Introspect [The Mating Games #3]
Day 4 Part 5

ORION KALLIS

He couldn’t help but groan at the way his back scraped across the ground, However, any and all complaints were quick to die on his tongue as he realised the reason as to why he had been knocked off his feet.

“Sorry about that,” Phoenix murmured against his chest, not making any move to get off him.

“You don’t need to apologise for anything, angel,” he murmured into her hair, inhaling deeply as instinctively, he would his arms around her. “But where did you come from?”

“The maze,” she propped herself up, leveraging her arms on his chest as she shrugged.

The small, endearing smile on her face was nearly enough to render him speechless. If he wasn’t so confused, it would have been far more than enough.

“What do you mean?” he scratched his head, blinking up at her in confusion. “I was just walking this way and I didn’t see you.”

“Maybe you just weren’t looking,” Phoenix teased him, her lips curling higher at the corners, “

“I was definitely looking,” he chuckled, refraining from telling her about the momentary panic that had washed over him at the prospect that either he wouldn’t be able to replace her, or she wouldn’t be able to replace her way back to him.

That thought alone was enough to render him paralysed with fear. It was just a good thing that he didn’t have to worry about that anymore. Not when she was back in his arms.

“Magic,” she murmured after a few moments, watching him carefully. Almost as if she was looking for a reaction to the single word that she had just uttered.

“What?”

“I used magic to replace you,” Phoenix shrugged, her lips curling up into a sly smirk; tipping even higher at the corners when he continued staring at her with a wondrous, stupefied expression on his face. “How else do you think I was able to replace you so fast?”

“Just how long have you been awake?”

“About five minutes,” she smiled down at him one more time before pushing against her chest and rising to her feet. Tugging on the bottom of her dress, she held out a hand in front of him.

The fact that she thought she would be able to help him up to his feet even though he clearly weighed so much more than her, was cute.

With a small smile of his own, Orion accepted her hand. Except, instead of allowing her to pull him to his feet, he tugged and forced her back on top of him.

A shrill scream escaped Phoenix as she fell to the ground. To brace her fall, Orion shuffled over to the side and held out his arms.

“What was that for?” she mock frowned at him, jabbing a finger into his chest.

“It was kind of rude for you to get up like that when we weren’t finished talking,” Orion teased her, clasping his hands together, resting them on her lower back so she wouldn’t be able to get up.

“Fine,” she huffed and rolled her eyes, though he didn’t miss the way she was fighting off a smile. “Even though we probably don’t have much time now, what did you want to talk about?”

“When you said that you used magic to replace me, what did you mean exactly?” he asked, genuinely curious how she had all but appeared out of nowhere. Not only had she been able to knock him to his feet, but if his theory was correct, then there was more than just the mate bond tying them together.

Despite the fact that they had only met a few days ago, he absolutely adored Phoenix and would lay out his life for her if the need ever arose. Regardless, he couldn’t help but worry that the mate bond was mostly one-sided as he was the only one with a wolf. While he didn’t doubt that Phoenix was attracted to him – if he did, this morning was quick to squash that doubt – he did doubt the strength of the connection between them compared to most wolves.

However, if his theory proved correct, then he wouldn’t have anything to worry about.

“I may be a witch but we can’t exactly teleport like I just did,” Phoenix started, a doubtful, slightly confused expression on her face. “While we can fly and no, not just on brooms but pretty much on most objects that can hold our weight,” she paused to chuckle at the mystified expression on his face – definitely something that he would ask more about later but not quite now as they were short on time. “To teleport, we have to use a specific incantation like we have to for most things. But when I woke up in the maze and couldn’t replace you anywhere, I started panicking. The next thing I know, I’m on top of you.”

“Trust me, there’s no complaints from me,” Orion teased her, squeezing her hip. “But are you sure you didn’t subconsciously chant the incantation for teleportation?”

“No, I didn’t,” Phoenix denied, shaking her head. “I’m completely certain that I teleported to you without the use of any incantations.”

“Maybe this is something that we can check later but it appears that we’ve got our very own mate bond,” he couldn’t help but smirk at the revelation, feeling like he was on a further high despite of the permanent high that he had been on since discovering that the Moon Goddess had indeed fated him a mate.

