Filed to story: Sorry Alpha I Am Wolfless Novel
It took a moment for my mind to process the words. I didn’t know what was going on, but I knew that I needed to get my mind, and my eyes, to work properly again. What Joaquin had just said, after it had fully passed through my foggy and sleepy brain, made my heart race like nothing else in the world could at the moment.
I knew that Joaquin wasn’t just talking about something small, like someone came into the room while we were embracing naked. For one thing, even if that wouldn’t be a small thing to have happen, I knew that there was no one else there. I couldn’t smell anyone, nor had I heard the door opening or footsteps in the hall or the room.
For another thing, I couldn’t smell anything at all, aside from Joaquin that is. His intoxicating scent that I had always loved. I smelled his warm melted chocolate, steamy coffee, spicy cinnamon, and that refreshing scent of the forest after having been cleansed by the rain. It was a scent that always brought to mind the peaceful image of sitting on the porch of a cabin that was hidden deep in the woods and watching the leaves as the last of the raindrops dripped from the leaves. It was a peaceful image, but the scent of Joaquin was and has always been exciting to me. Funny how they were so contrasting.
“What are you talking about, Joaquin?” I asked him as I started to stir. The movements of my body were slow and exaggerated. It was so hard for me to get my body to cooperate with how intensely he had worn me out.
“Open your eyes, Little Bunny, please.” He was starting to sound a little panicked now, so I knew that I needed to oblige.
After about ten more seconds, I managed to pry my eyes open. At first, it was too dark for me to see anything. Then I realized that I was still pressed against Joaquin’s shoulder and that it wasn’t really dark, I was just not able to see because he was blocking everything.
Pulling my face away from Joaquin’s body, and instantly feeling the cold of the night pressing against my flesh, I shivered involuntarily. Then it hit me. Why was I feeling the cold like that? We were in our room in the castle, weren’t we? So, why was it cold?
Then I focused my eyes and saw that we weren’t actually in the castle. Not anymore. The place that Joaquin and I were at at the moment was actually a seaside cliff that overlooked a dark and stormy sea. This was a scene that I had seen before, and I instantly remembered it.
“Why are we here? Wasn’t this place in the Fae realm?” I looked around us as I started to disentangle my body from Joaquin’s.
“No, don’t pull away from me. You’re naked.” He pulled me closer. “I don’t want anyone to see you like this. Only I can see you naked.”
“And Griffin.” I laughed. “And everyone else that helps with the delivery of the babies. Face it, sweetheart, a lot of people have seen my goods, whether I wanted them to or not.” I laughed at him.
“Don’t remind me.” His eyes darkened and I saw a little bit of anger in his eyes. “Still, you’re naked Riviana, you can’t get up right now.”
“You’ve had your eyes open longer than I have, and you’re going to tell me that you didn’t see those.” I pointed toward the robes that were sitting next to us. “They are the same ones that we wore the last time that the gods pulled us into this place. Well, it was just Danu at that time, but still they are the same robes. Or they look to be the same ones.” I told him as I looked at the silky pieces of cloth. Joaquin’s, which was larger than mine, was gold and vibrant. And mine was the same color as Danu’s dress when I last saw her. It also had swirls of the gold and green that were the other elements. My main focus for magic had always been water and ice though, so the blue was my primary element.
“Yeah, they are the same.” Joaquin nodded. “At least I think that they are.” He finally let me pull away from him, but he was already grabbing for my robe so that only the slightest bit of my breasts had been visible before he covered me once again. After he was sure that I was no longer exposed, Joaquin rose to his feet and pulled on his robe. He didn’t care if someone saw his manhood swinging in the air, he just didn’t want people to see my naked body.
“So, why do you think that we have been brought back here?” I asked Joaquin as I turned around the area and saw the world that was around us. I could still see the rolling green hills in the distance, but it was night time here now, so they looked a little more menacing. And that unforgiving sea was a little more ominous looking. I knew that it was just the quality of the light that had changed the way things look. It’s always true though, the way that you see things, the light that you view them in, can determine the way that you feel about those things.
“I don’t know.” Joaquin said as he stepped behind me. “Last time it was to talk to Danu, but she is inside of you now. Would we be here to talk to her if she is living inside of your soul now?”
“Well, to be fair, she isn’t inside of me. Not really. She was reborn, and I just took the goddess essence inside of me. I took over that role of hers, being the guiding light of her people as she used to be.” I explained this to Joaquin as I instinctively walked toward the towering stones that were in the distance. “Last time that we were here, these stones didn’t exist. It was just the meadow, not the stones.”
“There are several of those stones though, do you think that they mean something?” Joaquin asked as he followed behind me, his fingers reaching for mine, he was determined that we stay together.
