by Fawn Atondo
She only nodded and went back to sipping her coffee, staring off into space as if she could not bring herself to focus yet. It was time to act.
“Falyn, I know we’ve had a complicated relationship, to put it mildly, but… I love you and I would like nothing more than for you to be my wife.”
Alex got down on one knee and looked up at her. She put down her cup and stared at him with wide eyes, her breath coming in small huffs as she gawped at him. Then a smile broke out across her face.
“I… Alex, I… I… Yes!” She finely got the word out. She threw her arms around his neck, holding him tight.
“But I need you to know what it will take for you to be my wife. We have to go through my family. We have to do it right, and it’s not without issues,” Alex quickly told her.
Alex spent the next hour telling her what she would have to face before he would be able to take her as his wife. He thought for sure she would say “Forget it!” but instead she only gave a smile and told him she did not care.
Alex had no idea he would feel this happy about it, but he did. He wanted her to be his wife, to be only his for the rest of their lives. Gaining the support of his family and clan in the approaching battle was only a small bonus to having Falyn for himself.
“We should get this over with now rather than later,” he told her.
“I agree,” Falyn nodded. “We might need their help.”
He paused for a moment, not expecting her to think of the war side of their marriage so soon, but she was in warrior mode, he reminded himself, letting it go.
They began planning the trip back to England. Lark announced he wasn’t coming along, which was not what Falyn wanted. She tried everything to persuade him into accompanying them, but the elf wanted to remain with West. Should they need him, only then would he join them.
“This is a family matter and I’m not family,” Lark told Falyn.
“You’re like family,” Falyn argued with him.
“You’re no longer a member of the Court, so Alex is out of danger. I don’t need to follow him around everywhere any longer,” Lark pointed out. “You and Alex should have some alone time Falyn… you’re running out of time to feel like this, so don’t waste it.”
Alex did not understand the meaning of Lark’s words but maybe because he was an elf, love must be rather mundane to his kind.
They left the next day for the Rave family home and Alex could not ease the dread in the pit of his stomach. He had not been home in so long; so much had been left unsaid between him and his parents. To Alex they seemed like a distant memory. Now he was forced to go home and build some kind of a bridge with them for the sake of Falyn and her quest.
Falyn was quiet during the trip. She hardly said five words, and if he hadn’t been so worried about his homecoming, he might have picked up something was wrong. However, his head was stuck in the past.
Chapter Twenty-seven: Homecoming
Falyn stood next to Alex in front of a huge stone-washed manor. The place loomed before them, dark grey against the green of the landscape. Falyn shivered, but whether from the cold or the sense of dread she felt coming off Alex, she couldn’t say.
Her heart was growing darker every day and she had been thinking about it before he had popped the question. Yet honor and duty were something she would still feel even when she was a full Shadow wolf: so if married, she would be duty-bound to stay with Alex. Now, however, as she stood here she had to wonder if she was doing the right thing.
“You’re sure about this?” Falyn asked him, taking his hand in hers.
“Yes. I’ll do anything for you Falyn… anything.” He softly kissed the top of her head.
They were halfway up the drive when the door swung open and a woman with the same coloring as Alex stepped into the doorframe. She had a hand to her mouth and tears in her eyes. Falyn knew this was his mother. Alex had stopped moving upon seeing her and was now staring back.
“My son… my Alex?” she exclaimed as she came down the steps, right up to the still-stunned Alex. She wrapped her arms around his waist.
“Mother, it’s all right… I’m fine,” Alex told the sobbing woman as he awkwardly patted her back.
“I see that… but Alex! It’s been so long! Why?” his mother pleaded.
Alex firmly but gently pushed her away, forcing her to look into his eyes. Slowly he turned her to face Falyn. Falyn stood there staring at the lovely woman, who gazed back with a look of wonder and a hint of disdain in those eyes so like her son’s.
“And who may this be, Alex?” his mother asked.
“This is the reason I have returned home, Mother. This is Falyn and she will soon be my wife.”
The woman let out a gasp and her mouth really did hang open for a moment before she was able to hide her emotions once more behind her calm mask.
“I see. And you wish to get married in the proper way, I take it?” she asked.
“Yes, I may have issues with my home life, but I do honor our ways, Mother.” His tone was scolding and a bit cold.
“Of course you do. It is how we raised you, Alexander,” his mother replied shortly.
Alex made a sound close to a growl before he addressed her again.
“Alex, Mother. I do not answer to that other name!”
Falyn was growing more uncomfortable by the second, her eyes darting between mother and son, unsure what to say or do.
“I see. Well then, let’s not stand here making a scene in front of your young lady. Let’s go in and see Father.”
And with her head high and her back straight, she huffed off toward the house.
Alex once more took Falyn’s hand pulling her toward the door. Part of her wanted to turn around and run all the way back to America. However, she reminded herself why she was here and what she wanted. She needed the support of Alex’s clan, and she wanted to be his wife.
The home was just as grand inside as it was outside, and Falyn walked around in a daze as she took it all in. Alex seemed unaffected by the sight altogether. His jaw was firm and his eyes narrowed, making him look hard and menacing.
