James exited the shower enclosure while wrapping a towel around his waist.
He stopped in front of a mirror to make sure that the towel was low enough to tempt Cornelia.
James was confident in his physique. Years of strenuous exercise made him look more mature and no one would think of him as a teenager. James caught Cornelia stealing glances at him more than once, and he hoped that this will work.
After they returned to his room last night, James was convinced that they will make progress, but then Cornelia asked him to shift into his wolf form and they ended up sleeping like that. Well, James didn't do much sleeping, but Cornelia used him as an oversized furry bolster pillow.
At this rate, he will never get laid!
James was not really desperate to get frisky with Cornelia, but she was gorgeous, and she smelled of wild berries, and he was aroused since last night when she rode his wolf without panties!
He wanted to hold her, skin to skin, and he wanted to taste her lips and much more. It was maddening but he knew that he couldn't rush this, and even though all the signals were there, something was wrong. Whenever he approached Cornelia, she would pull back at the last moment. However, this morning, James was determined to get his answers and make progress.
He tussled his damp hair to look a bit messy but not too messy, and he pushed the towel to stay dangerously low on his hips. With that, he was ready to face Cornelia.
James opened the door of the bedroom and his eyes immediately found Cornelia who was sitting on his bed with a tablet in her hands. He introduced her to the wonders of modern technology on the previous day and since then Cornelia was stuck to the tablet, researching about humans, unless something else pressing was going on.
James cleared his throat to get her attention.
Cornelia was painfully aware of James' presence, and she pretended that she didn't notice him nearly naked standing there, but when he cleared his throat, she couldn't fake being deaf, so she glanced his way.
He looked edible.
"Did you forget your clothes?", Cornelia asked.
James frowned. Why was she pretending not to be affected by him?
He decided to face this issue head-on and he moved to sit on the bed next to her.
"Cora", he called. "Is there something wrong?"
"What could be wrong?", she responded with a question without looking at him.
James took the tablet from her hands and kept it on the side.
"Talk to me, Cora. Why are you avoiding me?"
"We spent the night together. I wouldn't call that avoiding you."
He didn't want to let her wiggle out of this. "You know what I mean. You are not even looking at me."
"You are almost naked.", she pointed out the fact.
"Is that a problem? Isn't that helping me feel the energies better?" He glanced at the t-shirt she was wearing. "Actually, feel free to remove your clothes. Now that it's just the two of us, there is no need to cover up."
Cornelia puffed her cheeks. "There is."
"Why?"
"Because…", she paused while wondering how to respond to this. "You are underage, and you don't feel the bond."
James' face fell. Was that the problem? He could fix many things, but his age and feeling the bond were different issues. "You don't like me because I'm younger than you are?" Did she treat him like a child? He could tell her that he explored many women already and that he was not innocent nor inexperienced, but he had a feeling that might explode into his face, so he kept those words to himself.
"I read there…", she gestured toward the tablet. "That being in a relationship with a minor can get me into trouble."
Did she believe he will buy that nonsense? "If I'm human, the age of consent here is sixteen years old, so us being in a relationship won't be against the law, and we are not human so those don't apply to us."
"That doesn't change the fact that you are not sensing the bond. THAT is a sign it's too early for you." She released a long breath. And then there was the possibility of witches being hunted for experiments or for breeding and even though she could refrain from using her powers, Cornelia didn't feel safe. James already had so many things going on, and if she was with him, it would only add to his existing problems. "I think that I should return to my realm and stay…"
"No!", James exclaimed. "You are kidding, right? Tell me you are kidding." But her stubborn expression told him she was serious, and his stomach started churning painfully.
"Cora, you can't do that. Are you planning for us to not see each other for two years?" For her, it will be decades and he was confident that for him it will feel like two eternities! "I admit. I don't feel the bond fully, but I am confident you are my mate. If I am not ready, the Moon Goddess wouldn't arrange for us to meet. Now, is there any other doubt I need to dispel?"
Cora cocked an eyebrow at him. "Do you think that your little speech made things right? Did you suddenly get older or did the problem with your father disappear?"
James was not willing to give up. "We spoke about my father. I will deal with him and your presence won't affect that." But her absence will make him go nuts. "Let's think about this rationally. Two weeks, two years, or two centuries, it won't change the fact that I am younger than you are and that we are mates. If we stay apart, we will only torture each other. Is that what you want?"
"No.", Cornelia admitted. If she knew that her mate would be this young, she wouldn't come here, not now at least. It was better not knowing because now that she was aware of James' existence, the pull was driving her crazy and she feared that her control will snap, and she will jump on him. That's why she asked him to sleep in his wolf form, it was safer.
Was she worried about him being sixteen years old? Not really. For witches, they perform the Coven initiation ceremony at twelve years old, and after that point, they are treated as grownups. Sure, they can't identify their mates at that time, as that's the age when they start studying systematically different types of energies and it takes years until they can feel the pull toward their soulmate, but the fact that James couldn't feel the bond was a problem.
James put his hand on Cornelia's cheek and forced her to look at him. "Cora, I could lie and tell you that I feel the bond, but I can't pretend that I don't feel anything."
Cornelia realized that he was right. If he said that he suddenly could feel the bond, there was no way for her to check. She should appreciate his honesty and not punish him for it.
"So, what do you suggest?", she asked.
