The moment their bodies separated her world crumbled around her, shattering as it tilted on its axis.

It was not fair

It was not fair that she could feel such bliss, such belonging in the arms of the same man who could bring her such bleak emotions of despair and rejection. It was not fair that the same hands that had split her skin, could rub her body until she was splintering and her soul was soaring to the moon. White light flickering beneath her lids as her being flew.

It was not fair that the same harsh lips that had twisted with words of derision could kiss her pain into oblivion until all she could feel was the sweet caress of tongues. Gentle touches replacing harsh words, it was not fair but life never was. No, life was not fair because if it was she would have never lost Jeremy to an untimely death, one that had always stood out as nothing but pure bad luck.

If life was fair Felicity wouldn't have been separated from her children and lost her husband in the same lifetime. Neema wouldn't have suffered under the hands of her mate and Vanya wouldn't have lost her parents, her mate, her husband. Zosia wouldn't have lost her mother and still bear emotional scars of an abuse that had long since melted from her body. No,
if life was fair there would be no poor, no weak, no sick, no suffering but it wasn't.

Life was balanced and unbalanced, give and take, take and take. Life soared and crashed, rolling in a circle until the lows felt like they eclipsed the highs, but then it would shift and you would be y soaring with the wind in your hair and the sun beating on your skin. Life was thunder and lightening but blue skies and sunny days, raindrops and monsoons and droughts and deserts.

Life was never the same and never fair. It just was

Just like their bond.

It just was

There was no scientific reasoning that could explain what she felt for him or him her. It just was. The bond was an entity of its own but also one of them. It bled and screamed for the joining of souls but it could not physically force it, the bond was a leech. Something that clung to your soul, weighing you down but not killing you because you were paramount to its survival.

It was a parasite but it was bliss. Pure divine bliss because the moment he slid into her body she felt whole. She felt completed even when the warmth of his essence dripped from her body and cooled along her leg. Even when they robed in akwaward silence, lashes covering their peering eyes as they debated whether to speak, look or touch.

The bond was bliss because even in that moment there was that feeling. That full feeling that had Simeon reaching out to touch her, tucking her wild hair behind her ears as he lead her back to their tent. Clothes discarded as he lay beside her in nothing but his underwear, holding her close while he listened to his daughters breathing.

The bond was bliss but it was not bliss that woke Simeon from his sleep, blankets discarded around his waist as he shot awake. Sweat glided down his back as the sharp glint of the moon cast shadows among them.

His ears twitched at the soft whimpering of his daughter who lay close to them but not beside them. His feet padded along the soft floor as he made his way over to her, stroking along her hair as he just stared at the child he had helped cremate in awe.

She was his, his aniołku, his little angel.

She looked so much like her mother, so sweet and pure and strong. She had a small upturned nose and little pouty lips, pale blonde lashes that were barely visible and milky skin decorated in light freckles. Her pale blonde hair was corded into two plaits as they lay around her face. Her cheeks pink with the sweat beading along her forehead.

Her thick lashes fluttered at his gentle touch but her whimpers quieted, a soft sigh leaving her throat at the contact. He couldn't take his eyes off of her. She was his daughter, part of him.

"Is she okay" croaked Jana, her wild curly hair splayed across her face as she sat up in their makeshift bed.

His head nodded slowly as he watched her climb to her feet, eyes closing at the warmth that radiated off of her palm. She felt so good against the nakedness of his skin.

Her hands smoothed along his hair, gliding song the nape of his neck and falling to his chest where she tapped along his heart lightly. Her head lowered to Zo even as she tapped a soothing rhythm into his body.

Her lips glided along his slight stubble before she pecked Zosia on the cheek, rubbing at her brow and then climbing back to her feet as she headed back to her bed. She pulled the blankets around her body like a cocoon, her face peeking through the sheets as she lay on her side.

Watching him watching Zosia.

Her short lashes began to droop as the soft murmuring of his voice began to lull her to sleep. His voice rumbled as he hummed a tune in his mother tongue, the harsh tones soothing as his voice lilted for his daughter.

Jana's cheeks were squished against her hands as she watched him, the pale moon light shining a silver cast over them. They looked ethereal. Like two otherworldly beings that were illuminated by the glistening love of the gods.

His skin shimmered, as if he had flecks of silver embedded into his body and then she realised it was not silver that his glowed along his back. No, he glistened gold. Warm vibrant gold that swirled all across his back and disappeared over his shoulders.

