14. Chapter 14
fourteen
Ares
I can’t remember the last time I felt so confused and frustrated. Rodi can’t deny me forever. I can sense the desire radiating off her when she’s around me, and an incomplete mate bond will continue to drive her crazier. I just don’t understand why she hasn’t completed the marking.
If she doesn’t accept me as her mate, we’ll be back in limbo, trapped in an endless cycle of yearning without relief.
But she’s not concerned with that right now. After she slapped me, I left her room to give her space and some time to think. A lot has happened to her in a short amount of time, and even if I struggle with it, I need to exercise more patience when it comes to her .
I pace around the halls, wondering what she’s doing and what she’s thinking. I don’t want to leave the house until the marking is complete, so I hunt down some of my men who work and patrol around the property and send them out for food. Eventually, someone will work up an appetite after all of this is said and done.
My heavy footsteps echo throughout the bottom floor as I check on a few things and busy myself. When I’m through, I head up to the second floor, figuring there are things to check out there as well. I was only gone a few days, but I like keeping everything in order.
If only I could keep my love life in order too.
Typically, Ethan takes care of the petty business. I’ll have to put him to work soon so that he’ll be busy and distracted instead of lurking around near Rodi all the time. He’s a good Warden, but he’s invading important territory by getting so close to Rodi.
He’s confusing her. He’s the reason she hasn’t completed the marking yet, and I can only hope that he moves on and focuses on something else. Someone else. He can’t be her mate.
Like I’m caught in a gravitational pull, I head toward Rodi’s bedroom, wondering if she’s even still awake. But the closer I get, the more noise I start to hear. Moans. Heavy breaths.
Anger burns beneath my skin when I realize that Ethan is in the room with her right now. He’s disobeying me again, following his heart instead of his head. He knows that this isn’t smart, but he’s too focused on Rodi.
Damn it. I can’t blame him because she’s incredible. Even her voice is sweet as I start to make out her words.
I clench my jaw and lower my head. How is this fair? I’ve waited for her for countless years! Now, I can’t have her to myself? Perhaps that’s selfish of me to think, but all I’ve ever done is love her .
Is it a crime to want her love to only be directed toward me and no one else?
Frustration sparks within me as I picture the grin on Ethan’s face. He’s probably over the moon right now, thinking that she belongs to him. The thought of ripping his head off flashes across my mind, but I grit my teeth and shake my head. I can’t hurt him. She will never forgive me if I do. Hell, she’ll reject me.
My eyes then widen. That’s it! She needs to reject him. If she dismisses her feelings for him of her own accord, she’ll want to be mine and only mine.
“I won’t ever make you choose,” Ethan’s voice sounds from inside the room.
Oh, come on. The bastard has always been far better at romantic stuff than me. I know I can come off as gruff at times, but I don’t want to tiptoe around anything or anyone when my hands are always full and my mind is always racing.
Ethan has a tender side that I don’t have. Well, I don’t have anymore. Part of me used to be tender, but I lost that side of me after all I’ve endured throughout the years. I’ve had to toughen up for my own survival, which has forced me to change.
Maybe Rodi has changed too, or maybe she’s confused and lost. The closer she gets to the state she used to be in, the clearer her head will be.
Ethan is noise, disrupting her focus and stealing her attention away from me. Us. I have a plan in the works to get her to reject Ethan.
All I have to do is push the right buttons, but I don’t expect things to work out easily. Rodi has always been very stubborn, but it’s one of the many things that I love about her .
When I hear footsteps approaching the door, I quickly head down the hallway, acting like I’m going toward the stairs. Obviously, I don’t want them to catch me eavesdropping.
Ethan and Rodi leave together, and they’re standing way too close to each other for my liking. They share a warm smile that sends a tremor of anger through me, nearly pushing me toward the point of shifting. My claws and teeth want to poke out, and my wings threaten to break free.
I have to fight like hell to contain myself as Ethan heads downstairs, leaving Rodi alone in the hallway. It doesn’t take her long to notice me, her eyes narrowing slightly.
At first, I think she’s going to storm away, but she sighs instead and holds her hand out to me.
“Well, come on, grumpy,” Rodi says.
The attitude in her voice makes me smirk. She wants to be mad at me, but it’s hard to turn away from the ones we are drawn to. I take her hand, but I don’t let her pull me to her. I tug her to me, my hands gripping her waist to steady her. “Now, that’s no way to speak to your Aetherion.”
Rodi rests her hands on my chest as she gazes up at me. “I’m still mad at you. You can’t do something like that again. You can’t use the dragon call against me.”
Her moans rumble in my mind, reminding me of her time spent with Ethan. What did he do to make her moan like that? Fury burns, but I swallow it down so that I don’t scare Rodi off. “I won’t do it again.”
A satisfied look crosses Rodi’s face before she leans up and presses a gentle kiss against my lips.
Calmness washes over me with each brush of her lips against mine. The fury dies down, simmering into nothing as all I can think about is her.
“Let me show you my kingdom,” I say .
Rodi pecks my lips one more time before smiling up at me. “I would like that.”
