Loric

He had a taunting nightmare in which the king ordered his execution. When Loric woke up, he massaged his throat as he realized he was all covered in sweat. It was probably the result of all the things that happened in the other night, but also because he was having a panic attack.

    The first thing that came to his mind was: he shouldn't have slept with Spirith. For the past two days, everything happened so fast and so sudden that he forgot his mission to kill Spirith.

    And now he had a real problem. How could he kill the one he cared the most?

    Loric left the hotel bed where a few minutes ago he was hugging his mate who was still pretty much unconscious. Before he moved to the bathroom, he took a look at her and felt his heart beating fast the sign of an angel. She was half naked with part of the cover hiding the warmest parts of her body. Her endless leg made Spirith look like a model from those renaissance paintings.

    For a second he remembered she was still wearing that plastic thing she called a condom. Loric didn't understand how that thing works as a tool to avoid pregnancy and he believed that the object might feel uncomfortable inside of her.

    Without hesitation, he leant over her and woke her carefully to not startle her. The last thing he wanted was having her upset with him in a vulnerable moment.

    "Spirith?" He touched her shoulder and she opened her eyes slowly. "Don't you want to take the thing off you?"

    "What thing?" She mumbled, still sleepy.

    "You know, the thing you put inside you last night?"

    She left him confused when she smirked. He didn't like that smirk.

    "Do you want to take that off for me?"

    He blushed, but nodded.

    It's not like he hasn't seen all types of female intimate parts in his life, but seeing her with her legs wide open to him felt...strange. It's like she was giving him permission to enter her life.

    "Sorry, I shouldn't have asked that." She said after noticing his red cheeks.

    "No, no. It's fine." He scratched the back of his head nervously. "It's just that I don't know how to do this."

    She told him how a feminine condom should be removed properly and that's how he did it. Loric had to ignore the excitement he felt with the scene of her with legs wide open.

    "Thanks," she said as he threw the used condom in the trash. "I guess, that's it."

    That's it. Her words echoed in his mind painfully and he discreetly flinched at it. Here she was, pretending that their dangerous escape was nothing but a quickie and not the most important moment of their matebond. To him, that was the start of a lot of things. The beginning of many sleepless nights, the introduction of a horror book and the sparkle to the flame that lived inside his heart.

    What happened last night was definitely not a quickie and deep inside she knew it.

Loric gulped down and smiled at her. His eyes had a sad expression as he knew very well what 'that's it' meant. It was over. Their relationship didn't even start and now it's over.

"So that's it?" He asked, sitting on the edge of the bed.

She agreed coldly, standing in a sitting position. "I cannot be with you, Loric. It's...not right. I don't want to go back to Lorland."

    That statement he already knew. It would be selfish to force her to return to her homeland that looks like an inferno to her. Everything about Lorland reminded her of the painful life she left behind including him.

    "I understand." He said, standing up from the bed.

    Inside his bag, he always carried knife and poison in case he needed it. Perhaps, he considered, it would be the perfect time to execute her. Not because he was embarrassed for the rejection but because if he didn't kill her now, the king would go after her and do it in the worst way possible. He couldn't imagine the scene of her being killed by the evil hands of the king. Loric would not let it happen.

    He slowly began to put on his clothes, very conscious of the weapons inside his bag that laid on a chair.

    "You do?" Spirith asked, genuinely curious. "So you wouldn't mind if I just...rejected you?"

    He shook his head. "I would. Actually, it's already being excruciating to let you go. But..." he took a quick glance at his bag and swallowed.   
    He didn't have words to say.
   
    But I intend to kill you? So she could run away and call help?

    But I already feel like I'm in love with you so please don't reject me? So she would have the opportunity to say 'unfortunately that's exactly what I'm gonna do' and just leave him?

    None of these choices were good, so he said instead:

    "But I want to see your wings."

No, he wasn't exactly interested in the in-between her thighs, neither he wanted to see her boobs. He was extremely curious about her wings. Were they long? Pointy? All black? Blue? Green like his? He once read in books that soulmates had matching wings, which meant that Spirith's wings were supposed to form a shape when combined with his.

"My wings?" She was in shock.

"Yes."

"Why?"

He didn't answer. Spirith left the covers, still a bit perplexed with the request, and let her wings project themselves out of her silky skin. Maybe it was the first time in history that a straight man looked at a bare woman and was more interested in watching her back than her private parts.

To his biggest surprise, her wings were red. It was the first time he saw a no-royal butterfly person having a crimson wings because generally only a royal related to the king or queen would be blessed with ones.

