May The Dread Wolf Take You

Chapter Nineteen: Wants

    For Cassandra the days leading up to the Inquisitor's resurgence were heated. The snow on the mountains was intensifying as winter came closer but figuratively speaking she was everything but cold. On the first day, Cassandra was constantly looking over her shoulder for Cullen. He seemed to be nowhere. He wasn't in his chambers. She knew it was a risk to go there but she had to know where he was and what he was up to. He wasn't training the initiates that the troops had just received. He wasn't in the war room with Josephine and Leliana. He wasn't checking in on the Inquisitor. And he wasn't with Bull at the tavern. She ran out of places to look very quickly.

It dawned on her that he could've left the compound and something had happened. It started to eat at her slowly. She couldn't explain her sudden concern. She rushed to a guard and demanded he tell her where he was. He responded nervously that he was right behind her. And indeed he was, leaning on the wall on the top of the battlements behind her. "Where have you been?!" She shouted at him angrily. He turned and smiled as she rushed at him.

She wasn't sure why she was so angry. It wasn't as if he needed her permission to leave or to relax. "Around. Did you miss me?" He evaded the question, answering with his own. Her face curled into an angry scowl. She pushed him harshly and began to shout. "You give me all this work, telling me you trust me with it. You ask me to help you improve your troops' stance and I comply. You promise me you'll help with the Charger's and then you leave me to do it all myself!" She yelled at him. His grin only grew as her anger did.

Her fists were clenched and her face was red. She had marched all the way up here in a rage to scream at him. He wanted to kiss her. To take the frustration out of her wistfully but he wouldn't. "I think you're just mad because my attention hasn't been on you all day." He said and stepped to her, closing the gap she created upon shoving him.

Cassandra scoffed at him, enraged by his audacity in assuming such things of her. "And now you're here because you couldn't stand to be away for too long. You crave my touch but you won't admit it. You're much too head strong." He continued. She opened her mouth to speak but he started again. "Don't worry, Cassandra. You'll get what you want soon enough." Cullen finished before stepping back and walking away. Once again, Cassandra was left heated and speechless.

     She saw him again later that day. He didn't look particularly interested and she wasn't in the mood to deal with his shenanigans anymore. She decided that she would not give in to him. She would not succumb to her feelings for him, whatever they were. She was on her way to see the Inquisitor before she headed back to her quarters for the night when Cullen found her. He did as she had expected, even wanted, him to and pushed her against the wall. The rough stone behind her and his sculpted body in front of her was making it hard for her to focus.

    "Enough already, Cullen." Cassandra said. He smiled. The week was almost up but he hadn't expected her to give up so easily. "You will stop this." She ordered, pushing him away from her and composing herself. "I will not be your play thing. You cannot just find me in dark places and shove me into corners. This will end right now." She sounded serious. Cullen thought for a moment that he had hurt her feelings.

    He thought better of it though. If Cassandra were hurt, she wouldn't have said anything. No, she was trying to make a point. A very stubborn point that she would not be played with. He straightened and grinned even more. She was so beautiful when she stood up for things she believed in and here she was standing up for herself. He never thought it'd be against him.

     He finally found the words he wanted to use. "But it's not the dark places and corners you're mad about, is it?" He questioned. She started to blush. "You're tired of being left unsatisfied. You don't like that you enjoy the way this feels." He told her as he stepped closer and put his hand on her hip. His fingers played at the skin beneath her top. She quickly raised her hand and slapped him. "No." She told him violently. He was slightly phased by her response and chuckled. "You think this is a game but I will not be made a mockery of, Cullen." She said. He didn't back down. He wasn't about to let her think she had the upper hand.