Silver Skin

9

Stupid boy with stupid thoughts
~
Rexton
~

Stupid, stupid. Stupid boy.

Rexton trampled over the many roots and sticks that managed to sweep in front of his path. The vines twirled around his ankles, dragging him down and he only just caught himself from the fall. They were set upon him like tricksters, natured to take him down, to swallow him whole and he didn't know why. The woodland was out to get him.

Lover. I called her my lover.

He thought those words and they came to life.

Rexton stalked at a slower pace as he buried himself deeper and deeper in the forest where no guards were and no wolves wandered.

But that's what she is. To me, she is my lover. My only love. Rexton fiddled with his fingers and swallowed the growing lump in his throat.

He couldn't regret what he said.

Rexton had never been in love before. In the realms of his pack over a century ago he had infatuations here and there. Meaningless, time-passing crushes that never met the light of day, only hidden in the inner parts of his head.

He was hardly around she-wolves, only saw them at a distance and fixated that one would perhaps be his one day. Father forbade it and completely isolated him from everyone.

Rexton always knew of mates, ever since his infancy, it was either whispered or foretold.

Roman and Cela were mates, but it was a loveless union. A joining that was never meant to be. The best part of their bond was their three sons.

Rexton always thought it was a punishment for all their wrongdoings. If they were truly going to be monsters, they would be monsters at heart and in fate ... forever.

While Lycus snuck she-wolves into the tucked-away and concealed corners of the pack to make out with them, Gabriel was much more subtle about the philosophy of mates.

Whilst Lycus didn't believe such a thing, no more than a curse to bind him, Gabriel had more much to say:

They are the breath you never thought of taking. The dream come to life. Everyone supposedly has a mate, Rex, and you will have one too.

Rexton clung to the words of his brother and he never wanted to let them go.

He wished to wait. And wait he did.

But Cadence ... she could never return it.

She was so guarded, bitter and entirely indifferent to the mate bond.

Could she feel what Rexton felt? The pulsating and doting fondness he had for her?

He never wished to enforce anything upon her. He had done that once and that led to a need for revenge than anything else.

They have grown past that and Rexton never wanted to go back. He couldn't envision it for them.

He thought all was well. He would wish Cadence a happy birthday, give her the gift he made from scrap metal and spend the remainder of the day with her.

These recent months, their time together had been a reviving mess. Some days they would only walk by each other, Cadence's face written in mission, whilst Rexton had so much to say. Other times, they would be joined at the shoulders, their travels taking them around mountains, up hills and looking at the overview with nothing left in sight. Another day with no path to follow that could lead to Lycus.

But Rexton couldn't help but feel whole being near Cadence. What was once a fragment of himself travelling through the wind was now stitched together into him, Cadence completing everything without meaning to.