As her mother started talking about the males currently residing at
the creek, Ember pushed the door open and peered out, and relief washed
through her when she saw the male who had been ogling her was gone now.
She
carried her mug of coffee to her favourite recliner on the deck that
wrapped around her family’s large cabin and eased into it, loosing a
deep sigh as she let all the tension drain from her limbs and savoured
the silence of morning.
She loved this time, when the creek was quiet, the babbling river and the movement of animals in the distance the only sound.
The quiet before the storm.
It wouldn’t be long before the rest of the creek woke and the first fights of the day happened.
Although, she wasn’t the only one who was up and out early today.
She
glanced off to her right, up the two hundred metre clearing to the
cabin that stood proud at the top of it, sheltered by deep green pines,
and the two males on the deck.
Rath raked a hand over his thick dark brown hair and said something she couldn’t hear to his brother.
Cobalt.
The
towering platinum-blond had his back to her, his fine backside pressed
to the railing around the deck and his hands planted beside his lean
hips, bracing himself upright. His shoulders were tense beneath his
black t-shirt, his hair mussed in a way that made him look as if he had
come straight from his bed to see his brother.
Or from a female.
Ember
hadn’t failed to notice the way a lot of the females at the creek
looked at him, blatant desire in their eyes as they tracked his
movements. She had never attended a gathering before, but she knew that
as a member of Rath’s family, he was responsible for overseeing
everything and wasn’t allowed to participate in the fights or see to the
females.
So it had shocked her when she had seen the way they
eyed him, hungry gazes raking over him, and how they flirted with him
whenever he happened to stop near them. A few of them used any excuse to
touch him, laying a hand on his arm as they spoke about something
innocent like the fight schedule, or brushing their bodies against his.
He
never reacted, other than to move away and place some distance between
them, but he was male and that meant he wasn’t immune to the instincts
the spring gathering roused in him. The mating heat affected him too.
His brothers, Storm and Flint, had eyed the females in return, had even
flirted with a couple.
Did Cobalt ever flirt in return?
Did he ever secretly sleep with the females?
Gods, the thought he might twisted her stomach and heart in knots.
Partly because she didn’t want him to secretly bed the females, and partly because she wanted him.
Always had.
Always would.
If
she approached him, if she flirted with him as the other females did,
would he turn her away? Would he draw back from her and distance himself
as he did with them? Or would he give her what she needed?
What she needed from only him.
She
had agreed to come to the creek for the gathering because she had
wanted to see him, had needed to see him. For over thirty years, she had
watched him, had seen him grow and mature, had witnessed him come into
his own, becoming more alluring to her as he had found his feet and his
confidence.
For three decades, she had harboured what she had
thought of as a ridiculous crush on him, watching him from afar,
secretly yearning for him to even glance at her whenever they were at
the creek at the same time.
Aching for him to notice her.
Whenever
he had taken the time to speak with her, she had been assaulted by
nerves, convinced she would say or do something stupid that would
tarnish his opinion of her, whatever that was.
It had taken
maturing for her to discover her own confidence, to settle into her skin
and be comfortable in it, to realise that she was beautiful enough to
contend with the other females at the creek, to vie for his attention
and maybe even steal his heart if she set her mind to it.
Her
mother had rattled that confidence when she had asked Rath to tend to
her, and had been chipping away at it ever since, with every male who
fought for her and every time she was paraded in front of them.
It
didn’t help that Cobalt seemed determined to avoid her, barely looked
at her now when he had let his eyes linger on her at times in the past,
before she had matured.
Ember looked down at herself.
She
had put a little more weight on her bones, her hips curvier than before,
belly rounded and breasts fuller. Maybe he didn’t like the changes she
had made to herself, but this was who she was, and she liked it. She
loved her curves, didn’t want to be a stick thin female.
Her curves made her feel sexy, empowered.
Movement off to her right drew her attention back to Cobalt.
He pushed away from the railing, heaved a long sigh that lifted his broad shoulders, and said something to his brother.
Rath
nodded, stood and clapped a hand down on his shoulder as Cobalt
scrubbed a hand over his mouth and rubbed it across his straight jaw.
His brother smiled at him, but Cobalt’s handsome face remained sober as
he nodded in return, twisted and stepped off the deck.
He strode
down the green, long black-jeans-clad legs making easy work of the
distance between her and him, and she couldn’t take her eyes off him,
watched him over the rim of her mug as he approached.
Damn, he was fine.
He
radiated an alluring sort of danger and temptation, roused her
instincts and brought them to the fore, until she was restless with a
need to stand and move around the deck, to let him get a good look at
her and what he was missing out on, all in an effort to lure him to her.
Ember kept her backside planted to her recliner instead.
