Damn it all. He wanted her. He wanted her. No, that wasn't quite it. He needed her. He needed her like fish needed water, needed her like he needed air to survive. It was essential that he get her or he was liable to go insane.

He hated it. She was the opposite of everything he stood for. She was the opposite of everything he usually wanted. She was quite and shy and dark. She wasn't supermodel tall like her best friend, but had shapely curves nonetheless. Despite not being what he should want, she seemed to be perfect in her own way. Plum-and-gray coloring and that form-fitting outfit. She was lawful and good. She was everything he shouldn't want.

But he needed her. And, damn it all, he was going to get her.

Garfield wasn't quite sure when Raven had gotten quite so. . . curvaceous. Sure, he had always thought she was pretty in the way that teenage boys thought all girls were pretty. She had nice eyes and she didn't smell bad and was really nice-looking in the rare times she smiled, but now. . . She was something else entirely. She wasn't a little girl anymore, she was a woman just as much as he was a man, and his thoughts of her had long ago stopped being childish.

He was thinking of this as he walked through the mall behind her. The Titans, they had dropped the 'Teen' part a while ago, were supposed to be shopping for a formal ball the mayor had invited them to. Starfire had insisted that Raven needed a new dress, and Robin, now Nightwing, insisted that Garfield had needed a suit as well. So he strolled on behind his female teammate, waiting for his turn to be the object of this particular brand of torture and casting subtle glances at the way Raven's hips were swinging. It was tantalizing in the most fascinating way, and he had to force himself to concentrate.

Perhaps it was the way the jeans, which she so rarely wore, hugged her body that mesmerized him. Yes, he had seen her in yoga pants, leggings, and a downright sinful pair of compression shorts, but there was still something to be said about a classic pair of faded jeans.

A casual smirk rested on his lips and he subconsciously twisted the holo-ring on his finger, which gave him the appearance he should have had. Golden blonde hair and dazzling eyes the same color as the shifting sea, moving from blue to green and everywhere in between. He was attractive and he knew it, and, apparently, so did the women around him.

"I wish you would stop winking at every girl you pass," Raven hissed from in front of him, not even turning her head around. He caught up to her easily, falling into stride.

"How would you even know? You can't see me," he contrasted, nudging her with his shoulder.

She glared at him. "For starters, I'm an empath," she said, glancing at him with a small, smug smile as realization settled onto his features. "Not to mention I can hear the giggles."

He winced at the malice in her tone, but swiftly buried it under his jokester exterior. "Awe, Rae. You know that you're the only girl I'm interested in," he teased, tossing an arm around her shoulder and pulling her close.

"I'll kill you." Her face was dead serious.

"Okay, then." He took a step away, still grinning. "Don't worry, Rae-"

"It's Raven."

"-You'll warm up to the idea," he finished, ignoring her little interjection.

The rest of their mall trip went much the same, Garfield laughing and hooting at some of the things he'd convinced her to put on, as well as her giving small snickers due to his outrageous suit choices. Finally, they had both picked out something suitable to wear for the ball, and they were on their way back to the tower when their communicators began buzzing. Raven flipped hers open and they crowded around the screen to glance inside, where their leader sat staring stern-faced back at them.

"Raven, Gar, Adonis is at the lab three blocks from there making a general mess. We need you to hold it down until we get there, because you two are the closest. Think you can handle?" he asked.

Raven rolled her eyes. "We got this, Dick. Promise," she replied, snapping the communicator shut. She flicked her wrist and her uniform, an updated version of the old one, replaced her plain clothes. It was a black full-body suit, able to camouflage if need be, her cape still the same midnight blue.

"You good for shadow travel?" she questioned, glancing over at Garfield. They had learned that his animalistic body didn't much care for her brand of swift travel, but could deal with it after a bit of mental prep. He nodded, so she flicked her fingers, and a moment later they were in the aforementioned lab. She gave her companion a second to collect himself before the pair took off, following the sound of breaking beakers and tromping feet.

Raven pressed a finger to her lips as she crept around the corner, and he nodded, sliding silently behind her. They stood at either side of the doorway, and she glanced over at him. Attack patterns with Adonis was one of the only places that Garfield took point. After another heartbeat, he nodded, and they both dove through the doorway.

"Adonis!" Gar called, shifting just his hands into claws. Over the years, they had all learned how to control their powers more, honing in on little things. Although, no one had grown quite as much as Raven. "I see you're up to no good. Again," he commented, gesturing to the mess before glancing back at the man in the metal suit. It was bigger this time, and colored a deep, russet red color.

