I was stupid and decided to take two summer classes, so I'm drowning in horticulture and microeconomics, as well as other obligations, on top of random spurs of inspiration that strike me at the strangest hours. 

SO ladies and gents, I give you chapter twenty nine... at 1AM when I have school work I should be doing. 

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Nova's POV

Sun... in the eyes.. ouch.

Early. Pain. 

Wait.

My room at home doesn't make the sun come into my eyes in the morning.. no matter how I sleep.

I sit up in a bed that I come to realize is not mine. It did smell familiar, though. 

Colt familiar.

I'm at the top of the stairs, rubbing my eyes when I realize that my ribs did not hurt nearly as bad as they usually did when I woke up. Probably has something to do with how nice the bed was.

I also notice that the smell from the bed lingered longer than it should have. I look down at myself and see that I was in a huge t-shirt that was in no way my own. It was big enough to go down to almost my knees. I wonder why for a minute but then just roll my eyes and realize that Colt probably had some reason for it. 

The house, from what I had seen so far was rustic, but not in a log cabin kind of way. Warm tones of brown and tan were everywhere, the hall I was in at the top of the stairs was mostly composed of exposed cobblestone. It was not dark enough to feel tight and depressing, but rather the contrast between warm colors and the light that a few windows allowed was in fact quite nice. 

I start to descend the stairs, noticing the craftsmanship of the banister itself which looked more like the inside of a tree in the dead of winter with no leaves than a banister. It was a dark metal fashioned to look like individual tree branches intertwining as they would in a tree, giving the staircase a movement that a normal banister would not give. 

I hear low humming coming from what had to be the kitchen and something sizzling. When I reach the bottom of the stairs, I can see into the kitchen as the open floor plan allows and see none other than Colt Myers in an apron without a shirt on, fashioning some sweats so that he wasn't completely naked. 

"How did you sleep?" He rumbles without turning to look at me as he flips something in a pan. 

I walk behind him and take a seat at one of the bar stools which goes "rrrRhH" as it slides across the floor. "Fine, thank you. Why am I here?" 

He turns just so that he can see me out of the corner of his eye and turns back to the stove, putting some food on a plate and sliding it to me. As hungry as I was, I really just wanted my tea, and some answers.

As if I had told him, he pours some hot water into two mugs and slides them over to me, which both already have a bag of what looked to be black tea in them. 

"Thank you.." I mumble and reach for the cream and sugar and put some of both into my own mug. He turns again and looks from my mug to what I presume would be his. 

I take the hint and do the same to mine as to his and slide it to him. 

"Colt, why am I here?" I ask again. 

He smiles and takes the mug to his lips for a sip, putting it down beside him as he makes his own plate, turns all the burners off and comes with his plate and mug to sit beside me. 

"You are here because you are safe here," he says before he takes a bite of something off his plate, gesturing for me to do the same. 

"Why would I not be safe on my own?" I ask putting my mug down and turning my body to face him.

He scoffs, "all due respect, you have no idea what they'd do to you."

"What? Who's they?" 

"The asshole who attacked you yesterday and his side piece, Thalia," even with his mouth partly full, I can still sense his disgust towards her. 

"They're.. a thing?" I ask, slightly disgusted myself. 

He swallows, "not in the way you're thinking."

"Ok ok, let me get this straight. You're saying that they would have come after me had you not kidnapped me?"

He laughs heartily, "kidnapped you? Is that what you took from last night?"

"Well, I mean you kind of took me back to your place without my knowledge while I was sleeping.. that counts as kidnapping in my book," I shrug and take a long drink of my tea. 

He shakes his head with a smile on his face as he cuts up a pancake into bite size pieces. "Well when you put it that way..."

I laugh, "how would you put it then?"

He puts his utensils down and starts talking with his hands, "I rescued you from two questionable characters who want nothing but bad things for you.. and on top of that, I put you in my own bed to sleep and slept on the couch at the foot of my bed with one eye open all night," he takes another bite. "Would you please eat? We have a long day ahead of us."

"Calm down, I need my tea first.." I say before I process what he said. "Wait, we? You mean to say that you aren't going to let me go back to commence my own life after breakfast?"

His brow furrows, as if he didn't realize that what he said was preposterous. "Of course not.. you're still in clear danger."

"Of what?! Thalia and her attitude?" I laugh in disbelief.

"Nova, you don't understand," his tone gets serious now. "Her and Samael will stop at nothing until they get what they want. Samael wants you, and Thalia wants me. I'll be damned if I let that happen.." He takes his mug in his hands and sips his tea, staring out the window dead ahead. 