“I think this is our version of the mate bond,” Orion told her, a warm look on his face as he reached a hand up to tuck a long stand of blonde hair behind her ears.

“You think that because I don’t have a wolf, the Moon Goddess is making up for it like this? By allowing me to replace you so easily?

“Yes. Or at least something like that,” he confirmed with a simple nod of his head.

“Well, I can’t say that I’m mad about it,” Phoenix grinned, bowing her head so that her lips brushed against his with each word spoken.

“Me neither,” he chuckled, but the sound was quick to die on his lips as she closed the little remaining space between them, sucking his bottom lip into her mouth. At the erotic sensation which went straight down to his groin, Orion wound his arms tighter around her, one of his hands trailing up to bury itself in her hair.

Taking lead of the kiss, Orion was quick to flip them both over. Now towering over her with his arms braced his arms on either side of her head, he dipped himself lower so she was able to feel all of him. Especially the part of him that was very eager to feel her.

Orion dipped his head lower, slanting his head to press a harder, bruising kiss against her mouth. He licked along the seams of her lips, groaning against her mouth as she parted her lips for him in warm welcome.

Unfortunately, however, he wasn’t able to taste the fruits that she all but offered him on a silver platter. When the claxon sounded aloud, the both of them were forced to spring apart from each other.

He was almost able to taste the disappointment lingering in the air surrounding them.

“What does that sound mean?” Phoenix questioned as she glanced around, trying to determine what direction the loud sound came from.

“I don’t know but it can’t be good,” Orion gulped as he was quick to follow her and get up on his feet.

“Do you think it’s signalling the end of the task?”

“I don’t know but I sure hope not,” he gulped, reaching out to hold her hand in his, giving it a gentle, reassuring squeeze even though he wasn’t feeling all that assured right now.

Neither of them had any time to brush the dust off their clothes. Instead, they clasped hands and began running through the maze. With their two heads and his wolf going off of natural instinct, a few occasional wrong turns and two dead ends, they were finally able to make their way out of the maze.

Now, whether they had done it in within time was yet to be revealed.

“Did we make it?” Orion panted lightly as they rushed to approach Denver, the steward that had been assigned to his apartment floor. “Did we get out of the maze within time?”

“You sure did,” Denver answered, though his face was tight.

“If we passed the task, then why do you look like that?” Phoenix asked, not the least bit concerned about beating around the bush.

If she wasn’t right, if Denver didn’t look so tense right now, Orion would have laughed at her brazen choice of words.

At her questions, Denver’s face looked even more pinched. Instead of answering her question, he reached into his pocket to produce two badges; their awards for today’s task.

“Congratulations Orion, Phoenix,” the steward sighed, dropping an identical badge into both of their hands. “But regardless of winning today’s task, you still won’t be going unpunished for what happened this morning.”

“Surely such a small mistake can be overlooked,” Orion started in hopes of talking their way out of this situation. While he understood that the both of them were in the wrong for breaking the rules, especially after specifically being told not to by both Denver and the Alpha king himself however, he couldn’t bring himself to regret the special moment that him and Phoenix had shared that morning.

How could he when it had been the most magical and special moment of his life?

“Trust me, if I could, I would,” Denver sighed and raised a hand up to brush through his hair. “However, the decision isn’t up to me. Word has already gotten back to the Alpha king that the both of you were very, very late today’s task.”

“And I’m assuming he’s not happy about it,” Phoenix hummed as she stated the fact, looking just as disturbed and anxious as her mate. Something which Orion didn’t like.

“He’s the opposite of happy right now,” Denver chuckled, trying to make light of the situation but failing miserably. “At least you don’t have to worry about it until the mating ceremony. That gives you four days to prepare.”

At that, Denver smiled at the mated couple before he excused himself to attend to some of the other couples that had also made their way out of the maze.

Unfortunately, the bitter taste he had left in their mouths didn’t leave with him.

Orion and Phoenix both gulped and turned to face each other, equally as nervous and fearful of the punishment that the Alpha king would have lined up for them on the eight and final day of the Mating Games.

-

Layla Knight

15.06.2021