Chapter 5 Marked

"Thanks for coming, Liam."

"Just thought to come say hi, and Sapphire needed to see Skylar." His voice became lower. "How's it going between the both of you?"

"Bad. I locked her up yesterday. "

Liam gaped at his brother. "What? Nick. Why would you do such a thing?"

"It was either that or death."

"What'd she do?"

"Pissed me the fuck off." Silence. "And she tried to run."

"Oh." Liam thought about it for a while. "But you shouldn't have handled it that way, big brother." He turned to Nick. "Why not talk to her? Diplomatically."

Nick sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Maybe you have a point."

"About this Uprising, Nick...."

"Yes, about that. Whoever they are, they're keeping their cards close to their chest. Nothing major filtering out. We all just have to be careful."

"I will."

****

Nick was doling out advice to Sapphire. "He already likes you very much you know. Just tell him to wire some money into an offshore account for you. He'll do it. Or we could kidnap him and split the ransom. He's very rich."

Sapphire giggled.

Liam joined them. "Nick, are you my brother or Sapphire's?"

"I could switch sides." Nick replied with a lazy grin, then said, "Sapphire, your sister hates me."

"I'm sure there must be a reason," said Sapphire.

"No. There is no reason. I just hate him." said Skylar.

"I told you. I think it's time to eat lunch. Come on, guys."

****

"Your brother was nice," Sapphire commented as they got in the car, ready to leave. "Nicer than anyone could imagine."

Liam raised an eyebrow. "Really? People don't think he's nice?"

Sapphire shrugged. "He IS the Blood Alpha."

"Doesn't mean he's not a nice person."

"Yeah, but, the power he wields. He knows dark magic. Plus, the pack he leads."

"I get that part. Those guys scare me shitless, too, sometimes. And I know them well."

Nick's pack wasn't a conventional, traditional pack. His pack members consisted of not just werewolves but werecats as well- most of them having no packs themselves.

When Nick had been sent away to learn about being a Blood Alpha, his father's enemies had struck, killing both parents. Liam, who had survived with the help of some of his father's friends, ruggedly took on the role of Alpha at just fourteen. And he had been good at it.

Nick returned, filled with dark knowledge and power no wolf would dare to go near, and refused to take back the position. He tracked his parents' killers down, shredded them apart bit by tiny bit- Liam still remembered that day vividly and he shuddered anytime he thought of it- and took off again. When he came back, it was with an assortment of strange creatures from different worlds. Some of them had been sole survivors of massacres, some of them weren't even accepted from the beginning and all of them were hardened warriors. They did not look pretty and they wore their scars visibly. The sight of them made anybody hesitate but Nick made sure they were all accepted, thus building his pack from scratch, till he made it the strongest.

Liam sometimes wondered how he managed to bring them together. Nick always did have the power for convincing.

He flashed Sapphire a grin, "Shall we go home, then?"

She smiled back. "Sure."

****

"Can we have a conversation? Please."

Skylar did not say a word. Nick perched beside her.

"I'm sorry things have turned out this way for us. I'm sorry for yesterday. Can we possibly start over again? We don't need to be besties. Just let's be able to tolerate each other."

"I don't want to have anything to do with you."

"You know I'm going to have to mark you very soon,"

"There is no way you're touching me."

Nick managed to hide a smile. "You know what your problem is, Skylar? What do you hate so much? The fact that you have to relinquish control."

She tooffensence immediately. "You're not in control of me. You're not in control of anything."

He hid a smile again with a bow of his head, "Yes, ma'am. But I still have to mark you. The Revelation ceremony is in two days. I have to mark you before I can show you to everyone as Alpha Luna."

"I know."

He took off his shirt.

"No. Nick, no."

Nick watched as she shivered. "It'll only hurt a while."

"Don't try to offer me comfort."

Nick continued to watch her, eyes lazily hooded. She smelled nice.

"Turn around," she demanded.

He did as instructed.

She stripped down and lay on the bed. "I'll close my eyes now and then you do your thing."

"Sure,"

When he turned around and bared his teeth towards her neck region, he inhaled sharply at her scent and it was with great strength that he held himself back from just marking her.

Get your mind to the game, Nick.

When she woke up, groggy and weak, she found herself splayed across his chest, still in her panties.

"Don't move around so much."

She jolted and moved away from him. "Creep." She reached out to hit him but he caught the hand and pulled her towards him.

For a few minutes, they sparred, with Skylar trying to pull away and him pulling right back.

Eventually, she accepted defeat. "Let go."

"Not yet."

He sniffed around her face, taking in her scent.

Skylar held herself stiff. Something was burning low in her lower belly. And her body was reacting to his sniffs. She knew it was the result of the mark. The pull between them would be much stronger, sexually and physically.

Involuntarily, she jerked when she reached her breast region. And she let out a low moan when his mouth grazed her nipples.

She hated herself when her neck and back arched, she hated that his tongue was moving slowly down her body and that she couldn't stop him.

One of his fingers slips into her panties. Then it slipped between her. She was wet.

Suddenly, he stopped.

"W- what are you doing?"

"Going to take a bath."

She gasped.

Nick continued good-naturedly, "We really shouldn't be doing this since we don't like each other."

She was speechless. "You're using sex as a weapon against me?"

"No. We just don't like each other." He stood up, winked at her, and left the room.