An Unexpected Gentleness

Hearing the word Mate spilling over his lips, the two beasts lowered their heads. They knew that their master had a destined mate forced upon him by the Gods for their wicked games disguised as their blessing to their master.

However, this was the first time they had seen their master become so filled with anger. What could be the real reason behind it?

"Do you wish for us to find her again?" the beast on the left asked, expecting his master to not agree. His Lord has been avoiding meeting or encountering his Mate. Fearing as though his Mate was a scourge he was doomed to avoid. But who knows who was the scourge.

"No. I will go personally and find her."

The man stood up from the throne, blacks tendrils of mist and smoke surrounded him as he walked down the pile of human and other creatures' bones underneath his feet. The cracking noises continued as a portal appeared before him.

…

Talia was shifting back and forth between being unconscious and awake. Her heart was beating so fast that she could hear it in her chest. What happened? She thought to herself then remembered that she had used her power again to steal the pain from Papa.

Papa!

At that thought of the man who brought her to the manor and adopted her as his own daughter, the sleepiness was washed away from her. She struggled to keep her eyes open and sat up. She felt like her bones had broken and fixed themselves all over again. The pain was no longer there, but the aftertaste of it was still there.

Talia looked beside her and saw her adopted father still asleep on the bed. She released a sigh of relief. Thankfully, she was quick to steal the pain from him. Had she been a minute or seconds late, Death would have claimed Papa from her.

As she looked down to observe her Papa's condition and ignored the slight pain she was still feeling in her whole body, Talia felt a sudden change in the air.

Someone was in there.

But before she could turn her head to look around the room and outside the window to find who was there and wonder if they had seen what she had done inside the room, her body was lifted off the bed and her back was pressed against the wall across the room.

Talia's lips opened to scream for help, but a hand clamped down on her mouth, blocking the sound that was about to spill from her lips. Then, the scent of something that smelled clean and citrusy replaced the smell of Death hovering in the air, overwhelming and overpowering it.

The shock of the sudden contact of someone touching her jerked her heart to come up to her throat. The fear that came along with it made her forget the pain that persisted around.

"I'm not sure what you did to hurt yourself that even I couldn't ignore the pain," the voice spoke barely above a whisper directly into her ear as her feet were dangling in the air. "But I can assure you that whoever caused it would have to pay tremendously."

Alarm rang through her as clear and loud as the sound of the bells that rang in the wedding ceremony during the morning. Talia looked in front of her only to see the purest red eyes that glowed even in the dark that she had ever seen in her entire life.

The moment she realized who was standing before her, a strange sensation of relief suddenly flowed into her.

Talia shuddered and shook her head. She recalled the veiled past memories of her mating ceremony landing in her second rejection like an insulting and embarrassing stain in her life. The pain she felt after stealing Papa's pain was suddenly gone, replaced by the burning pain of the memories of the past.

"Why are you crying?"

It was only then that she realized that tears were now slipping down her cheeks.

"Who hurt you? Tell me and I will make them regret ever doing that to you!"

The man yelled in anger. Talia flinched and stared back into those eyes that was practically dripping with hate and murderous instincts. She couldn't see what he looked like with the shadows still covering his face, his face was still a puzzle she couldn't solve.

It was almost laughable and ridiculous how he could sound so concerned about her well-being when he was the one who had rejected her twice. The one who really hurt her in this room was no one other than him. Yet, he had the audacity to ask who hurt her. Will he make himself pay for the pain he had caused her?

Probably not. Talia felt the bitterness even more as she thought that she was the only one that suffered due to her fate of being his mate.

"Why won't you answer?"

Talia stared at the man in front of her with a glare. Her lips twitched. She wanted to say something. There were a lot of words and questions that wanted to come out of her mouth. But with his hand covering her lips, how could she say anything at all?

The worst part was that the touch of his skin over her mouth made her recall how his lips had felt on her skin. How it heated up her whole body with sensation she was unfamiliar with. And how it still burned her even now.

Her cheeks burned red with shame. She was supposed to hate this man. Hate him for rejecting her not once, but twice. And loathe their connection through his mark that he had left on her thigh.

Yet, she couldn't deny him. As much as it hurts her to admit it.

"You're crying again," he said.

Talia tensed when he confirmed that he was crying again. The tears fell down all over her face again as if there was a dam that had been penetrated through and water had leaked out of it.

The hand that was clamping down her mouth shifted to cup her right cheek and used the pad of his thumb to wipe the tears away. His action was gentle, almost like a caress of feather on her skin.

"H-how did you find me?"

She demanded in a quiet voice when he didn't stop rubbing his fingers on her skin.