    She stood still with her wings open to him. Loric did the same and they looked at each other wings. It was not the first time they saw their wings, they did it when they were teenagers. But it was the first time they looked at it as soulmates.

    The moment felt magical and slowly they closed the distance between them and connected their wings. Loric was the first to notice that their wings together formed a small shape of a star in the center.

    Spirith laughed, as if it was some kind of cruel joke of fate.

    ...

    "WHAT?!" the king yelled through the small shell that Loric was holding. "WHY DIDN'T YOU KILL HER?"

    Still that day, he said goodbye to Spirith and flew all the way to Santa Monica so he could talk to the king. Unfortunately, he was not alone there a bunch of locals were passing by and staring at him as if he was using drugs. He didn't blame those humans, it's not everyday that you find a man talking to a shell.

    And he also had a big problem now. He had to explain why he, under perfect circumstances to commit the crime, didn't stab Spirith until she died.

    "You said I wasn't supposed to kill her immediately."

    He heard the king stuffing his lungs with air. "I said you had to gain her trust so you could kill her in the right moment. That was a right moment, Loric Mawall. You could have done what I asked you and then threw her body somewhere."

    Yes, he could. Loric had done a huge mistake today and he promised himself to not let that happen again. He needed the money the king promised him. He was getting too old to steal old ladies' money.

    "I will do it better, I promise."

    "Keep dating Spirith Nova, make a safe place and kill her. Bring her body to me." The king ordered.

    Obviously the king couldn't watch him, but he bowed in agreement. "I will. I promise I will."

    "Good. Keep updating me about your days in human lands."

    Loric was ready to throw the shell on the sand when he heard the king calling for him again.

    "What?"

    The king took ten seconds to answer. "I want to remind you that if you make any mistake, not only Spirith Nova's life will be threatened but yours too."

    The threat was real, and Loric felt that. A shiver danced inside his body as he agreed. "I won't make mistakes, I promise."

    "Good. Now, goodbye."

    Loric threw the shell on the sand and left Santa Monica beach. It was night, and no one could see him projecting his wings out and flying away for his luck. If one could, this human would probably not believe in their eyes and would think they were too stoned and was imagining scenarios.

    He flew to LA and got to the house he was living with Catheryna. Loric hated to pretend that he was into their situationship, but he needed Cath to survive for now. She gave him a house, and cooked food for him in exchange for some good sex and cuddles. Loric believed that she was crazy to get pregnant and chose him to do it.

    Once he landed on the door, he hid his wings and knocked on the door. Cath was faster than he imagined and opened it, revealing her half-naked body.

Cath was wearing a black lingerie and flip-flops which did not amaze him. Her body was beautiful and feminine but he didn't feel so attracted to it as he expected.

"Wanna come?" She invited him seductively.

Loric didn't miss the double meaning of come.

"I don't feel like it, sorry," he said truthfully.

After what happened with Spirith, he wasn't into sex with strangers anymore.

Cath was utterly devastated by his answer but gave him space so he could enter the house.

"That's...okay."

Loric moved to the kitchen and served himself a glass of water. Cath was somewhere behind him, watching his every move.

    "What?" He asked as he cleaned the glass.

Cath moved behind him as touched his back with her front. He could feel her breasts smashed against him, and the heat of her body involving his own.

"I love you," she confessed, her mouth close to his earlobe.

Humans...

So easy to give themselves in the name of love. They don't know what love actually is and here they are, confessing their "love" to a stranger.

Cath craved for this kind of thing, he discovered. She was a lonely person with a long history of failed relationships. She had boyfriends from A to Z and none of them were so...exclusively hers. This is not a healthy type of relationship in which one part is financially dependent of the other, but Loric didn't mind. He would use this human until he no longer needed her.

"I love you too," he turned around, grabbed her by the neck and kissed her aggressively.

It took no longer than a second for them to be in bed.

"You said you weren't feeling like it," Cath said between breaths and kisses.

"I do now," he lied.

Truth be told, he was imagining Cath as Spirith. Every thrust in her body he pretended that it was Spirith below him and not this clinging human who thought she was in love with him. Loric wanted to make love with Spirith again, but he couldn't. He won't ever be able to touch her again so now he needed to use other women to satisfy his carnal desires.

It was a sign he wasn't able to catch. A sign that showed how his body craved for Spirith already, and even with his mind denying it, he would never be able to kill Spirith Nova. He was his own traitor, and for that, he was also betraying his people, his king, his birthplace, for her.

What did I do? The question floated in his mind.

What the hell did I do?

He didn't know the answer. And now, he needed to find a solution so he would be able to kill his mind without tearing apart in the process.