Complication… set back… hitch…

Diamond. If there was one thing he would've gladly disposed of years ago, it would have been him. Shame, then that in the pack it was forbidden to kill someone who had mated because only a mated pair could procreate. Of course there are exceptions to every rule, but Diamond was a sly enough bastard to remain alive. Pompous jerk.

So it wasn't really any surprise that when Serena timidly padded into his bedroom informing him that he had a silver haired visitor he was deeply disturbed. She was twisting her fingers together, while scuffing her foot into the carpet, looking über adorable, but planting a seed of doubt in his mind that the person at the door was someone she didn't know or someone he wouldn't want to face. Frowning, he slowly rose from the bed, bones popping as he stretched, before he followed the hypnotising movements of her ass and hips towards the door. It was the retched smell that snapped Darien's head up first, before his eyes confirmed his suspicions that the grinning silver haired "business man" at his door really was Diamond and the way that he was staring at Serena like she was some sort of meat didn't bode well with Darien, so (as I mentioned before) it came as no real surprise when his right fist swung out to collide with Diamond's eye. As Diamond stumbled back clutching his eye Darien slammed the door shut, twisted the key to lock it, slipped the chain in place, bolted it and hammered planks of wood to the door. (So maybe he didn't go that far… but he did lock it... pinky promise!) Nope, no surprise. Well unless you're Serena who was totally clueless about the animosity between the two men.

She let out a startled gasp and took a step backwards, staring blankly at the now closed door before she whirled to face Darien, shock and outrage fighting for dominance on her delicate face. Outrage won and her pert mouth opened and Darien snapped. Images of what had occurred in his office only mere hours ago zoomed round his mind, plaguing him, taunting him, but one image was seared at the forefront of his mind: Serena leaning forward over him, her mouth open in a small 'o' before it enclosed around his erection. His mouth covered hers instantly. It wasn't sweet and innocent, it wasn't passionate and fiery; it was hard, rough and utterly possessive. It stated this is my woman, not anyone else's, mine. Just as quickly as it'd been initiated it stopped, leaving Serena gasping for air, her features locked in astonishment and awe. "Never let that man into this house." With that he stormed back into the bedroom, leaving behind a flabbergasted Serena.

As he sat on the bed, head in his hands, he contemplated how he was going to keep Serena away from Diamond's grasp. Knowing him the bastard would probably try everything and anything just to screw with the one thing that played a major factor in his life, Serena, showing no disregard to the consequences…… the repercussions his actions could have on the people involved. Serena had to be protected at all costs………… no matter what.

On with the story

(Couple of days later) 2 pm

She was confused as hell. He'd been clamped up since the whole silver-haired-man-at-the-door incident. She was so confused that she'd been staying in her flat for the last couple of days, making sure to see and touch Darien daily, but only for brief periods of time before she dashed off to one of her many social commitments. She really couldn't afford to have a repeat of what happened when she abstained from touching him, not when she needed a clear head to think with. Was it her fault? Was she not meant to open the door? Well obviously she wasn't meant to open the door now after he'd warned her not to but how was she to know that she wasn't supposed to open the door in the first place. There were so many things she didn't know about him and his life, but whenever she'd tried asking Darien about them his answers were always evasive and distracted as if he had better things to do with his time. The fact that he'd also closed their link meant that she had no way of knowing what was wrong. Of course as a witch she had her own methods of finding out these answers, but that meant that she had to betray the little trust he had be stilled in her and she didn't want to do that, no matter how tempted she was, so she was saving those methods for later……… much later.

Despite the gulf that seemed to be expanding between Serena and Darien, Serena had become quite close to the other members of the pack, excluding Mina for obvious reasons (refer back to 5th/6th chapters). Her ponderings hadn't gone amiss from the rest of the girls and the only insight they had on the whole situation was to talk to Darien, because it was his place to tell her about his life. As if she hadn't thought of talking to him before. Scoffing as she recalled their advice she bumped into someone. She closed her eyes, waiting for her ass to hit he ground, but instead found herself being supported by to strong arms around her back. Bracing herself she glanced up into the dove grey eyes of the silvered haired man from before. She took in his flawless features and the rock solid body she'd collided into covered by crisp white suit.

She found herself gazing to his grey eyes and felt a shiver race up her back. Her mind kept flashing back on the warning that Darien had given her about staying away from this man, but that only served to make her more curious as to what was so bad about this man. His voice came to her ears, so soft, so persuading,

"I'm sorry little one. You're Darien's friend right? I'm Diamond. How about I treat you to some coffee to make up for my clumsy actions?"

She felt her mouth open and was on the verge of answering yes when she felt a sharp tug from Darien down their link. Blinking back tears at the sudden pain she quickly untangled herself from the man's embrace and disappeared down the side walk. She'd felt his rage, he'd been so angry, so very angry and it made Serena afraid.