225- A Night That Would Cost Everything
POV Elowen Grimwald:
“But I presume you know.”
“Romanian, English, Spanish, and the basics of French.”
“Fuck!” The curse simply slipped out.
“Export demands it. You must know there are hidden packs all over the world.”
“A beast and a businessman. Wow!” I teased.
“But what about you? What field interests you? I bet your favorite activity isn’t waiting tables.”
Good question, Aldren Valmorin.
“I never really stopped to think, you know… My mother told me to focus only on being pretty to find a partner. But I think I like fashion.”
“You’ll have plenty of time to think, still.”
Suddenly, Aldren surprised me, leaning over me and lifting my body into the air.
His arm behind my back, firm and secure, was the only thing preventing me from falling. Our noses close enough to feel the whisper of a breath.
Without breaking eye contact, with a glazed gaze that would capture every slightest movement, I was slowly pulled upward.
“I’ll admit you’re good at this.”
“And at so many other things,” he boasted and nestled his face against the side of mine, moving from side to side, but now with his short beard grazing my skin.
“What do the lyrics of this song say?”
Whispering in my ear, Aldren provided a simultaneous translation:
“I’ll never dance again, these guilty feet have got no rhythm. Though it’s easy to pretend, I know you’re not a fool. Should have known better than to cheat a friend and waste the chance that I’d been given. So I’ll never dance again, the way I danced with you…”
I swallowed the discomfort in my throat, which grew with each translated word.
“It seemed… romantic.”
“It is. Romanticism can be tragic, don’t you think?”
“I don’t know…”
Aldren raised my arm and made me spin, before joining our bodies together again, but with both hands on my waist now.
I threw my arms around his neck and rested my head on his chest, which vibrated to the rhythm of his heartbeat.
“‘These violent delights have violent ends, and in their triumph die, like fire and powder, which, as they kiss, consume’,” as we danced, Aldren murmured Shakespeare’s words with the weight of each syllable, from one of the few books I had read, hidden from my mother.
“People give things their end. The tragedy resides in them,” I refuted.
He pulled his face back so we could share a look.
“In over three centuries of life, I have yet to meet someone who does not turn their passions into tragedy. Every damn time beings touch something pure, the inevitable outcome is ruin.” Aldren’s voice carried a resigned melancholy.
His eyes, fixed on mine, perhaps sought a disagreement, which he knew would not come. Not after everything.
Everything I had loved in life had been broken, even the love for my own kind.
We were two souls sharing the fleeting interest of being together. A unique moment, which would end as all other things had ended too.
For a few minutes, the silence of our words was covered only by the music, until its end made the vibrating sound of Aldren’s phone noticeable.
Unable to avoid it, I turned my head to look at the screen at the same time he did.
The name “Nala” was displayed.
For a second, I thought he wouldn’t answer, but he removed his arms from me and did. I received only a nod to wait for him, before seeing him walk out the door.
Answering that call would cost the alpha a high price. A very high price.
It didn’t take long for me to retrieve, along with the hidden knife, Nerin’s drowsiness drops. I dripped several of them into the liquid that would become a deadly passage, and returned the medication to its hiding place.
With trembling hands, I grabbed the glass and held it near my mouth, to pretend I was drinking the moment he returned. My heart beat in a frantic rhythm, an echo synchronizing with the chords of the ambient music.
It had to work. It needed to.
My freedom had been torn from me once again, and I would reclaim it in life or in death.
Ironically or not, a somewhat dramatic violin and piano instrumental began in the new melody of his selection. I stood with my back to the door, by the window, fearing my expressions would give away all my nervousness.
Minutes that weighed like hours later, Aldren returned and came immediately towards me, grabbing me from behind. His embrace came with a shiver, as cold as the wind blowing outside.
My nostrils flared and what I feared most was happening, like an arrow pointed at me, the tears threatened to hit.
I didn’t need to encourage him to drink the remaining liquid in the glass. Unaware of my agony, it was he who took it from my hands and drank on his own, sealing his fate with every sip.
I didn’t understand why, but it hurt.
I had been so foolish to think it would be easier.
I clenched my teeth, trying to hold back the tears, until I felt his warm lips on my exposed shoulder and a trail of kisses up to my ear, where he murmured:
“Let me have you tonight, Elowen.” His hoarse tone sounded like a plea.
The music swelled, as if the violin was crying for me, for us, narrating the tragedy with every drawn-out note.
It wasn’t real.
My lips trembled and a tear rolled down. It was impossible to hold back.
Noticing my vulnerability, Aldren turned me to face him and dried my face with his thumbs, before leaning in and alternating his deep green eyes between mine and my mouth.
“Forget everything.” With a loaded timbre, he made an impossible request.
I nodded, giving him permission, while wishing he would treat me badly again, so I could do what I needed without feeling guilt.
I destroyed myself, however, the instant his lips touched mine.
The slide began sensual and slow, with the promise that my breath would be taken little by little, until nothing remained in my lungs.
Lack of air and need for what I shouldn’t want.
His warm, skilled tongue demanded space and, grabbing a handful of hair, dictated the rhythm of the kiss as if he had a detailed map of my entire mouth, exploring every part with a precision even I didn’t know.
Anxious gasps escaped us, and only increased, as the dance of our tongues was no longer enough.
My hands burned to touch him, and I did, slipping my palms inside his shirt.
Every muscle tensed, reacting to my touch.
His hands, large and demanding, slid and squeezed from my thighs to my ass, as if they were his property.
And let them be, for the second and last time.