“Alexander, you should speak to your father alone in the study while I take your young lady to get something to eat in the dining room.”
She opened the door and stood aside for him to enter the study. With a wary glance at her, Alex did as his mother asked him and Falyn found herself alone with this odd woman she could not quite make out.
“Come, my dear, we shall have some lunch.” The woman was good at giving orders.
“My name is Falyn,” she told the bossy woman.
“All right Falyn, come along then.” The woman kept moving, forcing Falyn to follow her.
“And what should I call you?” Falyn asked.
“You may address me as Milady or Lady Rave.”
Really, may I? Falyn thought, taken aback at the rudeness, but she fought down her fury and kept following her Ladyship.
They had just made it into the dining hall when the woman began ordering the maids out, snapping orders for lunch and tea and closing the doors. Falyn got a distinct sense of anger from Lady Rave before she turned her flashing blue eyes on her. With her hands on her narrow hips, she started to stalk her into an overstuffed chair. Falyn backed up till her legs bumped the chair and she fell back into it, her hands clutching the arms in an effort to keep herself from laying them on Alex’s mother!
“I don’t know how or why you got your claws into my son, but I can taste your lack of feelings for him like a rotten taste in my mouth!” Lady Rave spat.
“I am not sure what it is you’re tasting, your Ladyship, but I assure you I love your son with every bit of my heart!” Falyn shot back.
“And how much heart is that, my dear Falyn?” she asked, only inches from her face now.
“Presumably an awful lot more than your own, I would say!” Falyn growled.
“You know nothing about my love for my son!” sh
e told Falyn huffily.
“Don’t I now? How long has he been away? He did not even want to come home. It was only the need to do this properly that brought him here!”
Falyn knew she was hitting low, but damn if she cared!
“Why, how dare you… you little bitch!”
The woman was screaming now and Falyn was losing control of staying in the chair.
“How dare I? I dare because it’s the truth and you know it! How dare you call me out on my feelings for your son when you have no idea who he is now? It is no one’s affair what our feelings are for each other except Alex’s and mine, so I suggest, Lady Rave, that if you don’t want me to slap you in your lovely face, you stay out of mine!”
Falyn was standing by the time she had finished and had backed the woman right into the dining table. She turned to walk away.
“I can sense darkness in you… No matter how you try to hide it, I can feel it,” Lady Rave said softly.
Falyn paused for a moment, her heart beating wildly in her chest, before she turned once more to face Alex’s mother.
“We all have some kind of darkness, Lady Rave,” Falyn told her before striding away.
Falyn kept going until she came across a door leading outside. She found herself in a massive garden and she took a seat next to the lovely stone figure of an angel. Closing her eyes, she leaned her head on the stone angel’s body and started to cry. Falyn did not like Alex’s mother one little bit, but, on the other hand, if the woman could really feel the darkness in her then she was only acting in defense of her son.
Still, she clearly had issues! She seemed to be stuck in the past and was a horrible snob.
Falyn wanted to marry Alex. She wanted to spend as much time loving him as she could, but on the plane ride over, she had awoken feeling nothing. Not happy, not sad, and, for a few moments, not in love with Alex. Her feelings had returned in a rush a few moments later, but it had left her shaken and worried about falling asleep again. What if she woke tomorrow and her heart was cold, without any love at all? The idea made her shake.
“I can’t do this,” she whispered to the statue.
Falyn was looking at the wings of the angel when she recalled seeing wings like these before. Where? As her eyes moved up, she was shocked to be staring into the face of a Gargoyle. It was not an angel at all! And as Falyn sat there staring at it the figure kneeling with massive wings curled around itself, it started to move. Falyn quickly backed up but tripped over a large stone and ended up on her bottom looking up at the now-standing Gargoyle.
Its eyes sought her out. They were the color of fire. She was not sure if this was real or a dream.
“Cursed wolf, your fate was set in motion long ago. Your actions will follow along the course they were meant to, no matter your own will or desires.”
“How… how come you’re here?” Falyn asked.
“My path too was already set, my fate leading me to where I needed to be.”
“Your kind is all but gone now,” Falyn told him sadly.
“My kind is never truly gone, nor is it ever truly here. We are part stone as we are part man. When we take to stone we look as I do now. We Gargoyles will stay as this until the Immortal world is once more free of the Darkness the Dark Druids brought to it.”
The Gargoyle stretched its massive wings and then once more knelt.
“Please, what should I do? Should I marry Alex? Will my heart hold love long enough to make it worth binding his soul to mine? Or should I seek out my fate, my duty, and forget what my heart wants?” Falyn asked, pleading clear in her voice.
“Only you can act on what your heart wants. Not even fate can change this because love is free of reason and duty, and even if love is what rules you, it will not stop you from finishing what your bloodline was meant to do – what your fate will lead you to,” he told her humbly.
“I’m cursed. My soul will be nothing but a shadow soon and how can I hand over my soul to him when it will no longer hold anything but duty and honor? How is it fair to Alex?” Falyn whispered.
