Omniscient
Imam looked at his mate in adoration as she looked around his office. "You seem well," Marie said before turning to face him.
"As well as to be expected without my mate or wife," Imam said. Marie's eyes scanned Imam for a moment. It had been many years since she'd seen him in person. "So, I'm sure you didn't just come here to look at me," Imam said. "My granddaughter—"
"Ahsha." He said with a smile. "Obviously, you know she's mated to your grandson." "Yes, I do." He said half-listening as his eyes trailed up her body.
"And you're aware of what he's done?" Marie asked him. "Have you missed me?" He asked ignoring her question. Marie froze stunned by the question. "I've missed you so much, little dove," Imam spoke. "Stop calling me that." Marie snapped.
He smiled before he sighed. "Yes, I am aware of what he's done." He paused. "My grandson loves her, all three of them do. But Ares doesn't play nice with others." He said with a shrug. "Hmm, must be a family trait." Marie bit back.
Imam chuckled as he bit his lip. "Funny." He said. "Very funny." He said with a smile. "You were supposed to be guiding them, Imam." She said. "Helping them learn from your mistakes." She added. He pushed himself off his desk and walked towards her.
Although her face showed no fear her eyes told a different story. He could see the uneasiness in her eyes as he got closer to her. It wasn't until he was about a foot away from her that an invisible wall stopped him.
He snorted at the protection spell she had up. "Why don't you worry about your grandchild and I'll worry about mine." He said darkness dripping into his voice.
"This is your fault, anyway." He mumbled as he turned his back to her. "My fault?" Marie questioned. "Yes!" He snapped. "You left me. You abandoned me, Marie." He said feeling all those emotions rise once more.
The same way Ares was about Ahsha was exactly how Imam was with Marie. He loved Marie more than life itself and for her, he would have done anything to make her happy, he still would. He was young and power-hungry just like his grandson and asserting his power always gave him a thrill.
But after roaming the world for decades without his mate he would have given it all away to have her by his side.
"I left because you chose not to tell me who you were." She said. "Would you have stayed had I told you?" Imam asked. Marie stared at him. "Exactly." He said at her silence. "I didn't come here to rehash the past. What is your grandson planning? Is he going to hurt my—"
"I would never let him do that." He said and he meant it. Scaring her was one thing but physically hurting her—he would never allow it.
Marie sighed. "Coming here was a mistake." She whispered to herself. "Then why did you come?" Imam asked.
"I—" She froze. Imam turned and looked at her seeing her golden eyes. Before he could speak, she was gone.
He sighed to himself. He sat down staring at nothing thinking about all the decisions he's made that had led to him up alone. "You are being presented with the opportunity for redemption." An ethereal voice said.
Imam turned to see Fate standing behind him.
"What?" He asked. "I am giving you the chance to make amends for your choices. What you choose to do with it is up to you?" She said before she disappeared.
Ahsha
I looked out the window at the lit-up building that came into view. I was told to get dressed and get into the car. Mamun had been driving for about 40 minutes when we came to this building.
I felt a bit underdressed for the venue but the fact that I was out of my sweats was a miracle.
The car came to a stop and Adam got out and opened my door helping me out. I looked around seeing eyes on me from everywhere before I was escorted inside. We walked past the hostess and through the dining area.
I began to hear whispers surround me as we walked over to an elevator. I glanced back meeting eyes with a few people before they averted their gaze. I stepped onto the elevator.
I grew antsy as I watched the number continue to rise giving no indication of how high up we were going. The elevator ding before we came to a stop and the doors opened.
I stepped off and looked around at the empty floor before my eyes fell on Ares. I scanned his outfit.
He wore a suit with a white button-up shirt with the first few buttons undone revealing his gold chair and chest.
He slicked his hair back before walking towards me. "You look beautiful." He said as his eyes scanned me. "Thank you," I said as I looked around. "What is this?" I asked.
"I want to show you that if you can move past what's happened between us I can too. This can work." He said gesturing between us.
I looked at him a bit surprised. He grabbed my hand leading me over to a candle-lit table that held a bouquet of roses. He grabbed the flowers turning to me and smiling. "For you, my love." He said softly.
I smiled back politely. "Thank you, Ares," I whispered. "Please sit." He said pulling my chair out. I walked over taking a seat before he rounded the table and pulled out his chair. He was really pulling out all his tricks to play nice with me. I was impressed but I knew I had to stay on guard with him.
I looked around at the dimly lit lighting that gave the room a sultry vibe. The waiter walked over and Ares ordered a scotch for himself before getting me a tea.
