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The pain of iron chains digging into your flesh didn’t grant you much to think about outside of said pain. Captured by demons, a virgin maiden, you were dragged from your home and forced to witness the death of nearly everyone in your village. Mother and father, friends, neighbors- all fell to claws of devils and demons by the will of Dracula. A handful of women, all young, all virgin, all of ‘breeding age’ were spared. And when the one demon mentioned how you were fertile- it did not take much to realize just what the demons intended once you reached their hive in the place they called Castlevania- the domain of Lord Dracula himself.
Pain dominated your thoughts. Pain, and fear. The screams and cries of the other women were white noise as the devil carried you back to their domain, cackling and verbalizing the brutalities to expect. The thin cotton nightgown you wore would offer no resistance once the devil sought to take what they wanted. In the air of night, the cold wind wiped your cheeks, making you shiver in the cold. The chains binding you wrists and legs prevented you from kicking out, struggling- a fall from such a height would kill you, but it was preferable to becoming a demon’s plaything, a devil’s whore. Would god accept your soul if you could do so? Would it be suicide or an act of mercy upon yourself? There were no answers as you neared the imposing pillars and spires of the castle. No answers, only the demon’s laughter.
Dropped upon cold stone, you trembled and shook as the demons and devils began to bicker among themselves; who would sate their hunger first? What poor woman would be the first to fall victim to their brutal rape? You remained immobile on the earth, praying for a swift death to come- a release to spare your soul this fate. From you place on the floor, locked by fear and pain of cold iron, you watched the other women, wailing, scramble to one another, as if they might offer some protection. Their sorrowful cries echoed louder than the demon’s delight filled cackling. You remained silent, tears soaking the stone under you as you silently willed your own demise before they came for you.
The screams came swift as the demons ceased their debates, stalking to their hapless victims who pushed at one other, seeking to be the last taken into the hungry claws of their captors. It was fear that kept you still, silent, a corpse upon the ground with a racing heart. The first woman ensnared was the baker’s daughter, hair like honey and eyes wide like a cornered mouse. Her night down ripped from her body, the demons howled with pleasure as they forced her mouth open, inhuman phalluses bobbing in the air, a motley of colors and shapes each one seeking an orifice. Her jaw was filled with the cock of what looked to be some kind of gargoyle, and the vile monsters easily subdued her, forcing her hips up while a dragon like beast violated her virgin womanhood. The lewd sounds of wet flesh and gagging were like poison, sinking into your mind as you watched the woman’s violation.
The second woman, the fiancé of the miller’s son was next, pinned to the ground as a furred humanlike thing spread her legs and thrust into her uncaring, and a another forced himself into her mouth to silence her pained screams. The third woman, the merchant’s daughter who was fancied by the lord as a potential wife, was worse off. A minotaur taking her from behind blood pooling under her hips while another gargoyle suckled her breasts like some demonic babe. Her screams were a death keel.
You couldn’t move, fear of being noticed driving your instinct to remain still, hoping you’d not be noticed.
“Almost forgot one!” The cackle from behind you made your blood run cold as you felt yourself be lifted up, eyes meeting what looked to be a sort of male harpy, it’s beak mangled into a facsimile of a permanent grin. “Oh she’s a pretty thing. Been quiet too. Won’t you sing for us?” It said, claws ripping away at your night gown, forcing your body to be exposed to the devil’s gaze.
“Your companions sing so sweetly already. Sing for me, and I promise when you’re corrupted and a true succubus, I’ll give you all the seed you can want.” Your gaze flicked to the women, horrified to see the meaning in the demon’s words. The other woman were no longer resisting, moans and eyes glazed over with lust marked them, and you could feel the darkness slowly creeping in around them. Their immortal souls corrupted, they would become demon whores.
“Yes, you see now.” The avian creature laughed as you shook in terror. “You’ll make a nice succubus. What with breasts so sweet and those hips- you’ll be pumped full of imps by the week’s end!”
You did not recall what moment it occurred, only that the iron chains fell to the floor and the demon began to lower you to the ground intent on taking you as it’s prize.
You reached out, clawing at it’s eyes, the wet squelch a sound that brought an alien satisfaction as the creature reared back, howling in pain.
“Bitch! I’ll kill you for that!” You screamed then, scrambling away from your intended rapist now murderer. You did not get far however, your body hitting another as you attempted to run through an archway.