“Those stones represent the Gods and Goddess that have chosen to be reborn. Your people have done a lot for the original beings that brought this world into existence.” There was a voice that I had never heard before, and it was speaking to us from the shadows of those stones.
“Who are you?” I asked the man who was hiding from us.
“That is an impertinent way to speak to a God such as myself. Then again, you are a goddess yourself, so I guess that I cannot fault you.” The man, who sounded both serious and playful at the same time, spoke as he stepped forward.
“I am sorry if I was rude, but my question still stands.” I spoke with authority in my voice. I was a queen and a goddess after all, I had the right to speak like that.
“Don’t get into a power struggle with me, young goddess. I am the king of gods, I will overrule you if I need to.” The way that the man was speaking sent a chill down my spine. I knew that what he was saying was true, even if I didn’t know who he was just yet. He had power, that was for sure. And if he didn’t like the way that I was talking to him, behaving, or even the way that I looked, then he would punish me.
Just who could he be? What was it that he wanted with me? And why had he brought me here? These were just a few of the questions that surged through my mind as I contemplated the situation that I had so unwittingly found myself in.
I squeezed Joaquin’s hand as he stood next to me. He knew, as much as I did, that we needed to be on our best behavior at the moment. This man, this god, whoever he was, he was a lot more powerful than either of us were. The presence before me was as old as time, it spoke of several millennia that radiated a fierce and exuberant power. I could also feel a sense of wisdom, understanding, and playfulness that was coming off of this man. Just who was he? And why had he brought us here at this time? What did he want? And were Joaquin and I going to be able to make it through this?
****
Riviana
****
With Joaquin standing still and silent next to me, I watched the shadows where the man was standing. He still had not come into the light, what little of it there was. I still didn’t know who this man was or what he looked like. And that was starting to annoy me. Not that I could show my annoyance in anyway.
“Ha ha ha. Just calm down, young goddess.” The man’s laughter came to me a moment before he stepped into the light. “I know that you are scared, and that you are slightly annoyed. Hey, it is not my fault that the conditions for drawing you and your lover into this world are most often met when you are in the height of coitus. Magic is what it is, and we most often must follow the rules that it has set forth before us. I know that this is not the first time that one of my kind has used that primal erotic magic to draw you in for a visit, and I do apologize for that. Still, it is not like I had much of a choice. And before you start worrying about it lad, no, I did not watch. If I want to see a beautiful woman naked, I will take one of my own women to bed, I am not lacking for the attention of such lovely ladies.” There was that strange tone in his voice again. It was serious, yet it was also filled with a playful sort of laughter.
How could someone be serious and laughing at the same time? Shouldn’t the two be mutually exclusive of the other. I mean, seriousness in and of itself means that one is not feeling playful and willing to laugh. The actual definition of seriousness is literally an attitude of gravity, solemnity, persistence, and earnestness toward something considered to be of importance. And likewise, playfulness is defined as the quality of being light-hearted or full of fun. Someone cannot, therefore, be serious and playful at the same time. It made no sense to me.
The man, who was also finally able to be seen, was looking at Joaquin and I with eyes that were slightly narrowed as if he were watching us intently and intensely. However, there were also laugh lines around his eyes as if he should be smiling. And indeed, he was smiling, yet when you blinked the smile became a stern expression. Each time you blinked, the look on his face seemed to change between the two.
Getting past the strange expression on the man’s face, I tried to focus on what he actually looked like. He appeared to be young, though I knew that he had to have been thousands and thousands of years old. His hair was a deep, jet black that made him look young and powerful, but it was a little bit silvery around the edges that also gave him a distinguished look. His eyes, playful and narrowed at the same time, were a bright and shining green, like the rolling hills that were nearby. Well, how the hills would be if it were daytime, and the sun was brightening them to their most beatific beauty possible.
The man’s face was unlined, yet somehow, he looked to be weathered and wise. He had clearly traveled a lot, so much so that he was tanned and rugged looking, but there was not a single wrinkle or pock mark on his face. That was also understandable, because he was a god and that meant that he was eternal.
…..
It was sort of frustrating just to look at this man. He was so contradictory. He wasn’t overly tall, definitely shorter than Joaquin, but his presence made him seem like he was ten feet tall. He wasn’t muscular, but he had the air of a professional bodybuilder that would make most men fear him on sight. Not one thing about him was set in stone, and that made it so hard to focus on him.
“I can see that look in your eyes.” That strange playful seriousness again. “I have seen it in the eyes of many people, mortal and immortal alike. It is because I am so hard to read.”
“It’s like everything about you is changing even as I look at you.” I told him honestly.