“Your scent relaxes me…” he whispered.
It was quiet again; the cicadas began dinning once more as they searched for their mate in the dark.
“Grayson…” Cory began.
“Hm?”
“Maybe the reason you haven’t found your new mate is because they aren’t in this pac-”
“I haven’t found a new mate because I don’t have an old mate – you are still my mate.”
Cory huffed, “Fine, we’ll play this game. Alphas are hereditary, meaning the genes are passed down through blood, correct?”
Cory heard Grayson place his elbow on the table and assumed the ivory man was resting his chin on his palm, “Correct.”
“And in order for genes to be passed down, a child must be conceived; correct?”
“Cor-”
The halfling interrupted him, “Am I correct or not?”
The Alpha sighed out his answer, “Yes, that is correct…”
“Therefore, I being your mate would be the death of the Lightpaw pedigree. It would mean the legacy of this pack would die with me as your mate unless Sky and Aiden produce another heir which I think they’re too old t-”
“Mom and dad are dead,” Grayson spoke blandly.
Cory sat up instantly, “W- How? When?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Grayson shot down the line of questions, “And, I don’t give a fuck about the Lightpaw lineage. I don’t care about making pups to carry my name and genes and whatever else. I care about having you, here, with me...”
Cory lay back down from the sudden news; Sky and Aiden were dead and he hadn’t known this whole time. Grayson had been leading the pack with no support – Cory wondered for how long he had been doing so…
“They’re with the stars now, Grayson. They’re with my parents in the stars now…” Cory whispered, slightly saddened at hearing the news of Sky’s death. He didn’t know much of Aiden – he didn’t really see him since his initiation into the pack when he was five. But he saw Sky as a savior – a kind of friend.
“The entire Lightpaw bloodline lives in the stars, next to the Moon. So no, I don’t care about making pups,” Grayson whispered back but not sadly; he whispered in adoring peace.
Despite his actions, harsh words and standoffish nature, Cory was still treating the Lightpaw name as his first priority. Grayson didn’t think the semi-sorcerer even realised he was doing it. It was touching, it really was, but it was also frustrating because somehow he managed to use that as a reason for his departure as well.
Clinically disregarding the Alpha’s previous statement, Cory needed a sense of certainty.
“Let’s get real Grayson, you said ‘a few days’ – how many days does that consist of?” Cory asked in the dark along with the song of the cicadas outside the cottage. Grayson’s revelation that he didn’t care about continuing the Lightpaw bloodline was a serious statement, a statement that had some kind of effect on the halfling – one that he desperately ignored.
“How many can I get?” Was the quick question he received as an answer.
“Two” Cory answered easily and hopefully.
“That is not ‘a few’, that would just be two days.”
Cory narrowed his eyes in the pitch black, “Three.”
“Do you really want to leave that quickly?” Cory could hear the undiluted disappointment in his tone, but the halfling wanted to leave. His reasons had multiplied, firstly he didn’t want to be there and, now, secondly he didn’t want to facilitate Grayson’s delusion that he was still the Alpha’s mate. Cory wanted Grayson to find his new mate and be happy with them, he was uncomfortable seeing this new side of Grayson. Uncomfortable because he wasn’t used to this person and because this gentleness from a naturally temperamental person shouldn’t be wasted on him.
Cory sighed and rolled onto his side so he was facing the black cloaked kitchen, “This isn’t my home anymore, Grayson. It hasn’t been my home for four years now.”
“Where did you go? After you left…” The Alpha wondered, mostly to himself in thought.
“Ha!” Cory defied, “I’m not telling you that.”
“Is it nice there? What’s it like?” Grayson spoke with a soft smile that he knew Cory couldn’t see. Just having a conversation with the red-head made him smile.
“Hm, I think it’s nice there. When I first got there, it was so very different – I don’t know what I was expecting but it wasn’t what I was met with four years ago. I mean, just walking around Blackwood stunned me. But home is so much bigger”, Cory spoke, oblivious to Grayson’s intense investment in his story, “There are so many people and every single one of them is different. It’s mind-blowing when you think about it – so many people with completely different lives. And the buildings are so tall, the older ones are really pretty… It rains a lot there, I miss that – but probably because it became a regular part of my day so it’s strange when it isn’t raining…”
“What about your house? What’s that like?”
“I share an apartment” Cory spoke without thinking, he had been swept up in a wave of memory.
“With who?”
“Mark, he’s probably worried because I haven’t called him for a couple of days now…” Cory carried on as if there were no consequences to his words – images just strolled nonchalantly through his mind. The bakery he would pass on his way to the library, the bridge he would walk across as cars zoomed passed him in the street.
Grayson scowled at the mention of that name, something inside of him knew that Cory and Mark were more than friends – the lust of Cory’s dream, was it about Mark? It worried and infuriated him, he wanted to lash out in jealously, he ached to – but Cory was relaxed now. However, at the Alpha’s expense.
“What do you do during the days?” Grayson asked to distract himself.
“I just read… I research magic – which has very few credible texts. Mark taught me a few things, it would seem that magic is the kind of thing people just passed down orally – very few people actually documented techniques or geometry.”
“So Mark is also a sorcerer?” Grayson asked but the distaste involuntarily sounded in his pronunciation of the name, he elongated it in a mocking tone.