“I do not recall authorizing a raid upon a village.” The voice was human, and the man’s hand grabbed you in a vice grip, pain lancing up your arm as he held firm. Fearful to see your new captor, you looked and felt hope flutter in your chest.
A man, human in face and refined in his features. He looked more than handsome, he was beautiful, and he radiated a strange soothing calm, even as your heart raced in terror.
“Lord Adrian-“ The demon spoke but was quickly silenced.
You barely saw the man draw his weapon, let alone strike the demon down. The others took notice, ceasing their rape to look to the man who held you. Silence ruled, save for the mewls and moans of the corrupted women. The man sighed as he saw them.
“I suppose it is too late to stop you all. You may continue, but, the next time I demand to be informed before you go seeking new prey.” His tone betrayed his authority and threat. The demons and devils all affirmed his words before reaching back to their victims, resuming their carnal acts of debauchery.
You remained in his hold, shaking, hoping this man might spare you, save you.
“It seems perhaps, not everything is against my favor.” Fangs glittered in the light of the torches and hope died in your chest. This was no man, this was a vampire.
“Sleep.” His voice was soothing, even in the throes of your fear. Yet his command was unnatural, and a fog drifted over your mind. Eyes closing you saw his expression before you fell into your slumber. Apathy, and desire.
When you woke it was to soft silk sheets and an even softer bed. Alone, nude, the small cuts and marks of your captivity treated with bandages and gauze. The room was opulent, yet the decorations otherworldly. It was magic you surmised, seeing the bits of things from no doubt far away lands or places unknown. Paintings, relics- they were unlike anything you’d seen before. Wrapping yourself in the sheet, you gingerly looked for the vampire that had brought you here no doubt. Fear lingered heavy on your tongue, but lest you attempt to flee, your immortal soul would become nothing more than sustenance for the dark being. From the windows you knew that such a way would only lead to your death. The drop was too high, and no rope, no tied sheets, would reach the earth. As you opened the door to peer out, you yelped, seeing armors alight with magic flame turn to face you, spears lifted in threat.
The door slammed you darted away, bumping a table before the seductive voice came from behind you. “It is unwise to attempt to leave without me.” You spun and felt your fear melt into a twisted lust.
Platinum blood hair stuck to his naked chest, beads of water dripping along the pale perfect surface. He was an Adonis; Apollo of the night, inhumanly beautiful and seductive by his appearance alone. Perhaps sensing this, he sighed, a black coat flowing to his hand. Magic- he was no mortal man and you’d almost forgotten such in your trance.
“Forgive me for not having clothes brought to you, I felt it would be counter productive currently given the situation.” He was nonchalant about your fate. Why wouldn’t he be though? You were dinner, nothing else. Skittering around the table to avoid his proximity, a tiny smirk formed on his lips as you clutched the sheet tighter. His legging betrayed his excitement, the indent of his manhood prominent. You darted back and forth, as he would take one step to the side, then to the other. He was toying with you, prolonging the agony of knowing your fate and coming death.
“While this is endlessly amusing, the bath water will become cold if you insist on avoiding me.” You scowl. He must be joking. True, he looked freshly bathed, but you doubted he was going to have you bath just for the luxury of it.
“Why, so I might be more palatable?” You manage to speak, startling himself and you. But his look of shock morphs quickly to amusement, as your courting death in an attempt to simply incite he rage for a faster demise failed.
“Perhaps, if I planned to drink your blood. No, I simply thought after what happened, you might like a bath. I bandaged your wounds, but in my experience, cleaning oneself helps to... process traumatic events.”
Before you had a chance to rebuke him and his lies, his image flickered out of existence.
Only to appear behind you, grabbing your wrist in a vice like grip. Immediately you struggled, screeching and fighting as he dragged you to an adjacent room.
Which was indeed, some sort of bathing chamber. There was some kind of bath built into the walls themselves, steaming water covered in a thin layer of white bubbles. The aroma of sandalwood and rosewater hit you and you scrambled to escape the vampire’s grip.
“Please stop fighting. I’d rather you not make this difficult.” Your scream punctuated the air as he tore the sheet from your body, tossing you into the soapy water. Sputtering, you hit the surface, the vampire’s smirk evident.
