Ares:
There was a hint of desperation in her voice as she asked me to stay. How could I refuse her?
“As you wish.” I responded with understanding and an obligation to soothe her troubled mind as my goal and nothing else.
I knew that Vale was not ready for anything outside of that, and I would not force her to make any decision contrary to those feelings.
She smiled a soft smile and said, “Thank you.”
“You do not owe me thanks, mimar,” I replied.
I was not sure that this was what she wanted to hear as a snide smirk fell across her alluring lips before she turned her back to me and sat down on the side of her bed.
“Oh? And why is that?” she asked, though I detected a hint of sarcasm with that question. “And don’t give me the bloody bull about you feeling an obligation because you’re stuck with me.”
“Is it so wrong that that is the truth?” I asked.
“Yes,” she murmured under her breath.
For a second I wondered whether I was supposed to hear her answer or not as she had spoken so low and her gaze turned distant when she said this.
“Elaborate,” I countered as I approached a fragile young woman sitting on the bed, seemingly in thought.
Almost immediately after I made the request I came to the conclusion that it was a waste of breath. Surely, she would not open up to me. Not to that extent. Not yet.
“Obligation…the term, to me, is synonymous with that of pity.” Again her eyes seemed to gaze longingly into…a thought that seemed to be resonating with her.
“Pity?” I said, attempting to bring her back to currents as gently as I could.
Vale’s mind seemed to veer off of reality for a moment as her eyes began to dilate into darkness. Immediately she shook it away and then turned to me again, but only for a moment before she quickly shifted stare once more as if she was trying to hide something from me. Her pain.
“Mimar?” I approached when she didn’t respond. “Are you alright?” I started to sit next to her on the bed but in her fragile mental state it would be easy to assume the worst of my gesture. So, instead, I bowed to one knee in front of her.
Where once her elusive attention was on the floor, Vale’s eyes finally met mine. There were tears in them.
She smirked. “Mimar…” she murmured with a seeming amusement. “Pet…” she chuckled dryly. “Is that what I am to you?”
When I did not answer right away, her once averted gaze fell back on me. Still, I did not answer. Not yet. However, not for the reason that she probably thought.
Valene, even at her worst, was a beautiful anomaly. Her eyes, in their fiery ember state, were wild, and sullen. Her hair…was disheveled and her perfect face was stained with insurmountable tears that she’d shed over the last few days.
I went into the bathroom and ran some warm water over a bathroom cloth. Then I returned. She watched me closely as I tenderly began to wipe her cheek. I then finally answered her question.
“You know that pet…is sort of a slur in some ways…in our world towards humans. I had imagined you would be a good one when first we met,” I confessed. “You were the first human…” It was almost…embarrassing to admit this to her, but only because it was her that I was admitting it to.
“What?”
“That I’d…actually take as mine…that I’d protect and…”
“Use?” We both knew what she was referring to when she said this.
‘Straight to the point, I see,” Baine remarked with amusement in the back of my mind.
“Not the term that I would have used.”
“Sex slave?” she countered.
“I would never force myself on a woman,” I clarified.
“But you’d kill one?”
“If necessary…”
“What’s the difference?” she asked. “You’re taking her choice either way.”
“The difference is, sex is rooted in desire, and forced sexual coercion is rooted in unchecked desire and impulse control. I do not desire death or to cause death but I do kill when death is necessary, but I would never assault a woman, because forcing oneself on a woman is never necessary.”
“So…you’re saying you kill, and take by necessity?” she asked.
“Yes,” I retorted without hesitation.
“Then what sort of necessity would I have been to you?”
I fought the grin that struggled to surface. “You…were useful as a servant of the alpha. I imagined you would have been just as much an asset to me. That and…well, I just simply liked having you around.”
“So it would not have been all about necessity, then.”she smirked, finding my reasoning amusing, it seemed.
“To me, it would have been.”
“How so?”she asked.
Admittedly it was hard not to smile at how engaged and present she was being at that moment. She was out of her depressed stupor. If only for a moment.
“Tell me,” she pressed when it took too long for me to answer.
I sighed. “Zevi…seems to think that the decades have hardened me…that I have forgotten what it feels like to appreciate the small things. He thought that I was too driven for revenge to live.”
“That…well, I mean it’s hard to believe that anyone could change that.”
“When I met you, I realized that he was right.”
It was clear that Vale did not know how to take what I said. “Don-don’t get sappy on me,” she nervously chuckled.
“Sappy,” again I smirked. “It’s the truth, can you really call it sappy?”
I didn’t need an answer from her. I doubted that she would anyway. Again, I was wrong.
“I guess not,” I heard her murmur as I walked away. “Wait, where are you goin-” she started to ask when she saw me standing at the bathroom door. “Oh.”
When she realized that she spoke too soon, she became timid.
“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me to.”
She studied me for a moment and then nodded. “Okay,” she muttered in a hushed tone.
It was hard to leave her there; even if it was just to go to the bathroom.
I quickly handled my business as I did not want to keep her waiting. Something told me that Vale being alone for an extended period of time was not in her best interest.
I was right.
Just as I flushed the toilet I heard a loud groan from the other side of the door, then a loud and resounding no.
“Please…please! I…no!”
I burst out of the bathroom. “Vale?”
When I came into the room, there she was, sat in the same spot, her eyes wide and dark as I had seen before.
“Valene!” I rushed to her and took her hand into mine.
She did not budge but the tears freely streamed like mini waterfalls down the link of her flushed cheeks.
“Vale, mimar…listen to me, snap out of it. You…are not alone. I’m here. Come back to me…I am here.”
