Bree purposefully focused on Byron until she was nearly cross-eyed.
He broke eye contact and lowered his head, while stepping to the side of the cage door. His attitude towards her had changed dramatically after she's reached the fourth shift. This must be the charm of an attractive woman. It seemed odd to refer to herself that way, but she felt pretty for the first time in both lives she'd lived.
It was a nice feeling, something like she imagined a warm hug might feel like. She'd never experienced a loving hug, but it looked nice in movies. Something like, maybe life wasn't so bad after all. There were good parts too. Somewhere she was accepted and knew that she was wanted. A place where no one would ignore, control, or abuse her. Someone would really, truly love her for who she is as a person. This was what she really wanted, more than anything else. She wanted to feel loved and safe. She wanted to have a place she belonged. She wanted to have a home.
Maybe if she didn't hate everything about herself, perhaps others wouldn't hate her as well? She didn't want to be alone anymore.
Just as she was hoping, she started to feel a warm sensation on the palm of her left hand. Byron's eyes were still averted away from her direction respectfully. His stance was that of a noble knight, patiently waiting for his master. Not an ounce of disrespect or neglect could be seen in his stance or facial expression.
His head was lowered and so he missed the excited gleam in her eyes as she looked down at her left palm that had started to glow neon blue. Excited anticipation shot through her while sneakily looking at her glowing palm and holding it to her side. She glanced at him sideways, but he still had his eyes diverted.
She thought about it for a moment and then drew onto her glowing palm with the pointer finger of her other hand. She stuck her finger onto
Her palm. Once her finger touched the skin of her palm, the rest or her skin stopped glowing except for directly under her finger. Blue sparks of light shot out from under her finger, like she was a live sparkler. She drew a bumble bee, and then pushed her finger down, until the color switched to metallic gold. Once the color changed to gold, she raised up her finger. From now on, a metallic gold bumble bee would be the appearance of her personalized marker. The golden bee shone in the center of her palm and then faded into her skin.
Once again, she looked up at Byron, until she saw glowing golden light out of the corner of her eye. She looked back down and the center of her palm had a glowing golden bumble bee on it. Bree smirked and confidently stood up. She walked over to the cage doors and slipped out. Byron didn't raise his eyes as she approached, respectfully keeping his eyes lowered, and his hands clasped together in front of himself.
While she looked at him, she really didn't see anything to dislike. Her eyes crinkled in anticipation and her heart jumped excitedly as she reached out her glowing palm towards him and touched his slightly bulging bicep. She felt her palm heat up, just as his head shot up. His widened, blue-green eyes locked onto her gray eyes. His lips slightly parted and his face lightly flushed as his breathing picked up speed. Her hand felt tingly where it touched him and the feeling of heat started to travel up her arm. She could feel his heart beat dancing around her own. Then she felt an odd feeling, like she'd never felt before, a strange feeling of connectivity. She felt his shock and awe course through her system, almost as if it were her own. His feelings had a different signature than her own, like walking along the shoreline late at night, and smelling the salty air in summer. Whereas she gave off the feeling of sultry tropical flowers.
She pulled her hand back in shock, as if she had been electrocuted. Still, although they weren't touching anymore, she still felt connected to him. It felt like an invisible string connected them. Bree's eyes widened as she looked down at the shiny golden bee on Byron's arm. This was no temporary marker or pre-marker. This was a proper, full fledged, accepted mate mark on Byron's arm. Her lips popped open in surprise as her eyes locked onto his bicep.
He looked down at his arm and then his eyes flashed back up to hers. She could feel his anxiety shoot through their link and then he stumbled back away from her. He spun around on his heel and then ran away. Bree watched his retreating back and felt an unexpected loneliness and feeling of loss.
She sighed and rubbed her hands against her face in frustration. She was too worn out to deal with all of this nonsense. She'd already been forced to shift all the way up til this point, not that she was entirely going to complain that she was able to skip childhood in this life, but it would have been nice if in either one of her lifetimes she'd been able to experience a pleasant childhood. Have at least one parent who wasn't insane or hoping that she would die. She doesn't even know who her dad is in this life, not really. There are a few bunnies that could be her dad, well she assumed that her dad was one of the bunnies. Her mom didn't seen all that adventurous when it came to playing around with other types of shifters at least.
Speaking of mates, how did she end up getting a mate like that right off the bat? Wasn't there a process of placing a pre-marker and then having the male make the decision on if he wanted to accept her marker or not?
Bree looked around the area to make sure that no one was nearby and then quietly slipped out, heading towards a thin trail in some nearby woods she'd seen. She needed to find some privacy to talk with Daisy and Posh about what was going on and to decide what to do next. She hadn't actually planned on turning Byron into her mate just yet, what she really wanted right now was just to be able to enter him into her system and learn more about the mate feature while investigating him. She knew that she needed to collect some mates, but this was a bit much to accept so suddenly! There was a difference between acknowledging the need for something logically and another thing entirely to have the reality of those plans suddenly thrown into her face! Bree's face was flushed in embarrassment while she walked with all speed to hide.
OMG! She has a mate! She didn't even have a boyfriend and now she has a mate! KYAAA!