Song: Will and Elizabeth Theme Extended by Northern Lad Productions

"I know you're full," Pride said. "But drink this before you go and see him."

I eyed the silver flask wearily. The fruity scent wafting from the open bottle reminded me of the wine Pride made us after our victory. The only difference was that whatever this was, it had a lighter feeling to it.

This definitely wasn't alcohol.

"What is it?"

"Precaution." Shoving his hands into his pockets, Pride returned my apprehensive stare with a smile. Now that he was freshly bathed and wearing cleaner clothes, he looked more radiant and full of life. The only heart clenching things left were the claw marks on his face and his guilty conscience.

I could handle his emotions another time. Remind him how much he meant to me, let him know things really weren't his fault. All that good stuff.

But right now?

Right now all I wanted to do was satisfy my rage regarding his injuries by finding my damn Mate.

Pride never responded but it didn't matter. I almost didn't need him to at this point. Pride had my trust no matter what. I knew he'd never purposely do anything to harm me so I drank the apple infused drink in one go.

A wave of serenity washed over me, dulling the swift rising of my temper. It was an odd, loving feeling that enveloped me from head to toe before settling in my full stomach.

"Good." Pride took the flask back, nodding at the front door with worry in his bewitching green eyes. "Mind link me if you need help."

"Don't worry. I've got this," I replied. The smile I wore was fake as fuck but the little confidence boost I possessed wasn't.

I was well rested, I was fed, and I wasn't dying from dehydration anymore. My cousin's Alpha scent made me feel even safer. Wearing his dark shirt and sweatpants reminded me of all the times I used to steal Father's clothes for lazy days.

My back still hurt and I was certain that I heard Rowena's sick laugh every few seconds. But other than that, I was ready to see Leo. I was ready to see my Mate.

Breathing in the scent of mangoes clinging to Alpha Draco's shirt, I stood tall and left the Pack house behind.

The front yard was stained red with blood from both Alpha's. My nose twitched at the light smell of iron lingering in the moonlight atmosphere. The stains were both old and new, a telling of how long their battle progressed.

I cringed at the matted fur pressed beneath my feet. Clumps of black peppered the dying lawn. It was an unflattering scene to have to endure so soon after what Flora and I went through. And if I was being honest, the bloody carnage was making me a little sick.

A wet nose pressed against my palm as Alpha Draco leaned down to nose at me. His black wolf was beaten and battered, clawed in every which way. Even so, there were no signs of aggression remaining within his powerful aura. If anything, the Alpha looked at me with eyes of blue that knew much more than I probably did.

"Thank you," I whispered. Scratching the area behind his right ear, I laughed a little at the heavy thumping of his tail. "Thank you for everything."

An appreciative whine escaped the Alpha's open mouth. He nosed at my hand once more before padding away. The sounds of cracking bones filled the air as I looked towards the movement behind a far away tree.

"His aggression has been taken care of," his heavy voice rumbled. "Whatever bloodlust he's been harboring for the last few days is gone now. He should be fine. But if he isn't, I'll be in the Pack house if you need me."

I thanked him for his kindness but reassured him it wouldn't be needed. Pride said Leo wasn't the same man I left. Maybe that was somewhat true. But the one thing I was certain of was that Leo would never intentionally harm me.

Not with his hands, at least.

The violent song our hearts sang terrified me. Each step I took towards his dressing figure was another step I felt myself falling back into Rowena's chains. I was free, I was breathing in the clean air, and I was finally safe from her terrorizing abuse.

And yet, I was far more petrified now than I ever was to be under Rowena's influence.

"Don't." Leo froze, his bare back hidden beneath the shadow of the tree. From here I could make out burn marks and cuts. Long scratches and still healing wounds. The purple bruising imprinted into his snow white skin made me sick. "Don't put the shirt on. Let me see you."

Let me see what you've been doing since I was away.

Leo went rigid, facing away from me for what felt like an eternity. When he finally turned around, I felt my heart stutter at the broken piece of art before me.

Before, Leo was an oil painting of all the beauty I'd ever seen in the world. Now? He was an awful nightmare come to life.

Leo looked like the grotesque sketch of Ava from when Rowena summoned her damned spirit. Lifeless and empty. A meager shell of what used to be.