“Yes he is, Grayson”, Cory mimicked the Alpha’s mocking tone, “And if it weren’t for him I would’ve been on the street or dead.” Cory shut down and turned away from the kitchen.
It was quiet once again and Grayson huffed at that. Love is difficult, he realised. This was the first actual conversation he had had with his mate, yet now he already missed the sound of Cory’s voice as if it had always been there.
“I’m sorry”, Grayson offered.
“Whatever, three days.” Was all Cory said.
“Five.”
“Four”, Cory countered.
“Fine, but starting tomorrow”, Grayson negotiated.
“Starting today.”
“So three days” Grayson commented unimpressed by his mate’s tactics as it was already near midnight.
“Could be zero days if you let me leave now” Cory offered.
“I’ll take the three… Did you ever think of me?” The Alpha asked foolishly.
“Seventeen, alone, in the capital of a foreign country because I ran away from my home heartbroken – I tried my best never to think of you.”
“I regretted the words as soon as I said them…” Grayson whispered to the dark room, “And I’ve regretted them ever since…”
“We can't fix our past – no being can – we can only learn from it” Cory whispered back. His eyes began drooping, whether as a coping mechanism or because he really was just tired, he didn’t care. He didn’t fight sleep as it overcame him.
Grayson couldn’t let Cory leave again. He knew they had made an arrangement; three days. But, in his utmost honesty, he is incredibly selfish – of course he wanted his magical mate to be happy; he wanted Cory to smile, laugh, be free to move around and live his life.
But Grayson wanted to be there, he wanted to gaze at the portraits of Cory in the gallery that is his mate’s life; even more, he wanted to be the reason for that smile – a smile he just knew could pry open the gates of heaven.
Cory stirred when the door opened, he blinked his eyes slowly to adjust to some semblance of light permitted by the opening of the door and the fire that had been lit. He hadn’t dreamt, but did sleep rather well – he chose not to go over last night’s conversation.
He watched Grayson open the three cabinets in the kitchen corner while mumbling something to himself.
Cory sat up and stretched, “What…are you doing?” He asked and yawned at the same time.
“Morning, I was checking to see if she had coffee but it looks like she only has tea” Grayson mumbled in some disorientated way.
“Joy only drank tea, why didn’t you just have coffee at the mansion before you came here?” Cory rubbed his eyes.
“I slept here last night, I just went back to shower then came back” Grayson murmured still looking around.
“Well that’s your own fault, you should have slept at the mansion” Cory shrugged and stood up to go brush his teeth. He shuffled over to the little bathroom and squeezed some toothpaste on the toothbrush Lucian had gotten for him.
“Fuck! I should have thought of that – I’m sorry” Grayson grumbled moodily.
Cory looked at him in confusion with the toothbrush in his mouth.
“Getting you literal basics like toothpaste and stuff – Lucian must have gotten you that” Grayson ran his hands down his face.
“I’ll send someone to get you shampoo and all that stuff later today”, Grayson sat on the foot of the bed rubbing his eyes now.
Cory rinsed his mouth out, “You don’t have to do that – I wont… I’m using Joy’s stuff.” He didn’t want to continuously throw the fact that he will be leaving in Grayson’s face.
“You can go get coffee, I won’t run”, Cory quickly changed topic as he walked back to the bed.
“Do you… want to come with me?” Grayson asked tentatively and hopefully.
Cory didn’t hide his discomfort, “The mansion never sat well with me and everyone will see me an-”
“I remodelled it a lot and I can tell everyone to give us space”, Grayson spoke quickly and as hopeful as a child.
Cory closed his eyes and sighed, it wouldn’t hurt anyone and might make Grayson less doting – plus he would soon be leaving. “Okay.”
Grayson’s blue eyes hazed over for a second then seemed to focus back on the present, “Let’s go!”
“Gimme a second” Cory spoke as he tied his shoelaces, “Ok. Wait, I can't go dressed like this…” He suddenly felt self-conscious in a much-too-large night shirt and plaid pants – both belonging to Lucian.
“You look great” Grayson smiled reassuringly and opened the door to the cottage.
Cory squinted and covered his eyes.
“Jesus, you’d swear I locked you up in a basement – I’ll put in some windows ASAP” Grayson spoke as he closed the door behind a stumbling Cory.
“You don’t have to change anything” Cory spoke, looking around at the nature outside the cottage. It was difficult to tell if it had changed, his first time being outside Joy’s cottage he had run into the woods and Grayson dragged him back. He didn’t look around – but even if he did, the woods had a way of preserving it’s looks; remaining ageless.
He walked alongside Grayson looking around and taking a few involuntary whiffs.
Grayson stealthily kept an eye on his mate, he wasn’t worried Cory would break out into a sprint. He just wanted to see his mate’s reaction to the changes he made to the mansion.
“Lucian told me you have a housing project going on” Cory spoke as they walked through the woods, he was looking away from Grayson in the direction the rest of the pack lived.
“Yeah, I didn’t really like the whole hut situation as a statement of rank or whatever.”
“That’s nice of you” Cory commented.
“I can renovate the cottage if you’d like?”
“You already have.”
“No, like – remodel it, install some windows, redo the walls…” The taller man began listing outloud.
“The cottage is perfect as it is, Grayson. But, thanks for the offer.”
Grayson briefly looked down, slightly discouraged but shrugged it off and they continued in silence.
Comments (2)
See all