Love at first Bite

Three

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Copyright © 2022 Cassey9

Third Person P.O.V

Lenora’s ears are keenly attuned to their steady heartbeats a floor up. She was in the gym, working out intensely with Amelia. Sparring always helped her offload from the pressures and currently, she was under a lot. She needed the fight to get rid of the worries and tensions of the day’s events. The fact that the woman she’d rescued in the forest hadn’t woken up yet made her beast within uneasy. Had the blood she’d ingested done more harm than the good she’d intended. Lenora wouldn’t bear it if anything bad were to happen to those two.

Lenora ducks fast missing a kick to the side of her face by a hair's breadth. She sways backwards, her steps uncoordinated whilst dodging the oncoming punches from her opponent.

“What’s wrong with you today,” Amelia chuckles triumphantly. In all their sessions over the years she’d never bested Lenora in a fight but it seemed as if today the odds were in her favor. Something was amiss though, her friend was downright distracted. Her eyes constantly trained on the exit every now and then. And all because of that woman.

“I’m fine,” Lenora answers.

“Your fighting is off today. If it were a real life situation you’d be out like a match stick. Are you sure you’re alright Lenlen?”

Lenora throws a right hook in retaliation to the nickname. She hated it and Amelia knew so too but used it from time to time to agitate her. Amelia had come to know of the name through her little sister. The blow hits hard and Amelia struggles to catch her breath from the bolts of pain whelming her abdomen.

“Serves you right,” Lenora says delivering a kick to Amelia’s knee and that sends her friend crumbling to the ground. “Well…well look at where your overconfidence has landed you.”

From her position on the floor Amelia stares up at the woman she was sparring with. She was the second eldest and most daunting member of the Allegra bloodline. Lenora was striking but couldn’t hold a candle to her mate. To Amelia, her mate was the most gentled soul, beautiful and enthralling woman to ever grace the face of the earth.

‘You can do it baby’

The words of affirmation ring in her mind and Amelia looks towards the door to see her lover leaning against the door’s frame. The smile from her as radiant as the morning sun. With a bout of new energy Amelia pushes to her feet, dusts herself up and sends a final glance to the one that holds her heart. She wasn’t about to give up just yet. “Let’s do this…”

‘Now baby. Ask her’

The gentle request sounds in Amelia’s mind. Her mate’s curiosity had been peaked at the news and sight of Lenora bringing someone home. It was all astounding, even to her. Something that had never happened before.

Since meeting Lenora a century and half ago, Amelia had vaguely known of Lenora’s liaisons over the years. The relationships, if Amelia could call them that at all always seemed like a passing whim for her friend. Lenora was never too engaged in her partners and not once had she ever brought any of them back home with her. This was new and Amelia could feel her own curiosity slowly eating away at her and with it came a sense of dread too. Whomever this woman was had gained Lenora’s full trust to be in her room let alone her bed.

Amelia had felt the woman’s presence, scented her. She was human, a big downside to the circumstance. Humans and their kind never mixed well. Together, they were like oil and water. Immiscible. Humans had always been a threat to their existence. Branding them as spawns of evil and hunting them down despite the atrocities that humans committed against each other.

“I’m done for today,” Lenora announces noticing Amelia’s spaced out stance. Her mind too wasn’t in the training anymore. All she could think about was her. Tonight, she couldn’t revel at the growls and looks of discontent she always got from Amelia and Selene after losing a match.

“Lenora.”

“Yes,” she answers halting in her strides. Lenora turns and acknowledges the call. “What do you need Amelia?”

“Can we talk?” Lenora simply nods at the question already aware of the focus of said conversation. Amelia breaks eye contact from the intense gaze. Lenora’s eyes as grey as the thick prowling clouds in a storm. “Who is…who is she? The woman?” Amelia bites the inside of her cheek chastising herself for faltering. Lenora’s dead like silence was unnerving. A quiet so deafening.

“I don’t know her name yet Amelia.” Amelia is taken aback by Lenora’s frank reply. The calm and collected demeanor something Amelia couldn’t fully grasp. The woman was a total stranger to Lenora.

“Selene…Selene said she was expecting.”

“Yes. She is with child,” my child Lenora wants to claim but holds herself back. The woman was yet to come too. She was didn’t even know her name, her identity and here she was selfishly claiming the woman and the baby as her own. Her family. “I found her in the forest. Attacked by four men. She was hurt. I killed the men and took her from there.”

“You killed them all?” Amelia repeats what she’s heard as the words sink in. “Because of her?”

“Yes. All of them. They deserved it. They were hurting her. Their deaths were a fit punishment…”

“I understand that Lenora. But why bring a complete stranger into our home?” Amelia asks in disbelief. The fact that Lenora slayed those men was a minute issue. Lenora was fair and if she said they deserved it then her actions had been merited. Bringing the woman back here was the real problem. There number one rule was never to expose their private lives to the outside world. Lenora had done the exact opposite by bringing in the outsider. “Why did you…”

“She was hurt,” Lenora answers the question before Amelia can even finish voicing it. It was her decision and she didn’t feel the need to defend it to anyone. Amelia was wary of humans having suffered greatly under them. The choice had been hers still and she’d made it. Apart of her is concerned for Amelia so she adds, “I had to do something Amelia. I couldn’t leave her there.”

“Then you should have taken her to a hospital Lenora. Not here.”

