Raven's Secret

As the golden eyes approached us, I could hear another set of soft padding in the underbrush. I glanced up at Warrick but he didn't remove his eyes from the wolf coming closer. He growled and bared his fangs at the light brown colored wolf. It was a large wolf that reminded me of the extinct dire wolves, only bigger and my fear was palpable. It was almost as tall as Warrick. How was he going to survive that fight? It wouldn't be alone. A twig snapped to my left and the wolf howled in front of us. I chuckled quietly under my breath as I bent my knees, keeping an eye between the wolf and whatever was stalking us to our left. It seemed the wolf in front of us was trying to keep Warrick busy and think that he was the only wolf out here. 

I slowly bent down and ripped off the bottom half of my flowing skirt to give my legs room to maneuver. Warrick just shook his head at me. At that moment the wolf decided to attack and Warrick grabbed the wolf, slinging it around and quickly let it go. The wolf slammed into the side of the tree trunk and slumped. It shakily stood and shook itself to rid itself of the daze. I felt movement to my left and spun in that direction, grabbing another wolf by its neck right as it almost bit Warrick's shoulder. I slammed the wolf down, it started thrashing and growling loudly trying to get a hold of me. My strength seemed far stronger than his. A sudden pain in my bottom lip had me dropping my jaw slightly and I smelled the blood as it drooled out onto my chin. I frowned and with my free hand I touched the inside of my mouth and stuck my fingers with fangs. I gasped in surprise and Warrick came around quickly, noticing the blood drooling down my chin. 

"Did it hurt you? I'll kill him myself." He hissed, baring his fangs leaning down to grasp the nape of the wolf but I stopped him with my free hand. 

"I'm fine, my fangs dropped." I grinned, baring my newfound fangs at him with the blood in my mouth coating them. 

Warrick's eyes grew wide and laughed out loud. A flash flew past me and blood squirted from Warrick's shoulder onto my face and neck as the wolf bit into his shoulder and thrashed. The red haze returned, smothering my capacity for conscious thought and I moved faster than I ever had in my entire life. I ripped the downed wolf I had in my hand's head from its body, growling in fury. Warrick was trying to get the wolf off of him but from the angle the wolf had him in, Warrick couldn't find purchase. My body snapped into motion, gripping the top and bottom of the wolf's jaws. Prying them slowly apart to make the wolf let Warrick go and I glared down into its eyes. "How dare you hurt my mate. This is what happens when you fuck with him." I raged at the wolf. I started ripping his jaws wider and the wolf started fighting me, clawing at my sides and my stomach to get away from the pain. I was stuck in the red haze as I slowly ripped the bottom jaw off the wolf's body. The jaw and its ligaments dangled from my bloody hand. The wolf's eyes slowly faded from a golden color to a light brown of a human, the wolf turned back into its original form with a missing bottom jaw. No longer breathing. I tossed the jaw somewhere to my right and ripped out his throat to make sure that he truly was dead. 

The red haze slowly faded from my eyes and I blinked, looking up at the setting moon. Trying to calm my racing heart and my breathing. "Raven?" I heard Warrick whisper as he stood beside me. 

I looked up at him in utter shock of what just transpired. "I did that with my bare hands. You were bitten, are you okay? Are you healing?" I panicked and hovered my hand over the bite. 

"I am, I just need a little blood and will be good as new. Thank you." He whispered. 

"For what? You would have done the same for me." Glancing away but the world spun and I swayed. Warrick quickly reached for me and pulled me against him. 

"You're bleeding, shit. Come, we need to get you fixed up." He growled at the dead wolf and picked me up bridal style. I rested my head on his shoulder as I looked up at him. 

"I never realized that it hurt me, I was in the haze when I was ripping his jaw off." He chuckled quietly but I could still see the concern in his eyes as he hastily walked back to the castle. 

It seemed like we flew to the infirmary wing the castle had because the next thing I knew he was laying me down on one of those hospital beds and one of the in-house doctor's walked in. 

"Alright, let's see what damage we have to fix for you." He started to cut the dress up the middle and Warrick growled at him. 

"Is this necessary?" He glared at the doctor.

"Warrick stop being overprotective and let the doctor do his job so he can heal me." I muttered and took my hand in his, he glared for another moment at the doctor before he turned his full attention back to me. His fingertips lightly brushed my hair away from my face. 

"I had asked you to stay close to me and now you're hurt instead of going inside, like I had also asked of you." I chuckled at his protective side peeking through and winced in pain. 

"You didn't ask, you told me to, if you would have asked me I might have listened." I could tell from the way Warrick's eyes drifted from mine that the doctor had started cutting through the middle of my dress and Warrick looked back to rest his eyes on my face as the doctor bared my undergarments for the world to see. 

