Caoimhe’s POV:
I want him, I thought to myself as I allowed the dark thought to overwhelm my small frame.
I stood there silently and watched as the woman crumbled to her feet with her once sheer top now stained red with her blood. I wanted to watch her suffer more as I knew it would not take long before she recovered from those shallow puncture marks, but I could already feel the control I had over Odin begin to shift and fade. I could not help but feel proud over the fact that I had a strong mate and yet I wanted to throw a fit over his resistance.
I want to make her suffer, I thought as a sick and sadistic smirk caressed my lips.
“Enough!” Odin shouted annoyed now as he sensed the atmosphere shift from around me.
It had grown dark and suffocating as if I were allowing death itself to hang over our heads. My attention quickly shifted from Essen to Odin as I held his gaze, his eyebrows furrowed slightly as he became lost in thought. It did not take him long before he pulled himself out and instead reached his hand out for the woman who silently sat on her knees glaring deadly daggers at me.
Essen took Odin’s outstretched hand after a moment and allowed him to help her up. She wiped off the shards of ice from her pants as she openly ignored me and turned to face Odin with angry tears welling within her eyes.
“What the hell is wrong with you?!” Essen demanded angrily as she shoved her fists into his bare chest.
I flinched and turned my head away as she used him as her punching bag as he simply stood there and took the abuse from her. Odin grew annoyed after she got a few punches in, and instead grasped her wrists within his hands and pulled her into him.
“Let me go!” Essen demanded as she fought against him.
“Calm down,” Odin said only his tone had shifted.
I noticed it as a tone that only alphas possessed.
"Release me, Odin!" Essen shouted.
I flinched and looked away briefly from the two as she struggled against his hold.
“Essen!” Odin demanded, now growing frustrated.
“If you don’t release me now then I will go to my father!” Essen shouted.
Odin took that moment to shove her away from him as if her very touch set his skin on fire, he glared down at her as his face grew red from anger.
"Do you think that I care whether or not you go crying to daddy?!” He shouted at her with venom forming within his words.
Essen stared at him in shock as he continued without allowing her a moment to respond.
“I’m sick and tired of your shit Essen! You and I both know what he is capable of if you want me dead that badly then go, run to him!” Odin shouted as he bore his canines at her.
“Just remember, if you do then you will never be Luna!” Odin sneered angrily before he turned his back to her.
Essen stood there in baffled silence as Odin approached me and gathered me within his arms.
Her eyes grew wide with anger as Odin gathered my naked form within his arms and Cradled me against his chest. I lost my breath the moment our bare skin made contact, I could sense he felt the same way as he stalled for a moment before taking a deep breath in and proceeded to talk past Essen.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and rested my head on Odin’s shoulder and watched as the defeated woman rolled her shoulders back and huffed from frustration before she proceeded to follow behind us. I kept my gaze on her as she continued to shoot daggers at me.
"Why are we taking her with us anyway?" Essen demanded before she gave up staring at me and instead quickened her pace until she was now beside Odin matching his stride.
I shifted my head from his shoulder and glanced over at her while remaining silent.
“Because she was drowning, she needs our help,” Odin lied.
I quickly looked at him and examined his facial expressions.
Did he normally lie like that? I thought to myself with a slight chuckle under my breath.
Odin shot a dirty glare at me when he felt my chest quiver slightly from amusement, he could see right through me and was not pleased with my gleeful reaction.
“You expect me to believe that some random women travelled to the north, to the Dead Sea of Thallyn just to end up naked and drowning?” Essen demanded.
“Yup,” Odin said simply as he continued to walk further on.
“Do you have any idea how ridiculous that sounds Odin?!” Essen demanded before she turned on her heels and positioned herself so that she was now standing before us.
“Yes,” Odin said simply as he adjusted his body weight to better hold me in his arms.
“Don’t be ridiculous! What if she is a spy for Elijah!” Essen shouted angrily as she forced Odin to stop in his tracks.
“Essen,” Odin said warningly.
“No! This isn’t okay! Not after everything I have done to keep you safe and hide you!” Essen said angrily.
