“Why must you leave?” I sigh folding Kal’s freshly washed and dried clothes. My eyes peeking into the basket inspecting if I had left any. I am aware of the answer to my question yet I still ask it for satisfaction so my mind can get around it and let him go.
“Because of my responsibilities. I am an Alpha, Lumina.” Cronus replies whilst chuckling not to my words but Kal’s cute antics. The two males are bonding upon my bed. Kal lies on his stomach in the same position I placed him a few minutes ago, hands flailing his lower body moving with a playful bounce.
Cronus has his finger tucked into Kal’s left palm as he gazes down at him with a soft smile. “He is growing up fast.”
“Too fast for me. He shall become a four-month-old soon.” I reply whilst grabbing the laundry basket and taking it into the bathroom.
“He would be spoilt with presents on his first birthday. There would be a competition among packs to see who would send him the best gift despite him being merely a year old.” Cronus declares the truth.
“Indeed. And I would have to spend hours opening them all up for him to see.” I mutter walking back to them taking a seat opposite Cronus the mattress groaning with our combined weight.
Kal begins to speak his language as soon as his eyes set upon me a wide toothless smile on his face. “Yes. I know. I know.” I coo replying to his incomprehensible words with my own as if I truly understand him. His smile swiftly disappears and he stares at me with those emeralds, mouth wide open perhaps trying to figure out my words to him.
“I think he understands you.” Cronus says astonished looking up at me with surprised eyes.
“My emotions, yes he senses them with ease and bawls if I am upset or there is thick tension around me. So in a way he does.” I utter my fingertips tickling the plump flesh of Kal’s neck as he gurgles and plops down on his blanket tired of keeping his body upright.
Cronus brings his forearm towards his chin to gaze down at his wristwatch. “They should be ready soon.” He says speaking about his warriors he had arrived with. Their cars are pumped up with gas and are prepared to withhold through the journey back to his pack. Cronus is merely waiting for his warriors to pack up and finish their training.
“Will you come to visit again?” I ask waiting patiently for his eyes to meet mine.
“Of course. I need to come to sort out you two lovebirds, yes?” He chortles his words spewed with no hesitation. I do not laugh merely turn my attention to Kal whose eyes are glued to the bright red coloured rattle as he sees it with awe. “Lumina?” He calls my name.
There is a feeling of familiarity and comfort when Cronus calls me by the name Deimos gave me but when Deimos calls me as such my heart burns. Not a good kind of a burn but one that rots flesh.
“Yes?”
“Something happened that day when his wolf emerged, yes? Would you like to talk about it?” His voice is gentle and soothing. A calmness in the pit of fire.
“How do you know something happened?” A frown on my face a tiny glare from my eyes.
“I feel it. Around Deimos, around you. But with Deimos, it was quite easier to tell. It seems as though he is drowning.” He speaks his truth removing his finger from Kal’s tight grasp. My male raises his voice in an attempt to show he wants the finger back tiny palms reaching for Cronus’s hand.
I remain silent again not wishing to conform to his words that pain me. Drowning. Yes, I remember that feeling. It isn’t merely about not being able to breathe. It is a slow death where despite one trying to reach the surface, the miracle never comes until… the person who bounds them to the bottom of the ocean sets them free.
The heat of Cronus’s gaze on my flesh isn’t warm and comforting anymore rather now manifested into one of questioning. As if he knows, no… as if he feels the truth I shall deliver. Taking a slow breath in I meet his patient eyes. “I told him that I hated him.” I say waiting for his advice which that shall come to claim me from his lips.
He stares at me calmly for a few seconds digesting what I had told him. Then he scoffs eyes glued to a spot mind lost in thought or perhaps a memory. “Hate. That is a word not to be used at your mate, Lumina.”
“I did not mean it. He irked me, my fury was rising and he pressured me further. Funny, how you said the same thing he did to me when I uttered it.” I reason with him.
“That is because I taught it to him.” He replies whilst giving his finger back to the upset little pup throwing a small tantrum. Kal clutches Cronus’s finger bringing it into his mouth sucking slowly his fit dying.
“What do you mean? I do not understand.” I frown pulling down the sleeves of my shirt to cover my wrist when his eyes land on Deimos’s wolf’s mark. His eyes hold understanding not to just Deimos but me as well. He understands us, the relationship we have.
“When you first flew out of nowhere from the sky and thrust into his hands he was taken by surprise. Yes, he knew mates existed yet he did not know anything about the meaning or the depth they possessed. So, he would call me some nights. Talking about you.” Cronus says with a soft smile on his lips.
“He talked about me? What did he say?” I question my voice soft, shifting a little closer to him as a sign of my curiosity of things I am blind to.
“Indeed. He would talk about small things, like your hair. Your eyes or your smile. How you cried a lot but also how fierce and strong you were unlike most females he knew. He said you made him uncomfortable with you and with himself and he wished to escape.”
“Yes, I was aware of how I made him feel for he made sure to shine that in light with his actions.” I speak my truth reflecting on my painful road that got me here my heart burning with distaste. I swallow profusely trying to ease the flames.
“He made me curious so I came to visit you when Theia was here, and I found the good in you that he was blind to. But in the end, he truly did discover it. After the lantern festival, he would call me almost every night for a few weeks when you weren’t in his presence. To the point that it annoyed me at times for I was pulled from my responsibilities to give him counselling. I taught him the bond of mates. Not everything I suppose for as you can still see he has his faults towards you.” He says.
The liquid of truth seeps into the depths of my mind making its slow path down to my soul. Deimos was blind and so was I.
“I did not know that.” I clear my throat watching Kal slowly dozing off to sleep sucking on Cronus’s finger his small chest rising taking in a loud inhale of air.