foam and sponges, Uriah sorted through the pile of clothes she’d thrown haphazardly on the bed. He’d gotten a feel for her sense of style. It didn’t seem like she even considered what she was picking when she plowed through the dresser.

He set aside a flowy, long-sleeved button-down shirt in beige, a cozy shawl in forest green, comfortable black stretchy leggings lined with fleece, and a pair of loafers.

Initially he considered picking the boots, but then he remembered that her feet had a tendency to become tender after her shifts, due to her changing body. Sometimes, when he tried to rub out the ache, he could barely touch the soles of her delicate feet without hurting her. So, the loafers were perfect for his female. She would be comfortable and warm.

He eyed the black sweater. Then added that too, because he wanted to be sure that she would be warm. Zoning into this own body and instincts, he tried to make out what she was feeling using their bond. After a moment, he nodded to himself. Definitely need a heat pad too, to relax the tightening muscles in her belly and lower back.

The water in the bathroom switched off just as he prepared a flask of hot chocolate for her to take with, after meticulously adjusting the level of sweetness to suit her taste buds.

When Mari came out of the bathroom, their bed was made, and the pile of clothes she’d thrown on it had been put away and replaced with an outfit she might as well have picked herself. Uriah was inspecting her painting on the wall, no doubt giving her a chance to get dressed.

The corners of her mouth tugged, and she shook her head. “Did you take a fashion class?” She asked, as she pulled on the very plain cotton underwear he’d chosen for her. She wasn’t in to lace.

“Beauty, you’ve been living with me for close to four years,” he said. “I made you some hot chocolate.”

Mid-way through pulling on the leggings, she paused. “You made me hot chocolate?”

A bout of panic flared through his veins. “You can still drink it, right?”

“Yes,”

Uriah’s shoulders dropped. “Good. When I was going through this, I could barely drink water on some days. I added some nutrition in there, protein powder and stuff.”

Mari pulled the shawl over her head and removed her hair from inside the collar, fanning it out. The scent of her strawberry shampoo drifted into Uriah’s nose, and burning tingles spread. Seriously? He put his tongue in his cheek and lightly shook his head.

Forget blue balls. His would be purple by the time she left. He even avoided sleep, fearful that he might dream of her again.

“You really didn’t have to make the hot chocolate,” she said, coming up to him while giving her hair a quick brush.

“Yes, I did. I also made you a heat pad for your belly. Gimme that.” He took the brush and started brushing her hair.

She was trapped between feeling babied and loved. Watching him brush her hair in the mirror made her miss her mother. But she died when Mari was just a baby, and she couldn’t remember much of her. Now she was definitely leaning more towards feeling loved, and a little lonely.

Would her life have been different if her mother were still alive? Why had she even married her father? Was it, too, arranged? Was her mother a warrior?

When she became aware that the brushing had ceased, she lifted her gaze and met two hungry-looking gilded eyes in the mirror. Something in Uriah’s expression sent heat flaring into parts of her that made her blush.

She knew everything of a male’s anatomy from biology, but she had never experienced any of it before. And that made her feel shame. What if he didn’t approve of her body?

Her father was always telling her how she should lose weight and walk upright, because she had this dreadful habit of hunching her shoulders when she felt stressed. Those kinds of things weren’t attractive. She was mated to Uriah, but would he accept her as she was?

“Don’t,” he whispered behind her ear.

He sounded so breathy, and out of nowhere, a thought popped into her head that she’d never had before. Was he aroused? And with it, the curiosity to touch. Fire flamed. She fisted her hands. What if she touched him wrong?

“Nerei,” he breathed, “Stop thinking.”

His hands glided up her arms, and he drew back her curtain of hair to expose her neck. Instinctively, she angled her head, and he pressed his lips to her vein in a soft kiss. The pulsing of her blood beneath his lips caused dark craving to claw its way out of the pits of his soul. He needed a taste, just one small taste. And not just of her blood.

He had no idea what made him do it, but he put his hand on her belly and pressed her back against him, wanting her to feel how much he needed her, how much he loved her.

Mari inhaled sharply.

At first, Uriah thought he’d gone too far, too fast. But then her hand came back and her fingers grasped strands of his hair. Yearning ache turned her cheeks ruby red.

“Gods beauty,” his voice was smooth as sandpaper. “I can smell you,”

Her mind panicked. “I-I’m sorry,” but she couldn’t bring herself to stop or turn away. “I don’t know,” his fangs glided over her skin and she exhaled long, “what I need.”

Uriah smiled. Of course she knew. She was all about biology, but she was awkward. It was baffling to him that he didn’t feel insecure about it, since he had never gone the entire way with anyone before, either. Perhaps the dreams had helped him, because it sure seemed like she needed him to take the lead.

“Yes, you do, but I can’t give it to you now. Your body isn’t ready, and I’d hurt you.”

Seeing his hungry gaze in the mirror made her fangs extend. If there was anyone she would surrender her poise to, it would be Uriah. Her own biology was conspiring against her right now. Shoving aside the awkwardness, she pressed against him and rubbed.