“Now do bathe. I’ll have a set of gowns for your selection brought up. Pick whatever you like and dress. I’ll see you later this evening.” He bowed his head closing the door behind him, leaving you in the warm soapy water, wondering what games your undead captor was playing at.
The next few days, (or rather nights) passed much like your first encounter with your enigmatic captor. Elusive with answers, and disarming attentiveness to your needs. You had surmised that the room you were in was his own, and he was called Alucard. His name only known as a book upon a shelf had been addressed to such a man, and when you called him by the name he’d answered. He was a strange vampire. He took an enjoyment keeping you locked away in his chambers, occasionally brushing near you, forcing himself into your proximity. He had fine meals brought to you and stranger still, he would join you. The wine was certainly not wine, but he ate along side you. He wasn’t unkind per say, but he was not kind either. He treated you in what you could only describe as detached amusement. He smiled slightly when you refuted his orders, often making you obey his demands with a frim grip and a reminder of what lay outside his doors.
But, when left alone, he gave you things to occupy your time. Sewing for embroidery, books, paints- he even went so far as to tell you if you had a desire to ask it of him. Granted, you asked for your freedom but-
“I would, yet you would have nowhere to go, wouldn’t you?” He asked it as a question yet you knew, you knew what would come after.
“Your village is gone, it’s people dead. You have no coin, no relatives- You would be killed by roaming demons, taken by bandits, or worse.” Him saying the reality did not make it hurt less. That rising morning, you wept from your place in the soft bed, only to wake at sunset to roses and other flowers decorating the small tables. He even gave you a black gown for mourning.
He was a strange one, this vampire.
Days turned to weeks, and weeks soon turned into two months. Alucard had become something of a companion. He never was untoward, but he’d been more forward in his attentions. Gifts of fine jewelry, decadent desserts from exotic lands, music from a strange device, notes of poetry- not romantic, but small limericks of nature and happier things. He was teaching you dancing- his idea. When you asked why he’d said it would please him, and perhaps, one day it would be a useful skill for you.
Dancing was a joy- to spin with music and to feel something other than the dull repetition of your days, the feeling of his hand in yours.
Yet it was torment. His touch was cold, and yet he would draw you close, his breath faint and warm ghosting over your neck as he’d dip you. You’d long grown accustomed to the proximity of his lips near your skin- not a day went by that he did not lean close, as if to remind you he was not as he seemed. Yet when you danced with him, there was an alien gentleness to him, a smile that begged to be free yet he bit it back. You wanted to know more about him, yet, you never had the courage to ask.
“Tell me, do you hate me?” He asked.
“No.” You looked away from him, unable to meet his golden eyes, so intense and wanting to know what he could easily pry from your mind without asking.
“Why not?” He spun you, the click of your shoes on the hardwood in time with the song. “I have stolen you from all you know, kept you locked away, out of sunlight and far from any other soul. How can you not hate me?”
That was the question was it not? How could you not hate this demon before you?
“You spared my life.” You looked to him, breath catching as gold eyes pierced your soul. “You could have let me be raped, my soul damned, yet you have... kept me here. You are not unkind but-“
“I am a vampire.” He finished for you, stopping the dance mid song, pulling your body flush to his own. “What makes you so willing to trust that I will not kill you?”
Your heart was thundering, and his eyes drifted to the pulse in your neck.
“Nothing. Yet so long as I am alive, I have hope I might be free one day.”
Bold, tormenting. His mouth went to your neck and you tilted your head for him, knowing that if he wished, you would die. Yet death did not come- no, far worse. A kiss. So soft and warm and wicked- he laid it there on your neck like a promise.
“Forgive me then.” He whispered. “I am afraid that is one desire I cannot grant you.”
He vanished, leaving you alone that night as the song finished. You fell to bed, softly weeping, knowing you were a fool to think he might be kind. Yet he was all you had to rely on. He was all you had.
Months passed. You were his songbird, his pretty doll. Your hope of freedom had left, yet in a way, you could not mind it. Here, you had meals every morning and night. You had hot baths every day. Fine gowns and jewels. Music at your whims, no threats of being wed to a strange man, no fear of cold nights or illness. Alucard provided all you might want, save for freedom.
He’d eventually take you from his rooms. Walked you in the gardens. Allowed you to visit the vast library in his company. Demons and monsters would eye you both yet none dared approach him. Alone he warned, they would take you. You could never leave without him. Never trust them even if they said they spoke for him. He would not be pleased to find your raped and corrupted. Or worse, dead or damned. The succubi were cruel when they would see you in the window of his room. Their mockeries reaching your ears.
