Odin's Prize

Hard Truth

Hungry lips feast on each other.

Wandering hands, feel the tremors of my desires. 

"Odin," his name leaves the tip of my tongue to touch the tip of his. 

"Charlie," He pulls himself slightly away, to open his eyes. Those ancient forest greens that are rimmed with blood bore into me. His fingertip slowly traces over the arch of my eyebrow. My finger traces the skin overtop his clavicle, to run my palm over the roundness of his shoulder. Down his chest, over his torso, to rest at the waistline of his pants. 

"I'm going to do what I want," words promising what my mind and body want. 

"There is a limit," Odin grabs my fingers in his hands, bringing my wrist to his lips, he kisses the beat of my pulse.

"I don't want limitations, plus you said, do what I want." Twisting my hand from his grip.

"After the ceremony, we will have no limits with each other." His words press into the hollow of my neck. 

"I don't want to wait, we're mates, this is what mates do." My lips on the tattoo of my lips against his throat. His whole body tremors against me.

"Odin, please." Kissing his neck, letting my tongue taste his skin. 

"Stop, Charlie." The words come out weak. 

"I'm not going to," Sliding a hand underneath his shirt, feeling between each rib. His skin is shifting and flexing itself underneath my palm. 

The heat of him intensifying, scorching a blazing path into my thighs. 

"Stop, we need to just stop." He raises himself from the chair, which has me standing on shaky legs. He's also shaky because he needs to hold onto the chair's back for support. 

"We don't need to stop," taking a step towards him. 

"You're right we don't need to stop, but I do. I have to stop. I can't trust myself, I can't trust myself around you."

"Do you not want to mark me? Do you not want me? You keep denying the Nature of us. It's not supposed to be this way." My voice rising in accusation.

"Charlie, I do. I just want to do it the right way, the proper way. In front of our pack, in the light of our Moon. I want to show you how I have honored you by waiting, by fighting my Nature. We are almost there just a few more months, then we can do whatever we want to do, but for now, we need to wait."

"Who has said this, some ancient Alpha who wrote down some kind of rules that you all follow blindly? Where is this rule book, this book on ceremonies?" Throwing words at him, I've lost that warmth now. 

"The original book was burned in a fire." 

"The original book was lost? How do you know it said to take a Luna in front of the pack? How do you know that it hasn't been altered?"

"No Alpha would do that." Odin's brows furrow, a creeping doubt is felt along the shiver of his spine. 

"How do you know, did you live back then?"

"No, but it's always been this way. It's the right way, Charlie." Odin's voice is rising, just like mine.

"You don't know if it's the right way at all, you just think it is because someone wrote a book way back when and has said that this is the right way. You need to think for yourself Odin, you're a big male Alpha now and you need to start using that brain of yours. Start thinking for yourself, Odin and stop letting others think for you." He looks as if I just slapped him across the face, his mood souring. I can feel a rise of bile in his stomach, almost taste it as it's bubbling out his throat in unseen vapors. A confliction swirls itself to the very core of who he is. He's shocked by my words internally but outwardly he squares his shoulders to me.