Odin's Prize

There Can Only Be One

Silence extends outwards to rest heavily in my ears.

Odin paces. Time ticks away.

"How do you know I'll be the next Moon?" Asking him this question makes him stop mid-stride, abruptly. His eyes flash of his internal Nature - the Wild within him is shifting, flexing the canvas of his skin.

"I saw it on my spiritual journey, Charlie."

"You took mushrooms for that journey didn't you?" Words are coming out calm, I don't feel calm.

"Yes," his eyes lock with mine. My breath stutters before asking my question.

"How do you know what you saw was real?" The words are spoken in a challenge of what he believes is his truth.

"What I saw was the truth, I saw the truth of you, Charlie. I understand now why the Moon asks us to kill all first-born female Alphas. You have the power to become the next Moon. She doesn't want to die."

"Why would I want to become the Moon, why would I want to kill our Moon?" The question holds in the air before it drops away with a heaviness.

"Would you not want to become our next, Moon?" There is a confusion that sweeps across his features.

"I don't want to kill the Moon; she's done nothing wrong."

"She wants your death?" He's testing his voice against my sternum.

"Then the Moon is like almost everyone else, isn't that right, Odin?"

"What does that mean? Do you think I want your death?" He rises to he completed height and I raise to mine.

"No, but you did. You can't deny it. You wanted to kill me that night in my bed. You were no different than the Moon at first."

"I couldn't kill my half." Odin's voice drops while looking me in the eyes.

Ancient forest greens shift shades of light to dark, while his pupils stay fixed within the small space.

"If I wasn't your half, could you have killed me as the Moon demands?" Odin halts himself, his shoulders stay straight, head back. "If you weren't my half, yes, I could kill you easily, without even a thought but that's not the case. You are my half, and my half will always be protected - no matter what, even if it's from the Moon herself." The threat of sound extends outward from the radius we are standing in to vibrate against Nature itself...to rise upward into the sky as if the Moon can hear him in her daytime slumber.

"I'm not the next Moon Odin." The sound of hesitation sits lodged in my throat, thick and heavy. Odin grabs my wrist, the pad of his thumb brushes against the tattoo where the beat of my pulse is bounding fiercely through rounded blood vessels.

Odin weaves his fingers between mine bringing the tender part of my inner wrist to his lips.

He inhales, my upper thighs shake.

Odin affects who I am.

His mouth parts, the tip of tongue takes a liberal taste of my flesh before kissing the spot where my pulse is thumping through my radial artery.

A slight tilt of his head holds my eyes with a considering look. "You will be who you want to be, Charlie." His other hand ghosts over my left shoulder trailing down my outer arm. Heat starts to bloom throughout, as he takes my other hand in his.

"What if I don't know what I want to be, Odin?" There is no loss of eye contact between us, we hold the others comfortably, easily.

His eyes are my focus.