“Yes,” he breathed, “I’m going to touch you, beauty. It’s not going to be nearly enough, but just a little,”

If he’d told her to jump off a skyscraper at that point, she probably would’ve done it. His hand went underneath her shawl and sweater, and folded around the small swell of her breast, while his bonding scent took over the living pad.

A low moan fell from her lips that drove him wild. And yet there was still a thin layer of fabric creating a barrier between his hand and her skin.

Need intensified monumentally, and she pressed her thighs together, which brought no relief. The sight of the two of them in the mirror did nothing to ease the growing storm, even while the image was nothing but a drunken haze to her.

“Uriah,” With every pinch of his thumb and forefinger on her nipple, there was a tightening. “I need,”

“What do you need, beauty?” You. The echo of his dream threw him for a loop, but he was too far gone to stop now. The only thing that had the power to stop him was her.

Her lips thinned. She couldn’t say it out loud. She reached under her shawl, taking his hand, and guided it down, and before she chickened out, she placed his hand at her center. Passion sizzled, and she rode the flames.

His own needs took a backseat as he made her the priority, his rough hands guiding her to pleasure, wondering how far he could take her, fully clothed. She was the most beautiful sight he’d ever seen with her closed eyes, parted lips, and flushed cheeks.

Mari was hopelessly adrift in a sea of bliss, with no land in sight. And then her body began to quiver uncontrollably, and she got spooked. Arousal plummeted and her brain woke up. What am I doing?!

Uriah sensed the change immediately and stepped away from her, leaving her feeling cold without his body heat. When she turned to him, her eyes were wide with embarrassment. He frowned and took a step closer. “Don’t ruin it, nerei.”

“I’m sorry,” she brought hands to burning cheeks, “I don’t know what came over me.”

His hands came over her own. “Don’t be sorry. The goddess mated us. This is for us.” He lifted her face, forcing her to look him in the eye. “Just for us.” He gave her a heart-melting smile. “You’re so beautiful to me. I loved making you feel good.”

Tears brimmed in her eyes, and she didn’t know why. He pressed his lips to her forehead and stroked her hair, enveloping her with one arm. She was so small against him.

“You don’t think less of me?” she whispered.

“I would never. You could stand on your head while singing Old McDonald and I wouldn’t think less of you. Might think you’re a little screwy, but…”

She giggled, and he relaxed. “What happened to me, in the end?” she asked, not sure if she wanted to know the awkward answer.

“Your pleasure was about to peak. And then you freaked out. I’m sorry, I guess I should have known. I mean, you’ve never even touched yourself. Maybe I went way too fast.”

“It came down on me out of nowhere, this, fever,” she broke the embrace, thinking she probably had to get to class. Chances were, she was already hopelessly late. Even while she copped out at the end, she was still left with wanting.

“You might feel more of it as your transition progresses. It’s weird that you feel it at all right now.”

She cleared her throat and picked up her bag of books. “It happens to some.”

“Do you trust me?” Uriah asked, narrowing his eyes. “I don’t want to do anything that makes you uncomfortable,”

“No!” she answered quickly, “It’s not you. It’s just,” she searched for the words, for the reasons. Why did she feel so self-conscious?

“I think it’s just because of how I thought it was supposed to be, how my father always said it should be.” And then she just blurted it out. “Fully clothed, a male above me. I’m not supposed to look at him, nor he at me. It’s not about pleasure for arranged marriages. It’s just about procreation.”

Uriah set his jaw so hard she was scared he might crack a tooth. “Yes, because you’re just considered a baby-machine in the aristocracy. You have no voice, and no right there. That’s not the way it’s going to be with me.” He closed the distance between them and framed her face, staring deep into her blue eyes, and hating the insecurity he saw in them.

“Between you and me, there is an exchange. We give as much as we take. And I don’t ever want you to be self-conscious of your body again. You’re my beauty, and there’s nobody I want more than you. You’re my mate, my equal, not something for me to trample on. And I wish I could rip out the guts of the male who made you think that.”

She bit her bottom lip and smiled.

“I love you, beauty.”

Then she did something she’d never done before. She stood on her tippy toes and kissed him. Far from the normal pecks she usually gave, she poured passion into the kiss, even while she had no clue how to intensify it. Until he opened his mouth, and she did the same. Their tongues stroked each other while her hand fisted his hair. He tasted of gingerbread, of all things. And she loved gingerbread.

Her first awkward movements of the kiss didn’t even matter, she got better as the time wound on. And after a full three minutes of fervently eating at one another, she broke away with swollen and bruised lips, which naturally made him feverishly twitchy.

Then she had the inclination to look down, and she stifled a giggle.

“Yeah, laugh. Look at what you’re doing to me.” He stood with his hands on his hips, putting himself on full display. The slack grey sweatpants did nothing to help the situation.

She burst out into laughter. And he couldn’t seem to help himself. “Do you know my balls will be looking like blueberry blasters after this?”

“No! How am I supposed to focus on class after that image? Oh gods, I have to go,” Through tears and laughter she gave him a kiss, then swung her bag over her shoulder, took the heat pad and the flask of hot chocolate, and fled.

Uriah let out a sigh and turned towards the shower. No amount of cold water would cool him off.