Chapter 97: Shivers
His hand reached out slowly in my direction, and I frowned, moving slightly away until there was nowhere else for me to back away to.
"What are you doing?" I asked, furrowing my eyebrows.
I warily stared at his hand. He didn’t look like he was going to choke me out here and now, but at the same time, he was reaching for my neck. Even though Soren was the least likely of the three brothers to kill me, it didn’t completely erase the possibility of him doing so.
Soren Hadeon didn’t know what he wanted, which made him much worse than Rowan or Cassian. With Soren, there was no way for me to predict which side of him I might be facing at the moment.
I braced myself, preparing for any possible threat or harm that might come my way. However, all he did was reach past my throat and towards my hair. Gently, he brushed the hair that had gathered there away, tucking it behind my ear.
With my neck now exposed, the cool breeze that came in from the crack in the window grazed past my neck easily. I shivered, goosebumps rising at the sensation. What’s more, Soren’s fingers lingered across my skin in feather-light touches, leaving me trembling whenever he brushed against me.
"W-What are you doing?" I asked, my voice quivering a lot more than I wish it did.
"Don’t move," he said.
His eyes were glowing brightly, and his voice seemed thick with emotion. His wolf looked like it was on the verge of losing control, and I could see Soren desperately trying to hold himself back. The look in his eyes had all sorts of emotions swirling in them, including pain, denial, and, most obvious of them all, jealousy.
If it weren’t for the flex of his jaw and the shake in his breathing, I would’ve second-guessed myself once more. However, this was much too obvious. Even if I were blind to the way people thought about me, I would have to be blind to miss it now.
Soren’s fingers gently scraped down the length of my neck from the back of my ear to the base where my neck met my shoulders. Every second that dragged on only caused my knees to grow weaker. I pressed myself firmly against the bookshelf for support.
For some reason, it felt as though a spell had been cast on me, and I found it difficult to move. None of my limbs seemed to obey my orders, and my body no longer felt like it was my own.
Finally, his index finger trailed along my skin, grazing past the spot where Rowan had left his mark. It had fully healed by now, and what was left were two faint dots that served as proof that he had claimed me as his own. It stood out jarringly against my creamy pale skin, and even in the darkness of the room, Soren found the mark so effortlessly.
"I thought Cassian might be wrong," Soren muttered to himself. Even though his irises still glowed, the look in his eyes turned dark. Warning bells instantly rang through my head. "I guess Rowan really did mark you."
I gasped, shuddering uncontrollably when he ran his thumb across the mark. Even though the mark had already healed, it was still insanely sensitive. The more he touched it, the more it felt as though my body was set on fire.
Finally, unable to resist any longer, I mustered up all the strength I had and peeled my hand out of his. Then, I placed my palms flat on his chest to push him away.
"Stop that!" I hissed, making sure to keep my voice down. I didn’t need the other two Alphas to be roused from their slumber. One Alpha was bad enough for my sanity.
However, maybe it was because Soren had just played with the mark, I could hardly muster enough strength to cause him to step back, much less completely push him away. He only leaned away slightly, his hand finding me once again. This time, he held them against his chest. His large hand easily enveloped both of my hands at once without any problems, a small smile propping up the corners of his lips.
The smile, however, didn’t quite reach his eyes.
"Maybe it’s better you escaped," he said.
"What―?" I looked up, the thought of pushing him away tossed out of my head the moment those words left his lips. My eyes widened with shock, and I stared at him unblinkingly, questioning my ears and my sanity at the same time.
Did I just hear him say what I thought he said?
"Maybe that way..." he trailed off, leaning closer. I could feel his breath tickling my neck. "Rowan wouldn’t be able to leave his mark on you."
His lips brushed against my neck, and I exhaled shakily. My eyes rolled to the back of my head, and as if a switch had been flipped in me, my knees buckled. If it weren’t for the fact that Soren’s hands immediately let go to find my waist, I would’ve crumbled to the floor.
Soren caught me, easily holding my entire weight up as though I weighed nothing more than a down pillow.
The heat that had started to build in my lower belly was quickly rising. In the room, it swirled and gathered because I was surrounded by Rowan’s scent. I thought that leaving it might make it better, but as it turned out, it only made it worse.
Soren was an entirely different person, and his scent was different from that of Rowan’s. However, as he was Rowan’s brother, and unfortunately, also my fated mate, it didn’t help my case one bit. Our close proximity only caused the heat that had built inside me to worsen, and surely enough, it now became a roaring flame that demanded to be quelled.
My throat was starting to go dry. I needed to leave before I succumbed to the same spell that allowed Rowan the chance to mark me.
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