Chapter Fourteen
1464 Words
Wren
As soon as the words left my mouth she tensed in my arms. She didn’t pull away but her whole body went rigid.
If her dragon had been present she would have been able to read the misery in my mind but it wasn’t. It didn’t seem to matter though she could tell something was wrong. But then again, had there ever been a conversation in history that ended well when it was started with the dreaded “we need to talk?” ? I didn’t think so and I had been alive a very long time.
A very very long time.
“Wren?” Opals voice came out tiny and unsure. Like she was afraid to hear what u had to say and I couldn’t blame her. I was afraid to say them. Saying them would make them real.
It would make the pain real.
Briefly I closed my eyes , pulling her closer and pressing my lips into her bed mussed up hair. I loved it when she had her hair wild like that. All those blonde tresses tousled and standing on end. It normally accompanied a contented and satisfied look on her face. Which meant I had pleased my woman.
Which was pretty much my whole purpose in life.
She didn’t have that look on her face though. She looked worried.
“You know I love you right?” Softly I brushed my fingers over her face. Like a blind man who wanted to memorise every detail. Maybe that was even what I was doing.
Opal scooted back and it was only the fact that I kept my arms locked around her that kept her from climbing off the bed and away from me totally. “Wren?” Tears glittered in her eyes. “What’s going on?”
“Answer my question Opal, you know I love you right?” My fingers were back on her face. Tilting her chin up so I could look into her eyes. She tried to look away, her eyes skirting away. “Look at me Opal, and answer the question.”
“Yes.” She whispered. “Yes I know you love me. But I also know you… and something is wrong. Do you not want me anymore? Have your feelings changed?”
I shook my head. How could she think my feelings had changed in just a few hours? Did she doubt me that much?
“My feelings for your are eternal Opal. You are my heart and soul for all eternity.” Pain ripped through my chest. Instead of my dragon thrashing to get out and conquer, he cowered like a kicked dog. And the sounds that rumbled from his chest were agonised. “You know I would mark you right here and now if I could. That I would lay down my life every single day for you…I….”
“Then do it.” Her words took me by surprise. I blinked down at her , my mouth fell open but no words came out. “Mark me Wren. Like you should have done when we were young. We are weaker apart. Bad things happen….” She trailed off. Her hand coming up to slide across my jaw. “Bad things happen when we are apart.”
“I can’t.” I cut her off.
“you can’t?” There was a wobble to her voice but a strength there as well. She would need that strength to get through what I had to tell her. Hell she would need strength to get through what the resistance was asking of her.
We all would.
“I want to.” I wanted her, no I needed her to know that. There was nothing I wanted more than to lay her pale body down on the bed and lose myself in her. To let my teeth sink into her flesh and make her mine.
I just couldn’t . I couldn’t take the only hope of our people away like that. Not for my own personal needs.
I couldn’t.
Could I?
“I want to so much… I ….” My voice broke.
“Then tell me why….?”
Wearily I sighed. I had started this conversation but with every passing second I regretted it. I should have left us happy in the little time we had together. And I had no doubt it would only be a little time. Gone in a blink of an eye. But I should have savoured it. Our little moments together.
I should have never had started this conversation.
“There’s a prophecy, about the child of the Opal dragon.”
“I don’t have a child. I ...” pain slid into her eyes.
There was a story there , a painful one. One that one day I wanted to hear about.
“A child of the Opal and Gold dragons.”
Her head shot up, her eyes impossibly wide. “There are no gold dragons. They are a myth.”
I chuckled . “ my love , that’s what they all said about Opal dragons before you turned. And yet here you are. In the flesh.” My hand smoothed back her hair. “And its beautiful flesh.” I added. “But you are destined to be with the gold dragon. And your union will result in a Son.”
Her eyes widened. “A son?”
“Yes Opal and he and the Welsh dragons child Ffion will bring an end to all of this misery. They will be able to set us free from all the tyranny of the last thousand years.”
For a second she didn’t say a word , instead she chewed on her bottom lip. “So I am destined to a man I don’t know instead of a man who I have loved my entire life and my son will be tied to someone he may not even like as well..” there was that anger back in her voice. Her eyes flashed. “ That’s bullshit.” She tore herself from my arms and started to pace. She didn’t seem to care that she was naked as she walked back and forth across the rug. “Bull shit.” She whirled on me, her eyes blazing as I swung my feet on to the floor. My elbows on my knees I let my head hang low. My eyes closed. “I know.”
“Then why… why would you give this up again?” Tears threatened to choke her and my hand reached to close around her wrist. I didn’t pull her towards me though. “Why would you give me up.”
“Because it’s bigger than me and you Opal. It’s our people. Not just dragons. All shifters.” I sighed. I hated the words than came out of my mouth next. “Because it’s what’s right.”
“What’s ,What’s Right?” She almost screamed it into my face. “How about what is right for us? How about us Wren and our happiness?”
“I know.” My fingers tightened. “I’m not exactly happy about it Opal.”
“Why would they give you back to me only to make me give you up again?” Her voice was miserable. But her words echoed in my head. Hadn’t I asked myself the same question a million times already?
It seemed oddly cruel of the universe.
“I just want to be happy Wren… I want to be with you.” Opal sighed, her shoulders lifting and then sinking back down .
I watched as the anger and fight left her. I watched as she gave up.
“I want to be with you as well.” Bringing her hand to my lips I peppered her palm with kisses. “But…”
“But we have to do what is right?” She stepped between my knees. And my face lifted to look her in the eye.
“We should do what is right.”
A single tear slipped down her cheek. And she wiped it away angrily. “I hate that you are so noble Wren… but it’s one of the things I love about you.” Slowly she closed her eyes. “I’ll do what is right because it’s … well… right but I want you to know that it is you and it has always just been you.”
“It has always been you as well.”
“There’s only one thing I ask Wren? If I agree to this.”
“Anything…”
“When this happens, you don’t give up . You find a mate of your own and live a good life.”
I didn’t speak , I couldn’t promise her that. I already knew that my life would be over as soon as she became someone else’s. I had lived through that pain once and it had almost killed me.
I wouldn’t survive it a second time.
“And that we spend our remaining time together. I want to be with you Wren even if it’s just for a little while. I need the memories to hold on to .”
That I could promise her. “I promise.” I didn’t elaborate what I was promising . I wasn’t even sure it mattered anymore.
We had to live in the moment now, that’s all we had.
Our past was painful
And we didn’t have a future.
All we had was now.
- Writer