Where were his hot chocolate eyes? I didn't see them beneath all the crimson red. Where were his bright pink lips and his blushing cheeks? All I saw was blood and claw markings. Where was my Mate? Someone unknown remained where Leo's stuttering words and shy touches should have been.

The emptiness in his eyes fueled the quiet anger thrumming within my lower gut. Without another word I rushed forward and pushed him hard. Leo stumbled back and dropped the dark shirt. His piercing gaze never left my own furious stare and it only infuriated me even more that he had no reaction.

"How could you do that to Pride?" I spat. "How could you hurt my friend like that? How could you fight him, blame him, for what happened that night? How could you do that after everything he's been through?!"

Leo blinked. Just, blinked.

And I lost what was left of my damn mind.

"Say something," I growled. "Don't just look at me like you're stupid. Use your words, Leo. I need you to speak right now and tell me what the hell you've been doing for the past ten days!"

Leo's jaw ticked. A dangerous drop of mania bled into his flashing red eyes. "What have I been doing? I've been looking for you."

His throaty voice sent a shiver down my back. Whereas my rage was loud, Leo's was quiet. And somehow, that was even more frightening than I ever thought it could be.

"I've tortured, killed, and dismembered any Dark Witch or Warlock I've come across." Opening his hands wide, Leo rushed towards me with dried blood caked into his blunt nails. "Hoping and praying that maybe one of them would have information about where you were. I scoured states for you, Venus. I looked everywhere and you were nowhere to be found."

Leo's calm fury pushed into the violent beating of our shared heartbeat. The hideous song intensified. I dug my nails into my palms to keep from looking at his bloody hands.

"This," Leo pointed to his chest, "did nothing to lead me to you. We haven't Marked each other yet so there was no way for me to mind link you. And Pride? Pride was running around like a chicken with his head cut off. No potions, no herbs, what use was he to me if he couldn't even bypass a little silver and mind link you?!"

My mouth fell open in a quiet gasp. I felt myself stumble backwards, stunned by the weight of his indirect blow. He never even laid a finger on me. However, I knew in my heart that it would've hurt much less if he had just slapped me across the face instead.

"You think that what they used on me was a little bit of silver?" My faint echo of a voice broke at the end of my sentence. Betrayal. That was the song my heart loudly wailed. "You think the collar they put on me, like I was nothing more than a mutt, was a little bit of silver? You think the chains they held me in everyday were made of a little bit of silver? You think the whip they whipped me with 24/7 was made of a LITTLE BIT OF SILVER?!"

An explosion of power propelled from my body, knocking Leo over ten feet away. I thought when my gift finally resurfaced I would be relieved. Now, the only emotions that filled me were heartbreak and outrage.

I once adored the color brown but now I felt little to no love for it.

"What did you expect Pride to do?! Become a fucking miracle worker and somehow magick everything to how things used to be?! He can't even keep a portal open-"

"Exactly!" Leo shot to his feet. Ignoring the silver aura clinging to my skin, he pushed through my shield and invaded my space. "He couldn't even hold a portal open for two more seconds! What was I supposed to do when I looked up and you weren't there?!"

"You're supposed to pick yourself up and think with a clear head!" I snarled. Wet tears gathered over my eyes but I refused to let them fall. I wasn't sure if they were tears of anger or heartbreak but they hurt to feel regardless. "You don't attack a friend just because-"

"That's easy for you to say now that time has passed! You have no idea what it was like in the heat of the moment!" Leo growled, pushing closer until we were almost nose to nose. I tilted my head back to see him clearer through my watery eyes. "Venus, I looked up and you were gone. Gone."

Leo's beaten body trembled with raw anger but I refused to cower beneath his dominant stance. If anything, it only pushed me to stand my ground more.

"I understand-"

"Stop saying you understand when you don't. You sympathize, Venus. There's a difference," his low voice growled. "I looked up and the woman that I love was gone. Nowhere to be seen. Left behind with people that want nothing more than to see her suffer."

Stepping closer to me, Leo's bare chest pressed me into a tree. He pinned me to the tall pine not with his weight, but with his eyes. I could've thrown him off if I wanted to. I could've pushed him away. But it was his eyes, his eyes, that made me freeze.

There was a little bit of brown in them.

