Meredith is a hot mess’s Reviews > Oath of the Alpha > Status Update

His pride fell to ash, the arrogance of his ego dust as he murmured the pleading words against her slack lips. Er’it begged with his heart in a raw ruin within the softness of her palms, his soul hers to do with as she wished if she would but open her eyes. He would not let her go, not now, not ever. She was his and always had been

It does not matter how you or I feel. It is the way it shall be and the path preordained by the Hat’or—”

“What do your goddesses know about anything?”

“You dare—”

“I do,” Aida said with a snarl,“What do they know of me? I am not theirs to command. The Abyss has no hold over me when I am with you, and I do not know the deities of my parents any more than you do. I do not belong to anything or anyone but you.”

“Stop this, Aida. You do not wish this.”
“No,” Aida shouted, daring to grab hold of his lower lip with her teeth in a sharp nip. “You will allow me to say this before you put me on a thrice-cursed altar and kill me, Er’it.”

“I’ve never known love,” Aida repeated, taking a deep breath to firm her resolve, “but I would think it feels like this. To want and be wanted, protect and be protected. It feels like a warm fire on a cold eve—”
Er’it shushed her, claiming Aida’s lips in a ravenous kiss to further silence her. Aida broke away with a gasp, grabbing hold of a fistful of Er’it’s braids to keep him still.

“Er’it, how… how much farther is it?” Aida asked in a whisper,

“You should rest, Aida.” He pushed her head back down, scrubbing at her scalp with the pads of his fingers to keep her calm and quiet.

“Please, tell me.”

“A day, perhaps two if the road does not hold,” he said, arms winding tighter around her as if afraid she would attempt to flee.

*sigh It's been so long since I read something so tragically romantic

It was a tender, softer version of what she’d felt in the caves, the warm flicker of a candle left in the window instead of the devouring flames of an inferno, but it was the same. She felt whole, like she was a part of him and he a part of her. Their hearts beat as one, their breaths flowing in a hushed tide within their quiet space.

It means ‘my soul,'

And kou’va roughly translates to ‘my desire,’ or ‘my need.’ Both are the sincerest of endearments.

Closer to their destination, her birthplace. A home she didn't remember. Yet, the closer they came, the more the feeling of belonging pervaded her. She had a sense of the woods, the creatures within it, and even of the people she knew to be hidden in the shadowy recesses of the forest. Whole tribes of them were there. She could feel their hearts beating, their blood pounding to a rhythm set to the pulse of the land.

She wanted nothing more than those profound moments back, where she looked deep into Er’it’s soul and saw a glimmer of herself within the ragged edges. She’d knitted him back together, eerie blue strands holding tight, though he’d fought against it.

Did he even understand the whole of it? Did she?

Until Aida herself called to him, unknowing in her darkened cell as she mumbled broken prayers to something she didn’t understand or believe in to save her from a plight she didn’t deserve.

A savage, brutal coming together that left their mouths torn and bloody, it was odd in its satisfaction, as if nothing between them could be so soft and easy.

“No more,” Er’it whispered against her