Aeress

She mumbled a response as she heard her name called. The sensation of the cool rain washing down her face was both consoling and overwhelming. The droplets fell off, leaving behind a cold trail which balanced with the heat of her flushed cheeks.

Her eyes shot open as someone yanked her out of the mud. The tingling warm and the contact of his brilliant blues prevented her from responding aggressively.

"Warrick," she breathed before connecting their lips in a fervent show of something she was too chicken to say out loud. She tasted him and the blood and the rain, but most all of, him. Her hands held onto his shredded shirt, bringing him closer to her. She needed him on her, around her, with her.

He immediately responded, picking her up and hugging her close until there was no amount of space between this. She absorbed him, biting down on his lip, kissing away the sting immediately afterward. “Warrick,” she smiled against his lips and she hugged him, holding him. “I’m glad you’re alright. You are alright, aren’t you?”

Warrick nodded, checking to make sure she had no worrisome wounds as well. The way he gazed down at her halting her breath. He looked at her like she was the most precious treasure. “I’m fine, but…” he looked around and shook his head. “Someone’s going to pay for this.”

Aeress got up as he did. She liked that he kept his hand in hers. “What do we do now?”

“We aren’t going to do anything. I will take care of this-“

“No, Warrick-“

“Aeress, just listen to me.” She quieted down for once. “I know who did this, and the manner in which he attacked… this was not just a warning. I know you want to help our people, and you will by putting as much space in between you and this island as soon as possible.”

Her heart hurt because she knew that he was right. “I can’t leave all of this for you to handle. Things are different now. I can help.”

He grabbed her and kissed her harshly, stealing her breath. “I know that,” he spoke against her lips, “you are the Queen, you are a goddess, but please, for me, just this once, leave it to me. I’ve been doing this a lot longer than you have. I need to know you are safe.”

She still so badly wanted to stay and take care of everyone, but she knew he was right. She pulled away from him and began to pace. “Okay, so I leave, then what? I have to help in some way. I can’t sit back and do nothing. You should know me better-“

“Warrick!?”

Aeress turned at the sound of Shaya’s voice. For a moment she didn’t understand why her best friend was running like she was running for her life.

That was until Shaya slammed into Warrick, smashing her lips to his. Aeress hunched over as pain sliced through her belly. She bent over and threw up all that was left in her stomach. Her vision went blurry and she felt she would faint.

She looked up again to see that they had broken apart. Aeress felt she would fall as she identified the look of adoration on Shaya’s beautiful face, an expression directed at Warrick. While he looked infuriated, wiping his lips in disgust, he at least had the decency to act as if he were surprise.

Shaya looked at Warrick in confusion before finally seeing Aeress. “Aeress, what’s wrong?”

Aeress jumped back, snarling as fury overtook her. “Don’t touch me!”

“Aeress!” Warrick shouted. “Just wait a second.”

She kept backing up, shaking her head. She couldn't stop playing what happened in her mind, the moment when their lips connected. “Why did you do that? How do you know him, Shaya?”

She was infuriated as Shaya produced a face of bewilderment. “Aeress, I have to tell you something, and you're not going to like it... I haven’t been truthful.” Guilt flitted across her face.

Aeress felt her whole body tremble with a storm of emotion and shock. She couldn’t get that expression out of her mind. That look of love. “You love him, don't you?”

Shaya shook her head. “That doesn’t matter right now-“

“Of course it matters!” She roared, feeling as her animalistic features beginning to rise to the surface. “He’s mine!” She sounded so beastly and horrifying.

Shaya froze and snapped her head to look to Aeress. “What are you talking about?” Her eyes watered. “Is that true Warrick?”

“Don’t you dare say his name!” She was going to snap any second now. She just couldn't believe it. This was all too much.

Shaya shrunk back. “I-I didn’t know, Aeress, I swear on everything, Warrick-“

Aeress never thought she would ever do this. She seized Shaya by her throat, just centimeters from crushing her pipes fully. She wouldn't be satisfied until the woman who touched her man the way only Aeress could was tortured before dying a painful death.

“Aeress! Let her go now!” Warrick commanded, yet he never made a move to physically intervene.

“Why? Do you love her?” This answer would decide whether Shaya lived or died.

“Of course not! You'll regret killing your best friend, you know it.”

Aeress ignored him and inhaled her friend's scent. She was startled by the truth. It couldn’t have been any more obvious! “You’re a werewolf,” she whispered incredulously, releasing her friend, one she thought she had known everything about. “That can’t be, you wouldn’t lie to me, would you?” Shaya fell to the floor, coughing violently. Aeress began to cry as she looked between Warrick and her former best friend. “What’s going on, Warrick?”

Warrick had a look to him, like he knew he was about to shatter her heart. “You just need to remain calm, she means nothing to me-Aeress!”

Aeress blacked out.

______________________________________

When she woke up, there was this ache in her chest she had never felt before. She felt absolutely hollow and dejected, like she had been put through the wringer one or a couple hundred times. “Tell me the truth,” Aeress croaked out to her mate who sat by her side. He attempted to take her hand, but she pulled away before he could make contact. “If you lie to me, I will leave you and never look back.”

“Shaya is a werewolf, you were right before. She was originally a soldier of Jonah, my step-brother." Aeress felt her eyes widen at that. "But after a turn of events, she now works for me. It’s very complicated, but in short, she serves as a double-agent, feeding me information and helping me take down that bastard."

Aeress deflated further so. “So when she took me to that nightclub…”

“Jonah made Shaya a recruiter many years ago. She is very gifted in identifying human females who are Scented. She finds these women and delivers them to Jonah once their identities are confirmed. It was all planned, everything except for the attack that night.”

“And when you were away, you were with her,” Aeress spat out.

“We aren’t like that, we never were.”

Aeress sprung up. “She obviously thinks differently! She didn’t pull this out of thin air for fuck’s sake! You manipulated and you used her! And Shaya…" she beginning to get a headache, "she used me, she lied, my best friend. Oh my... And she’s in love with the man that I l-” She slammed a hand over her mouth. She could physically feel her heart being stomped on.

Warrick grabbed her arm, she tried to get away but he did not give. “The man you what, Aeress?”

“Everything has been a lie, my best friend loves you, and you let this all happen. You lied to me. This was all a game, wasn’t it? None of it was real, was it? You manipulated me too, didn’t you? God, this is all my fault, I trusted you, I thought that we were real, but now I don't know what to believe.” She tried to yank out of his hold again, but this triggered them to get into a tussle. She was screaming and crying and hitting him with all of her strength. “Let me go!”

“No, Aeress, I need you to listen!”

“I hate you! I hate you! I hate you so fucking much! You’re a liar, a goddamn liar. You’re my worst fucking nightmare! Get the fuck off me, now!” She shoved with her true strength this time and he went flying into the nearest wall. The plaster exploded at the force.

They stood there, the both of them. She ignored the regret there. She ignored the remorse in his eyes. All she could feel was the pain, the betrayal. "You and her, you stay the fuck away from me-"

He began to get up. "Aeress-"

She felt dead inside all of a sudden, and he must have sensed it because he said not another word. "Don't talk to me, don't look at me. I will find this Jonah man, and I will destroy him. No lying, no deceiving." Aeress opened the bedroom door. "After that, I never want to see your face, and especially not hers. If you follow me, I swear on everything that I will kill you." She turned her back on him and never looked back.

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