Lunar Temptations

Ch 18

"The decision will always be yours, but there will be consequences too," he reminded me as his hand carefully tucked a loose strand of my hair. "In the pursuit of hating me, don't do something you might later regret." His words took me off guard.

What did he mean? Why would I regret not marrying him? I knew him, though, and he wasn't the type of man to tell me that I would regret marrying him. It was too cocky for him. His words had more to them, but I couldn't point to it. It was as if there was something more that I didn't know, something I was missing out on.

As for the wedding, I was stuck. This was way more complicated than I thought. Technically, I would be moving in with him, making a public appearance with him, and doing enough PDA. There was nothing more that could come with the wedding. I had already agreed to all, and nothing was left except saying "I do" to declare us a married couple in the public eye.

"I don't have a choice in this either, Zayden. We would eventually have to get married," I sighed, and my shoulders dropped. His hand cradled my face, and he shifted in a daze. "Would it be a marriage if I can't mate with you or make you mine—something you have all the say in?" His eyes darkened as he stiffened.

My heart skipped a beat. Was he going to stick with it? Or do what I had been implying and was already expecting me to refrain from doing so?

"No, it would be more like an act," I murmured, watching his expression flatten.

"Exactly, you do have a choice after all." With that, he backed away. I opened my mouth, maybe to stop him, but I was too shocked to reply. His words gave a whole new meaning to our relationship. Even though it was just duty, I still had a choice which I had had for 5 years, and he couldn't take that from me. Nor could anyone else force me to mate with him or willingly let him mate unless I decided so. Zayden wasn't going to have it any other way either.

Something about it put me at ease, how I still had control even though I had no idea how long I would hold onto it.

Before I could say another word, the door behind me banged loudly, catching me off guard. I almost shrieked and jumped, but the man across from me caught me. "Raya, are you in there?" Esme's hushed voice came.

I huffed out with relief. That woman scared the life out of me almost.

"Yeah," I said and immediately opened the door. Across from me, my sister stood panting as if she had run a marathon until her eyes landed on us. It took me a moment to figure out why her eyes had widened like saucers. She cleared her throat, and I felt my cheeks heating up once again. Behind me, Zayden stood in nothing but a robe, which I still did not know why. But the only thing I knew was how bad it looked.

"It's not what it looks like," I tried to explain, but she waved it off.

"Mom is freaking out after not finding you in bed," she rolled her eyes. "Whatever you two are up to, make it fast," she said before turning around and leaving. I watched as she left, dumbfounded. We weren't up to anything like it looked! But she was already gone before I could tell her that.

Her disappearance was followed by a hand sneakily brushing my hair to the side, and then I felt his breath on my ear.

"So, do we have a truce, Red?" he whispered in my ear, and a chill went down my spine. I should have added a point to stop letting his touch light my body on fire because it was proving harder to focus each time.

"Yes, we do," I murmured and slowly felt his hand wrapping around mine as he breathed down my neck.

"Let's go," he said before pulling me with him. "Just change first, or they'll think we had s*x or something like that." I began to drag him back, but he was stubbornly heavy to pull back, and my energy was already drained.

"I don't see the problem in that," he huffed before tugging me lightly, and there I was, crashing into him like I was a mere feather colliding against a rock. "If anything, it's better that way," he winked at me before running his hand through my hair, messing it up. My mouth opened but closed again when I knew he was teasing me again, and a part of me loved it while the other wanted me to get back at him for it.

"What are you doing?" annoyed, I asked. He didn't reply; instead, he kept ruffling my hair and then proceeded to undo one or two buttons of my shirt. I gasped when I felt his fingers brush my skin, so close to my breasts. "Zayden," I was about to stop him, but then I noticed. My eyes narrowed in on the off-white shirt I had on. It wasn't a hospital dress, and definitely wasn't what I was wearing before going for that run either.

My mind went into a frenzy, realizing that somebody must have changed me, and my clothes were at the other end of the forest from where I was found. "How—" I began to question but paused when I smelled his scent on it.

It was his. It was Zayden's shirt that I wore, and I hate myself for noticing it only now, probably hours after waking up.

"It's mine," he said as if reading my thoughts. "I was wearing it when I found you. You had transformed back sometime before losing consciousness." That was all he needed to say before my cheeks heated up. Embarrassment and something else made my breath shaky. He must have seen me naked, and that man took off his clothes to cover me.

Something about it made my heart melt, but I immediately tried to shake the feeling off.

"You look beautiful, Red," he chuckled before turning around to walk off, not long after taking my hand in his.

"You're an asshole," I cursed at his back as we made our way back to where my family waited.