Chapter 195: Back to where it all began
Three days later
AYLA
I woke up with a start.
My heart was pounding so hard that it hurt. I sat upright, gasping for air as my hands flew to my throat.
I had been dreaming again.
I closed my eyes and heaved a sigh of relief.
The memory was still too vivid. I had been back in Emberfall... back in that cave with Lucius’ knife pressed against my throat and this time when I tried to use my powers, it did not work.
I had felt the blade cut me and I had known I was going to die.
"He is dead," I whispered, my voice trembling. "He is dead."
I am safe...I am among my people and today is my coronation as the king’s daughter.
Even thinking about it still felt strange.
I still wasn’t used to having to understand that my real father was Kieran.
Three days ago, when we had arrived back at the pack at dawn, he had been waiting and the moment he saw me, he had crossed the distance between us and pulled me into his arms.
He had hugged me so tightly that I could barely breathe.
The last time I had seen him had been the night I was kidnapped... the very same night he had told me I was his daughter.
So much had changed since then.
My mother had been even more emotional. She had cried for several minutes after seeing me, touching my face and hair as though she needed to convince herself I was actually standing in front of her.
She had held me for a long time, and when she finally let me go, it was only because I needed rest.
I had liked it. I had liked it more than I knew how to say.
I smiled faintly, my eyes moving toward the chair beside my bed where Astrid slept.
She, on the other hand had refused to leave my side since I arrived not even once.
When I had told her she needed to sleep in her own bed, she had looked at me like I had suggested something ridiculous.
In her own words,
"Anybody who comes for you will have to go through me."
Even when I tried to reassure her that it was not her fault what happened the last time, she refused to listen so I had let her have her wish of watching me like an eagle all day.
She was still sleeping now, her head tilted awkwardly against the back of the chair. She would be needing a neck massage when she woke up from that angle.
I smiled at her sleeping form.
I was safe and I was loved so what was this feeling of impending doom?
I slowly got out of bed carefully.
I would take a walk, clear my head ahead of the coronation ceremony.
I moved as quietly as I could so I would not disturb Astrid’s sleep. The door opened without a sound, and I slipped through it into the corridor, pulling it shut behind me with both hands so the latch would not click.
The smell of flowers always did make me feel better so I decided to go there.
I took one step then another before it happened.
One minute I was making my way to the gardens and the next a wave of dizziness hit me, stopping me in my tracks.
I staggered, my hand catching the wall just in time as my knees bucked from under me.
I gripped the wall for support.
"What the..." I cursed under my breath when my head began pounding and the world tilted beneath my feet.
I squeezed my eyes shut as the dizziness rolled over me in waves.
My stomach twisted and my mouth suddenly tasted bitter.
My vision blurred at the edges until the corridor was nothing but smears of torchlight and shadow
I squeezed my eyes shut and began counting my breath, waiting for the dizziness to pass and the headache to ebb.
What was happening?
I had never felt anything like this before.
"Ayla?"
A hand touched my shoulder, and I jerked like a startled animal, my heart lurching into my throat.
My vision cleared in that moment.
I was standing upright, my hand no longer on the wall, my breathing even, as if nothing at all had happened. I blinked, and the corridor came into sharp, clear focus.
"Ayla?"
I looked up into Ares’ concerned face.
His brow was furrowed, his green eyes searching mine.
"Are you all right?" he asked.
"Yes, I just..." I stopped.
What had I just?
"Couldn’t sleep?" he asked.
"Something like that." I smiled at him. "I was just heading to the gardens," I told him.
Ares looked at me for a long moment, a frown on his face.
"Umm... are you sure?" he asked. "Because the gardens are that way." he pointed.
I followed his hand and froze.
This wasn’t... how did I get here?
I was standing in front of Ares’ bedchambers.
My eyes moved toward the direction I had supposedly been walking from before the dizziness hit me
The gardens were nowhere near here. They were on the other side of the palace.
I knew that.
I had walked those halls hundreds of times.
There was no way I could have accidentally turned the wrong way and ended up here.
I swallowed.
"I..." I sputtered.
What the hell? I thought.
My head was beginning to pound again and it would seem that I staggered because Ares touched my arm again.
"Something happened. What is it?"
How do I tell him without him making a huge deal out of it?
I just wanted everything to be as it was before I was kidnapped. I did not want to be known as the girl who everyone needed to take care of and look after and do things for?
"Ayla, talk to me."
"Nothing happened." I said, looking up at him. "I just missed you and I lied about going to the gardens." I said, looking at my intertwined fingers.
I heard Ares chuckle and then hook his fingers under my chin, lifting my head up so I was looking into his eyes.
"You have no idea how much I have missed you, Ayla."
"Then show me."
I could see him fighting what was the desire that I could see in the depths of his eyes.
It felt good to be wanted that I totally forgot the bad feeling I had been having all day since the day I returned.
Or the fact that I had just literally crossed an entire threshold without being in the least bit aware of it.
All that mattered was Ares looking at me like that and the moisture pooling between my thighs at that very moment.
"Ayla, we shouldn’t" he murmured, his eyes hooded as he regarded me. "You need to recuperate... you have been through an ordeal that would leave any other woman..."
"Ares" I cut him off, my eyes blazing. "If you do not fuck me right now, so help me... I will find someone who will."
He looked stunned then a smile crept up his face animating it in a way that left me breathless.
"As you wish."
He pulled me into his arms, his mouth crashing against mine as he backed into his room, pushing the door shut behind us.
My back hit the door with a dull thud, my hands coming up to clutch at his shoulders as he pressed the full hard length of his body against mine.
His tongue forced its way past my lips to tangle with mine, one hand fisted in my hair, pulling my head back at an angle that gave him better access then his other hand slid down to grip my ass, his fingers digging into the soft flesh through the thin fabric of my night dress.
I moaned, holding unto him for dear life as my knees bucked.
Ares broke the kiss only to trail his mouth down the column of my throat, his teeth scraping against sensitive skin.
"You shouldn’t have come in here," he growled against my pulse point, his breath hot.
His hands moved to the laces of my dress, working with practiced efficiency to loosen them. The fabric slipped down my shoulders, exposing the pale curve of my breasts.
I gasped as his mouth found my nipple, sucking hard enough to make me arch against him. His tongue circled the hardened peak before he bit down gently, sending a jolt of sensation straight between my legs.
He lifted me without warning, his hands gripping the backs of my thighs as he carried me to the bed.
Ares spread my legs wide, settling between them as he freed his cock from his trousers. He did not hesitate before pushing inside me in one smooth thrust.
I cried out, my hands flying to his shoulders as he filled me completely, the stretch burning in a way that made my toes curl.
"Fuck," he grunted, leaning down to capture my mouth again, kissing me with the same desperate intensity as before. His tongue mimicked the movement of his cock, thrusting deep inside me and claiming every inch of me.
All thoughts in my head took leave in that moment.
Thinking back on it now, I should have say something about the dizziness and l should have let Ares make a big deal out of it.
Maybe it would have prevented what it is come.