Rhea

Xara slowly opened her eyes, uttering a silent plea that the nightmare was over.

They were immediately met with a deep darkness.

The space around her felt hollowed out as compared to the usually encompassing embrace of the ocean.

She was on land!

What's more she could feel the warmth of another being around her. As he blurred senses came back to her, she reconciled the sensation as the embrace of a man's strong arms.

Through her skin she could feel the heat of his core and thr constant pulse of his heartbeat.

Even in the darkness, she could easily recognize this presence.

It was an immeasurable and overvearing presence that pressured her without giving her any room to breath. It was dark and mysterious, but cold an entrancing. Only one person could make her feel like this

But as she recognized the strong arms wrapped around her, the foremost emotion she felt was deep horror.

She had just began to struggle when he hissed in an authoritative voice: "Stay!"

Immediately, her body gave away a slight tremble and all her struggles ceased.

Contrary to her expectations Canaan said nothing more, he merely held her in his embrace as the seconds passed.

Like this they continued, and the seconds became minutes, the minutes becoming hours.

An hour passed them by like this.

Xara's frantically beating heart and trembling body all calmed down.

Though her fear was still present other strange emotions pooled in her heart now.

His embrace which was like a cold prison before started to take the form a sturdy shelter. And even if she didn't know or trust him, she had unconsciously began to like this feeling.

Still she had had never forgotten the humiliation he visited upon her and perhaps she should never forget.

Xara gathered every ounce of courage in her heart to finally ask the questionshe wanted to ask, however her voice still trembled as it came out of her lips. "Why did you do this to me?"

He had single handedly ruined her and handed her a shame and humiliation she could never recover from and now she merely wished to know why.

Canaan sighed with emotion: "Because you are are the princess of the House of Oceanus and the daughter of my enemy."

His heart ached for her as he said this, and no small amount of self loathing rose in his heart when he recalled what he ha done.

The dim light I'm Xara's eyes flickered faintly in realization: "As expected, it was this reason."

"My house has taken something precious from you and so you enacted your vengeance on me.

I understand that and so while I may hate you, I will not blame you. So just let me be and allow me to end my pathetic existence." Xara said coldly, even the thought of committing suicide brought no hesistation to her.

Canaan's heart fiercely lurched as he realised the depths of her despair. No, even before she had met him, her eyes seemed to contain the will to die.

Xara seemed to have suffered a trauma from her house even before this...

"Do you hate them...your family?" Canaan asked after a worried pause. His voice couldn't help unconsciously becoming much more gentle.

Xara noticed this strange chain but paid it no heed as she pronounced coldly. "Yes! I do indeed hate that wretched house! But you've made me hate you hundreds of times more!" Xara''s body trembled within Canaans embrace and tears of humiliation were about to fall out of her eyes.

Canaan's heart tightened in hid chest, but he did not realx his embrace. He quietly allowed his body to warm hers and began to speak in the gentlest tone he could muster.

"If life was all about the first meeting....then perhaps I wouldn't have broken you...maybe then you would not hate me for an eternity" He softly remarked besides her ear, causing Xara to tremble.

He was the same person who had visited that nightmare on her..so why did his words suddenly touch the deepest and softest part of her heart?

Why did his embrace bring her such warmth and a vivid sense of safety?

Why was she so afraid that he would suddenly disappear?

"But whether you hate me now till the end of time does not matter to me in the slightest. We have already become one and so you can only be mine in this life or the next.

And what that means is that you will always be my side and I will allow nothing to harm you.

Whatever you desire I will give to you and whoever you detest I will extinguish.

I have already decided this matter, you have no....choice.....at.....all!" His possessive and domineering words should have alarmed and repulsed her, and yet they seemed to contain a heavy reassurance she seemed to crave from the bottom of her heart.

Canaan continued with his promises. "I can see that your heart and soul are shackled by very heavy chains. Chains that must be dreadful if even you have been unable to solve them by now.

But you do not know me. Even less do you understand me. But I am still your man whether you like it or not.

I have taken much from you so please allow me to give much in return. If only just to make up for the pain I've caused you." Canaan's words were plea now, and Xara could sense the sincerity in them.

Under the magic force of his irresistible voice that sounded clearly in the darkness her heart had actually began to waver and release desirous fluctuations.

"Who are you?" She finally asked. The hatred in her eyes subsided as the tremors of her body ceased. Now her eyes contained the simple curiosity of a woman.

But Canaan did nor answer, he gently touched a finger to her satin lips as he chided: "A question for another day."

She jerked away from his touch, causing a mischievous smile to cross Canaans lips.

Then his pupils flashed with a crimson light.

Suddebly streams of scarlet flowed out of his body and formed a mesh of crimson light in the space around.

Xara's eyes trailed the phenomenon around her, after all she had never witnessed devilish energy take such a from.

The streams of light suddrbly turned violent, wailing as they surged through space, shattering it in their wake.

Until the world around them vanished into a furious spatial storm, however not a single one of the dangerous elements dared to touch both of them.

She had witnessed the breaking of spatial laws before, but never had she seen it done in such an intricately fascinating way.

When space had rebuilt itself, both Xara and Canaan were back as the reef where they had been met.

Xara was surprised to find out that an exact set of the cerulean clothes she had worn before Canaan ripped them of now covered her body.

And Canaan too was dressed in his signature lose red robe.

Xara suddebly trembled in fright; Canaan had suddenly grabbed her waist with both his hands.

Slowly his perfect face neared her as if he would kiss her, and despite her fear of him Xara could clearly feel ripples of emotion appearing in her heart.

Her heart amd mind then completely fell into chaos, making her unable to respond to what was happening.

She let out a startled whimper as her delicate body once again froze entirely, as if an electric current had run through her body. Her mind went completely blank for a few moments before she finally thought of resisting, but by then Canaans lips had already touched her neck.

"Mmph" Her porcelain skin met the soft and wet touch of his neck, causing her to muffle a cry of excitement.

When his lips left the skin of her neck a crimson mark burned on the supple skin, and yet Xara felt no pain.

"That is the mark of my power. I have marked both your body and soul with it, it's proof that you will forever be mine. No matter how far away you are it will always allow me to find you." Canaan pledged solemnly, he did not allow Xara to speak again as he asked:

"Who is she?" Canaan asked. He didn't ask about the burden she carried. Rather his question was extremely specific.

Despite not giving him anything substantive he had already deduced many things. What a high degree of intelligence.

The feeling of being pressured and suffocated in his presence returned, if only briefly.

Xara bit her lip in a slight hesitation. After all she barely knew this beautiful monster. And she had not met him under good terms.

However he was clearly so powerful and mysterious, maybe he could really heal her sister, if she chose not to take him to over to her and miss the opportunity of a lifetime she would never forgive herself.

Canaan watched Xara's internal monologue with fascination, a slight smile showing on his lips.

He waited until Xara found her resolve. "She is my little sister." She finally answered.

"Oh?" Canaan sounded curiously.

"Her name is Rhea."