Chapter 64

 

Glaring at Chase, who continued to stand in the middle of my bedroom on his side of Alterealm, I growled. “Seriously? You want to check me over and make sure I’m okay?”

“Yes.”

He didn’t even crack a smile while he stood there, so I knew he was being dead serious. “I want to go to the cells and check out what’s going on, can’t we do this later?”

“I said I would look after you, and I intend on doing that.”

The tone of his voice assured me that I wasn’t going to get to clean up or do anything until I gave in. “It’s just my shoulder that’s hurting.” A slight understatement, but I wasn’t going to share that my whole back and arm was throbbing with pains shooting up and down it. When he continued to just stand there looking at me, I cursed many bad words inside my head and then started to take the harness off my back. As an afterthought, I turned my back on him when I went to move the aching arm, just in case I made one of those pained faces.

“I can feel the pain you’re in, Daxx.”

That definitely made the decision for me, there would be no more blood healing for this girl. I was willing to get used to being around others and having them in my face all the time, but my thoughts and feelings were my own and only shared if I wanted to.

Pulling the shirt over my head was pretty close to the most painful thing I’d ever done, except that time I had cracked three ribs or when my leg had been crushed when a jumper tried to back over me in his car. When the damn material finally cleared my head, I put my arms back down and stood there with my back to him. He hissed and I knew now I’d have to go look in the mirror and see how bad it was.

Not even sparing him a glance, I walked into the bathroom and flicked on the light and turned my side toward the mirror. Well shit, my shoulder was the color of freshly ground up meat and looked like a giant blister wanting to burst.

“And that is you being okay?” He drawled from the doorway.

I looked at him in the mirror and made one of those dumb faces that you make when you know they’re right but don’t want to admit it out loud.

I heard his boots on the floor as he came over. “I can’t just leave it like this, kitten, it breaks my heart just looking at you having something like that on you.”

The soft aching tone of his voice made me look at him in the mirror again. He wasn’t lying as he stood there looking at it he looked like he was hurting as much as I was. “The connection that goes with the blood healing…” How did I say this without sounding redundant? “I’m not comfortable with it.”

He traced his finger over my tattoo, a look of fascination on his face. “I know.” I shivered under his touch. “I find myself going through a lot of new territory lately as well, it’s not just you.”

Men rarely confessed things of this magnitude without prompt, so I turned and leaned back against the counter and looked up at him. “What do you mean?”

Running a hand through his already messed up hair, he sighed loudly. “I almost marked you last night, Daxx.” I nodded, I was there I knew this. He studied my face silently. “We would have been mated then, do you understand that? I almost took away your right to choose.” His voice had a pained tone to it now.

“I got that part last night.”

Shaking his head, he paced over to the other side of the room and then turned and looked at me. “I don’t think you got all of it, sweetling, or we wouldn’t be having this calm discussion right now.” He moved back to me so quickly, I didn’t have time to react before I found myself boxed in by his big arms with him leaning down in my face. “We would have been mated. Period. You can’t undo that.” His eyes, bordered on yellow so fast it was haunting. “You’re not comfortable with the blood connection? A mated pair are connected in all ways. When one hurts, so does the other. When one is mad, the other feels it.”

Well, when he put it that way it was a very good thing it hadn’t happened. I was still coming to terms with this destined to be the mate of a king spiel, having no decision in it would have pissed me right off. I opened my mouth to say something, but the look he gave me made me close it again.

“Marking someone is no accident.” He paused and leaned back a few inches. “It can’t just happen with anyone.” Nope, I still wasn’t getting where he was headed. “I have never felt the inclination to mark someone, never mind almost lose my mind with the strongest emotions that filled me with need to do it.”

The picture was getting a little clearer for me. “So what do we do then?”

Closing his eyes, he stood there with his arms still caging me in and took a few deep breaths. “Exactly what I said last night. Nothing. We take a little more time.”

A thousand questions filled my mind. I asked the first one I could maintain. “Did you tell Troy what happened?”

Opening his eyes, he shook his head. “No, but I think he still knows.” Pushing away, he straightened. “The connection between my brothers and I is mostly emotion based and there is no way he didn’t feel a part of what I did last night.”

I pointed at him. “Okay, that right there freaks me out.” I crossed my arms over my chest and it dawned on me that I was standing in the bathroom having this discussion in my bra. “I’m not even used to be around others and now all of a sudden I’m supposed to share my emotions with others in a non-verbal sense.”

The look on his face softened. “I know you’re having a hard time with it, I can feel that and it is why I am fighting this constant battle to give you space.”

Damn, he just racked up a few more points with that statement. “Thank you.”

He glanced in the mirror at my back. “With that being said, it’s killing me to see you hurt. Everything in me is telling me to look out for you, to heal you …” He sighed again and ran both hands through his hair in a frustrated move. “I will do everything possible to keep my emotions out of your head.”

Even with his eyes more yellow than hazel I could see him pleading with me. Cursing my newfound weakness, I dropped my face into my hands and stood there. When I lifted it, I motioned around the bathroom. “Can I take a shower and think for a few minutes?”

Stepping back, he nodded. “I’ll go get cleaned up and be back in fifteen minutes.”

“Okay.”

He stood without moving, just looking at me. “You were amazing tonight, by the way.”

More flattery, a girl could get used to that sort of thing. “Mostly thanks to your teaching.”

Chase shrugged. “I didn’t do much, just guided you in a new direction. You did all the work.”

“Go. I need some space for a few.”