You would become the half-breed’s whore. His meal raised for slaughter. Once he had you, you would become just as they were. You’d asked him what they meant by half breed and he’d only said he was as cursed as any vampire, so it mattered little. Since the night in his arms dancing, he’d grown bolder still, occasionally reaching for your wrist to place a kiss there. Your neck- ever a threat, a promise unfilled. Your fingers, your shoulder when he would catch you changing. Long had modesty left you in many ways. He gave no privacy, gold eyes burning as he’d watch you undress and redress. You did not aim to be seductive, and no matter how normal it had become you still attempted to shield your body from his view.
“Do you like it here?” He asked one day, a game of chess between you. He’d always won, yet always asked you to play against him. Perhaps more for your sake than his.
“It is… better than I would have had in the village.”
“Yet you are unhappy.” His knight took a pawn and you frowned.
“I am your captive. A woman who can never return to the only life she knew.” You pressed on, a new pawn moving towards becoming a queen.
“How could I make you happy? I take you to the gardens, the library.” He paused, hand hovering over his bishop. “Tell me, what is it you desire?” His pawn went forward.
You did not answer him, moving your rook to take his pawn.
“I would have you happy. Tell me what your desire, and I would give it to you.”
“Why?” You asked him, watching has he set his own rook down, his hand lingering on the white piece. “I am just a human woman. One day I will fill whatever it is you plan my purpose to be. I am beneath you, mortal, weak. I am nothing.” Bitterness at the succubi’s word haunted you for so long.
His kindness was not love nor affection. What vampire could love a mortal?
Adrain looked to you then the board. “Because it is my fault you have lost everything.” You did not dignify him with a response. You pawn reached the end of the board, becoming a queen. It mattered little though, his knight took your king soon enough.
That night as you cried fresh tears, wishing for love, a life outside the castle as a vampire’s captive; he’d come, hands brushing your hair in silence. He left at dawn, and when you woke at sunset, he was there, melancholic, the gift of flowers in his hand.
Weeks passed, and he’d begun to sleep next to you in the bed. Before you’d never questioned it, assuming he spent his sleep in a coffin. Yet he would lay upon the covers come dawn, fingers gliding down your hair, soothing away tears and urging you towards a gentle sleep.
Weeks pressed on, another month passing.
His smile was soft when you blushed at his gift of exotic soaps and oils. At a new gown from the latest fashions of the capital. Your birthday, a thing you never knew he knew and how he’d found out, he’d never told you. Yet his other gifts would come the same. His wardrobe was now your own. His lips upon your neck no longer made your heart beat in fear. It made it race for reasons you could not put to words.
A month once more moved past you. Winter and snow upon the earth, he smiled when you danced upon the frozen lake for him. Christ’s day was not to be celebrated, yet a new beautiful fur coat was on your shoulders when he took you to the roof, showing you the land beyond the walls of the castle. You held him tight, afraid to fall. He had smiled, promising he would not let you go.
His lips as the year began anew- the soft touch as he held your face. He granted a small wish- he told you who he was. The son of Dracula. Lord of Castlevania while his father slept. Half vampire half mortal. Born of love. He said he could take you outside soon. When the spring thaw arrived, he promised to take you outside the castle to see the wildflowers.
At the end of the month, he slipped under the covers of the bed, holding you close while you slept.
You curled into his side, enjoying the weight of his arms around you.
Spring- his promise kept, you danced in sunlight among flowers, your captor standing in the shadows, watchful.
You kissed him, and he smiled.
Months pass and you found yourself forgetting the life you once had. You lived in his chambers, untouched, unbroken. His mortal pet yet not- he never called you such only by your name. He held you gently, taught you things that you never knew. Science and arts and math and history- lessons for nobility, he answered every question, every answer came freely. Your heart found itself lost.
Because when he came at dawn, pulling you to his arms to rest, his body was warmer, his lips softer.
The metallic taste of blood lingered, and you mourned the harsh reminder the man who offered you everything but freedom was a monster.
Summer and he took you to a city. A gift- he had tailors take your measurements. He bought you fine art supplies and jewelry. He gave you anything you wanted. You laughed at the antics of actors at the play, you danced in the city square in his arms as the band played.
