Aries Blackwood

I hold her in my arms all the way to the penthouse, unable to bear the separation, the feel of her skin against mine. I needed the reassurance that she was real and not just another mirage of her, created out of my desperation.

I dress her in one of my shirts after ripping that piece of fabric that carried the scent of the night. Of other males. And finally let go of her as I lay her down of the mattress.

I was rendered speechless as I finally have a look at the goddess that now lay before my eyes. An exact replica of her first form, with hair as dark as the night sky and maybe even those endless black hidden behind the now closed eyelids filled with thick lashes. But regardless the colour of her eyes, she was perfect, and she was mine.

Slowly reaching forward, I trace the lines of her face, her skin, soft and smooth under my hard knuckles and the zapping of currents gave me the thrills, the excitement of life, a reason to be alive. She was real and she was here. With me.

"Mine."

My hoarse whisper resonates through the silence of the night as I lay down with her and pull her in my arms. And as the beast finally finds its tranquillity.

I close my heavy eyes and finally fall deep into sleep that I had become foreign with over time. But now that both my mind and heart was at peace, I drift further and further into the pool of darkness that sleep bought. And I happily welcome it with a stretch of my lips, reaching for the ears.

Because I had her. So, I was not afraid of the sweet dreams it let me envision.

I hold her tighter as my conscious finally leaves me and I was in another time, another land with her by my side.

The morning sun hits my face harshly as does the reality when I wake up to an empty bed. Although her presence had long been gone, I still search throughout the empty rooms, the silent halls, in a false hope that she might be hiding from me, joking with me. But she was nowhere to be found.

Her scent lingered in the air. At least she really had been here with me.

I try to reassure the rampaging beast that was now raging havoc in me but to vain. Within an hour, I destroy the entire floor that had just been renovated. Broken glass and broken vase decorated the marble flooring with fresh pools of blood splattered across.

I sit defeated, my knuckles still dripping with thick red liquid from the fresh cuts. She had left me. She was gone.

Time ticks by and I sit even more hopeless. I had no clue as to where she could be nor her new identity, I was back to the beginning of my search. I close my eyes with my head rested back on the sofa as the image of her plays across my head and just like that my heavy eyes that was drowning with tear finally floods down my temples.

It all feels so real, the current passing through my body, her skin, soft and silky flushed against mine, as if she was actually in my arms, as if she was really here with me. But she was not.

She was not here.

The image of her slowly clouds with the black smoke, now taking over my eyes. The beast could not take it anymore. The loss of his mate another time. A rumble of thunder forms deep inside me as my breathing gets laboured. Just when I was about to lose it all, a pair of green eyes shines through the darkness, dissipating it completely.

I know those eyes. I knew them.

I scrape through my disarrayed memories and fly right across the floor as soon as I remember someone else through those eyes. I grab my phone and dial a number that I thought I had long erased, and pace back and forth, waiting for it to ring, and soon as it does, he answers it right away.

"Aries?"

"Where is your daughter right now, Matt?" I question him before he could say anything. Right now, I only needed answers, anything else could be talked about another time. "You mean Circe?"

"Yes Circe, Matt. Now, where is she?" I growl unable to help the delay in getting the answer that I needed. "I don't know her exact location, but I know she's somewhere in California-"

"Call her and- no, send me her number. Matt, I need her number." I demand, my voice dominant, the long-lost Alpha in me seeping through my tone now. No matter what I'll never take no for an answer. "Okay? I'll send it right away. But why do-"

"I'll answer everything later, Matt. Just send me her number now." I end the call before it stretches longer. And just a few second later, his text comes through. Without any hesitation, I press the number and wait, no I beg her to pick up.

"Circe?" I hesitate, unsure. But my heart continuously drums in my hears, loud, deafening loud.

"Yes. But who's this?" She finally answers after a brief pause. But it was all the confirmation that I needed. It was her.

