Karizma: Reborn
Chapter 17: Ryleigh

Ryleigh awoke in Lukas’ bed. She sat up and rubbed her eyes, then stretched her arms above her head. She wore a tank top with a pair of shorts. Lukas’ silk blue sheets assisted in cooling her skin, while the deep blue blanket assured no additional chill while she slept. She was alone. She sighed and pulled her knees to her chest. She rested her head on her knees and gazed out the window beside the bed. The black curtains had been opened just slightly, enough to allow a sliver of moonlight into the room while she slept. To have the moon protect me when he cannot.

It had been a week since they had returned from Kristopher’s club. Ryleigh had been working with her wolf more to reach a middle ground, rather than one always battling for control. The first step of an agreement was sleeping in Lukas’ house. Ryleigh did not want to, not yet anyway. She wanted to sleep in Bailey’s house while she and her wolf adjusted to each other, but the thought of not sleeping under the same roof as their mate had pained both Ryleigh and her wolf. I need to let her win sometimes. Ryleigh had initially requested that she sleep on Lukas’ couch, and he immediately refused and promised her the bed.

Ryleigh could not deny that the more that she slept under his roof, the more that she longed for Lukas to join her. Her wolf purred lightly as his scent seeped into her skin once more. No matter how many showers Ryleigh would take, Lukas’ scent would always infiltrate her skin as soon as she curled up in his bed. To her surprise, her wolf did not try to push her into joining Lukas on the couch. Progress.

Ryleigh had spent the past week becoming one with her wolf, rather than treating them as two separate entities. On the first day, she allowed her wolf to run the grounds, granting her wolf the freedom that she so desperately craved. Ryleigh had been gone so long that Lukas had eventually tracked her down, just to make sure that she was safe. After that, Ryleigh and her wolf had found their language with each other, how to communicate and agree, rather than fight and anger each other. As such, both Ryleigh and her wolf had the urge to check on their mate tonight.

Ryleigh gently tossed the blanket off her body and stood up. Her bare feet padded through the house softly. Lukas’ gentle breathing comforted her through the darkness of the house. It had felt like a lifetime ago that she had said goodbye to Kristopher in that club, that she had effectively ended her previous life to start this new one. She had felt relief in ending her previous life, after the pain of goodbye had faded. I am not her anymore. My life did end that night. When I came back, I saw everything through different eyes, through my wolf’s eyes. The only part of my previous life is my magic.

Ryleigh approached the couch and smiled softly. The couch was pressed against the wall with the front of the couch open to the rest of the room. Lukas was stretched out on the couch. He had one arm bent under his head, his other arm covering his bare abdomen. A thin, blue sheet rested over his waist. Ryleigh’s wolf purred lightly as she leaned against the wall beside the couch and admired him. Even while he slept, his muscles were tight and defined, as if constantly on alert for an impending threat. She remembered that night with him in the alley, how his muscles had ripped through his shirt, and she realized that his muscles were not even trying. Even resting, his muscles were threatening.. Her eyes trailed from his large arms to his tight pecks, down to his sculpted abs that teased the sheet that lay beneath them. She bit her lip and her wolf purred louder.

Ryleigh heard Lukas’ breathing change suddenly, and she smiled. He heard her. His eyes opened slowly, and he gazed at her. “Is everything all right?” he asked, his voice deep and gruff with sleep.

“Everything is fine,” she whispered. “I just needed to check on you.”

“Worried about me?” Lukas asked with a sly grin.

“I’ll never admit it,” Ryleigh smiled. “Can’t have people think I’m going soft on the big, bad wolf, right?”

“Plotting my demise, then?” Lukas yawned as he pulled himself into a sitting position. Ryleigh bit her lip as the sheet fell down his waist, revealing the sharp cut of his v-line that was a beacon to his silk boxers. His tanned skin was beautifully enhanced by the moonlight that trickled into the house. Ryleigh crossed her arms over her chest to fight the urge to touch his body.

“If I was planning your demise, you would not have woken up,” Ryleigh said.

“It’s cute how you think you’d succeed,” Lukas replied. He looked at her curiously. “You’re sure that you’re okay?”

“I’m fine, Lukas. I just woke up early and wanted to check on you,” she shrugged.

“Quite early, considering it’s still moonlight. Trouble sleeping?”

“Of sorts,” Ryleigh said slowly. She still mourned her past life but sleeping alone was beginning to feel truly lonely. Knowing that Lukas was in the next room without her stirred her and her wolf; they were both agreed that they needed to sleep separate of him for now, but neither one liked it.