"That's what I'm good for," he responded flippantly, his eyes never straying from the violet haired beauty, whose hands and eyes were glowing and crackling with dark energy.

There she was, barely three yards in front of him.

"Hey, hottie. You like the new suit? It making you catch a new interest in the big man?" he asked, shooting her a swift wink. She wrinkled her nose in disgust.

She was so close. He wanted her.

"Not on your life, Adonis," she deadpanned. Without taking her eyes from him, she swung her arm, almost casually, and an empty shelf darted across the room, slamming into his distracted form. He barely moved.

Just her smell alone was calling to him. He needed it. Needed her.

He lunged at her, but was intercepted by a green rhinoceros crashing into him, his horn scratching a divot into the metal.

The villain's nostrils flared. "This suit is new," he growled.

He was in the way. Why was he there? He just wanted her.

He swung his arm around, banging it into the side of the green Titan's head, sending him to the ground in a dazed heap. "Stay out of my way," he growled, shoving the other male back as far as he could get him, which landed him sprawled against a glass wall, splintering it slightly.

It was just the two of them again. He liked it this way.

"So, gorgeous, are you ready to get away with me?" Adonis suggested, grinning as he took a step closer to her. "I'd love to see what that mouth can-" Two metal tables crashed into him from either side, abruptly cutting off his statement.

"Shut up," she said. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" Her black magic curled around his suit, immobilizing him for the moment. She planned to hold him there until the rest of the team arrived if she could, but it seemed that he would have other plans.

She was fiery. He liked it.

The man in the metal suit smirked at her, responding, "Oh, come on, babe, you have absolutely no interest in all this?"

He had her undivided attention. He was doing well.

She simply glared at him, focusing her energy. Gar still hadn't awakened from his spill into the wall, and she was their only hope at holding him. She didn't know how long she would hold out, and could only hope they would be there soon.

Those eyes. He loved them. He wanted to see them fill with passion as he took her for the first time. It was wrong, but he needed her. He was going crazy.

"i'm sure you're just in denial babe. I know you want me."

He needed her to want him like he needed her. How could this only be him?

"Be quiet, Adonis," she hissed. He was splintering her carefully constructed concentration.

He wanted to see sweat bead on her forehead because of him in a different way, wanted to be making her hold out against something else. He needed it desperately.

"Princess, you don't need to be like that. It's just us." He hands clenched into fists. She needed him to shut up. She was getting too angry, too emotional. It was going to break her. "I'm sure you'd feel better in a bed. In my bed. Where I could-"

"Stop!" That was it. Her hold on him broke, and she couldn't seem to gather her wits before he was upon her, pressing her into the wall and dipping his head low enough to bite at the base of her throat in a way that was both rough and gentle, leaving a red mark.

"Mine." His voice was a feral growl.

Finally, he had marked her. She would have to be his. That was his mark, his little red splotch. She was his.

This little act made Raven snap, a second set of eyes appearing in her forehead and her powers lashing out of their own accord. Adonis hurtled into the wall beside the now waking Gar, but didn't stop there. She slammed him side to side, ceiling to floor, screaming curses in every language she knew. She was still pummeling him into the ground when the team arrived.

"Raven," Nightwing said, his voice surprising her enough that she snapped back into reality. She regained control of her body and shoved her anger to the back corner of her brain, her powers releasing the metal covered man. Garfield had finally come to enough for the haze to be cleared from his vision, rubbing his head. No doubt he had a concussion.

"Rae?" he croaked softly, looking up to see Starfire and Cyborg carting Adonis away and Raven being thoroughly scolded by Nightwing. For what, he didn't know, but he was sure to find out soon.

". . . supposed to have more discipline. I understand that he annoys you. But that's not an excuse," groaned Nightwing, obviously angry. Raven's fists clenched, and the lights flickered.

"It wasn't about annoyance," she replied through clenched teeth.

"Than what?" he challenged, his eyes looking her over as if trying to find what could anger her. Her hood slipped up over her head, and she stalked out of the room without another word. Nightwing whirled his anger on Garfield.

"You," he snapped. "What exactly were you doing? What happened?"

Gar shook his head. "I don't know, dude. He didn't steal anything. He was basically just banging on stuff until we got here, then he focused all of his attention on Raven."

"Why?"