Not
because she didn’t want Cobalt to look at her, or because she would
have been ashamed at herself for trying to lure his gaze to her by
parading herself in front of him when her mother insisted on her showing
off her curves to every male who fought for her, but because her
confidence was low today, the last few weeks battering it.
Every fight she had to watch, and every suitor who stood before her stole a piece of it.
Every horrible moment where she had to wait, praying her mother would refuse that suitor, shook it.
Every day when Cobalt ignored her tore it down a little more.
But
every day when she set eyes on him, he gave back that fragment he
ripped from her. Just looking at him started a fire within her, one that
burned so hot it had her forgetting that she was tired of males, tired
of fights.
And whenever he did look at her?
When his
stunning pale grey-gold eyes landed on her, that fire exploded into an
inferno that had a shot of adrenaline blazing through her, filled her to
the brim with confidence again.
Ember tracked him across the
green, silently willing him to look at her. She needed his eyes on her
today, needed that boost so she could finally tell her mother she was
done with letting her control her life, that it was time for some
changes and she was going to make her own decisions from now on.
But he didn’t even glance her way as he neared her.
His
grey eyes remained locked on the grass, a troubled edge to them that
echoed the emotions she could sense in him as he grew closer.
Emotions
that had her wanting to rise onto her feet for a different reason, not
to lure his eyes to her but to ask him what was wrong.
The sight
of him troubled roused her deepest instincts, ones that had come into
sharp focus over the past few weeks and had hit her with a revelation
that had rocked her, but gods, it had explained so much at the same
time.
She had always believed the attraction she felt towards
Cobalt was based solely on his charisma, looks, and personality, all the
sorts of things that falling in love with someone normally involved.
But
this was the first time she had seen him since she had matured, and the
attraction she had felt towards him when she had set eyes on him again
had burned so fiercely it had left her shaking.
Over the weeks,
that attraction had only grown stronger, seemed to multiply one
hundredfold every damned day, and now it was becoming a struggle to
restrain herself when he was near, to deny her instincts to approach him
and push him, to initiate something by attempting to dominate him.
To provoke a reaction.
It hadn’t taken her long to realise the reason why.
He was her fated male.
Was he aware that she was his fated one?
He
was older than her, matured three decades ago now, and as far as she
knew, males were meant to be more aware of their true mate, found it
easier to tell who it was than the females of her species. Males were
driven by instincts that females also possessed when it came to a mate,
but hers weren’t as fierce or as controlling.
She felt an ache for
him, soul-deep and consuming, one that demanded she provoke him, push
and cajole him, rub against him and make him notice her. Her instincts
wanted her to tease him into dominating her and staking a claim on her.
His
instincts should have been pressing him to do just that, to seize her
and bite her nape, and bind them as mates. They should have been riding
him as hard as hers were, demanding he take care of her, and drive any
unmated males away from her.
If he was feeling any of that, he was
hiding it well, because he was more distant than ever, had barely said
three words to her over the past few weeks and showed no sign of desire
when he did look at her.
He watched the fights over her without a
trace of emotion on his face, in complete and utter control as he
oversaw them, and didn’t even seem bothered when her mother mulled over
whether to give the winner permission to ease her needs.
Didn’t he want her?
The thought that he might not left her cold and aching inside, scraped out and hollow.
Was it possible she was wrong about him and he wasn’t her fated one?
If she wasn’t mistaken, was it possible for a male to not want his true mate?
Rath
had gone crazy over Ivy when she had come to the creek, and Ember had
witnessed both Storm and Flint driven to extremes to protect and win
their fated ones.
Was it really possible that Cobalt didn’t desire her as his mate?
He
finally lifted his head and a shiver bolted through her when his eyes
slid her way and his gaze settled on her, some of the shadows lifting
from his face as he looked at her.
Ember opened her mouth to greet him.
Her mother stepped out onto the deck and Cobalt’s grey gaze shifted to her.
“Two
more fights today.” Her mother sighed. “Neither of them containing any
males really worthy of you. If only Rath had accepted our offer.”
Ember’s
eyes widened as Cobalt’s narrowed, her heart hitching in her throat and
pounding there as she fought to find her voice to say she didn’t want
Rath and it hadn’t been her idea to approach his brother.
She
swore Cobalt’s face darkened before he looked away and lowered it, and
his pace picked up, long legs carrying him swiftly past her. She watched
him go, feeling the faintest echo of his emotions and trying to
decipher them, because she needed to know what he was feeling.
She needed to know whether he felt anything at all for her.
She just needed a sign.
One sign.
A look. A smile. Anything to make his feelings clear.
Because then she was sure she would find the courage to follow her heart.
And it would lead her straight to him.
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