Lukas rose to his feet and stretched his arms above his head. Ryleigh bit her lip again as her eyes caressed his physique. He walked over to her slowly and sat on the arm of the couch that she was leaning beside. “You know that you can talk to me,” he whispered.

“I know,” she smiled. “But I have nothing new to say. Not yet anyway.”

“You feel different,” he murmured. “You haven’t felt…empty, since that night.”

“Since I said goodbye to Kristopher.”

“Yes.”

“I’ve been with you, haven’t I? With you, I feel alive again. It’s without you that I feel nothing.”

Ryleigh’s ears perked suddenly as she heard Lukas’ wolf whimper softly. She watched as he closed his eyes and roughly raked a hand through his hair. She pushed herself off the wall slowly and stepped in front of him. Her wolf nudged her gently and she softly placed her hand on his shoulder. “What are you feeling?” she whispered.

“Nothing good,” Lukas inhaled sharply. He opened his eyes, and his gold ones met her emerald ones.

“Why?”

“Because the stronger that you get with your wolf, the closer we are to fighting this war.”

“With that, I wanted to ask something of you. I know how to fight, but I would like to be trained to fight as a Lycan by a Lycan.”

“Are you asking me to train you?”

“No. Not you. Anyone but you,” Ryleigh said quickly.

Lukas growled lightly and studied her curiously. Ryleigh sighed and shook her head. “It’s not like that,” she said. “I need someone who will actually hurt me and not illicit feelings every time I touch him.”

“A woman, then,” Lukas growled.

“Give me one of your exes,” Ryleigh snapped before she could stop herself. Her eyes widened in surprise. “Someone who would hold a grudge against me,” she continued as she tried to hide the true reason behind her outburst. Lukas smirked and his gold eyes brightened at her. He stood up so fast that Ryleigh stumbled into the wall behind her. Ryleigh’s breathing grew heavy with anticipation as Lukas pinned her between him and the wall. His hands pressed into the wall beside her head. He dropped his head down and studied her with blinding gold eyes.

“Is that all, love? An ex because you know she would envy you?” Lukas asked, amused.

“It’s the perfect fight, don’t you think?” Ryleigh breathed. “A she-wolf who has lived beside you for centuries, who’s fucked you and misses you, envy with the knowledge that the newbie is the one that you are promised to.”

“That isn’t all, is it?” Lukas whispered. He pressed his body against hers and gently trailed his nose up her neck. He inhaled deeply, a growl of approval reverberating from his throat. Ryleigh’s wolf whined at the skin-on-skin contact and she arched her body into his. Lukas snaked one of his arms around her waist and squeezed her tightly to him. “It isn’t knowing that I fucked females for decades before I found you?”

“You didn’t know,” Ryleigh whispered. “Had I not been resurrected, you would have never known.” Even as she gave the perfectly rational explanation, her wolf growled darkly. Her wolf loathed the idea that her mate had past flings, despite Ryleigh trying to calm her down.

“To ease your wolf, love, the last one that I fucked was the night that Kristopher welcomed your revival. But I must say,” Lukas purred darkly as nipped at her earlobe, “I pictured you while I was fucking her. I felt your pleasure, your climax; I heard your sweet, angelic moans of release, and I desperately wanted it to be me that made you sing so beautifully.”

“Lukas,” Ryleigh’s cracked voice uttered. She could barely think straight; she was acting on impulse. A soft moan passed through her lips as his tongue slid down her neck. He grunted in response and teased his canines against her skin. She felt her knees buckle but Lukas’ arm tightened around her. She titled her head to the side, exposing more of her neck to him. He chuckled and pulled his face away from her.

“The next time that I penetrate you, it will not be with my teeth,” Lukas declared deeply. He rolled his hips into her suddenly, and she gasped as his erection probed against her stomach. “We may have past flings, but nothing will ever compare to what we have and what we will make together, when you’re ready,” he said. Instinctively, she looked down, and the sight forced arousal to pool between her legs. The muscles of his abdomen were corded and tensed, the bulge beneath his boxers ready to split the silk fabric that separated him from his target. Her eyes trailed up to his body and found his arms bugling with restraint. His gold eyes were a mere outline amongst the black of his lust-filled pupils.

“In time,” Lukas spoke darkly. “For now, we need to sleep. Tomorrow, we announce you as my mate, and we start training.”

“After announcing me, I’ll have my choice of a female to train with,” Ryleigh choked out.

“Oh, no, my love. No one else will see your delicious body but me. I would murder any of my pack who laid eyes on your naked form.”

“How do we sleep after this?” Ryleigh asked.

“Painfully,” Lukas murmured. “But anticipation will make the release that much sweeter.”

“Neither of us are going to be able to sleep,” Ryleigh’s wolf growled. “We start training now.”