Rue
Levi felt like home, like salvation, like the sweetest, most gentle relief. She sank into his arms with a rush of heat in her eyes, knees giving way. She felt utterly weak for him then, devastatingly needy for the warmth of an Alpha.
Her Alpha.
He was purring, chest rumbling against her skin. There were no words between them for a moment, only the fluttering hum of concern etched with something far more profound than worry. And she found herself growing desperate for the safety of his arms.
"I've got you," he repeated like a mantra, holding her close as if they were lovers. The rasp in his voice made her feel as if she were collapsing. "I've got you. I've got you. I've got you."
Then his hands were on her cheeks, thumbs tracing her jawline, his eyes searching her face, catching her gaze. A rare, complicated blend of emotions flickered across his features, deepened in his handsome brow. She stared back, startled by his proximity, inhaling air desperately as if she were drowning.
And Rue was fucking drowning, swimming in the mud that lingered in her brain—Edmund's ink, his dirty hypnotism. It stank in her mind, had her vision fuzzy with a sickly nausea that burned. A breath away from the monster had her gasping through trauma that felt like sickly withdrawal. Now she shivered in Levi's arms, head filling with a growing pellucidity that told her everything she needed to know.
Another moment with Edmund might have broken her completely.
Another second with Edmund could have destroyed her mind.
The thought chilled her to the bone.
He'd pumped her full to cloud her judgment.
His words were pretty, too damn fucking pretty. A world led by Omegas, a chance to be an empress, and a forgotten army. Bullshit. Rue wasn't going to leap into the arms of every older male figure that claimed to be her kin. And there was one major flaw in Edmund's beautiful little speech, peppered generously with the sweetest fantasy.
Rue was not an idiot who believed in stories.
She was a cynical pessimistic little shit, and she was almost 99% sure that mind reading Edmund was hiding a fuck ton of secrets. Her biological father had claimed to be her mother's soulmate; he, too, had talked about impossible dreams. He had mated with her mother and then left her chained to port 69 with a baby.
Rue was pretty damn sure Edmund would do the same to her if he could.
Alphas could not be trusted.
"What the fuck is this?" Levi spat, his fingers tugged at her cheeks. "Your eyes." His panic was stark on his face, the relief now swallowed by a tsunami of fear. "What the fuck did they do to you?"
What about my eyes?
Rue couldn't speak, the words slurring in her head. But her mind, once flooded with the darkest of quicksand, was already clearing steadily. The heavy drag of false safety was gradually leaving her system, invisible threads breaking from her thoughts. And as it flowed out of her, she was left with a gaping emptiness within her soul. A shaking exhaustion that must have clung to her face like a bad case of addiction.
Addiction.
She knew what it was without a doubt: the control, the dullness, the thumps of her heart. The world that spun in the slowest circles and then burned too bright. The ink was some kind of drug, a drug that had rendered her incapacitated. It had quelled her voice, her powers and her strength.
And she knew it looked fucking awful from Levi's bewilderment. The twitching tic of his jaw, the narrowing of his eyes and then his pupils blown wider as his fingers clung to her face.
Her mind continued to spin.
The true weight of her terror was now growing within her. Previously stamped down by the ink, it now shivered through her limbs, kindled into an inferno that had her frozen with wet eyes. Suddenly, she yearned for the ink to fill her again, to flood the emptiness inside her with its thick, heavy weight.
Edmund was right, it felt good to sink.
That motherfucker drugged her.
She sagged.
"Fuck," Levi cursed, his hand tapped her cheek. It stung. His scent billowed, whisky-spiked and delicious musk. "Fuck. Fuck. Fuck."
She struggled to speak. Her tongue felt fat and lazy in her mouth from the loss. "The ink," she slurred. "It did something to me. T-there was a man, he called himself their emperor. He could read my mind. And then there was so much darkness around me, I think he got me somehow…"
"He touched you?" Levi snarled.
"O-only my hand—"
His scent consumed her, a bedhead of curls now too close to her face as he leaned lower. His nose nudged at the glands on her neck, tracing down her skin. A sniff had him going lower to her hands, lifting her fingers to his lips. The kisses were like the gentle flick of a butterfly's wings. She hadn't noticed it, but a ring of bruises was now wrapped over her wrist, so purple that it kissed the colours of blood.
The cup. Her mind reminded her of the glass that had turned into rock. The cup had been spiked.
