Page 95 of A Soul to Steal

He didn’t notice Aleron had come closer until a large warm hand cupped the side of his neck. This world couldn’t even give him the decency of allowing that touch to feel wrong – for his skin to prickle with goosebumps in repulsion to the affectionate touch.

Gideon was shaking in anger, betrayal, and hurt. He made a fist, hoping to tense his muscles into stillness, which only seemed to worsen it.

“Why are you upset?” Aleron asked, kneeling down so that he was lower, like he wanted to be smaller, for Gideon’s sake.

“Upset?” he croaked out, turning his face to his with a false grin. “Who said I’m upset?”

Okay, so the lie came out unconvincing. Even Aleron’s orbs flared red for a moment.

“Now you don’t need to tie yourself to someone you don’t want, and can go be with Ingram,” Gideon stated, nodding his head towards Weldir. “This is your chance.”

When he recoiled from Aleron, his orbs turned to a deep blue. Aleron darted his hands up and swallowed both sides of Gideon’s head in his massive hands, squishing his cheeks and making his lips puff forward.

“I do not understand why you said I do not have to tie myself to someone I do not want. I have never said this.”

Why were they even having this conversation? Weldir spilled the truth, and now Aleron didn’t have to have a difficult and awkward discussion about it. Gideon had even given him an easy out to avoid it. So, why the hell was he trying to have it anyway?

It would have been easier for everyone if he’d been ignored until the end.

Now he wished he’d been ignored from the verystart.

“I’m saying you don’t have to force your feelings now,” Gideon grumbled through the squish of his palms, frowning deeply.

“But I do not want to go without you,” Aleron said, as a little whine echoed from him.

Gideon sighed and rolled his eyes. “You owe me nothing. Even if you got to come back to life, I never expected to be owed life as well just because I chose to be your friend. I did that because I wanted to, with no expectation of receiving anything in return but your company. You don’t have to take me with you.”

Did Aleron really think his actions had been so self-serving? Maybe he’d shared in Merikh’s way of thinking without realising it.

What Gideon had said was true. He’d chosen to be Aleron’s friend simply because he wanted to. And he had no one else to blame for the current hurt stinging in his chest. He would have liked to have known the truth, but at the end of the day, Aleron had never been obligated to share his intentions.

Sure, it sucked and was a shitty thing to do, butoh well. No point in crying over it. At least he wouldn’t be given the time to.

Aleron’s hands loosened, and his head dropped. “But I thought you would want to come with me.”

A whine echoed from his skull, just as his orbs darkened in their blue hue. The bottoms of them broke. Little glowing water droplets began to float around his skull before growing smaller and disappearing.

Gideon’s head reared back in surprise, and Aleron’s hands slipped away from him because of it. His wings drooped completely.

When a whimper broke from him this time, Gideon’s brows drew together tightly. “Are you... are youcrying?”

Aleron reached up and scratched at the collar of fur at the side of his neck, while drifting his skull to the right as though he wanted to avoid looking at him.

“I wanted you to be my bride. I thought you loved me, as I do you,” Aleron quietly grumbled, through little pain-filled whimpers. “I thought that was why earlier we became one. I do not understand what I did wrong.”

This time, when his head reared back, Gideon stumbled because of it.

“Did you just say that you...loveme?” he asked, dumbfounded that he’d even uttered it.

“Well, yes. Was I not supposed to do this?” Aleron’s floating droplets trickled faster and became larger, as if growing in mass from the weight of his sadness. He clawed at his chest. “It is different to how I love Ingram, but I feel it here.”

Aleron’s honesty baffled him.

Gideon fell to his arse, too busy trying to figure out what was going on to concentrate on standing. With his knees bent and wide, his feet almost touching, he held the soles of his boots together.

“I need your help here, because I’m really confused,” Gideon said, leaning his head to the same side Aleron’s skull was pointing, hoping to grab his attention and connect their gazes. “I thought you only brought me along with you because you needed me to come back to life, Aleron. That you were thinking of making me your bride just to do this.”

The curt growl that cracked from him had a wheezy whine in it. “I would never choose a bride for such a reason,” Aleron snapped out, chomping his fangs in his direction. “A bride is special, even I know this. It is someone we must choose within our heart; someone we love and care for. It should not be meaningless.”

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