"I dunno. He's always flirted with her, especially since the, ah, beast incident," Gar replied.

"Do you think it could have something to do with that? I mean, how's your beast doing?" Nightwing asked cautiously.

"Dormant, but still there," he said. He tried to focus on the primal feeling in the back of his mind, almost like a second awareness, but it seemed to be just as quiet as it had been for years. "So I seriously doubt it, but it's possible."

"But the flirting has never set her off like that before. I can't figure out what happened that made her so angry." Nightwing shook his head. "She'll have to tell us about it eventually." Gar shrugged as if in agreement, and they headed out of the building, ready to go home.

Raven didn't come out of her room for at least three days. No one knew what she did or why, they were unsure if she was angry or busy. They just didn't know. With soundproofed walls, they couldn't spy on her, and she had magically sealed herself in so not even a fly could get inside. She hadn't eaten or been to the bathroom as far as they could see, and the Team was beginning to get worried. They had called in Roy, because he and Raven had formed a very odd yet strong friendship in their time together, and got nothing. They had even called in Jinx and Wally from their tour of Russia to see if Jinx could talk to her, or at least get the door open, but no such luck.

Unbeknownst to them, Raven had been doing research.

The mark on her neck troubled her, if only because it seemed so familiar. She had read something in a book once, something about being marked. It worried her that this was so eerily similar, and she would tear a hole in the world (again) if it meant that her suspicions wouldn't be confirmed.

Lucky for the world, they had been.

She glared at the page she had read probably a hundred times.

Marked-

One who has been bitten hard enough for a mark to be left on the skin. The mark will have been left by a male who feels a strong pull towards one particular female. This male is either the only of his species in the area, or is the alpha male and gets a choice on his mate. All males of a species feel a draw towards the same female, though it may lie dormant in some for longer than others. If one is marked before all males have realized the attraction, the other male still has a chance at winning the mate. He must claim the female before the one who marked her.

Raven was furious, to say in the least. Adonis, the crude, annoying, idiotic prick had marked her? She would kill him. The book didn't say anything about killing him. It didn't say how it would affect her, but it was a risk she was willing to take. All the books had said approximately the same thing. That she was his. She belonged to him. Her body was his to claim. And now her only option was what? To have G-

No. She wouldn't even think of it. She wouldn't even consider the possibility of that. She was going to find a way out of this. But first, she needed to eat.

She covered the red spot on her neck as best she could with makeup. One of her books told her that it wouldn't fade until they had mated, so she supposed she was stuck with it for the rest of her life. Once she had done her best, she threw on a hoodie and little cotton black shorts, she had stopped wearing her uniform at all times in exchange of comfort, and padded barefoot out into the hallway, still trying to think herself out of her problem.

Raven ignored the way all conversation, and movement, for that matter, came to a halt as she walked in the room, dutifully placing the kettle on to boil and bending to glance in the kitchen. In a way that only boys who had been friends for years could manage, the four boys leaned, each shifting to get a better view of the round butt sticking into the air. It was a good thing Jinx had gone to the bathroom, or Wally's head would have been rolling around on the floor. She straightened back up with two cold slices of pizza, and all the boys blushed and looked away, save for Garfield. For a second, something stirred inside of him, but he shut it down quickly. He didn't even know what it was, only that it felt more raw and unthinking that the rest of him. It's movement also made him realize that there was something. . . off about his teammate. Something genetically wrong.

"Rae?" he asked softly, voicing what everyone else was thinking and taking a slight step forward.

"Raven," she responded, warming her pizza up and reaching over to pour her tea. The room seemed to relax at this, seeing as she appeared to be in relatively good spirits. Gar decided to let his suspicions go for now, figuring it was just his brain overreacting and over-analyzing.

Nightwing gave her a cautious once over, and decided to say something as well. "We, erm, had been planning to do a bit of training if you're up for it," he told her, to which she simply nodded and sipped her tea.

"Okay," she said. She had resolved herself to figure a way around her issue, yes, but she wouldn't be unpleasant while she did. At least, she would try to avoid being unpleasant.

"Oh. Um, alright. Let's go then," he replied, scratching his head nervously. to him, this just seemed like the calm before the storm. They walked down to the training simulation room, Garfield eyeing Raven for the entire walk. There was something seriously off about her, something subtle, but he didn't know what. It was, apparently, something only he could pick up on, because no one else even seemed to be affected. Yet, he doubted that he was wrong. He knew that something weird was going on.