“Your curse is your freedom as well as your burden, and only you can choose which your soul will see it as. Soon your duty will pull you to face your fate, and what was destined to be can’t be undone.” He brought his wings once more around his body.
“Wait! You came to life just to tell me my heart is my own affair and my fate will overrule my choice in the end anyway?” Falyn demanded. This didn’t seem to achieve anything.
“I gave you the answer you needed, if only you will allow yourself to hear it.” And then he was once more a beautiful but cold stone carving.
Falyn stood up, dusting dirt from her bottom as she paced around the statue, once more trying to decide if she was crazy or not. Really, this magic encounter hadn’t offered anything useful in figuring out if her heart would soon hold nothing but cold empty space, and whether she should link Alex to herself because it would keep her from losing him for good.
She was left facing the fact, sooner or later, she would be called to do her duty, and no matter how much she fought, fate would always win! Alex’s mother already sensed her heart was lacking love and she was filled with something dark. True, she was cursed, and if the vamp lady could pick such things up then it was likely what she was feeling. However, Falyn was worried it was more than that.
Maybe she did sense her ability to love Alex was already slipping away. Alex knew she was cursed, but she had not confessed to him her love for him would go – and soon. She did not want him to worry or do anything else crazy in an effort to keep her safe. He could not stop this one from happening and she would not have her last days of being able to love another soul spent in pain. She wanted to love and be loved like nothing else mattered till the Shadow wolf took control and forced her to lead an army into battle.
Even now she was not worried to face the fight which would surely be coming, because that part of her was already numb. She could now feel the power of the Druid bloodline and knew it was not just her emotions leading her to think so. Fighting was something she now clearly longed for. Like one might long for children or family, she longed to do battle – to stand across from her enemy and sense their fear as she brought them down.
Falyn took a deep breath. Just the thought of this brought on labored breathing and the urge made her restless. Shaking her mind clear of war and rage, she focused in on her feelings for Alex. Once more the warmth of love flared within her soul and her heart, but she could not deny a tiny part of it was not touched any more by it. A dark spot now resided within her and it was cold as ice.
Falyn was not sure how long she sat in the garden, staring at nothing, her mind running through all the reasons why she should run from Alex and all the reasons why she should stay and marry him. Logic told her she should stay, but tell him the truth. However, her heart was unwilling to do this. It did not want to bring to light the fact it would soon be nothing but a dark mass in her chest.
Alex finally came to find her and he looked worried as he saw her leaning on the statue, her eyes closed.
“Falyn!” he called to her in a worried voice.
She opened her eyes and looked at him, forcing a smile to her lips.
“I’m just taking a moment for myself,” she told him reassuringly.
“Why, what’s wrong?” Alex was too keenly aware of her not to notice something was up.
“Your mother is a bit overwhelming,” she told him with a faint smile.
“Ah yes, I told you they would be a bit backwards here.” He came to sit next to her, pulling her onto his lap.
“You did. And I’m sorry. I yelled instead of talking like an adult with her, but in my defense she did order me to call her Lady Rave and told me I had darkness in me and could not love you fully because of it.”
There was no point lying to him for his mother was sure to address him about it sooner or later. He looked mad about this as he held her close and his face got hard
.
“I know. She told me as much before I came looking for you. I told her what I had been telling my father: you’re fighting a war and that you are cursed, but you love me. The darkness she felt was just the curse,” Alex said, squeezing her tight.
“And what did she have to say to that?” Falyn wanted to know.
“I don’t think she was fully convinced that was all. But my mother hates to be wrong so I don’t doubt she will bring it up once more. Father is more laid back and he’s on board with helping you,” Alex told her.
“Well, at least one of them is on my team,” Falyn said jokingly.
Alex laughed and pulled her chin up to steal a kiss. Kissing Alex was still amazing, and the feelings he awoke in her body made her giddy. All the worry of losing her love, fighting for her race, facing her fate all slipped away to nothing but mush in the back of her mind.
Alex was getting swept up in the kiss too. His hands where busy pulling up her shirt so he could cup her breasts. He swung her round so she was now straddling him. She could feel his manhood pressing into her.
She let out a soft moan as he worked his mouth down her neck to her collarbone and nipped there. His hands moved to her bottom, pushing her closer to him. The skirt she wore was easy to move out of the way, and as he undid the buttons on his pants her breath grew quicker.
He was now free and with one hand he moved her panties aside and with the other he guided his hard dick into the heat of her. It was such a shock she let out a loud cry and once he had pushed himself deep inside, he too let out deep growl. His hands moved to her hips to guide her, and his mouth sought hers as the pace sped up. She clutched his hair, pulling handfuls as she rode him. Alex moved his hands from her waist so he could pull her breast free, allowing his mouth to cover it.
Falyn was close to climaxing. She could feel herself being pushed to the edge of reason as Alex kept up a quick pace. His mouth never left her breast except to steal a quick kiss from her lips every once in a while. And when she did find release, it was so strong she screamed. That was the undoing of Alex. Once he felt and heard her orgasm, he too came, shouting her name.
