Chapter 340: I Love You

Her heart thumped heavily in her chest simply from the moment he grabbed her hand and pulled her inside. Too fast, her mind whispered, even as her feet carried her forward without resistance.He had a soft smile on his face, but that didn’t take away from the intensity in his gaze as he pulled her into the room. Their room. The door shut behind them with a quiet click that felt far louder than it should have, sealing the moment in place.

He instantly headed straight for the bed as he began to take off his clothes, movements unhurried and confident. He was sober, since alcohol couldn’t affect vampires and only had a weaker effect on werewolves. Not that he’d needed any excuse for the way his eyes darkened when he looked at her.

He had barely begun to take off his clothes when Rymora sighed, deciding there and then that she was tired of hiding. Tired of pretending. Tired of waiting for the right moment when she knew that moment would never truly come.

Opening her mouth, she forced herself to say everything she had to say in one breath.

"I’m a werewolf!" she blurted out, even as she instinctively took a step backward. There. It’s done.

If her heart had been racing in her chest before, it now began to thump violently as she instantly continued to speak, watching Drehk pause mid-motion as he had been slowly taking off his shoes.

"...I can leave tonight and you’ll never see me again! You could tell everyone that I ran away or something!" she continued, her brows creased in worry as the silence that settled in the room only grew more intense. The air felt heavy, pressing in on her lungs.

Drehk wasn’t speaking, which only made her speak more, considering the fact that she knew it was a mistake to have waited until after the wedding. I waited too long, her thoughts screamed.

"I... I’m sorry!" she apologized, staring hard at the ground even as tears filled her eyes. "...I wanted to tell you sooner... I should have..." Her voice cracked, but she was still speaking when she felt Drehk move.

He stood up and walked straight toward her, his presence overwhelming even before he reached her. He grabbed her hand firmly, pulling her right on top of him as he sat back down on the bed. Rymora gasped as he lowered his face to the side of her neck, her entire body freezing in place.

Half of her waited for him to tear open her throat.

Instead, she heard him speak directly into her ear, his breath warm against her skin.

"I know! It was quite hard not to figure out after the... third time we had sex!" he said, pausing deliberately for dramatic effect.

Rymora stared at him in complete astonishment, her mind scrambling to process what he was telling her. Her eyes fluttered as she pulled back just enough to look at his face, searching for any sign that he was lying.

"You... you’re joking!" she told him, her voice barely above a whisper.

He shook his head slowly.

"I’ve never been more serious! There was never a rule that said I couldn’t sleep with a werewolf!" he said with a casual shrug, as though he were talking about something trivial.

"I just didn’t expect to fall in love with one," he continued.

Her mouth fell open.

"I’m... I’m pregnant! I’m pregnant, do you know what that means?" she asked, panic surging back into her chest.

He shrugged again, unfazed.

"Your wolf is dormant. It’s why your ears are always hidden! The child will take after me," he said with utter confidence.

Without hesitating for even a single moment, Rymora jumped off his lap. No, her thoughts whispered, you need to see.

She transformed instantly, bones creaking and shifting as her white, massive wolf form appeared before him. Her gold-colored eyes locked onto his, unblinking and steady despite the chaos in her chest.

Drehk was shocked enough that he couldn’t hide it. His eyes widened as he stared at her, his gaze unwavering as he watched her turn back into her human form, fully naked, her stomach now bulging enough to clearly show that she was pregnant.

"Somehow, my bloodline awakened. I am fully whole, and so is my wolf," she told him quietly.

Silence settled between them, thick and heavy, and this time it was Drehk who seemed to struggle to take in what she was saying. There had never existed a precedent where werewolves and vampires could procreate. To suggest such a thing was the same as proclaiming madness.

"This child might take after both of us," she pointed out softly.

Drehk slowly shook his head, though he couldn’t hide the worry in his gaze.

"Had you awakened when you ate the ball?" he asked her.

Rymora didn’t truly know, but she nodded anyway, vaguely sure that she had. Everything changed that night, she thought.

His gaze darkened immediately. He stood up from the bed and walked toward her before bending down and picking her up with ease.

Rymora looked down at him, confused, wondering what he was planning to do. She barely had time to react before he dropped her onto the bed, the mattress bouncing beneath her, and pulled her close to his body.

He wrapped his arms around her and began patting her back gently, a small smile on his face. He had lived long enough to not allow such things to trouble him the way they might have once.

"We’ll figure it out! We’ll figure it out!" he repeated calmly.

Tears filled Rymora’s eyes, and this time she didn’t try to stop them. She began to sob, her body shaking as everything she had been holding in finally spilled over.

As far back as she could remember, no one had ever defended her the way he did. No one had cared enough to stand beside her so firmly, or to hold her when she was falling apart.

That realization only made the tears stream down her face even harder.

Drehk, on the other hand, seemed to find the entire situation oddly amusing, a quiet chuckle escaping him as he continued to pat her back. He wrapped his body fully around hers, holding her securely, grounding her.

"We’re married now, so for the rest of our lives our future is linked together," he whispered into her hair.

Rymora grumbled softly under her breath.

"You’ll live longer, though," she said, the thought hitting her suddenly and painfully.

Drehk didn’t deny it. He smiled instead, kissing her forehead tenderly.

"Yeah, but isn’t that a fate much worse than death?" he replied.

Confusion flashed across Rymora’s face as she opened her eyes to look at him. Before she could ask what he meant, he lowered his face and kissed her gently on the nose, whispering softly,

"I love you."

Instead of responding, Rymora felt more tears spill over as she tightened her hold on him, burying her face against his chest. I’m not alone, she thought, clinging to him as if letting go might make everything disappear.