Nightwing split them into teams of two, mixing them as much as possible. Jinx and Starfire, Wally and Cyborg, Gar and Speedy, Raven and himself. He had the camera going so they could review what was done right and wrong, that way he could train as well instead of watching from a distance. The point of the teams was to figure a way to work against people you knew well, and with people you didn't. Everyone was close enough to each other, but they weren't a well-oiled machine when working together. That's what Nightwing wanted. A set of well-oiled machines.

The teams spread, beginning to considered strategies to take down their opponents. After forty-five seconds, the longest amount of time they were ever given to plan, a bell rang out, and the four pairs faced each other. They had to battle each other for the little blue bird that flitted around the room, recovering it without causing it any harm. Though, as the battled, magic and starbolts and blasts flying everywhere, not to mention arrows and bird-a-rangs, it seemed that three of the teams were at a disadvantage, because Nightwing and Raven moved as one person. Perhaps it was because of the mental bond they had formed all those years ago, but they were a monster in the best sense of the word. If his bo staff swung right, he magic went left and vice versa. They protected each other from attacks on instinct, and soon they were closing in on the bird.

Raven was just reaching for it when Garfield shifted into a lion and jumped, pinning her to the ground by her shoulders. He released a slight grunt of triumph, but before he could taunt her, the smell hit him like a ton of bricks. His smell. He changed back and growled angrily, tossing Raven over his shoulder without a second thought and charging out of the room.

She was dumbfounded by his anger the felt curling off of him, shocked to feel the cool air of the hallway rushing past her face as Gar jogged away from the training room. She took this moment to take note of just how large he had gotten over the years. She almost hadn't noticed, as she had always just seen him as Beastboy, Garfield. The short comic book geek who only wanted a moped. Now he was well, a man. He wasn't even close to being a boy anymore. His shoulders had broadened, his torso filling out with muscles from years of training and fighting. He was almost. . . attractive, in a sense. The fact that she was only now figuring this out bothered her a bit, but then, he had always just been a teammate.

Her pondering came to a stop as her backside bounced against a rather fluffy mattress, and she was temporarily disoriented. Lilac and honeydew walls, black curtains and sleek black furniture. Where was she? It wasn't until she saw a hamper of dirty clothes shoved in the corner that she figured it out. "Is this. . . am I in your room?" she asked, startled. It wasn't a mess. It was relatively clean, actually. Another surprise. It seemed he had changed quite a bit without her noticing.

Gar ignored her question, his face twisted into a scowl. "Why are you covered in his scent?" he snarled, gripping the tops of her arms. Tight enough to keep her from leaving, but not tight enough to cause her pain. Raven winced from the malice in his voice, but quickly slid her deadpanned attitude into place.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she responded blankly, avoiding looking into his eyes.

He growled. "Do not give me your bullshit right now, Raven. You know exactly what I'm talking about. What the fuck did Adonis do to you that has you still smelling like him three weeks later?" He was asking, but he knew the answer already. He had marked her. That's all he could have done. Gar had spent hours researching everything on the Beast after the incident, and marking was one of the things he found. He had never given it much thought until now.

Knowing that she had been beaten, Raven reached up and scrubbed a hand across her collarbone. It came away covered in makeup, the spot she had rubbed now sporting its large, circular reddish-purple blemish. "Fine," she snapped. "He fucking marked me. Adonis. Rage tried to kill him, figuring that if he was dead-"

"No," Gar interrupted. "If he dies, you slowly get weaker and weaker until you waste away. You would either have to mate with him," his eye twitched at the thought, "or deal with the discomfort of not mating."

For a moment, she considered telling him about that other alternative. That if she were to find another mate of the same species, that would work just as well. But she would not let Gar feel like it was his duty or like she was his responsibility. She refused. She could live with a little discomfort for the rest of her life, or until she found another solution. Whichever came first.

After all, how bad could a little discomfort be?

Hello, my darling feathers! I know that this sort of came from nowhere, but it's been running through my head for a while. I just had absolutely no idea how to start it off until recently. Now that I've banged this out of the way, I'm shooting to put up another chapter of my Thorne redo. I just really wanted to get this out there.

FANACT!

Question of the Chapter:

Do you think I'm moving to fast?

Only honest opinions!

Also, I am unlike most other people. I want your reviews, good or bad. If you hated it and think my writing is crap, tell me. If you think I can do things better, tell me. Your reviews make me better, so please, give me everything you can.

With plenty of love,
~LBB