Page 23 of My Dark Obsession

‘Acceptance Of Mine-Acceptatio Mea’

Amaya

I sat on the floor and watched the lit candle roll towards the puddle of alcohol that had been dripped onto the floor. The liquid caught aflame as Rí’s yell muffled in the background and roars of a shifted animal echoed in anger.

Another fucking Mate. That was what…three now? Wasn’t that practically impossible? I had one overbearing Dragon shifter, a White witch who hated me as much as I disliked him and Deaths fucking warrior. Were these Fates Above having a laugh at me? Was I some sort of en tertainment to them?

The flame began to crawl towards me, following the patten of the drip as I blinked at it, trying to settle my busy thoughts.

Someone really should put that fire out; it was going to create a disaster. I looked around the now chaotic bar as Rí shoved shifted animals out of his way to get to me.

My eyes slowly turned back to the flame that had grown into a full-blown fire; it climbed up the chair I had been sat in and as the heat began to burn, the smoke pulled a small cough from me.

Fuck.

That fire really needed to be put out. Like now.

As quickly as I thought it, the flames diminished. Gone just like that. No smoke, no charred wood, no scorching heat.

The fuck?

I looked around once more. Rí had his head tilted at me a small grin pulling at his mouth as he shoved the last wolf out of his way. He knelt down on one knee and offered me his big hand.

“Ye’ did amazing Wee one.”

“What?” I asked with a snap.

“Ye’ put the fire out.”

Um, no I hadn’t. I would have known if it was me. Wouldn’t I?

I stood up and brushed my hands off on my jeans, ignoring the dragon’s outstretched hand.

“That man—” I began but stopped and gave Rí my death stare.

“Why are you avoiding my eyes…”

“His name is Ziel. He’s one of ye’ Mates. My Circle brother. ”

Okay so how the hell had he known that? He was the other side of the bar when he touched me and even then, the man, Ziel, hadn’t said a word about our Circle marks. Come to think of it, he hadn’t seemed all that surprised.

I was missing something surely.

Because why would Rí who seemed unable to leave my side be happy to leave me alone with a man that I didn’t know. He then knew we were Circle Mates before I could even explain.

“Rí. Explain.”

He growled low, grinning as he stood and crowded me. “Say it again.” He rumbled, “Say my name again.”

Oh for the love of God! Was this man serious right now? Actually, was there even a God?

I shook my head from those thoughts and glared at him and his stupid handsome grinning face. I knew he was trying to distract me, and it was only working a little bit.

I crossed my arms and tapped my foot, completely ignoring the patrons leaving the bar. We were now alone, left with the mess of broken glasses and tumbled tables.

“Ziel doesn’t need to touch his Mate for his mark to awaken. He obviously saw ye’ and knew. I knew because he has been watching ye’ from the trees by ye’ castle.”

He’d been watching me?

I blew my breath out in an exaggerated sigh and looked around at the mess.

“Why the hell had he been watching me? Why didn’t he come and talk to me?” I asked as I lifted a chair and pushed it back to its table. I picked up a fallen glass and took it to the bar .

“Ziel is…particular. He isn’t one to talk. He doesn’t like people,” he answered as he in turn picked up the fallen tables and righted the chairs.

So the Death warrior didn’t like people.

I understood that. I also understood his dislike for talking.

I am, or should I say, was, the same. I wasn’t so sure I was the same anymore.

Things were just so different. I liked the back and forth between me and the dragon, I liked the knowledge Jerry gave me.

And I think I even liked the nonstop chatter from Bri.

I had never in my life liked to converse with people. What had changed to make me change?

I stared at the glass covering the floor and closed my eyes. The buzz within my veins was always there, the magic within me waiting to be used.

Sighing, I wiped my hands on my legs and said, “I can’t think about another Mate right now. We need to search the Dead Village. Then I need to sleep.”

Rí stepped close, his firewood and cake covering the smell of spilt liquor, whilst his warmth made my stomach summersault. He tucked my hair behind my ear, ran his finger down my cheek and pressed his lips to mine.

Just a soft gentle brush, but it had me wanting more all the same.

“Then come my Mate, let’s do exactly tha’.”

** *

There was nothing there; the Dead village was just that.

Dead. Nothing but burnt wood and crumbling buildings nestled within piles of sand.

The humid air stuck my clothes to my skin as I kicked the sand with my boot in frustration.

We had searched for some crackle of power or a sign of magic for an entire hour.

All we found was my lack of patience and my hatred for sand.

I stomped over to the shack missing a roof and a smashed door stained with my dried blood.

It had only been a few days and yet it could have been weeks.

Just a few days ago I was struggling to breathe, in my worn tatty clothing and nothing but my boys on my mind.

How long had they been hiding from Lyal?

Had he hurt them in replacement of me? Had they taken our secret bag and run?

What was I going to find if I managed to get back.

I stood on the crumbled wood much to Rí’s dismay and breathed in slowly, closed my eyes and tried my best to feel something. Anything.

Nothing. Nothing but confusion and a cold churning in the pit of my stomach. My shoulders slumped.

“Let’s go home,” Rí said softly.

Home. Would it ever be a home without them?

I took his hand, not having it in me to argue and walked with him from the wreckage. I had no words; I was beginning to fear that I wasn’t getting back.

