Chapter 55 - Rejecting A Wolf

"The day I met Asherah, she was crying. I just happened upon a small child crying. I couldn't leave her alone so I talked to her."Kushiel began to explain.

'Hello,' Kushiel soft called out. The small child with messy silver hair looked up startled.

Her eyes rimmed red, and her lips pursed. She cast him a wary glance, but the wings on his back drew her attention.

'Are you an angel? I had never seen one like you before. You only have two wings.' She sniffed and asked him. Her voice was hoarse from her sobbing.

'I am an angel, angel of punishment. Actually, I have four wings, I just hide them.' Kushiel told her, and she looked at him in amazement, making Kushiel feel embarrassed.

'That, ' she paused, looking him from top to bottom. 'Kinda like Gabriel? Or Micheal?'

Kushiel shook his head gently. 'I'm not an archangel. '

'Right, they are arch angels. What do you punish?' her child-like curiosity was plainly put on display.

Kushiel moved and sat a comfortable distance away from her on the grass and face her.

'I, along with several of my brothers, punish all the bad people who made bad things and hurt others.' Kushiel told her gently, her stunned expression was so cute, and for Kushiel, who never really interacted with children, he found her cute.

'So then you can punish my bad brothers and sisters.' She said it like the most logical thing in the world. Kushiel couldn't help but give her a helpless look.

The moment he saw her silver hair, he knew exactly who she was. Asherah, the chosen successor of the Lord. His firstborn and said to be the sixth cardinal.

He and the other angels heard of rumors that she was heavily favored by the Lord. As the angel of punishment, how could he not understand jealousy?

He understood jealousy better than any other angel. Maybe because he was silent for too long, the child thought he refused and burst into tears.

'You're just like the others!' she cried, burying her head into her arms, she sobbed.

Kushiel never dealt with children before. How could he not be defeated by her tears?

'Um, tell me what bad things they did, and maybe I can help.' Kushiel told her all flustered like.

Asherah stopped sobbing and looked at Kushiel with hopeful little eyes, and Kushiel was defeated completely.

'Really, Mr angel?' Kushiel, hearing her call him Mr, really stomped him into the mud.

'Yes, if they broke the lord's law, they will be punished.' Kushiel explained to her, and she nodded, wiping her tears away she then began to explain the various things her brothers and sisters were doing to her.

Kushiel's heart ached, and he realized that the child was very lonely. She had no one to play with, and he could help but want to help her out.

'They haven't broken the Lord's law, but I think you shouldn't try to play with them anymore. Look at the bad things they did. That's called jealousy.' Kushiel told her. He was educating her on jealousy.

'Jealousy?' She tilted her head sideways. It was a word she didn't understand clearly. ' What is jealousy?'

Kushiel pondered and tried to explain it as simply as he could to the child.

'Jealousy is when someone doesn't like you and wants to harm you when you have something they want.' Kushiel explained vaguely.

'Oh so because I'm beautiful, they're jealous.' her logic was simple. They were jealous because she was beautiful. Kushiel let out a small laugh, which he covered with a cough.

Asherah narrowed her eyes at Kushiel and puffed up her cheeks. Clearly, she knew he laughed at her. Leaving Kushiel helpless.

'What? Are you jealous of my beauty, too? But you're really beautiful for an angel.' She pouted, and Kushiel smiled. It was then and there that he decided he would keep her company.

'I am jealous of your beauty, I heard that your mother is the most beautiful of the goddesses. So, of course, you'd be beautiful too.' This made the child happy, and her pout turned into a smile.

'Then can you play with me?' Asherah asked Kushiel. Kushiel, who was successfully under her little grasp, didn't refuse. Instead, he hid his wings completely and changed his body into one of a child.

'I'll accompany you, but it'll be our secret.' Kushiel stretched his hand out to her and said.

'That's fine, I'm Asherah.' She introduced herself.

'I'm Kushiel. You have a pretty name. Can I call you Ash?' He asked her with his head tilted.

'If my name is pretty, then why shorten it? Just call me Asherah.' Kushiel's lips curled into a small smile, and he nodded.

This was the beginning of the friendship. Kushiel and Asherah became friends. Played together, learned new things together, and bonded completely.

Over the years, when she was snubbed by her siblings because of their jealousy towards her. She learned independence and indifference.

It was four hundred years after their first meeting when Asherah and Kushiel were sitting on the grass in a field. Talking about their day when Asherah told him.

'I'm in love with you, Kushiel.' Asherah's words stunned him into freezing on spot. 'You, my friend, my confidant have become the biggest and brightest light in my life. I don't want to be the sixth cardinal, I don't want to succeed my father. All I want is for you to look at me and tell me you love me too.'