Her panicked breathing began to come in slower paces and her shaking frame became more steadied. Then slowly her eyes began to return to their beautiful flaming brown-yellow hue.
“Are you alright?”
She couldn’t seem to answer but the continuous onslaught of tears was a clear indication that she was not.
Without another word Vale jumped into my arms and wept, arms wrapped tightly around my neck. I embraced her with no hesitation and I must confess that it felt right.
“I’m here, love,” I cooed softly in her ear.
We were settled there for what felt like eternity and still that was not long enough for me. There was something..complete about having this young woman in my arms; being her source of comfort was worth something without a price.
“I know…” she said in a hushed voice near my ear. I could not contain the shiver that raced down my spine.
‘Remember yourself, Ares,’ Baine said in the back of my mind. He knew that I was struggling, and I could feel him struggling too.
‘I know,’ I murmured.
Then she did something that made it even harder for me to contain myself.
Her soft lips brushed against my neck. Was that on purpose? It couldn’t be!
‘Right, Baine?’
‘I don’t knoow! Don’t ask me! Whatever it was…I welcome it!’ He said excitedly.
I shouldn’t have been surprised. Admittedly it was hard not feel the same.
“I’m glad that you are here, Ares.” her voice was throatier than before.
“S-” I started to say when I felt her lips press against my neck again.
That was definitely on purpose. “So, am I,” I said instead of responding directly to what she had done. I wasn’t sure that it was something that she wanted me to act on. Wasn’t like I had direct access to her mind thoughts and emotions as I did others.
“You make…” she kissed my cheek. “this easier for me, Ares.” her lips moved back down to the sensitive spot behind my ear.
A guttural growl surfaced from my lips. “Vale…what are you…” I had to take a deep breath. “What are you doing?”
She kissed the corner of my mouth and then her eyes met mine. They dark but not like before. This darkness was..was that of lust.
“You’re over a century old, Ares…you know exactly what…” she moved to the other side of my neck and began to tease. “I’m doing.”
I cursed under my breath as I began to ache with arousal. “Val-Vale, no, we can’t…we can’t do this.”I pushed to say through moans that I could no longer control.”
“Why not?” she kissed the other side of my mouth. Then she lightly pressed her lips against mine for a teasingly short moment.
“Vale…you-”she did it again. “You can-we can’t-” and again. She was wearing me down. And she knew it. “N-no!” I grabbed her hands and pushed her back, both her hands in the air to keep her away.
“Why?”she almost whimpered, and I immediately weakened.
It was at that moment…as she looked at me with that primal need in her eyes. I just…I could not ignore her. I could not deny her.
I wrapped my arm around her waist and lifted her into the air. Immediately I pressed my lips against hers as she locked her legs around me. I gently laid her back against the bed while my lips were still interlocked with hers.
I couldn’t get enough…I couldn’t taste…enough of her. My Vale.
I only pulled away to admire what was mine. She wore a sports bra that accentuated her full breast. And those shorts…they were dangerous. A woman with thick thighs and the ass to match was always a weakness of mine. No one wore better than her.
With my hand wrapped around her neck, I used the other to trace a line from her luscious bottom lip, down her neck, between her breast.
“You will be my downfall, girl.” I lowered myself down and ravaged her lips as my hand moved to the waist of her shorts.
She bit her lip, moaning, eyes closed as she laid there and gave me free reign of her body.
My lips moved down to her neck, nibbling and kissing where I’d eventually mark her. My incisors had elongated, lightly grazing her skin, and the subtle gasp and shiver that followed only served to make me want her more. I wanted to know what other involuntary acts I could commit her body to.
I wanted Vale so badly, the throbbing in my pants became unbearable, but something happened, something that suddenly granted me pause.
There was a sudden stillness. When I looked up, I saw that her eyes were dilated. She seemed alert and it was normal for an inhuman eyes and body to change in certain ways during arousal.
Still, seeing her like this…I knew that this…this was not the right time.
“I cannot do this.”
I backed away, and immediately she grabbed my wrist. “Please!” she exclaimed. “Ares, please…take my mind off of it…I need you to take my mind off of it!”
“I want you…more than I can express, mimar,”I said to her. “But I do not want us to do it this way…I want my time with you to be special…I want you to desire me as a mate…because you love me..not as a distraction.”
“Love…” she cried and laughed bitterly. “Ares, I thought I wanted to know…I begged her to show me the truth…I think that she is trying to, and I am afraid to face it alone.”
“You will not be alone,” I said to her.
I got into the bed and I pulled her close to me. “I will not leave this room until you ask me to. Do you understand? I will not leave you.”
“You’re an alpha. You can’t just shirk your duties for me-”
“I’m an alpha, mimar. I can do whatever the hell I want.”
She chuckled. It was nice to hear a chuckle. “Thank you, Ares.”
We laid there in bed for a moment, and I felt her breathing become steady and silent. She was about to drift.
“Mimar…pet…it is only a term of endearment,” I said, answering her question from before.
“Could have chosen something better than pet.”
I laughed which caused her to laugh a bit. “I chose it because I knew you would not like it.”
“I did not say that I didn’t like it. Okay, I’m not that fond of it…I do like the way you say it though,” she confessed.
“Good,” I replied. “Because it’s not going to change…until I become the love of your life.”
Silence ensued for a moment before she said…”What will you call me then?”
I pulled her even closer. “On that day, you will be meu amor.”
“Do you think I will be the love of your life one day?” she asked.
“You’re my mate. I have no doubts at all that it will happen.”
My love, I said to her. But in that moment…I was sure that she already was.