His Fading Humanity

Chapter 10: In Her Presence

"You will do as I say and not question me. Now, see to it that you excuse yourselves." She cut him off hastily, her wolf growing agitated at the scent of her mate's blood yet angry, sad, disgusted, and stressed all at once.

The queen felt these very same emotions.

"Yes, my apologies." The guard replied before scattering themselves and exiting with haste.

Kyros stilled as he heard the resounding footsteps ebbed and faded away into nothing.

He was alone with the queen.

He knew he would face rejection as her movements progressed towards him. Steady and strong, confident and wise.

Yet she was an angry queen.

Kyros could sense it.

And then he could see her feet. They were eye level with his gaze on the rug, her scent was strong up close, she smelled of springtime. His beast lurched in his chest, but he was held back and weak from the maltreatment he had faced.

"Look at me." She spoke, her voice calm yet sturdy. Firm and confident.

Yet he couldn't bring himself to do it. He couldn't bring himself to look into the gnarly face of rejection. He knew he was delaying the inevitable yet he seemed to be frozen into place as his heart screamed in trauma and agony.

"I said, look at me." She repeated herself with anger in her voice. She resented him. With every part of who she was, she resented him.

At the moment.

And she couldn't help the way she felt towards such an atrocious man, a beast, a monster, a heartless monster. She wanted to scream and cry at the way her luck seemed to run. Why did she have to be mated to such a creature? He had hurt her in ways he had never realized when he committed those acts ten years ago.

And she wanted to make him hurt and ache as much as she did.

Until he looked at her.

Until he maintained eye contact with her.

Because when he looked up at her with his broken gaze,  her anger dissolved. 

She saw he already felt hurt. He already felt despair. He already felt all those emotions and more - just like she had. His eyes were swollen shut and black. His face was covered in dried blood and his overgrown, matted hair hung in his face and crawled down the sides of his ears.

Upon trailing around him, she smelled the stench leaking from his body. It smelled rotten with infection, it smelled irony like blood. Deep wounds were settled down the length of his back and arms. His bones were pressed tightly against his skin from the starvation he had faced.

He already felt hurt. He knew what that felt like. He already felt despair and depression, just like she had. And though she physically didn't have a hand in that, she had commanded for him to be injured, battered, bruised, and tortured.

The only difference was that she didn't kill anyone in order for him to hurt, unlike Kyros.

Kyros slaughtered multitudes of people, the source where Asheria's pain radiated from.

She was experienced in nearly every situation. She could handle any weapon, she could challenge any civilian, she could give advice and wage rightful wars. She could tend to her people with kindness, she could rule with respect and she could lead a good example.

But how could she be expected to execute her mate? How could she be expected to accept him, to love him, to have him become king? How could her kingdom side with her on such an issue?