For the Bleeding Hearts

8.) ARON

"Mate," I growled, low and rough. Inhaling her scent, I pulled her close, flesh against my own body. She smelled sweet. Like berries and sugar. And she was mine.

I knew from deep inside me that she was my mate. This was what meeting your mate for the first time was like. Raw, primal, and fucking fantastic. God, she smelled like heaven. And her body against mine felt just right. She was a tiny little thing, that's what I had thought when I once saw her.

When I spotted her darting through the jungle alleys, I was intrigued. At first, I thought she was a young boy up to no good. Surely no unaccompanied, defenseless woman would be wandering through the deep parts of the jungle region. I suppose there was a first time for everything. While I followed her through the shadows, I had caught a slight whiff of her scent. It was definitely female and surprisingly prey.

No prey ever came deep into the jungle region. Never, because if any prey ever came into this part of the city they would most likely never make it out. Or alive that is.

And this tiny woman drowned in an oversized cloak, was just blindly running around in the most dangerous parts of the city. From what he could tell, she wasn't armed and she didn't seem to know any sort of self-defensive or she probably would have sensed him coming. Or maybe not, I thought. I am pretty good at sneaking around, I smirked at myself.

Glancing down at the tiny female in my arms, I wondered where she came from. I guess it didn't quite matter now because I would protect her with my life. I froze. That was a weird thought. I didn't owe her anything. Hell, I didn't even know her name, but deep in my bones I felt a need to kill for her if the time ever came.

I leaned down and nuzzled her soft hair. It was soft and white as snow. It smelled of sweetness. Everything I was not. Perfect.

In my haze of new emotions, I hadn't noticed how tense she was pressed up against me. I felt her face scrunch against my chest. As she inhaled my scent she seemed to relax against me. I grinned at that. She must have felt it, too. The pull, the connection.

My neck prickled and I knew we were no longer alone. We were being watched and I wasn't about to find out who. Not when I just acquired precious cargo. I leaned down and picked her up, she squeaked in surprise and reluctance.

"Shh... We're not alone, I need to get us somewhere safe," I whispered into her ear. I quickly jumped from shadow to shadow. Trying to lose whoever was on our asses. I tried my best to jostle her too much. She weighed next to nothing making it easy to move quickly.

Once I looped around a few times, making sure that we were no longer being followed I began to head to my small place. I was relieved that whoever was on our tail wasn't that persistent and quickly gave up. Relaxing, I slowed my pace a bit. She didn't speak but just clutched onto me tightly. I was unsure if she still thought we were being followed or if she just wasn't one to talk.

I looked down at the small bundle in my arms. His mate. Fucking hell, he had a mate. He never even thought about the possibility of having a mate. He never thought it would be possible. He was too rough. Undeserving. A killer. A cold-blooded predator.

Following along the dark cobblestone paths, I finally arrived at the small house that I was staying in at the moment. I wouldn't exactly call it a house, but more of a room. The entryway a about a story off of the floor. He climbed two rungs on the tiny, metal ladder leading into his place; I carefully peeled her clinging form off of me and lifted her the rest of the way.

"Up you go, sweetheart," I say making sure she had her footing and was stable on the small entrance, and I quickly climbed u the rest of the way. I keyed open the door and ducked inside. She timidly followed me inside and I turned on a gas lantern on the wall. I finally got a good look at her.