I looked at the menu for a moment before I felt his eyes on me. I glanced up seeing he was in fact looking at me. "What?" I asked. "This is nice." He said. I closed my menu having decided on what I was going to eat.
"Don't you agree?" he asked as he closed his menu, as the waiter brought our drinks. We placed our orders before I answered his question.
"I am pleasantly surprised," I said. "You can relax with me." He spoke as he reached out grabbing my hand. "I know—" I paused. "I've just been on guard for so long I'm a little—"
"You're hesitant." He said to me. I nodded my head. Also, I'm worried that if I let my guard down my mate bond with you will grow and I'll forget what I'm supposed to be doing. It had only been a couple of days and I was already feeling my mate instincts trickle back in the more domestic things we did together.
"I know my recent behavior was inexcusable. I thought I was losing you. I felt you slipping through my fingers—" He paused. "It was like I was fighting a pair of ghosts. They aren't even here and you still love them more." He whispered to himself. I slightly tilted my head looking at him.
"Your inferiority and God complexes are bad," I said before he looked up at me. "What?" He questioned. "You think you're both a God and not good enough. I'm not entirely sure how that happened but I understand that it's one of the things you need to work through. I don't agree with how you're going about it but I'm kind of understanding why you're so aggressive about this." I said taking a sip of my tea. He looked at me wide-eyed.
"You've been watching me?" he questioned. "Yeah, don't have much else to do these days," I said as our food was brought out. I took a bite before sighing contently. He chuckled looking at me.
"What else have you learned?" He asked. "You use the whole 'I'm a monster' thing to keep people at a distance," I said enjoying my food. "I do?" He asked amused.
"You're scared to let people get close to you because you think if they do, they'll decide you're not worth it and leave. You have abandonment issues." I told him. I could see that my words were hitting home for him. He thought I wasn't paying attention, but I was.
This is why I never understood why he thought I couldn't handle being with the three of them.
Using my observational skills and playing on some of his insecurities felt wrong but he had left me no choice.
Ares
As we ate our meal Ahsha touched spoke about all her observations about me. I was surprised at how accurate she was, but my mind kept going back to the fact that she paid that much attention to me.
"When did you gather all of this?" I asked as I sat back in my seat a small smile playing on my lips. "I've been paying attention from the beginning." She said. My smile faltered a bit at that. "I'm surprised you didn't know, I used to talk to Malik about it." She said. "Some conversations Malik would block me out of," I said.
"You want to know what I really think about you?" she asked leaning forward. I smirked before nodding my head. I was expecting a bunch of hateful things about what I've done.
"I think something happened back in the day that you don't talk about—or maybe several things happened, and you just shut down." She said turning her head looking out the window.
"I think no one ever noticed that you were hurting so you just stuffed all those feelings down, but then you met me." She said meeting my eyes.
"I met you," I repeated her last few words. "I don't know if you realized this or not but when you were with me, you were quite literally a baby." She said before I started laughing. "I am?" I asked curiously. "Constant cuddling. Always wanting my attention. The inability to share." She said. "So Malik and—Pablo aren't like that?" I asked her as I called for a refill. She looked at me. "I'm not going to do anything. I promise." I said.
"While you have a tendency to be clingy Malik isn't. He likes affection obviously, but where you come to me, I have to go to him. Malik is also the opposite of you. He shares his feelings with me—he might need a little encouragement, but he'll do it. You do it now, but I think that's because it's just me now." She said.
"And Pablo?" I asked.
She looked down for a moment before looking back at me. "He's open with me. He may be a tease or playful in his approach but if something is bothering him, he'll talk to me about it. Honestly, I wish I knew how three people who shared one body have such different communication styles." She said.
I looked at her before taking a sip of my drink. I stood up walking over to grab her hand helping her up. I led her outside to the balcony that overlooked the city life below us. "Want to know my observations of you?" I asked her. She turned to look at me.
"Let me hear it." She said. "I think you're used to being the motherly figure with the people in your life. Your mother, and siblings." I told her.
"I think you do it because your brother probably got all the attention from your mom and you had to stand on your own. Then your stepdad and then she had your sister and now brother." I said. She stared at me not giving anything away.
"You put on this tough exterior and act like nothing phases you because that's what you had to do most of your life. I think when you found out that you had a mate you were scared but excited. Excited to know that you had one person who was solely for you. Now that doesn't mean your family wasn't there for you—I just mean your emotional needs were never truly met how they were supposed to be." I explained looking down at the cars.
"Which is why you weren't too upset at the idea of having three mates. Because all you really want is to be someone's first choice." I said looking up at her.
