Into The Woods (mxm)

Fifteen

Augustus

     
Asmodeus has me wait until later in the night to find Aamon. When I do find him, he is sitting next to the fireplace in the palace library. He stares into the fire, looking deep in thought. He doesn't even seem to notice me at all. Tears drip down his cheeks, slowly sliding down the slope of his nose and his flushed cheeks.

"Aamon," I whisper. Aamon's head snaps up and his gorgeous blue eyes meet mine. He pats the space next to him and I rush over to take a seat. We are silent for a little while. Until Aamon takes a deep breath and speaks up.

"I had Ansel when I was sixteen," he starts. "My mate and I were so happy that we were going to start a family together. A family that I had always wanted. Cecile and I stayed up for hours through the night, trying to come up with the perfect name for our pup.

"She was so excited when she went into labor. It was a very long and painful labor though. Through it all, she kept a light and positive attitude. 'I'll get to meet my sweet little pup soon, so all of this hard work will be worth it in the end,' she had said to me. But she never got to meet him. By the time she had pushed one last time, she had taken her final breath. That day was one of the best and worst days of my life. I gained a pup, but I lost a mate."

Aamon takes a shaky breath, placing his flattened palm over his heart, which was beating at an extreme pace.

"I'm so sorry that I ran from you. I was afraid. I didn't want to go through the pain of losing a mate for the second time. I thought that you would surely reject me. When we were children, you and Mo would go play together and I would be left behind. I thought you never liked me because you would always ignore me. When you left the pack with Mo after him and I got into the huge fight that ended our relationship as brothers, I thought for sure that you two had ended up being mates. I was angry and mostly sad because I had always fancied you. When I met Cecile that had all vanished. I forgot about you and Mo because I knew that would be what was best for me.

"When Ansel ran into the forest that day I thought that he had died. We never stopped looking for him though. Even if what we were looking for in the end was just a pile of decaying flesh and bones. I never once thought that he would end up with you and Mo. you took care of him though. He turned out to be a wonderful boy."

I almost laugh at the nickname 'Mo' that Aamon had been calling Asmodeus ever since they were tiny pups. A burst of happiness rushing through me at all of the memories of me and Asmodeus playing games and going on small adventures at the old kingdom where we once lived. But with that happiness comes a sense of great sadness. Aamon thought that I was going to reject him when I saw that we were mates. I need to prove to him that I would never want to hurt him ever.

"I never hated you, Aamon. I thought that you did not like me. Every time I tried to get you to come to play with us you argued that you didn't like the game we were playing. Or you were busy with your friends. And by the time we were fourteen, you were twelve and going through the phase of wanting to be by yourself. And I always looked at you from afar. I fancied you as well. I had hoped that you would be my mate but when I heard that you had found your mate I was crushed. Even more so, when I never found them up until today. I'm thirty-six years old and I've only found my mate now. It is crazy to think of. That all these years we were only a short distance away but it couldn't have been farther apart than what we had distanced each other from. Aamon, I have been waiting for this day to come for years. And now that it finally has, all I want to do is hold you... My mate... and love you forever because you deserve it. Aamon I-,"

Aamon cuts me off with a soft press of his lips on mine. My eyes flutter shut as his lips dance with my own in a show rhythm.

Aamon reaches for the buttons of my shirt while I reach for his. I push him down so I am laying above him on the rug.

From that point on all that could be heard in the quiet room, next to the flickering fire, were the moans that came from Aamon and me and the rustling of clothes and bodies as we became one...