CHAPTER 44: I’LL GET OVER IT, SO DON’T WORRY

Damar looked at my trembling body and then slowly leaned in. I was bracing myself for his marking, while wondering if I would be consumed by the same warmth I felt when Fenric marked me.

Then, I felt his lips brush on my neck. It brushed softly, almost ticklish but the next thing he did was completely different from what I had expected.

He did not dig his teeth into it, but rather hooked something around my neck and then pulled back.

He held my hand and said,

"Not like this."

"What?"

I was confused, but then I noticed what he had hooked around my neck.

It was a necklace... Made of shiny silver scales. His scales.

He strung his scales together, just as any male from his tribe would do when they find a female they like very much.

This was a silent profession of how much he liked me and wanted to be with me.

Something so precious...

"I don’t want to mark you like this, Arinya. You’re scared." He threw his face away sadly. "I don’t like that you’re scared of me."

My heart was racing.

My eyes were glued to the necklace... What... Why...? This made me feel even more guilty.

While I had gone and broken my promise, he was busy making this for me out of his own scales.

I feel so bad.

"Damar," I called, my voice close to a whisper, and then looked up at him.

I met his eyes and saw the sadness in them. The thought that I was scared of him must crush him more than the fact that I had let another mark me before him.

What do I do?

I clutched the scales, gently, scared that I would ruin the necklace he had painstakingly created.

"I’m sorry." I apologized again. "I felt I had done something wrong. I thought you would be mad at me, I thought I’d have to see your angry side... That’s why I was scared. I... I’m not scared of you, Damar."

"Don’t lie just to comfort me, Ari." He said and that broke me even more.

Why won’t he believe me?

Or am I doing something completely different from what I’m saying? Do my actions and words contradict each other?

"I’m not lying," I said, my eyes growing teary. "Everyone always gets mad at me," I sniffed. "And when they do, they hit me, they lock me up, they glare at me... I was so scared, so scared that Damar would get mad at me because I ended up disappointing him. I..."

"Ari," he reached his hand to my face and then wiped the tears from beneath my eyelids. "Please don’t cry."

"But I... Ngh... I can’t help it." I said, closing my eyes as the tears began rolling down. "I don’t want Damar to be mad at me. I’m sorry."

Everywhere went silent and only my muffled sobs echoed between us.

"It seems I let my anger get in the way," Damar finally spoke up. "I got jealous too. I don’t mean to hurt you, Arinya."

"I know," I cooed and sniffed. "I also know you’re doing your best, Damar."

"Then that’s that." He said. "I’ll get over it, so don’t worry."

I looked at his face. He was being sincere but I couldn’t shake off that coldness around the edges.

He liked me, I could tell, but something about all this made me uneasy.

And as such, I felt the only way to get rid of that uneasy feeling was to...

I reached my arm towards his shoulders, and he instinctively leaned down, probably thinking I wanted to say something to his ear, but what I did next shocked him.

I hooked my arms around his neck and then kissed his lips.

It was my first kiss... Ever.

So, I felt a bit shy with my heart racing. And as such, I was a bit clumsy, kissing only the corner of his lips with my eyes shut as I braced myself for whatever was going to happen.

Fenric was shocked and Damar was even more taken aback.

But as soon as he realized what I was trying to do, as soon as he noticed how irresistibly cute I was being, he couldn’t help but smile.

"Is this your way of comforting me?" He asked and I nodded. "Does this mean you want to consummate with me now?"

My eye quickly shot open.

Does this snake only know about sex?

My face flushed and I turned my face away.

"It-it’s too... Early." I said in whispers. "I’m not ready yet."

"Alright, Arinya." He said and placed his hands gently on my waist. "I guess I should get out of probation first, right?"

"Y-yeah."

Damar looked up at Fenric, his gaze sending a mocking chill towards him. I don’t know if he was showing off or if this was his way of marking his importance but whatever it was, it had a way of getting on Fenric’s skin.

"Stop being such a wuss," Fenric said. "It’s getting late so we have to start getting back."

"Ah, right. That’s right." I said and then turned to Damar again. "Still," I softly grabbed his arm, the smoother texture of his skin causing me to falter just a little bit. "...you have to mark me before I leave."

He looked at me for a few seconds, his eyes searching mine, and then leaned in to kiss my lips.

"This is how you do it, Ari." He said and actually went for a French kiss.

His long tongue wrapped around mine while he sucked on my lips, giving me barely enough space to breathe, and then he broke the kiss, tracing his lips down my neck, and before I realized it, he had sunk his teeth deep.

"Uck!" It took me by surprise, and was a little bit painful, but the pain was very brief as warmth spread through my body afterwards.

My face flushed and my breath turned haggard, as if I had suddenly been fed aphrodisiac.

It felt weird, a different sensation from Fenric’s marking.

"What’s going on?" I asked and Damar raised his head, looking at me with lust in his eyes.

"A snake marking is different from other beasts." He said. "It makes the female and male want to consummate as quickly as possible."

Say what now?

"Did you not know this fact?"

And how in the world was I supposed to know?