Taking her away from the house for a little bit sounds like the greatest idea.
With her hand in mine, I whisk her away, giving her a tour of the town I helped grow and thrive throughout the years.
Where she comes from is nothing compared to my bustling town with its cobblestone streets, many shops and places to eat, and lush parks. I don’t have time to show her everything, but I do take her to a boutique I think she’ll like, a bakery, the town hall, and, finally, my favorite park.
“This is incredible, Ares. How did you manage all of this?” Rodi asks as we walk through the park, following the path that leads past the lake full of ducks.
Nicely trimmed bushes and large oak trees dot the park, and other members of my clan lay out on the grass or exercise on the walking path.
“Time. Many lifetimes,” I mumble as I offer my arm to her.
“Lifetimes?” she asks carefully as she wraps her fingers around my bicep, her eyes continuing to sweep around to admire my creation.
Maybe telling her more about who I am will help her remember. “Ethan told me you knew about the exiled god, Ares,” I start as I watch her closely, wondering if this will be the moment she remembers.
“Yes, it is a story I remember from when I was younger. Why?”
The ones who brought her to the orphanage… Right, Ethan told me that too. It doesn’t sound right that she had ‘parents’. Every time my life starts again, I rise up from my ashes, but I never had a family. Only the one I created.
I had to repeat the same cycle.
“Well, it’s not just a story,” I whisper, and she freezes.
“What do you mean? ”
“I’m Ares.”
“I know that, but what does that me—” She pauses mid-word as her gaze rakes over me and then her surroundings. “It’s true?”
I’m careful with what I say. “Thousands of years ago, I was exiled and cursed to wander among the mortals. Without a way back.”
Her fingers peel away from me as she inches back. “You have done this countless times before.”
I nod. “And tried to live a better life every time.”
She blinks as she glances away. Tears spring in her eyes as I wonder what I said wrong.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
She shakes her head, a tense smile curling on her lips. “Nothing, it’s just… Nothing.”
I close in, cupping her face as I draw her gaze back to mine. “Tell me. Don’t hold back from me.”
She sighs. “It’s stupid. I already knew you were with others before, but to know you had other mates before… Soul mates.” She shakes her head free and walks back. “I’m not your first mate and I won’t be your last, but you can’t accept my having two. How’s that even fair?” Without a second look, she walks away, leaving me in silence.
How did she take that out of what I said? I never had another mate. It has always been her.
“Wait, Rodi,” I call out and run after her as I know I have to say it, tell her everything.
She’s quick, and as my fingers graze over her arm, she turns, and I’m too late. My head snaps to the side as she slaps me on the cheek.
Fury shines in her eyes. “You’re an ass!” she screeches, and I draw my gaze back to hers as my cheek stings from her touch. My lips curl, and she scoffs. “Don’t you dare smile! ”
“Are you jealous?”
“What? Your mind goes there? Didn’t you pay attention? Look at everything you are doing, and I’m being stupid to even believe you can change or that this will work.”
I grunt as my ribs tighten at the sound of her harsh words. “I’ve never had a mate before, Rodi.”
She blinks. “Well, that doesn’t make it right what you’re doing to me,” she scoffs.
I sigh. “I know it doesn’t. But someday, you’ll understand.”
“Why don’t you just explain it now!”
I don’t know if she’ll believe me. Will she turn away from me once she knows or run back into my arms?
“You’re not Rodi. Not really,” I say and watch the anger in her eyes fade.
“You know who I am?”
“We were together before, and it took me so long to find you again.” I step closer, hoping she’ll let me in, and when she doesn’t move away, I carefully reach for her cheek, brushing my fingers over her skin. “You might not remember who you were, but I do. I’ll never forget you… my Aphrodite.”
She peels herself away from my caress. “I want to go back,” she says as if my words mean nothing.
“Back to Ethan?” I ask as my heart beats faster, fearing what she might say.
She huffs. “Even if what you say is true, that there was a time we were together— one I don’t remember —that doesn’t change anything.”
“What? It should. We were supposed to be together, then and now.”
“I’m not the person you think I am. ”
I edge closer as she shakes her head. “You are! You are cursed like me to live, die, and repeat. But now I’ve found you, and we can break it, destroy everyone who stood against us!”
“And then what?” She pauses, taking a shaky breath. “I should just forget that you’re hurting me, every single day?”
“Hurting you?” I puff as I shake my head. “All I did was to protect you.”
“No, all you did was because you wanted it. Not because you thought of me.”
My jaw tenses as my dragon swirls inside me, dangerously quiet.
She’s fighting so hard for Ethan, like how I’ve been fighting for her.
I can’t help but wonder who she longs for more, Ethan or me?
“It’s not about Ethan. It’s about us. I don’t feel or experience the mate bond like you do. I know that I’m drawn to you, that I feel better when I’m around you, even when you do stuff like marking me against my will or being an ass to Ethan. It doesn’t matter who we were before.” She turns and continues her walk back as I stand baffled, unsure of what to do next.
I’m losing her, just as Ethan said I would.