Levi was growling, eyes flecked with a hot, boiling rage. "Poison," he hissed, lapped at her wounds with a wild curse on his tongue. She grimaced. The shadows seemed to grow. "I'll kill him. I'll kill him. In Hades' name, I will. I fucking will."
"I couldn't do anything to him," Rue whimpered, shaking her head hard. "He was trying to drown me, and then it felt like he was breaking my soul."
Her thoughts swayed, reminding her of the way Edmund had crawled like some kind of spider, pulling her deeper into his web, slowly lulling her into a false sense of security. Who could she trust? But her head ached from what she knew, his words seared into her mind. Her gut told her everything she needed to know.
He was her soulmate.
That had seemed to be the truth.
"I was convinced that he was lying, but some of his words..." she trailed off with a shrug. "It seemed true."
"I'll take you home," Levi said gruffly. "You need medicine, sleep and food. You need the pack—"
Rue continued to speak, unable to stop herself now that she had begun. "Levi, he said he knew my father, that he was my blood."
There was a startled wide-eyed pause, and then Levi's words were spilling from his lips. "Lies," Levi said, fingers gently rubbing her wrist. "He's lying just to get you to trust him. You fucking know it."
"He said he was a Titan," she interrupted.
The words were flowing out of her as if she were desperate to get them all out. Rue didn't know if it was a mistake to tell him everything. But Levi was always looking out for her. Levi had always protected her. He healed her, he saved her. Some part of her wanted him to know, needed to share. And she watched as his features twitched at the words, acknowledging the terms.
He knew those words.
Edmund had not been completely lying.
There was truth in his grand speech.
"He said that I was a Hera," she tested the term on her tongue. Levi seemed almost scandalised, but his breath came from him shallow and fast as if he understood, as if he knew. Her body tightened like a bowstring, coiled from the tension of it all. "That he hurt so many because he wanted to take back the throne. And he was always looking for a way to take it all back—"
"He's a fucking monster," Levi snapped, his pupils trembled. "You don't know what you're talking about. Titans and Heras have gone extinct. Those are dead prehistoric aliens from old wars of legend; they no longer exist, and the insects do not have the genetic material of those beasts. It's a ploy to get you close to him, to force you to trust him. He wants you to turn on us. That was a parasitic monster, Rue—"
"I know," she said, shaking her head. "I know."
"Then why do you insist—"
"H-he," she stuttered. Should she say it? A long pause, and then her chest seemed to swell with an odd rush of despair. Every breath felt like a struggle, lungs frantic and incapable of expansion. She was choked in a sudden rush of terror, pulse screaming in her ears with the suffocating weight of what she knew. And then those dreadful words tumbled from her tongue, "he said we were soulmates."
Levi froze then, startled by the admission. The inhale was sharp as his fingers stiffened against her skin. His hands, once gentle, once steady, now shook, shuddered as if his body were pulled in too many directions, every nerve wound tight and on fire. Then a deep, violent rage seemed to consume him, wyvern eyes forming in his pupils as embers roared from within. "Liar," he snarled, releasing her hand to stand. The bruises were almost gone, fading to a softer, gentler yellow. "He fucking tricked you. He drugged you. He's fucking lying."
She wanted to believe him; the pulse of her panic was shrill, searing her mind. "I saw the bond," she whispered, feeling hollow. The realisation was creeping up to her throat, clawing at her air. Her breath was shallow, too fucking fast, fluttering in her mouth like a caged bird. "I don't want to believe it, but it felt real."
"Don't be fucking stupid." The words struck her like a match to oil and her lungs seized violently.
"I know, damn it, I know what you're thinking!" she snapped. "I know what it looks like. I know I seem to have lost my fucking mind. But I also know what soul bonds look like, I know what to expect. It looked real…I-It felt real."
There was darkness in Levi's eyes, and his words were rasped out, raw and trembling. "It was a trick. You can't be fucking serious."
"I…I don't know."
"It was a goddamn hoax!"
"How can you be so sure?" Rue said with fear almost teary in her eyes. She clawed free from his touch with a snarl. The shadows felt as if they were closing in upon her, the tension in the air growing syrupy thick. She forced a palm to her chest, trying desperately to smother the ricochet of her heart. The panic attack was unrelenting. "It came from my chest. It was the weirdest fucking feeling. I've never felt this way for anyone else in this world. It felt…Godly. It felt destined."