"It's me Aries, Circe. I need you to tell me if she's with you." I know she knew what I was onto. She was there last night. She was with them. She knew her as she did the other two. And with the look on her eyes, she very well knew me too.

I hold onto my breath, but my heart still hammers as I wait, I wait for her to say yes in desperate hopes that she too was there, with her. And I close my eyes and pray. I needed to know where she was. 

"Alpha Aries." She breaths on the phone but otherwise goes silent.

"Circe, I need you to answer me please. Is she there? Please tell me she's there. Circe, I need you to tell me where she is." I beg her. I was losing all the hope at this rate. No, I was hanging onto my only hope. My only path to her.

I thought not having my wolf with me would make me lose my sanity, but who knew that having the beast present would make me this insane. I needed someone, just anyone to tell me where she was, to tell me that she was real, otherwise I will really lose myself to the monster that had now awakened.

"Yes."

My crazy heart finally takes a rest as my world comes to a silence. The beast in me too halts.

"She's here."

I shallow the heaviness down my dry throat and finally release the breath of relief. As hope resurrects once more at the chance of finding her, of being with her again. "Can you please help me? Please Cici, help me get to her? Please."

At this moment, I was just a man with no power. No shame. Just pure desperation. A need to be with her. With his mate.

I squeeze my eyes shut and hold my breath as I listen to the silence on the other side. Please. I pray in silence. If anyone's listening, hear my prayer, I beg of you. Help me just this once. Just this once is enough.

"I'll send you the address."

Thank you.

"Thank you."

I breath out, relieved, forever grateful for showing kindness to this pathetic man whom she once called Alpha. With a promise to return the favour when the time comes around, I end the call and carry my distraught self out of the building and onto the road, heading towards her.

My white shirt sat crumpled, stained with blood, my hair in a million different direction from pulling it too often. Eyes too, bloodshot red, lips drier than the desert but most of all my heart, a frantic mess while the beast, ran loose.

I speed past the road knowing no limits, but everything moved in a slow motion. My thirsty eyes longed to see her face again, and my hands clenching and unclenching the wheel, missing the soft touch of hers on them.

It was hard to even breath at this point as my heart squeezed tightly. All it ever wanted was her. All I ever wanted was her. It's okay, she's just a distance away, I promise myself, time and again. Hang on a little more. Just a little more. Soon. Soon, you'll be with her again.

In a distance, I see the road closed off with a sign of private property written on it, but I had no time to stall nor the time to ask for permission so, I do the most reasonable thing to me right now and slam past the metal barricade that separated us and travel along until I see the white exterior of a house.

I knew that soon the Lycans will be onto me. But I had only one purpose in mind right now. To get to her.

A breeze of that sweet scent invades my lungs as soon as I step out of the car. She really was here. My heart goes on overdrive as I lung down the stairs and knock on the heavy door where her scent was flooding out from.

I needed to see her now.

"Hang on."

It was her. That voice that I missed so much. Desperate, I bang the door, hoping to knock it off but it was like an iron shield. "Wait a second." And I get even more restless. I needed to get past it, to be with her, so I continue banging.

Please. Just please.

With all the strength left in me, I slam hard into the door and finally succeed in smashing it down. I lung forward as the sweet vanilla engulfs me whole. There she was just a distance away. Her black hair flying across as she lands further back. Unable to hold anymore, I trace her steps and pull her into my tight embrace, breathing her in, savouring the moment and the currents that flowed freely between us.

"Mine..."

I squeeze my eyes shut and bury my face into the base of her neck as my grip on her tiny waist tightens.

"Please don't leave me again..."

I was pathetic. But I was a pathetic fool in love. Tear rolls down my closed eyes as I rub my face against her, hiding this hideous self.

"Althea."

Even if Destiny came this very moment to rip us apart, I will not let her go this time. I will fight back. I will raise a havoc. I will destroy the world of peace she slyly crafted. A world she prides upon. I let out a possessive growl as I pull her even closer.

Even if I end up being the devil of hell.