"What are those marks" she croaked, her voice husky with sleep. He grunted in reply, his hand subconsciously running over the glowing specks as he continued to stare at his daughter.

Her head shot up off the pillow as she had an epiphany, all the variables clicking into place as it all made sense.

"Are those-" she hesitated, air whooshing from her lips as she stared at him in disbelief. Dark black eyes peered over his shoulder, as he nodded slowly. She shot up in the bed, eyes wide as she took him in with all the information for the first time.

"I'm confused. When did this happen" and why had she never noticed these before. Her eyebrows knitted together as she waited anxiously for him to reply.

He sighed heavily as he climbed to his feet, leaving a slightly calmer Zosia and sitting beside her, "It was about 40 years ago."

"But they aren't finished, I mean it barely looks started" she interjected, cool air ghosting over his skin as she traced her finger along his marks. Thin swirling patterns twirled along his back like the dancing flames, coiling around his back and twisting over his shoulders and down his chest and along his arms.

She had seen these marks all her life, the swirling tatoos of black and gold ink lined her father's and her Grandfather's arms and body. The coiling bold marks meant one thing and one thing only.

The gold designs were the marks of a Regional Alpha and signified his connection with the gods, they showed the Alpha's loyalty and wisdom. The black tattoos signified the strength and unity  between all the packs under his dominion which was why regional Alpha's typically had black markings that spanned across their bodies. Most regional Alpha's added to their tattoos once their heir was born to signify the continuation of their devoted bloodline.

So it did not slip her mind that Simeon's tattoos were unfinished and that there was no black ink within the patterns.

"That's because it's not, I..." he hummed deeply, eyes clenching shut as he pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration.

"The day I was to become initiated into my role as Regional Alpha our territory was attacked.." his eyes darkened as his teeth sunk into his lips, his head falling down as he sighed deeply.

"I told you that my family were elitisits, they believed in the purification of our blood line and so I was disowned when I-"

He hesitated, wispy blonde lashes peaking up at her, the black orbs revealing the tormented depths of his soul.

"I had a mate before Melaina,"

air gushed through Jana's lips as her eyes stung, just hearing him claim another female did something to her that she could not control. A screeching noise filled her ears as the bond sizzled its fury, snapping and scratching at the ties that joined them.

"Her name was Isabella and she was human. My family didn't approve and so they disowned me and I was forced to leave that part of my life behind" there was a wistful smile on his face as he remembered their time together.

"After 10 years of being mated she finally became pregnant and my family had a change of heart. Alpha Nathaniel and Alpha Adeji had managed to get them alongside. Not so much that they were happy about out bond but enough to allow us to return home." He shrugged dismissively.

"So we returned and my father told me that he would allow me to reclaim my birthright as his heir. There was quite a bit of hostility and resistance form the pack but we ignored it. I told Isabella to ignore it. That it would blow over once I was initiated."

Jana moved closer, hesitating before she touched him. Her long fingers stroking along his cold skin, running over hisbdreqdlocks as she tried to soothe his pain but it was buried so deep.

She knew what happened next. Even though he hadn't shared this story, she knew what happened because Simeon would have never left his mate and his birth right for this life.

Her soul weeped for him, tears gliding down her face and making her sight blurry. It hurt so bad, his pain was so potent through the bond. It sizzled and crackled with his pain and rage, her heart was shattering and yet she only felt a slither of what Simeon did.

"I told Isabella that they were just confused because all they had known was persevering our pure lines even if we as people were growing weaker for it. Our child was one of the first conceived in 50 years! We were going to die out but they didn't care she was a human and our child wasn't pure. I told her it would be okay with time..."

He pushed her hands away as he yanked at his hair, his head bowing low as his words become choked. Gnawing sounds slipping from his mouth as his shoulders began to shake.

"But it wasn't and things didn't blow over"

Red rimmed eyes seared into her mind, pain flittering in those dark orbs as rivulets of tears glided down his face. His voice was weak and shaky as he hesitantly continued the story.

"My father had been rushing to start my ceremony because I needed to be initiated before my heir was born and so they vetoed out of inviting every Alpha we knew. I couldn't even invite Khan. The ceremony was small but I was okay with that, Bella was there and she was all I needed"

Jana winced at his words, her soul wailing at the fact that Simeon had loved this female in ways that he had never and could never love her.