"Attacking Pride probably wasn't the best thing to do. I admit that. But in that moment, Venus in that moment, I didn't see Pride." Leo took his busted lip between his teeth, drawing more blood from the closed wound. "I saw a man that I trusted with my Mate's life. I saw someone that let me down when I needed him most. So I fought him and I scarred his face and I ran away like a coward once I saw what I'd done. I admit that."

Leo's harsh breathing pushed against my own shallow breaths. At the sight of his falling tears it became harder not to take him into my arms now that I finally could. I needed his touch right now. I craved it more than anything else in the world.

The invisible barrier between us just wouldn't allow it though. There was much more to be said and more to be heard. We needed this fight. No matter how much it hurt to be had, I knew we couldn't move on without it.

"I killed a lot of people trying to get to you. I left Reign in charge of a barely functioning group and I blamed myself more than anything," Leo admitted. The red in his eyes were dimming, slowly giving away to the chocolate I'd come to know and love. "I hated myself for how useless I am. Nothing I did helped to find you. Nothing I thought up worked out right. Everything went wrong the second you left my side.

"The only relief I had was knowing your heart still beat with mine." His whisper broke the cold mask ensnaring his damaged face. With a drop of his head, I finally cried when I felt his soft curls brush my forehead. "Venus, I'm so sorry that I'm not a good enough Mate for you. I'm sorry I couldn't save you from all that pain. I failed you and I know that."

Leo dropped to his knees with a choked sob. I felt his damp cheeks though my thin shirt as he pushed his face into my stomach. A haggard breath escaped my lips as I fought to push down my own sob.

"I even tried to make a deal with the stars-"

"What?!" I dropped to the ground and quickly cupped his tear stained face. "Please tell me you didn't. By the Moon Goddess, Leo-"

"Why didn't you tell me about our past lives?" I froze, overwhelmed by the way his eyebrows slanted when he cried. His heart echoed my own tune of betrayal so loudly that I didn't know whose heart sang louder. "Venus, how long have you known about our past lives?"

I couldn't lie anymore. Not when I saw how brown his eyes were becoming.

"Almost three weeks," I replied. Leo closed his eyes to further hide his pain and I cried even harder. Our foreheads knocked together as I held the back of his neck to keep him close. "I was scared to tell you. I thought you'd push me away like last time so I kept it to myself."

And I was wrong to do so. Look where he'd gone when things became too difficult to handle. Straight to the stars to make another deal and doom us for another 99 lifetimes.

All of that could've been avoided had I just told him about our past.

I fucked up.

Leo fucked up.

We both fucked up.

Gods, everything was a mess.

"I should've told you sooner no matter how scared I was. I know that you get scared when things get a little too serious. I know it's hard for you to speak when you'd rather show your affection with gentle touches," I said. "I know your flaws like I know my own."

Leo tried to look away but I gripped his chin tightly and forced him to meet my stare.

"But let's make one thing clear," I continued. "You are more than enough for me. There's no one else in the world that can keep me grounded the way you do. You have no idea what you've done..."

I wiped my tears away with the back of my hand before brushing his away. I didn't want to admit this, but I knew Leo needed to hear it right now. I knew Leo needed to know just how much he meant to me.

We never got the chance to be completely honest before our separation. I wasn't going to make the same mistake twice just in case whatever was coming was much worse.

"Rowena promised she'd break me. And after days of torture, she did." The truth was bitter but necessary. Not just for me, but for him.

I decided, after days of unrelenting torture, that a strong Luna wasn't someone that was "strong" all the time. A strong Luna was someone that could admit when she was broken and still find a way to try and move on.

I wanted to be a strong Luna and I needed to say this aloud for both of our sakes.

"She broke me and when I started dying, I didn't fight it," I admitted. "I fell through nightmare after nightmare of things I could never have until I reached the end. I saw death and I didn't care about anything else but reaching it. Until..."

"Until?"

Leo's chocolate brown eyes bore into me and I cried tears of relief.

"Until I heard your name," I sobbed. "I heard your name and everything came rushing back. Every little thing I loved about you and all of our best memories. I saw our future and pups and the promise of something beautiful. I was strong before you and I became stronger after meeting you. But when Rowena broke me, she took my strength away."

Leo's rough hands cupped my face gently, almost as if he was afraid he'd break me. The mindless patterns he drew into my skin brought a rush of warmth to my quieting heart.

