The Pieces Of A Goddess

Welcome Back

"Don't lie to him."

I blinked several times into the golden orbs that looked back at me. Of course, I wasn't telling the truth, but I wasn't lying either. She wasn't ready, and I couldn't break Katerina more than she already was.

The emotions she held had almost crippled us before Onyx helped me put her away.

"Please let me out! I can save him..."

My neck rolled in annoyance. Katerina was out already. The cage was gone, but I had refused to mesh with her.

Maybe I was being stubborn, or perhaps I was being selfish, but I wasn't ready.

"I'm... Still being prepared, Ares. You can have the throne, we will do what is needed, but I'm not ready to be one with Katerina."

His grip tightened before he released me, and I let my body relax against the wall.

"Even Goddesses need time."

He scoffed and began to pace again. I could smell Ares's old self drifting threw the air, and it soothed me. Or it was Katerina; it soothed.

"But, I also wasn't completely lying. Katerina is not ready either, and she can't handle your wolf. You must know this by now."

He stopped his back-and-forth pace and turned to look at me with a slew of emotions dancing behind his eyes.

"If... your wolf will agree to back down until she is ready... I will mesh with her."

I saw a flash of green peaking threw his golden wolf eyes, and I softly smiled before I moved closer and cupped his face in my hands.

"But your wolf must back down until she is ready to accept him. She's fragile, Ares, and I can't let your wolf break her beyond repair."

Ares's face seemed strained, his brows frowned together, and his water line began to fill. I leaned my forehead against his and tried to breathe into him a calming essence to soothe his soul.

"He won't hurt her."

I wished he was right. Peace would coat the lands and masses if I could mesh with Katerina and become one with her while here on this plane. There was the issue of Ares's wolf, though. He was violent and rash. I didn't feel that Katerina was strong enough to handle such a being, even as she banged and screamed to be set free.

"How can you know that? The last time she was hurt, it was not your wolf's fault, but your wolf has hurt me many times. So what would stop him from hurting us both?"

Ares looked away for a moment as I walked back to the seats and lazily flopped down onto one. I was tired, my bones ached, and my head was pounding. My body was tired.

"We love her."

My head snapped over to look at him with a lazy expression while Ares's face seemed painful, and my heart ached for him. Katerina was weeping into my mind. Pain and longing were hitting me from both Ares, his wolf, and Katerina. I would have done anything for a stiff drink at this point, but instead, I motioned for Ares to sit again in the seat across from me.

"Show me."

He said down with an eyebrow raised. Confusion took over his face, but a cocky grin rested on his lips.

"Show me you both are in sync and that Katerina won't get hurt. I want to talk and see Ares now."

His body leaned back in the chair, his head dropping back, and a low grunt barely hit my ears.

"I won't do that."

This guy was impossible. He refused when I gave him a choice to do as I said and bobbed his head forward with that cocky grin plastered over his face.

"If I let him take over, he may not let me back out, darling. So why would I do that?"

I scoffed at his attitude, I was fighting back the anger that tingled and traveled threw out my body, but I didn't know how much longer I would be able to. The amount of sheer disrespect was horrible and infuriating.

"I won't lose control to such a pansy, emotional brat. So what else do you want for you to become my Katerina?"

My eyes rolled before my fist slammed onto the table, and my body leaned forward in anger.

"You are insufferable! You are the brat! I can not believe I have stood for such disrespect and utter violence to my people and not done this sooner."

I knew why I had stood for it. But Katerina would not let me do what was deserving of this beast. A beast, that's what he had turned into, and I knew that was my fault. Now was the time to put him away; I felt it in my bones that if I didn't stop his Lycan now, the outcome would be less than desirable.

So I did what I knew I could do but was just now ready. Drawing in the power I needed, my eyes bore into Ares's golden ones before I smiled and snapped my fingers.

His head snapped down, and his body went ridged.

"Thank you..."

My words whispered through the air as I knew that my power alone had not done the action before me. Onyx may have been missing in action to others, but I felt him all the time.

Ares's head slowly raised, and I smiled again as my eyes met a dark but weak green.

"Welcome back, Ares."