"Interesting analysis." She said. "You didn't say I was wrong," I spoke. "Neither did you." She countered. "Can I ask you something?" I questioned. "Might as well since we're digging into our traumas." She joked. "Why were you so willing to lose everything for Pablo? Even when Malik and I said stay away from him you still entertained him." I spoke. "Ares—"
"I'm not trying to argue I just want to understand," I said. She sighed. "Because he was my mate just as much as you both. He and I never really got a chance to know each other as I did with you two. I based most of my opinions off what you and Malik told me and I didn't even do that with you. He deserved the benefit of the doubt same as you." She said.
And she was right. She let me show her who I was and formed her opinion from that. "Besides me and my mommy issues hate being told what to do." She said with a smirk. I chuckled. This is amazing. I thought as I glanced over at her as she looked up at the sky. "You were right about my mom, though." She said. "After my dad died my mom was either shut down or she doted on my brother. I get why she did it, he needed it." She said.
She rarely spoke about her father's accident, so I was a little surprised. "I told you my dad was in a car accident, yes." She said. I nodded my head. "Well, Isa was in the car too." She mumbled.
"The way the car was hit my dad's side took all the damage. Isa had a few cuts and bruises but overall, he was fine. He was knocked unconscious from the impact, but when he came to our dad was dead." She spoke.
"He felt so much guilt about it because they were on the way to Isa's doctor's appointment. For a long time, Isa would just lash out and misbehave, so my mom gave him extra attention. She got him a therapist to help with the trauma." She said. "What about you?" I asked.
She looked my way and smiled. "Call me the Queen of repressed emotions until I explode." She said. "I learned to cope and deal with my emotions alone. That is until Isa came to me one day and apologized. He said he was sorry for taking all of our mother's attention. He said he saw that I was struggling but that day he promised that he'd always be there no matter what. He swore to always be my protector." She said.
He swore to be her protector and I threatened to kill him, to kill her twin brother. I realized that her sharing this was her way of showing me she was trying. "Growing up I was always considered more vicious than Pa—Dominic and Malik. I am the pure demon side of them." I said.
"That didn't mean I was void of feelings entirely. I still needed all the same things any child needed, but I rarely got that. So, I played into the monster label and it worked for a while. Women loved a bad boy and it always kept things interesting. But when Malik and Dominic started having relationships with women, they rarely wanted to deal with me outside of the bedroom." I explained.
"I was generally only let out for sex or to scare someone. I began to internalize everything. I wasn't good enough for my parents to love. I wasn't good enough to be valued for more than what I could provide someone. So, I made sure people feared me and I convinced both Malik and Dominic to indulge in their vices and they did until Dominic was tired of it." I said.
"After Dominic left then Malik grew tired of it. I was forced into a box only to be allowed out when working, so that gave me all the time in the world to think." I said. "Then you came along, and you were actually happy to see me. I wanted to see that look forever." I told her. "And that's how we got here?" She asked. "More or less," I said. I finished my glass before holding my hand out for her. She looked at it before grabbing it.
--
After getting home we went our separate ways to change. I looked at myself in the mirror before Malik appeared. "What?" he asked. "I—" I froze. "You what?" he asked. "I—" I couldn't say it so I just waved my hand and Malik and I changed places. His eyes widened as he looked at his body. "It's temporary. I will be back in control by the morning." I explained. "Why are you doing this?" he asked. "I can be nice to her. I'm not a total monster." I said trying to convince myself more than him.
Omniscient
Ahsha walked out of the bathroom changed and ready for bed. She was tying her hair up not paying attention. "Habitata." She heard what sounded like Malik's voice call. She turned and a gasp slipped past her lips at the sight all she could do was stare unable to speak.
He smiled at her from where he sat on the bed. "Hello, my love." He said. "Malik." She whispered as she walked to him with her mouth hanging open. "H-how?" She asked as his arms wrapped around her. "That's not important." He said staring down at me before his eyes went to my belly. His hand reached out rubbing circles as he sighed contently. "I've missed you so fucking much, Ahsha." He said pulling her back against him.
Ahsha pressed her face into his chest as tears raced down her face while she clung to him. "How long?" Ahsha asked. "Only until the morning." He whispered. "What do you want to do while I'm here?" He asked. "Is there anyway to—." "No he's only given me control of my body not my powers." Malik explained.
She couldn't talk anymore all she wanted was to be in his arms. So, Malik just hugged her closer. He chuckled as he lightly rocked her. "It's okay, habitata. I got you, my love." He said pulling her to the bed holding her close. He leaned against the headboard cradling her body to him gently caressing her skin, memorizing her scent, just taking her all in. Having her back in his arms he swore to himself as to her that he was going get control of his body and get back to her.
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