The Girl He Marked by Laila Callaway novel Chapter 3

Axel's POV.

I relax my body and clear my mind. Focusing on my wolf, I feel my body change shape. My bones pop out of joints and click back in a different way. My muscles move under my skin and my face tingles as it changes.

Grace's eyes remain on me the whole time, wide with awe and slight apprehension.

When I've finished shifting, I wait for her to make the first move. I remain perfectly frozen on four paws.

Grace stares at me, her eyes trailing over every inch of my fur—covered form.

I sit down and lower my head, trying to look less intimidating. Grace takes a cautious step forwards and I let out a quiet whine.

She takes another step closer and reaches out to me. Her handshakes as it nears my head. Slowly, she strokes the side of my face with her fingers. It feels nice and I can't resist nudging my head into her hand.

A light laugh escapes her lips, and she buries her fingers deeper into my fur. My tail wags on the ground, making her smile. She rubs behind my ears, filling me with happiness.

She's not scared of me!

I drop the ground and roll onto my back, bearing my stomach to her. Grace laughs and crouches down next to me.

'You're like a dog,' she comments amusedly, rubbing my belly.

I let my tongue hang out of my mouth, lolling to the side as I pant.

Grace pats me for a bit longer and then I sit up again, an idea coming to me. I shift back, leaving me naked and in a crouch.

Grace squeaks with surprise and jumps back.

'Sorry,' I apologize quickly. 'But I'm just wondering…do you want to ride on me'

Her lips part in shock, her eyes as wide as saucers. 'What'

I chuckle. 'Nothing sexual about it, I promise. But you can ride on my back. Do you want to try it'

'Is it safe'

'Yes.'

I would never hurt her or let her get hurt.

'Um.' She bites her bottom lip. 'Okay.'

I shift back into my wolf form and flatten my stomach against the ground, lowering myself as much as possible.

Carefully, Grace swings her leg over and climbs onto my back. She sits just behind my shoulder blades. Her fingers delve into my fur.

I gently get stand up. Her feet leave the ground and Grace cries out in surprise, but she sounds happy, not scared.

She holds on tightly to my fur and I take a few experimental steps forward.

She weighs next to nothing on my back and doesn't move about. I break into a trot, testing out her balance. When she doesn't slide off, I speed up bit.

Grace lowers her body against my back, tucking her face behind my right ear.

When I'm confident she's comfortable and will be safe, I break into a sprint. I weave through the trees, straddling the fence that indicates the border of Alpha Damien's territory.

'This is amazing!' Grace exclaims excitedly in my ear.

I run until I'm exhausted, and then run a bit more. I love hearing Grace's laughs and gasps of excitement.

She's enjoying it and I love that she's happy.

Eventually, I loop us back to where we left my clothes.

Thank Goddess, they're still there, or I might have had to take up naturism.

I lay down on the ground and let Grace climb from my back. She's bouncing up and down with adrenaline as I shift back to my human form. She averts her gaze as I pull on my clothes.

I cough to get her attention. 'I'm decent.'

She spins around to look at me, grinning happily.

'That was incredible!' She yells and throws her arms around my neck.

I laugh and catch her. I lift her off her feet and spin her around, making her giggle into my neck.

When I put her down, I can't help myself, I kiss her. Gently cradling her face in my hands, I capture her lips with mine.

Grace kisses me back, holding onto my t—shirt with both of her hands. Her lips move confidently against mine, kissing me with equal enthusiasm.

I swipe my tongue over her bottom lip and then pull back, remembering to be a gentleman and give her space.

Grace pouts, disappointed that I've pulled away before deepening the kiss. That makes me hopeful that we're making progress.

'I wanted you to see that being a wolf isn't all bad. It's a lot of fun, most of the time,' I tell her. I take a strand of her red hair and twirl it between my fingers. 'If you want, you can ask Rory, Xaden, Luke, Finlay or Nick about it. They can give you different perspectives on what their lives are like.'

Grace's expression turns serious. 'Okay, I'll talk to them on Monday.'

I take her hand and we stroll through the trees, back into town. For the rest of the day, we don't mention anything supernatural.

We get lunch at one of the vendors, eat by the lake and then go to the cinema in the early afternoon. We talk about the movie, the food, what assignments we have this week.

It's a welcome break that definitely helps to get us back on track. Grace is grinning from ear to ear when I drop her back at her house.

We arrange for her to stay over at my house on Tuesday night. Staying away from her is just going to get harder from now on, but luckily, Grace now understands that.

Although she found out about my secret in the worst way, a way I never wanted her to find out, I'm glad that she now knows. This is one less thing for me to worry about. I have no idea how I was going to tell her anyway, it's not something you just blurt out.

When I get home, Grace has texted me whilst I was driving. I smile as I read her text.

I love you.

⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆✥⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆

School sucks.

Monday drags and I feel tired and grumpy. Grace is the only shining light in the day. I practically beg her to sit on my lap at break and lunch, so that I can hold her and bury my face in her neck and never come out.

Tuesday is better by far, because I can count down the hours until school ends and I get to drive Grace and I back to mine.

It feels like a lifetime, but the bell finally rings, and we are free to leave.

I hold Grace's hand as I drive us back to my house. She has gone back to her old self with me.

I know she had a good talk with the guys yesterday. She asked them their favorite things about being supernatural, and then their least favorite. Their answers made me laugh.

Xaden said having a mate was the worst thing, Luke said it was the constant fear of being caught out, like if you hurt yourself in a match and suddenly your injury heals. Finlay told her it was knowing you'll have to move at some point, because we age so much slower than humans. And Nick said there wasn't a single downside to be a shifter.

I think she was relatively encouraged by their answers. The only thing I'm concerned about, is that her family is human. One day, she will outlive her mum and all of her siblings. That's a lot for a seventeen—year—old to make peace with.

We enjoy dinner with my parents. They force us to participate in family movie night, rather than 'go upstairs to Netflix and chill' as my mum so nicely puts it. Grace's cheeks burn when she says that.

Just after nine, they finally let us go. Grace and I rush up to my room, before we made it to watch another film with them. I love my parents, but I want to spend some alone time with my girl.

We get ready for bed, and I wait impatiently to have my mate in my arms again.

I sigh, completely content, when I finally have her cuddled into my side. We lay like that for a while, just enjoying each other's presence.

'You know when you mark me' Grace starts, surprising me and breaking the silence. 'Do you just bite me Is that it'

'Yes, it can be. But the bite is really pleasurable, for both of us. Usually, couples do it during sex. If I only marked you, we would still need to sleep together to completely solidify the bond.'

'Pleasurable' Grace repeats the word, and it comes out sounding like a question.

I kiss her forehead. 'Yeah, you'd probably come from it.'

Her cheeks burn in the darkness, making me chuckle.

'Oh,' she whispers.

I laugh again. 'Yes, oh. I told you there were some perks.'

⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆✥⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