Chains of Fate

10

Aidan

The doctor did what they could, but the majority of the healing was to be done by the girl. Only she could pull herself through this.

She still lay on the floor of the bathroom. Unconscious and a mess. Her broken body is out of place in the stainless tiles. I began to run a bath. Deciding to clean the girl of dirt and sick.

Gently I pulled the stained clothes off of her, it's not uncommon to see someone naked as a wolf. Besides I've seen her bare before. It's harrowing to still see the scars and bruises on her bony skin. The needle tracks on her arms from years of drug abuse.

It's my fault. I know it is. Blinded by ego I guess. You don't know how far you've fallen till you've hit the bottom.

I should've been a better king,

I pick up her frail body and lay her in the shallow water. Gently cleansing her body with a cloth. Despite the water turning red and brown, I could smell a vanilla scent. It was faint but her senses must be beginning to return.

But no matter how hard I scrubbed the splotches of coloured hues would not disappear. The raised white skin would not fade. Neither would my guilt.

Her once ragged hair was now slick with suds but did not shine. Her skin was clean but far from clear.

It felt as if trying to bring a wilted flower back to life, near impossible.

After she was cleaned, I lay her down on the bed. Covering her deathly skin in a sweater and blankets. She looked as if she could not produce any warmth of her own, the jaunt skin incapable of shielding this girl anymore.

The thin sheen of sweat cast a sickly glow on the woman's face. I feel anguish seeing her this way, I thought perhaps it stemmed from failure, from a leadership position. But now I feel it may come from somewhere deeper. Something more sinister. More deadly.

Leaving the girl to the confines of darkness, I leave myself to my swirling thoughts of despair.

Aria

Pain.

My body ached the moment my mind refocused on reality. A certain hollowness in my stomach threatened to make me sick again. The sweat that stuck my skin together and the bitter taste in my mouth were just reminders that this new life may just be worse than the former.

I was no longer being helped, this was torture. Dragging me out from my hazy slumber. No longer aided by narcotics. Letting me feel every last bit of their cruelty.

I was hooked up to fluids, supposedly to hydrate and replenish my corpse. My body was clean, well as clean as it could get in this state. The sickening scent of the Alpha coated me. Telling me he had touched me while I was vulnerable.

But there was something else too. The thing that I have had to hide for years.

Me.

Hyperventilating, I try to think about how to escape this situation. I can't. I'm trapped, trapped in this sick cycle.

My heart rate increases causing a monitor to begin beeping. Ironic that my panic has now caused the cause of my fear to return.

The door opens, and there he stands, my future husband. The apple of my eye. The captor.

His eyes hold a certain sense of fear, uncommon to see in an Alpha. Particularly a King. As he wanders over to my body fear changes into an emotion I'm not familiar with.

Admiration.

I've seen sick men admire what they've done to people. Love the way people shrink away in fear. But never true admiration. Not directed at me.

It almost makes me want to be his other half. Almost.

This game is deadly. Toying with emotions based on a look. A craving.

His words sound tender, scared even. "Mate?"

He walks closer, wary, almost as if I would disappear. If only.

His lovesick spell is broken when he notices my face. I look at him. Not through him or next to him. But really see him.

I assume my face portrays anger, fear, and hatred. Whatever it is, it's enough to stop him dead in his tracks.

It is rather amusing to see such a powerful man crumble. To watch his face morph into disbelief. To see reality crush him. It is rather a shame I never got to destroy my former employers. But it is an impossible dream to have.

I study him as he realises I will leave him, never love him. That he is stuck with me. His eternal punishment.

I will watch him burn.

But perhaps he will watch me burn.

But no matter the victor. We will enjoy watching each other try. I finally reply to his previous comment.

"Never."