You held him close as you slept at the inn, the owner mistaking you for a married couple.
Alucard did not correct her.
“Do I make you happy?” He asked when you returned to the castle. “Do these gifts, these.. object bring you happiness?” He looked to you, gold eyes seeking an answer. At first you wanted to say yes, but before you did- the sadness, the loss, the reminder he was your jailer came back.
“Yes. And no.” You looked away from him, setting the bags of your purchases away. “I am… better here than I was. But I mourn.”
“What would make you happy? Freedom?” He stepped close, grabbing your chin and forcing you to look into his eyes. Gold, burning, his rage loomed over him “Would being out there, alone, at the mercy of men and monster truly make you happy?”
You kissed him, tears shining on your skin as he carried you to his bed.
Gone was your fear, gone was his formal distance. His hands ran over the bare skin of your neck, teasing you with phantom touch. The taste of water- clean and pure was in his mouth. Death was gone from him as he embraced you. The firmness of him pressed to you, promising, Alucard gasped your name as you pulled him close, his mouth grazing your neck- a promise never filled.
He pulled away, leaving you bare and alone.
He no longer slept by your side. He never spoke of it.
A year passed and you wanted him. His love. His strange kindness. The golden gilded cage that was his room, your room would suffice for your life. You could live in this isolation so long as you had him. Did he know? Did he understand how you’d come to hate him, to love him?
A year and a day, he came- dark and foreboding as a summer store raged in the night.
“Would you be mine?” He asked, kissing your neck. “Give yourself to me?”
“Yes.” You reached, grasping his hand and guiding it to your breast, to your rapid heartbeat. “I want you Alucard.” He groaned, teeth raking your skin, a moan drawn from dark desires. “I want you.”
He carried you to the soft silk bed, laying you down and smiling that same soft smile you’d come to adore.
“Forgive me.” His hands were invading, pulling away layer after layer of your clothes, and when he found skin, his lips followed, planting kisses that made you shiver. A wordless worship, he treated you unlike anything he’d done before. He made you want- and he did so while wanting you. As the final layer of your clothes fell away, the sheer cloth hiding nothing from his gaze.
“You are…” As he lifted that away, baring your body to him entirely, you felt it, a pulse, a growing heat between your thighs- the place no man had touched you, the place none had ever looked upon. Yet his eyes drifted them, pupils dilating in lust. “…divine.” He pulled away, letting you stare at him as he pulled his clothes off. Pale skin, lean muscle, he was Adonis- forbidden gothic statue brought to life. Left on the bed, you were enchanted, tongue peaking out to wet your lips as he smirked. He knew he enchanted you and when his trousers fell, his manhood bobbing free, you gasped in awe. You’d seen cocks before- human and inhuman, living in a demon castle sparing you nothing. Yet his cock was perfect and flawless as the rest of him.
Thick and long, it suited him, and it stood erect, tip flush with blood, and you could not help but admire it. Your tongue peaked out again, wetting your lips, wondering if he was like a man- you had never kissed a man there. Never tasted lust. The women in the village had whispered about it, but you had told yourself that was for married women, now, a vampire stood before you. A demon made to seduce, to draw you to sin and damnation. Yet as you looked up to his face, you did not see sin or damnation- you saw the man who saved you from a terrible fate.
His hands grasped your foot, lifting it to place a kiss there. Kiss after kiss, he worked his way up you leg, making his way to the growing heat between your legs. It was torture, a kind you never thought you would ever endure, a torment you never would think you would want to suffer. Squirming, he forced your legs apart as he reached your thighs, lips coming closer to your heated core with each kiss. Your voice was lost as he found your desire. His lips kissing your clit softly, a faint brush of skin to skin. Yet it ignited a fire in you. You fell back, unable to look at him as he began his worship, tongue licking at your sex, drinking not blood but lust. You writhed as his fingers parted your folds, granting him deep access into you. Soft sounds of his sucking of your clit, the gentle yet firm strokes of his tongue, the light tug of your lips between his. He worshiped you. He tasted you, drank from you, and when he tested you, slipping a finger inside your core you arched, his name a prayer on your lips.
Alucard, vampire, demon, devil- lover. He would take from you the only thing that had remained of your old life and replace it with the final thing to make you stay with his. Gone would be your virginity, a lover anew you would be made.