Kushiel looked at Asherah in disbelief, shaking his head no he stood up. 'Angels and other races cannot love each other. You can not love me, and I will not love you. This thought must be erased completely.'

Asherah didn't speak. She slowly stood up and walked in front of Kushiel. Without warning, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his warm lips into hers.

This innocent angel flushed red and immediately fled away from her. That's when he heard her voice.

'I'll make you love me back.' Asherah told him firmly. 'Now, matter how long it takes, if I have to chase you to the ends of the earth. I'll make you love me.'

'That's impossible,' Kushiel rejected her, 'Angels cannot love, angels cannot love another race. You are like my little sister. There will never be any love.'

Asherah looked at him. Her face was expressionless. 'If angels can't love why is it that your heart is racing and your face is red?'

His breath hitched, and his face turned from red to white. A second later, he calmed down completely and looked at Asherah.

'There is no love other than love for a sister or friend. Give up, if you can't I'll never look for you again.' Kushiel told her, and she narrowed her eyes.

'Believe it or not, Kushiel. I'll have you one way or another. No sin is too heavy or too light. Love is not a sin. I will make you mine.' With that being said, she disappeared.

Leaving Kushiel in a state of confusion. This was the beginning of the cat-and-mouse game. Kushiel ran, and Asherah chased. Kushiel the mouse and Asherah the cat.

Kushiel hid, and she found him. He ran and she chased him. Nobody knew that these two were doing this. They hid so deeply, not one person was suspicious.

Asherah was this type of woman, bold and unrestrained. Openly loving and hating, she is rational and irrational at the same time. When she cared, she gave it her all when she didn't, she didn't even bother.

But Asherah was patient, slowly she wore him down. And the day he fully accepted it they were at the meeting place.

Kushiel stood with his back facing her, his gaze focused on the scenery below. On top of the hill, in the grass plain, they played in. The two finally stopped running and were standing still.

'Five hundred and thirty-six years, twenty-three days, and sixteen hours.' Asherah opened her mouth and said softly. ' Kushiel, have you finished running?'

Kushiel didn't answer. Instead, he turned and spread his arms open for her. Asherah's cocky smirk turned into a genuine smile. As she walked into his arms.

Her head on his chest, his powerful heartbeat drummed against his ribcage. She wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned against him fully.

The person in her heart finally loved her back. Asherah knew he had no such feelings for her. He truly thought of her as a sister and friend. So in these five hundred years, she worked so hard to make him understand.

She chased him til the ends of the heaven. Now, with their arms around each other, Asherah's greatest wish was coming true.

Unwrapping her arms around his waist, she wrapped them around his neck. Kushiel looked down at her. His arms on her waist tightened a bit as he brought his face down to kiss her.

"Nobody could remain indifferent for so long, I truly thought of her as a sister, a friend. But she wore me down," with Kushiel's admittance, the Lord could hear the grief and pain in his voice. Before the Lord, nobody can lie. Everything Kushiel said was the truth. No lies were made, and no parts were left out.

"Asherah made me a man. A real man with emotions. And when I think about how you ruined her. Heh, yes we were at fault we broke the rules. But you failed as a father, as the God that governs. Love isn't a sin," Kushiel's nose burned as he blinked back tears.

"There are rules, angels aren't supposed to mix. They aren't supposed to have genders. They are my soldiers." The Lord defended himself weakly.

"Then you should have made us puppets. How is it my fault that I fell from grace when you made me have free will?" Kushiel's answer made the lord feel like someone tossed him into a vat of ice water. "If I know anything, I know that when you and others caught on because of the children. You should have killed me."

"Why would you say that?" The Lord asked, and Kushiel raised his red eyes to meet the lord's.

"Then she would have not been tormented to the point of her completely losing her bold, unrestrained, smart, and loving self." Kushiel laughed sarcastically. " Not only that, but she would feel an immense amount of guilt because of the lycan and werewolves, werepanthers, etc, situation."

The Lord didn't say anything. What could he say? Sorry, his irrational judgment to teach his daughter rules and responsibility went wrong?

Wasn't he the one who did it all? Wasn't he the cruel one? This was something the Lord knew deep down he would never be able to fix. Especially with how tired and broken Asherah was.

It was her obedience to him, as her parent, that made him feel like this was what she deserved. Back then, he wouldn't listen to reason, nor would he listen to emotions.

If only he was calm back then. If only he could have seen past his own ego and at his daughter, who was pleading with him to not kill her children.