“Amelia…”

“And her family? What about them? They must be worried sick…”

Amelia was right. She should have taken the woman to the hospital but hadn’t wanting to keep her close and safe. “I’m going to check up on her.”

“What?” Amelia voices in disbelief. Her shoulders sag as she watches Lenora make it for the door. Their conversation was far from over. Using her speed, Amelia appears right before Lenora barring her exit. “She should leave Lenora. She doesn’t belong here, with us.”

“Move,” the single words holds a sinister assurance of what’s to come and Amelia feels her courage shrink a little but doesn’t budge from her spot. The woman had to go.

“Lenora stop, please. She could be dangerous to you…to us,” Amelia contends. Their safety was paramount and this woman posed a big risk. If this woman knew about their true nature then what would stop the rest of the world from discovering about them. Selene would crumble if anything were to happen to her elder sister. “We don’t even know her.”

“You don’t need to know a person to help them Amelia.”

Amelia laughter comes out sarcastically. “Help! You’re not helping that woman by keeping her locked in your room. This isn’t a hospital for wounded strays. What if something happens and she dies…”

“She won’t! I gave her my blood!”

Amelia’s eyes bulge out, so much that Lenora expects them to pop out of their sockets, “You didn’t.”

“I did,” Lenora answers as calmly as possible.

“How could you be so stupid Lenora? What were you thinking! She’s pregnant!” Amelia practically yells as she paces about before Lenora. A lot of things could go wrong with what Lenora had done. “You should have let her die!”

The insult she could let slide but not the thought of the woman’s death. That statement is the last draw. In a blur, Lenora fixes Amelia in a chokehold lifting her off of the floor by the neck. “What did you say?” Lenora growls her fangs extending to full length.

“Lenora…stop. Lenora you’re not thinking stra…straight Lenora. You’re… ”

Her head shifts to the side, her hearing tuning to listen in better. Something was wrong. The woman’s heart was pounding fast and hard signaling a great angst. The sound of it distressing and insistent like the heavy drumming of rainfall beating upon a window pane. Lenora’s grip on Amelia’s neck slackens and she drops to the floor like a sack of potatoes. Lenora feels her call and she’s out of the room in a flash. Leaving a crumbled Amelia fighting to catch her breath.

Lenora reaches her room in a blink of an eye. Her gaze takes in the sight and she acts without a single thought. Her movements are fast as she grabs the back of Stanley’s neck and tosses him towards the wall further away from the now conscious but petrified woman. The sound of his body crashing against the wall and furniture fills the room. The commotion is loud but ends fast. Hazel looks up and gasps when she sees the man who’d been near the bed crumbled on the floor amid broken stuff and glass. Next to the bed, a woman stood, her stand protective as if intended to shield her from the man.

“Stay back!” Lenora snarls darkly as sheer hostility rolls off of her. Hazel whimpers at the words. The hairs at the back of her neck standing on end from the tone of the woman’s voice. All Lenora can see is red as Stanley picks himself up. She growls ominously coming up to him like a predator shadowing for a kill. “What are you in doing here?”

“I’m sorry Lenora. Your sister. She…she sent me. Selene told me that you had requested for me to check up on the lady,” Stanley painfully utters. “It wasn’t my intention to startle…”

“Leave!” Lenora drops the command.

The word so chilling that the temperature in the room literally drops. Stanley doesn’t wait for more words. He shoots up to his feet and scurries out the room without a backward glance. Lenora’s fangs recede at his departure. Her burning rage simmering down to ambers. She takes a deep breath knowing that the red shade in her eyes was still present. She didn’t want to frighten the woman even more so she takes her time to calm down.

“I’m sorry,” Lenora softly says when she finally turns to look at the alarmed blue eyes. The words feel different, foreign, that they carry with it an unrecognizable taste in her mouth. She hardly ever apologized but to this woman the need was innate. “Are you alright?”

The only response to her question is a nod but Lenora sees otherwise. Her overbearing scent of dread and the sheets fisted between her hands told a different story. Lenora carefully approaches the bed but halts when the woman tenses up against the bed’s headboard.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” Lenora whispers the words her eyes moving down her frame. She watches the woman clutch her stomach protectively and gets the message. “I won’t harm you or the baby in any way miss.”

The woman nods again but her reaction doesn’t ease her anxiety. The dread intoxicating and overpowering the air around them. “Who. Who are you?” the question is softly spoken.

“My name is Lenora,” she answers cautiously closing the space between them. Lenora gingerly sits on her bed not wanting to startle the woman away. Her beast solely wanted to comfort her woman. Make her feel safe. To feel at home with them beside her. “What is your name?”

“Hazel,” she barely whispers but with her heightened sense of hearing Lenora catches the name and gasps. The name, as beautiful as its owner. She looks at the woman’s eyes noticing a lingering sadness in them. A sorrow Lenora desperately wanted to erase.

“It’s okay Hazel. You’re safe now,” Lenora whispers moving on the bed to be closer to the woman. A tear slips from the corner of Hazel’s eyes. Her lips trembles, seconds pass and with them a loud sob pushing past her lips. Lenora’s heart breaks at the sound and she pushes forward and embraces the quivering woman in her arms. “You’re safe. You’re safe now Hazel.”

Lenora echoes the words over and over. Her hold over Hazel intensifying as she cried on her chest. Nothing would ever harm them again. They were safe. Forever safe with her by their side.