His fingers did not relent as you cried out, he kept stroking inside you, finding a spot that make you keen and scream for him. He smiled against you sex, drinking your orgasm as he refused to stop. You felt yourself die and reborn under his touch and when he added a third finger, stretching you, his lips suckling over your clit, you screamed his name and gave him what he yearned for.
You tasted of innocence and spring. Life was in you, and he wanted it. All of it.
Panting, spent in the new bliss that was euphoria, orgasm, you barely registered as Alucard climbed your body, his kisses tender and gentle comforts as he found your breasts. His hands kneaded the soft flesh, toying with you as thumbs gazed your nipples. Licks to the slowly swelling buds, his ministrations arousing you till they were stiff. Yet you thought it twisted. Breasts were for babes to suckle, not pleasure. Yet it was pleasure he gave, pulling it from you body as he swirled his tongue around the dark tip before sucking, teeth gazing in threat.
Shaking under him, he ceased in attention to your breasts, leaving your nipples tender and swollen. Gold eyes met your own, and you feared what you saw. It was not lust in them, not hunger, not desire. Adoration, affection- love. His eyes were full of a human emotion and you gasped his name into the night as he sunk into you. Your innocence, purity, virginity lost to a man who was not a man. Yet as he filled you, stretched you over his cock, you did not care. You embraced him, arched for him to go deeper as he moved.
“Can you feel me?” His voice was a whisper, lips hovering by your ear. “Can you feel how well we fit together? How you were made for me?” Hips lifted back, the feeling of his silken cock rubbing your sensitive walls. It was alien, yet so divine.
“Alucard-” His name left your lips and he moved again, sinking into you, the pressure of his balls against your ass. He was rooted in you, reaching deep into your core. Each thrust was a kiss to your soul, an attempt for two to become one. Connected, moving in tandem, chasing pleasure and carnal bliss. Alucard did not stop as he brought you over your peak, fingers reaching down between your legs to flick your clit. He did not stop when he lifted a leg over his shoulder, changing the angle until you begged him for more. He refused to stop as he took you from behind, when he took you seated upon him, when he took you rocking on top his body-
Alucard refused to stop, drawing every pleasured sound from you he could till all you could do was scream for him. Each time you came, his breathing grew more intense yet he never had his release, never filled you with his cum. As you cried out a final time under him, you looked at him, his eyes hazy with lust and hunger.
“I love you-“ You reached up, cupping his face, “I love you.”
Sharp, the feeling of pain- red, the color of your passion and hate- Alucard drank, his cock buried deep as he filled you with his seed. Each time his mouth sucked to draw more, his cock filled you further. Over and over, an endless cycle until you whispered his name and darkness began to embrace you. He loved you, lusted for you, wanted to right all the wrongs in the world for you. His father fell in love with his mother, and he was a child of their love. And you- a woman of no remark, a woman who he’d met by luck and fate- You refused to allow death to take you and he could not help himself. Your sadness was his, and when you smiled, your joy was his.
He pulled his fangs from your neck, feeling his seed inside you, wanting to make you his in every way. Your eyes, even seeing the blood on his lips, the pain in your neck-
“I love you, my Adrian.”
He wanted to keep you forever.
Time passed, and his father had been driven by madness. His mother slain by mortal men. He’d rebelled, and helped kill his only surviving parent. Ending a nightmare. Ridding himself of the ones who’d called him son.
He had wanted to sleep. To rest until his father rose once more. He’d lost his mother, his father- and yet he alone could watch over Castlevania eternal, aid those who would stop Dracula’s madness. Yet he could not. Sleep would not come, and so he lived in shadows, a home away from mortals and men. A castle of his own creation, hidden away so none would find him. Not even Trevor would be able to track him down.
As he looked to the dark sky on the horizon he felt it, his father waking so suddenly, so soon from his ‘slumber’. Unnatural, it heralded a nightmare Wallachia would not survive.
Looking to his home, the place he’d created for his happiness, he worried. He feared.
“Are you going?” Her voice echoed in the surrounding wood, and he frowned. He did not want to go.
“I have to.”
Silence. He lowered his head, thinking of her, of what could be. What could have been.
“It’s alright.” She smiled softly. “I love you.” He took off into the forest, racing to the place he’d met her, held her, kept her.
“I love you Adrian.”
The place where he had found the woman he’d loved.