Perseous's Human Mate

Rock Bottom

Max's POV:

Hearing it was enough. I had no desire to see the fighting itself. Trapped at the bottom of an oil well was a curse and a blessing, however being hidden doesn't quite over power the metallic scent. My clothes remained wet from the oil and there was so little heat down here that I was shivering uncontrollably.

It was as if I was back in that pond, hiding from Percy not long after Prince Viorel had saved my life. Before I begged to be over looked and now... I would give anything to see Percy again.

Gabe takes a break from his sad attempts to climb the wall. His amber eyes leave a heated trail as he scans my body. Without a word he pulls me into his embrace, here it's pulsing with heat and gives me the illusion that we're safe, even for a little while.

"Your freezing," he says," even if we were going to escape now, we should wait until the fighting dies down a bit."

A wicked smile formed across my face," more puns?"

His laugh echoes off the stone walls and vibrates back into my chest as a flutter. "You really are horrible? Aren't you?" I can only shrug. Still holding me he asks," why all the puns anyway?"

Gabe triggered a naturalness in me, a natural response to trust him, even if the reason was no secret - it was still personal. "My father died when I was young. To distract me from my father's memory, Parker invented this game. 'The Pun Game'. It was so stupid, but we played it anyway. It's my way of staying close to Parker, even when he's far away."

Gabe rubs my back, the friction created a soothing warmth across my sore muscles. "I see...." Gabe trails off.

A thought enters my mind. "Why don't you ever talk about your family?"

His hands stop moving. He heasitates before he continues to move them again. "They are dead," he says in a monotoned voice. "The only family I've ever known is the pack, and Percy's mother. The rest of the family never really accepted an omega. Nothing much else to it."

The way he speaks about it, makes it seem so dark and long ago. As if he was talking about a toy he had lost and have never found despite his search. Holding him tighter, I push as much warmth into my words as there is in his chest. "I can be your family. I am your family, Gabriel."

He backed up enough for his eyes to cut through the dim light and into my own. "No Max," he spoke softly," your my Luna."

***

Percy's POV:

It had been two hours since we conquered the castle. My mate was not in the hanging tower. Had we been too late? Had she been sold already or worse killed in the crossfire? My father stood in the corner, a splotch of dried blood on the corner of his jaw. He just stands there, sharp eyes examining the ruble next to the tower entrance.

Max's scent was mixed with the metallic blood that was carried through out the entire castle. She was impossible to track, or tell if the blood was even her own. She was gone. She was taken with her giggles and smiles and kisses. I promised I'd protect her, that fear was the key to that protection. Yet here I stand with nothing but the ghost of what I hoped would be in this castle.

"I told you Perseus." Lifting my head from my callused hands I found my father had an angered expression on his face. "She was your mate and you lost her - over what? An omega," he spat, spitting onto the castle floor.

"I did not raise my son to be a love sick puppy who lets his mate make impulsive decisions. I raised you to keep your mate in line, to keep her disciplined for this reason exactly!"