Even though I was hurt, I could tell it affected Warrick with the red hue fighting for dominance in his eyes. I cupped his cheek in my hand and pulled his face close to mine. "Stop thinking like that, or this doctor might have to leave." I said quietly and grinned at Warrick as his eyes flushed red. He stood and turned his back to the doctor and myself. I finally looked down at my body as the dress was pulled away from my torso and I gasped. 

At my gasp, Warrick glanced over his shoulder before turning around fully to face the bloody mess the wolf left me with. "I'm going to die, aren't I?" Tears sprang to my eyes at the mere thought of it but I tried to blink the tears away, instead they dropped down my cheeks, creating a clear path through the Warrick's blood that had slowly dried on my face.

The doctor quickly got to work with cleaning the wounds and he glanced at Warrick. "Your majesty, if I may suggest you give her your blood. It would heal her faster than it would be to stitch this." Warrick looked at the doctor thoughtfully and nodded to the door. The doctor quickly left and Warrick came over to sit beside me on the bed before leaning down and looking deep into my eyes. 

"Drink my blood, it will heal you and no before you ask, this does not mate us. That's something else entirely from what I'm about to do. I need to do this for you because you protected me when it should have been the other way around." He cupped my cheek and slid his hand behind my head to lift my upper body. "Will you drink my blood and heal?" 

"Yes, and don't feel guilty please for that. It was my choice." He quickly bit down on his wrist, pulling my body against his as he slid behind me and rested my back against his chest. He hovered his bleeding wrist and I lifted my head slightly to slowly drink his blood, as my strength grew I gripped his wrist in my hand, pulling it closer to me as I leaned my head back to drink. The taste was euphoric and the high it gave me made me squirm against the hospital bed. He pulled his wrist from my lips and I quickly gave it a lick, noticing it closed the wounds from his fangs. I lifted my head as the room swayed and checked out my front and sides. The wounds completely healed, I ran my fingertips across the skin covering my stomach where the deep cuts were. I let out a soft sigh and sat up, turning slightly to face Warrick. The bloody and torn shirt drew my eyes to his injured shoulder and I frowned. "Why aren't you healing?" 

"It's a werewolf bite, I'll need to go get some blood to rejuvenate soon." He shrugged his good shoulder and quirked his lips. 

"I've read in some of my stories that werewolf bites have some kind of venom that could kill a vampire if not treated properly. But since you fed me, why don't I feed you? It's only fair and you wouldn't have gotten hurt if it weren't for me." I closed my eyes and dropped my fangs, quickly biting into my wrist just as Warrick did for me and held it out to him. 

He sighed as he stared at me. "No, that is just fiction told by werewolves. And I know there's nothing I can say or do to change your mind, next time I'll get a blood donor." He slowly leaned down and inhaled before closing his lips around the two punctures. 

I softly chuckle with a wicked lilt. "That's if I let you, after all I am your mate. Wouldn't want a blood donor to want their king and think they can touch you." 

He slowly licked the wound as his eyes turned a light shade of pink mixed with his gray. "Possessive are we, little dove?" 

I shrugged and continued with the unwavering gaze. "Maybe. If you would like to find out, go for it." I pulled his tattered shirt slowly away from his shoulder in case the wound hadn't healed yet and what I saw made me smile in relief. Only blood marred his skin and when I looked up at him, he was already looking at me. I flushed. "My apologies, I just wanted to make sure it healed properly." 

His hand lifted to cup my neck while his thumb caressed my jaw. "You don't ever have to apologize for touching me. I know you were worried. Come, since everything has been taken care of we should get your bath prepared and let you relax. I have a few things I need to take care of." 

"Alright. But first, before we go, do you think you could ask the good doctor for something like a robe or a hospital gown so I'm not walking around in only my lingerie?" I said and quietly laughed as he glanced down before returning his gaze back to mine and he swallowed with a clearing of his throat after. 

"Yes, little dove. I'll go do that now, cover up with this in the meantime." He quickly covered me with a hospital blanket and I laughed out loud as he quickly strode out the door, barking out orders for someone to find me a robe. 

After a few minutes he walked back in and handed me a robe before turning his back to face me so I could cover myself. "Little dove, how do you feel about a party of sorts?" 

I frowned. "What kind of party?" He turned his head to glance over his shoulder before fully turning to face me when he noticed I was covered. 

"I mean, what if we were to have a ball. You could pick any gown you would like and it would be a type of welcoming party to have you meet the Lords and Ladies under my rule. I would like to introduce you to them as my mate." Warrick clasped his hands behind his back and I had a feeling he was nervous about what my response would be. But he remained stoic in front of me, his facial expression was void of any emotion. 

"I would love that. But where would we entertain guests?" I tilted my head in question. 

He grinned before holding his hand out to me. I quickly took it and walked over to him to stand beside him. "Come, I'll show you my ballroom." 

"You have a ballroom?! How come no one's shown it to me? Let's go!" I exclaimed, practically bouncing on my feet. 

"Alright little dove, and then once you see it, you're going to get your bath so you can relax." He chuckled quietly before opening the door and leading me down to the other end of the castle.