“I was only young when the war started,” Rí explained quietly.

“Well, young for a dragon anyways. We had our own realm, the Dragon realm, somewhere we could fly for days and be as free as we needed. Our land was massive, large enough to fit many Hordes of dragons. My Brood was the biggest of all.” He gave me a small smile and continued.

“A Brood is basically a pack of dragons born either together or around the same time. I was the oldest.” I could see his throat bob as he swallowed thickly.

“My parents, they were incredible. They were leaders who worked alongside the Dark Witches.” I frowned up at him as we slowly made our way through the trees towards the shadow land.

“My mother was best friends with a Dark Witch. I never met her, they only ever met alone. I do no’ know her name.

They worked hard to make Wisteria a place all supernatural could be themselves.

It’s said the Dark Witches betrayed Wisteria and wanted all the magic and realms to themselves.

Tha’ they used too much dark magic, and it had consumed them.

It’s said tha’ they were the ones to start the war, and to end it with their lives and the portals closing. ”

So my kind were hated not just for a war but because they had betrayed all the realms. Who was it that told people that had been what happened? I had a slight inkling.

“I don’t think it’s true. My mother and her friend were like sisters. They were happy, strong and always saw to other’s needs before their own.”

“Then what do you think happened?” I asked.

He shrugged and squeezed my hand. “I don’t know, but I don’t think it was ye’re kind. I was so afraid when my realm died, and the portals closed. I was alone, the last of my kind. I was angry and told ye’re kind were to blame.” I stayed silent. My kind had taken his family away.

“My point Wee one, is I thought I was going to be alone for thousands of years. I thought I was going to get angrier and angrier until I had no other choice but to end mine and my dragon’s life.

I thought I was never going to find a Flight, my own family.

My own Mate. Then one boring humid afternoon, my dragon woke for the first time in years.

Our Mate was here, and low and behold, she was a Dark Witch.

I had been granted someone to accept me, to match me in my grumpiness.

” He grinned as his eyes lit up the darkness.

“My feisty Wee Mate who likes to pretend she feels nothing.”

He stopped our slow walk, lifted my hand to his chest and lowered his head to mine “I know ye’ feel like ye’ won’t get to ye’re boys, tha’ ye’re magic won’t show itself, but it will. This is only just the start, for ye’, for me, for all tha’ ye’ wish to allow into ye’re life.”

How could this man stand to be around me?

I was the only living evidence from those who had taken everything from him.

If it was true and the Dark Witches were to blame for everything, then could I really accept this power within me?

Would I become so greedy and consumed by Dark magic that I would start a war?

I didn’t want any of that. I wanted nothing more than to protect what was mine: my boys, my mountain, my ghost…

and my dragon. This man, this giant brute of a shifter with his grumpy face and willingness to accept me, accept me when I had done nothing but fight his affection, and tell him I had no plans to accept our mating.

This man who had been nothing but kind and gentle to me, who had done nothing but guide me in this confusing world and agreed to help me get my boys.

It was then in the darkened forest of the Shadow land, that I knew, this man, this dragon shifter, Rí, was mine.

Mine to protect, mine to keep, mine to obsess over .

Mine. Mine. Mine.

And so I said the one thing he had been patiently waiting for.

“I accept you as my Circle Mate.”

His eyes widened as he turned to me in shock. He stared at me for something akin to awe before he slammed his mouth to mine whilst holding my face between his big palms. I gripped his forearms and allowed the full extent of my need for him to show in our kiss.

He ripped his mouth from mine, the both of us breathing heavy as he stood back from me.

“I want to take ye’ somewhere, somewhere we can be truly alone.”

I nodded. I fully trusted this man before me.

My man.

My dragon.

My Mate.

He shifted quickly, ripping the trees from the ground in the process and shook the sand from his scales. I grinned and accepted his lift up, this time more graciously.

I found I smiled a lot around Rí, something my twins were going to be delighted in finding out.

We took off into the humid night, the warm air blowing through my hair as I held my dragon tightly between my legs.

We flew through portals. I didn’t take any notice as of where. I only noticed the change of air on my face. I had my eyes closed, the feeling of freedom and acceptance wrapping around me in a bliss I didn’t know existed.

Snapping my eyes open, I had a thought .

Acceptance. That skin book had said something about acceptance.

Was it of my Mates? Of this world? I didn’t know if I would ever accept Cole.

He was too much of a dick, too stuck in the council’s way to ever see past his hatred, yet his tired eyes constantly filled my thoughts.

Why was he so tired. What was making him sick?

Then there was this new man, Ziel. He was completely unknown to me.

I had no connections to him other than the fact we both hated people.

Was I extremely fascinated that he was Death’s warrior?

Yes. Was I oddly obsessed with the thought of death and his cold grasp?

Yes. Death had been my first obsession, the first time I had realised I was different.

To find out that Death, as a person was real.

Fucking insane.

I looked up to see Rí was flying straight towards a cliff, the dark rocks almost unnoticeable in the dark sky.

I tapped his neck “Um…Rí?”

Either he didn’t hear me, or he didn’t care. He picked up speed and just as I expected us to be slammed into the rock and squashed to death, I landed in a confused heap in Rí’s arms. I opened my eyes, not even knowing when I had shut them and stared opened mouthed at the inside of a cave.