"You gave me a reason to live when all I wanted was to give up. Now that I'm back I'm gonna try my hardest to help the group as best as I can." I smiled as I felt my gift retreat back into me. No longer were my raging emotions in peril now that Leo's warm body sank against mine. "But I need your help. I need you to help me be strong. I need you, Leo. No one else can do what you do for me."

No one else has my heart but you.

Leo's bruised lips slanted against mine and I felt myself shatter into a million pieces. He swallowed all of my cries as our dance of passion ensued like there was no tomorrow. Leo gathered me into his arms so that I straddled his lap. Tears of frustration lined my eyes when I felt his soft touch remain glued to my waist.

He never dared touch my whipped back. I didn't know if I loved him even more for his consideration or felt insecure that he wouldn't touch me there. Probably a mixture of both.

Leo broke the kiss first, choosing to nuzzle the side of my neck. I quivered as he pressed a long kiss to my mating gland, promising things that I knew I wanted now.

The stars dictated too much of our lives. The Oracle gave us an impossible task. For the past ten days I endured torture of the mind, body, and soul without Leo's presence to get me through it all. I suffered enough in this lifetime and all the others.

So I decided to change all that.

No more letting fear rule me. No more letting others decide what I was going to do with my body. No more letting other people choose what I was going to do.

This was my decision. This was my life. I wasn't going to live it based off of someone else's rules.

"Mark me," I whispered. Leo stopped dead in his tracks, letting his lips linger over my neck. I leaned back, smiling at his dumbfounded expression. "You heard me. I want you to Mark me."

"But, the Oracle-"

"Isn't in this relationship," I interrupted. "Look, I know that everyone gave us all these precautions to follow to spare us. But I think that it's bullshit. If we hadn't listened to others in our past lives, made better decisions, a lot of that pain could've been prevented."

I kissed Leo with every ounce of warmth I possessed. When I finally mustered up all of my courage, I said what we'd been dancing around for months.

"I love you, Leo Heartsong. The days I spent without you were worse than the torture itself." I leaned my head to the side, inviting him to bite my open neck. "I never want to go another day without you. Physically, mentally, and emotionally. I want you, Leo. Mark me. Please."

The biggest, most genuine smile I'd ever seen in my entire life overcame his shocked face. I fell into his pure brown eyes with all that I had and leaned into his emerging canines. Leo dragged his sharp teeth over my goosebumps ridden skin and I whimpered at the sensation.

"Let me be strong for you," he mumbled into my skin. "Take whatever you need, ok?"

I nodded quickly, shuffling closer to feel his teeth take that final plunge. My breath caught in my throat as he finally bit into my neck and Marked me as his. Pain was inconsequential compared to the new heights of pleasure claiming my aching body. Leo licked the open wound with his rough tongue before presenting his neck to me.

"Mark me, Blue Eyes," he whispered. "I love you."

I didn't need to be told twice.

I bit Leo's neck and gave him my Mark. My hips jerked from the raw pleasure I received from biting him alone. His soft whimpers spurred me on as I bit harder, cementing our bond deeper than before. I licked the raised bumps where I'd bitten. Our internal walls came crashing down until there wasn't a single barrier between us anymore.

Can you hear me?

I smiled a smile I'd never smiled in my entire life. Shaking my head, I pecked his trembling lips, admiring the blissful humming from his body.

"I don't just hear you."

I feel you.

I feel all of you.

Leo leaned in for another kiss but I stopped him with my pointer finger. Raising an eyebrow, I allowed some of my anger to resurface within our new bond.

"Don't think I've forgotten about Pride," I chuckled. "You will apologize to him and mean it."

Leo pressed an open mouthed kiss into my fresh Mark. The sudden shock of electricity shooting up and down my body rocked me to my core.

"You got it, Blue Eyes."

I'll do whatever you want.

Just, don't leave me again.

"I'm not going anywhere, Alpha." Leo groaned at the use of his title, crinkling his nose in the cutest way. My cheeks hurt from smiling too much and soon, my lips were bruised from kissing.

I was wholeheartedly, unequivocally, and incandescently in love. Not even the stars could take this moment from us.

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QOTD: What do you think Pride gave Venus to drink? What are your thoughts of Venus and Leo's fight? Do you agree with their decision to Mark each other and further the mating process?