The Dark Beast's Love

When I woke up the next morning, my body was both exhausted and filled with anticipation at the same time. I finally had a goal again, a purpose to fulfil and even if the cost was great, it would be worth sparing the lives of whoever was left in the village. If my sacrifice meant that children would finally have a chance at a future again, then it was a small price to pay. Still, I was grateful over the day that Riven had given me, not because I'd changed my mind, but because it gave me enough time to think everything through and process what I was about to give up.

It also gave me a chance to mourn Nathan for real this time. Throughout the entire month, I'd completely avoided the thought of him and everything I'd left behind. I had avoided the thoughts because I knew that it would only leave me in heartache, and because I knew that as soon as I started thinking about him, I would have to realise that our future was lost. When I finally allowed the emotions to rise, it was a lot more than I originally thought I would be. Despite already crying the entire night, I found more tears to cry for the future we'll never get to have and for the first time in a month, I actually allowed them to flow this time. The tears were an end to my hope, and an end to an era where Nathan and I were supposed to be together. It had been painful, but it had also been what I needed to let him go. The bargain would keep him alive, and that was my last prayer to him.

Somewhere during the process, I'd also turned my thoughts to Riven, and what this meant for him. He'd already told me that a lover was all he ever wanted, this entire mess is because he was in love with someone who didn't belong to him and instead of pining in distance he got reckless and impulsive enough to search for a witch. He wanted this, I saw it in the way his eyes widened when I first presented the bargain, not only in surprise which I first thought, but also in complete disbelief. When a person spends too long longing for something, as Riven had, they rarely believe their senses when the thing they've longed for is presented right in front of them. They always look as vulnerable as a deer the first seconds before they start spewing out their scepticism in the form of words and denials, and Riven had been no exception.

He'd kept his promise and kept a distance from me the entire day, doing his best not to change anything in his routine to affect my decision, but I still noticed some unconscious consequences of the bargain being on his mind. For example, the kitchen and living room was cleaner than I'd ever seen it, and instead of spending his days lost in the woods like usual, he harvested two times the usual amount and then I couldn't help but notice that the body of the deer had already been taken care of even before midday. If he was stressing out because of the bargain or because of the fact that I could change my mind remains a mystery, but he had (without a doubt) only thought about that his entire day. Rising from the bed, I found myself hoping that the exhaustion in my bones would leave soon. My mind was off thinking about a refreshing breakfast when I suddenly came to a halt, spotting Riven sitting on the couch with his hands locked in front of him and shoulders almost up to his ears. Him being in his own home shouldn't have surprised me, but at this time of the day he was usually out and halfway through his morning chores so his current presence caught me off guard. "Liliana," He almost flew out off the couch when he spotted me, but then hesitated. "I... Did you sleep well?"

The fact that his nervousness was dripping off him made me more anxious than I'd first thought I'd be.

"Not my best night," I responded honestly. "But that is not the question you wanted to ask me."

If he was annoyed or grateful that I was so straightforward was unclear, but he nodded slowly.

"No," He admitted, straightening his back and regaining his confident aura more and more. "But I do not wish to push you for an answer."

"You said that I was going to make up my mind this morning and not a moment sooner," I reminded him and tried to play off my own nervousness as casually as I could. !"The morning has arrived and I have made up my mind." Riven just waited for me to continue.

"My offer remains," I said slowly. "But you have to promise me that no more monthly huntings will occur if I give you this. I am doing this to save my village, not for nothing."

"I expected nothing else," Riven said, slowly inching closer to me. "And even if my beast side may have its mystery, there is one thing that hasn't been more clear. There is no blood in the world that could compare to you, not for me nor him." My breath hitched when he reached out to brush a lock of my hair from my face.

"Then I'm yours," I whispered in the short distance between us, completely ignoring how my heart was racing. "Then I am yours to take."

He finally dared to place his hand on my jaw, the touch soft and featherlight, and it ignited every blood cell in my veins.

"Choose a word, any word, as long as it's absurd and barely used."

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I frowned at the request, but could not deny him it, nor could I stop staring into his emerald eyes.

"Fuschia," I said, my mind drifting to the first time I saw the shade of pink with its absurd name.

"Good," Riven nodded approvingly, his voice barely above a whisper but still filling the air. "Every time you want to stop, you say that and I'll stop, no questions asked."

I took a small step back in surprise, but it was not enough to break the tension between him and me.

"You're giving me a safeword?" I asked surprised, trying my best to ignore the soothing feeling of his tum brushing over my cheek. "I thought we agreed that I was yours to take? Your lover and all that comes with that."

"Being someone's lover does not give them the right to do whatever they want to the other," Riven shook his head as if it was obvious, which it wasn't too all, but should be. "I want you more than you can imagine Liliana, but what I want has a lot to do with what you like, and my desperation does not overshadow your boundaries. You will use the safeword the second you feel uncomfortable, and I will listen to your command and stop whatever I'm doing to wait for your instructions, whatever they might be. And this is not negotiable for me, it's this or no deal at all."

"The bargain is still on," I responded quickly,

"And you'll use the safeword?" His thumb hovered over the top of my lips. It still amazed me how he could make a conversation about safewords in our arrangement be so intimate, and it made me wonder what more talent he hid while another part of me was hating me for falling so fast into his trap of sweet words and soft touches.

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"I promise," I said, knowing that it was the only way to keep him satisfied. "I promise I'll use my safeword when needed and voice my opinion when I'm uncomfortable." "Good," And then his lips were on mine.

When Nathan kissed me, my sense always got enhanced by the feeling of his lips on mine. My hearing caught sounds I otherwise wouldn't have noticed and my body was always hyper-aware of the touches on my skin.

But when Riven kissed me, I could not get a grip of anything except for the channelled desperation from his kiss. Everything else zeroed out into nothing, and I could not make sense of either the time, the touches or the sounds. It was just his soft lips against mine, and the silence. To no one's surprise, I was the one to pull away first - my lung capacity nothing against his own - but he didn't seem to mind. If anything he seemed to be caught up in his own astonishment. His eyes were wide and his grip on my jaw tightened slightly, as if to make sure that I was real.

That was when I felt the edge of the bed against my calf. I hadn't realised that we had moved while his lips had been on mine, but now I recognised the interior of the bedroom and the familiar sight of the garden that the single window offered.

"Don't fuck me today?" I asked him in honour of my recent promise. "I'm not sure if I want that yet."

Riven nodded understandingly as he scanned my face. "But can I continue taking?"

I gulped slowly but nodded once, and true to his words his lips returned to mine and suddenly my back was against the bed. He stayed away from the parts under my waist just like I'd requested, but it did not prevent him from devouring every part of the skin on the upper half of me that the too large shirt revealed, leaving marks by sucking, biting and licking whatever inch of skin he could get his lips on, drawing small gasps from my lips every time he touched a sensitive spot and remaining there to hear more.

Somewhere in the middle of it all, his touches that had been like igniting matches on my skin turned into something comforting, something soothing, and I felt my exhaustion grip my consciousness as his touches became nothing more but a whisper in the back of my mind, the biting and touching slowly transitioning to soft kisses just as sleep hit at its fullest. Despite just waking up, I was grateful for the opportunity to sleep again. Meanwhile, my voice of reason couldn't understand why his touches had felt so naturally on my skin, as if his kisses had always been meant to be there. But today exhaustion won over my constant need for answers, and I allowed my consciousness to slip off as I felt one last kiss on my forehead.