“Why do I get the feeling you are the type to bring home women,” Ure said with a slight chuckle as his eyes roamed for a moment too long on my mate.
"That's none of your business," I grumbled as I felt Caoimhe’s body weight shift within my arms as she squirmed within my embrace.
I sighed with frustration as I could sense that she wanted down, although I did not want to release her just yet, I wanted to continue to hold her and shield her from the world. She was a gorgeous and intoxicating creature who would capture the gaze of anyone who looked upon her. I pressed my nose against her hair for a moment and inhaled her raw and exotic scent, she didn’t smell like the ocean like one would guess; Instead, her scent was like that of fresh May when the lands would be drenched with the rare seasonal spring with beautiful flowers arising from the cracks of the barren land.
Spring was the only rejoiced time of year as it was when Thallyn was at the peak of fertility, wolves would hold festivals to celebrate the darkened times now gone only for their celebrations to be cut short come July when the land grew too hot once more and destroyed all of the new life. Thallyn was a cursed land that had been forsaken by the gods centuries ago when they created Gliese. I was the future ruler of dead and barren land, a land no one wanted to inhabit and yet we had no choice as we had no way to reach another continent upon Gliese. Any attempts at fleeing Thallyn in the past have been thwarted by the raging sea as the sky would grow enraged and sink any vessel that attempted to sail it.
No, fleeing was not an option, we were stuck here, and we all knew it. Thallyn was the land where we would all live and die as if living in hell itself.
There are stories recited by word of mouth that was as old as the trees that inhabited Thallyn itself; They mention how Thallyn had once been a thriving oasis, a true heaven for those who resided there. The inhabitants were grateful for the blessings that the gods provided them and would even provide annual rituals to them as thanks. It was said that Thallyn was the first thing that the Goddess of Creation created as she made the land in her perfect image, with beautiful beings to inhabit it and to thrive upon the very thing that she had gifted them.
The wolves of Thallyn had been blessed with long lifespans that only extended in length if they found their mate by a certain age, once they found their mate the goddess herself would bless the united couple with fertility and grace. The first of my kind to receive her blessings were my ancestors, it was because of this they were able to become the reigning Alpha’s and Luna’s of their time and produce offspring who excelled in everything.
One day the Goddess of Creation came down from the heavens of Mara and disguised herself as a beautiful and enchanting creature and tricked the reigning alpha at the time Svarog into falling in love with her. The moment Svarog discovered her deception he took his dagger and plunged it deep into her chest, revealing the curse that she had secretly placed upon his people and presenting the ugly creature who hid beneath the façade.
I pulled myself from my deep thoughts and shook my head to scatter them to the back of my mind, I was not sure why the Curse of Creation suddenly came to my mind at that moment or why it was important.
Let me go, I heard the beautiful voice of my mate recite within my mind.
I glanced down at her and frowned after a moment before I reluctantly released the woman from my arms and sighed as I released her, the tingly sensations that had once coursed through my body were now gone as I released her. I watched her closely as she gently placed her bare feet upon the snowy ground and took a moment to steady herself as if she had not stood on her own feet before. Her long strands of ebony hair remained frozen during the walk here and clung to her back in thick waves.
I hated seeing her standing before others completely naked with nothing but her lengthened hair covering her nude body. My eyes quickly shot upwards and narrowed at Ure as he gazed hungrily at the young woman who was to be my mate. He licked his lips briefly as his eyes slowly traced along with every one of her curves. A possessive growl escaped my lips as I bore my enlarged canines at Ure and frowned at the man who now stood just before us.
I could sense the blood rushing to his head as my mate’s scent hit his nose.
“Look elsewhere wolf!” I sneered through the mind link as I glared at him and repositioned my body weight, so I was now standing in front of my mate and covering her nude body.
I was not in the mood for his mischievous ways or to answer any of the questions that he had built up within his mind.
“Get out of here,” I ordered Ure through our shared mind link as I sensed him attempting to resist the order.
I was not in the mood for his mischievous ways or to answer any of the questions that he had built up within his mind.