As I could see this was a sensitive topic for him, I pull my plate in and start to nibble on a piece of toast. "What's the plan for today then?" 

"We just need to make a few stops," he grumbles, still irritated.

"Can we make one of those stops my place? If you're gonna insist that I stay here, I need some of my own clothes," I smile and pull at his shirt I was wearing. 

I finally get another delicious chuckle out of him as he takes his empty plate to the sink. "I couldn't have you in my house smelling like that asshole," he comes back to where he was sitting and pushes my plate closer to me, kissing the top of my head before he leaves the kitchen and goes up the stairs.

I hear the shower going a few moments later as I take a few more bites of food, finish my tea and take my plate to the trash to empty it and then rinse it off, washing the rest of the dishes in the sink. 

I decide that I want to shower as well, and sneak back up to the bedroom and go through his dresser to find a smaller looking t-shirt and joggers that might not drown me and make my way back downstairs to the other bathroom, not forgetting a towel. I close the door behind me and start to strip after I turn the water on, hoping that I do indeed steal all the hot water from Colt. 

I'm able to get in quickly because the hot water was already being used. The water hitting me releases any residual tension I felt in my body, and any stress from my mind. 

There was a bottle of five-in-one soap that I used on my hair and body. It smelled vaguely of him without the musk. Various unknown spices and herbs, maybe a hint of gunpowder, mint perhaps? It was quite nice. It smelled even better when it was washed off my body with hot water, making the scent effervesce into the humid air around me. 

I rinse off and get out before I get too into myself and freeze myself with the lack of hot water.

The fluffy towel proves useful in drying off. I leave my hair down to air dry, patting it a bit with the towel so that it isn't sopping wet. 

I pull on the joggers which don't fit too bad, just a little loose. I pull the strings and tie them to fit around my waist properly, getting the shirt on and tucking an edge into the pants so that my form was not completely shapeless. 

When I am satisfied, I open the door and flick off the light to bump into a not so happy looking Colt. I probably shorted him on the water. 

Any frustration he feels visibly melts away when he smells me. I wondered if he'd notice or care. Who was I kidding? 

He puts his hands on the wall on either side of me and buries his face in my neck taking deep inhales, growling every so often on the exhale. He plants a soft, barely there kiss just under my jawline and growls, "you look so fucking cute in my clothes," in a delightfully primal tone. As excited as that gets me, I draw the line when one of his hands go from the wall to my body, traveling down to my hips with the other one tangled in my still wet hair. As much as I wanted him, it wasn't right just yet.

I slither out of his grasp, his eyes had turned yellow like his wolf. I chuck the old shirt I had been wearing at him. "Put a shirt on, and let's get a move on."

I turn away and go back to the kitchen, hiding a smile, unable to hide the rosy rouge blush on my face.

He comes into the kitchen after me and takes advantage of how I naturally turn around to face him.. as is a standard for human communication by taking me into his arms by the backs of my legs and setting me on the counter with his hands on my hips, his face in my neck again but not possessively sniffing me this time. 

"Why can't you let me in, Nova?" He whispers. "Why can't you allow yourself to belong to me?"

His eyes find mine and gaze into them with nothing but love and understanding.

I can't formulate an answer to that. 

Error code 624: The Nova is Unable to Can. Access to common sense denied.

Something in me, another part of me, the part that wanted so badly to belong to him, to be marked by him and to be his leans forward into his lips, just brushing them. Oh, how soft they were. 

We hold for a moment, before he moves to continue the kiss. I follow suit, the movement from my lips perfectly complimenting the way his lips move, reminding me of the way the ocean kisses the shore. 

Like the ocean, I pull away and look at him once more, "because.. loving you feels... wrong."

He looks confused. 

I cross my arms to put some distance between us. "I'm an orphan. I lose everything I'm involved with. I'm tired of getting hurt and losing things.. losing people."

My face had gone away from his. By the time I notice this, he has lifted my chin to look at him. "You won't lose me."

"Belonging to me means that I, and I alone will get to handle all of that, Nova. You can give me all of that to worry about and forget the rest," he continues. "Let me take over for a while," he kisses my cheek softly and caresses the other side with his thumb. 

He does a lot of things softly when it comes to me. 

When he senses that I'm struggling to find words again, he just pulls me into his chest. That hug somehow solidifies the promise he just made. 

I wonder if he knows that his grasp alone is enough to do that. 

.

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