"But mid ceremony the compound was stormed, and we were not prepared. My family were bludgeoned to death and my Bella, my child..." his body trembled as he collapsed in on himself, his body wracked with the hiccuping and choking of his sobs.

His nails bit into his skin as his yes clenched shut, teeth grinding together as he fell apart and Jana was right there with him. Sinking into the blinding depths of despair and desolation. She was sinking with him, his pain washing over her like the crashing tides that pulled you in and under.

He was sinking

They were drowning in his pain.

"Simeon" she sobbed, prying his fingers from the gouges they had left in his skin, her arms wrapping around him as she pulled him into her embrace. He was unresponsive to her touch, his hands balled into fists at his side as he cried.

The pain was unfathomable and it wasn't even hers, it was his and yet she felt every hitch and break in his heart, every dark thought, urge and need.

She felt his emotions like they were her own, her mind black with the fog of his eroding mind.

He was dragging her down with him.

They were falling down the winding pathway to destruction, where bitter emotions clouded your mind and turned your nature wrong.

"Simeon" she gasped, her warm hands gripping his wet cheeks as she forced him to look at her, to try and see past the black haze suffocating his mind.

"Look at me" she cried, when his eyes remained unfocused, they were looking at her but he was unseeing as his black orbs flashed red and then paled to a deathly white. It was as if he were possessed, his irises turning a pale silver, delirium taking him.

"Simeon" she cried louder, her fingers biting into his cheeks, the red drops diluting as his tears mixed with blood.

Her hands shook with the fear that she would loose him, his shoulders swaying as his body began to tumble out of her embrace and then she was on him. Her lips ghosting against his as she tried to bring him back to her. Sparks flew at the touch, her eyes widening as his tongue delved into her mouth and his eyes flashed gold before his natural colour began to receded back into his eyes.

Her lashes fluttered closed for a minute of bliss before she was pulling away from him but he wouldn't let her go. His hands wrapped around her back like a band as he pulled her pnto his lap, fingers wrapping into her hair as he pulled her closer. Her name slipping from his mouth like a prayer before he was taking her mouth in a fervent kiss.

His pain and anger wrapped around her heightening her already tormented emotions, she was full of so much feeling. Anger, fear, pain, hurt, love.

She didn't know what emotions were hers, had never felt the bond so clearly in all her life but in this moment they were one. Her arms clung around his shoulder as she rocked on his lap. His fingers releasing her hair and dropping low to grip her hips as he thrust against her.

Pale silver flecks shimmered in his eyes as he began to remove what little was left of her clothes. His shorts were pulled low and the blanket wrapped around their bodies as she sunk down onto him. Her eyes watering at the sublime feeling of them two together like they had never been before.

She felt him in her, in every part of her and she was in him to. Her essence flowing through his body as she tried to soothe this torment.

Their mating was franctic, hips rocking as the bond urged them on and as she drew closer her peak she felt it coiling within them, expanding and expanding like an elastic before it snapped back into place and her world crumbled from beneath her feet.

She felt them

His tears gliding onto her chest, dripping into her pores and sinking into her soul as he murmured into her skin, "kocham Cię."

Eyes hooded as he watched her reach her peak but he wasn't ready. He held her tightly, as he rocked into her. Their breaths mingling as they joined in the way nature intended. He was deep, so deep that she could feel him everywhere.

There was not a place that Simeon was not and as she crashed to her final peak she felt his resistance break away and all that was left was sublime emotion.

Their bodies still moved together even when they were spent, they clung to each other. Pools of water glistened on his chest as the slumberous moon watched on, winking with its brilliance.

Her body was still twitching from their joining, his heart thudding in her ear as she lay along his chest and the tugging bond pulled at her emotions.

"I know" he murmured sombrely, regret filling in his heart but he couldn't change things and Jana finally understood why.

He couldn't let go of the past and so he could not be a part of her future. She wanted him so badly, even more so now but she couldn't wait for him.

Simeon had suffered and continued to suffer but in this world that was all they knew. It was harsh and cruel world but at some point you had to choose whether you wanted to wallow in the dank pools of despair or bask in the glistening moons light.

It was his choice, one that he had already made.

So though the bond had started something new with this joining, something that neither of them understood.

In their hearts they knew what this was, it was a final goodbye.

wickedmel Thanks for giving me the quote that made this chapter all that it was!