"Don't say that shit," Levi barked out a laugh. Then he glared at her, incisors growing sharp. "You're fucking with me. You like to do that. Don't."
"No, I'm not."
His voice rose then, reaching a peak. "Rue, he's a fucking monster!"
"I know, goddamn it. I do!" She shook her head, tears welling up in her eyes. She hated it as much as he did. Couldn't he see that? "I tried to ignore it. But deep down, I know he's telling the truth. He's right. He is my soulmate. I fucking hate this, but he is mine."
And that had Levi growing cold, jaw dropping, eyes shifting to hers. He stared at her then as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. The silence burned, and his breathing was ragged. She watched as he almost seemed to convulse, quaked as if barbed wire were forced through his belly, lips parting into a silent half-gag. Her own heart seemed to twist with a burning ache, mirroring his pain.
"Levi," she gasped out, reaching for him. She saw it in his eyes, her reflection, not as herself but as something he had lost, something he longed for. "Levi, are you alright?" The look on his face reeked of pure agony, a flash of jealousy, and then it transformed into a spaced-out disbelief.
"You're sure?" his voice was hollow as if knocked out of him. The despair in his eyes frightened her.
"I…" her words dropped into the softest of whispers. "Yes."
"Soulmates lie," he began with a cold voice, fury etched in his jaw, emotions torching in his orbs. His scent had darkened, reeked of something far deeper than just anger. The despair was gone, quickly replaced with rage. "They cheat. They fuck others. They say pretty things. They leave."
"I know."
"You can't fucking trust them, they'll hurt you. And this fucker? He wants us all to die."
"I know," she snarled. "I was raised in a brothel, remember? I've seen the lot. I know what you're saying. I'm not an idiot."
His fury was almost palpable. "Then what makes him so different?"
"Levi, I've never had a goddamn soulmate." She threw her hands up, feeling so fucking wronged by his questions. Her voice seemed to tear at the seams. "For fuck's sake, you have six soulmates. Shouldn't I give him a chance?"
Levi was silent then. And for a long, horrible moment, Rue loathed the feeling of his eyes. But it wasn't him that make her feel like shit, it was her own heart tumbling in her chest as if she were making a mistake.
She sighed. "I know. I know what you want to say. Just forget it—"
"You want him?" Levi's words cut into the air, hard and cold. The sound of it sliced through her like a knife, jagged and raw. It was a whisper, barely audible, barely heard and yet it rang louder in her ears than the words he'd spoken before.
She flinched then, catching his gaze. There was a sharpness in his features, a darkness that reminded her of the Alpha he was. But also, a horrible aching terror that coiled tight in his jaw, he looked at her then as if he were losing her. And she knew at that moment that he didn't care for the details, the Titans, the Heras. The insects.
He didn't care about the monster.
All Levi wanted was her. And something strange pounded in her heart, suddenly aching for the sweetness. It reminded her of the way he held her, the way he'd caught her. And even now, she remained in his arms like a damn princess. And his fingers were gentle, hands on her waist. He held her like he loved her. She could see his true feelings in his eyes.
Don't. Don't say it. Don't leave me.
And with it was an awful terror, a heavy fog of panic that seemed to compress upon him like a horrifying weight. A tremor twisted from him, vibrating from his chest and spiralling to the shake of his fingers. He shuddered in her arms, and she could feel his heart thundering against his ribs in a steady awful rhythm of panic.
Her words were blurted out before she could comprehend her emotions. A hot rush flooded her cheeks.
"I…No, no, I don't."
"That's right," he said, relief flashing in his eyes, the weight lifted instantly like a fog in the moor. "He doesn't deserve you." His fingers were laced with hers, pulling her closer to his chest. She yelped as he clutched her, words rasped hot against her skin. They were chest to chest now, ribcage to ribcage, and she swore he must feel the rush of her heart as their scents mingled.
"You've never cared for soulmates. You've never cared for what was in the stars. You've never cared for fucking traditions, prophecies and legends."
Her confusion grew, exhaled shakily. His breath echoed with hers as she spoke, gorgeous face crumbling into a vulnerability she rarely saw on him. His hands were possessive as they found her hips, holding her closer. He now stood a mere breath away, inhaling softly, watching her carefully. His scent engulfed her — a glorious whisky, sandalwood and a touch of spicy musk that was all him. It made her chest tighten and her heart race.
"If you did, you would have known about me."