Teach me how to love

In the months that had followed their chance encounter in a bloody battle, Alastor had dedicated all of his time to Manea and Nirvana. He had gotten to know them well, especially Manea. Her likes, her dislikes, her dreams and fears, the way she gave shrieking giggles if he tickled her sides and the way she liked to curl up into his side when she slept. He had memorized how each color of her galactic swirled fur felt, how she smelled after a rainstorm, how she tasted in their moments of late night desire. Manea had fully invaded every aspect of his existence and brought him a new life from the ashes of his wrecked one. She had unknowingly saved him from total collapse when he had lost everything for a second time, and she may never truly know the full extent of what she had done for him.

That was how Alastor found himself walking along the obsidian sands of the beach in front of their home, enjoying the sunset and encroaching twilight with his beloved. The evening sky was ablaze with vibrant oranges and reds, muted with the occasional splash of indigo and purple. It was a beautiful sight to behold, but as lovely as it was, Alastor only spared the scenery a single second for every ten he gave to Manea. Watching her walk beside him, close enough to feel that elegant purple fur brushing against his side, noting the way her muscles moved and rippled with every step underneath her coat, it as entrancing. He didn't know what Manea had wanted to speak to him about, only stating that she had something she wished to discuss with him and asked him to accompany her on a walk down the beach. Of course, the dire brute had obliged eagerly. But it did make him more than a little curious. He felt like he was being set up for something, and knowing Manea, it would only be good things.

The two eventually came to a stop before the swaying ocean at a quiet, empty stretch of beach. Alastor sat back on his haunches when she did, the two facing one another while Manea addressed him with a smile and began to speak what was on her mind. Alastor listened quietly with his smile on his face as she revealed that her family had a special ceremony she had been taught reluctantly. That certainly got his attention! It was some sort of binding ceremony to tether her to the wolf she loved. Loved. That word made Alastor's heart stop beating for a second out of shock. His expression froze, unreadable while she smiled wider and confessed her belief that he was the one made by her Ancient Ones for her, but she felt stronger for him than any of her beliefs. Then she confessed her love for him, saying those three words that shocked his system back into functioning. She loved him. Manea loved him. Alastor's mouth hung open while she asked him to perform the ceremony with her, to take her as his mate, and to receive her family name for himself.

Alastor stared at Manea dumbfounded, his broken brain trying to process the words she had just said to him. No wolf had ever said they loved him before. No wolf had ever loved him before. Not his parents. Not his siblings. Not Lurid. No one. Manea was the first and only wolf to ever say those three words to him, and from the expression on her face, the demon brute knew she was telling the truth. The frozen smile on his face twitched with signs of life, and a fire sparked in his onyx irises. His smile grew to a huge grin, feeling his heart beat faster and faster, his tail wagging and kicking about the sand behind him. She loved him. She would be his mate, bound to him forever. He would have her name. He would have a family name! It had been years since he'd discarded his in disgust once he'd torn his family apart, but now... now he would be complete again. Just like Lurid had promised him, but this time Manea would actually deliver.

"Manea, I... I don't know what to say," he replied, words tumbling out of his mouth slow while he searched for them, genuinely flabbergasted for once in his life. "Yes! I mean, yes, I want to do this ceremony with you! Manea, no other wolf has ever come as close to the real me and not only accepted what they saw, but embraced it without trying to change me. You saw me for what I am and fell in love anyway. I..." He paused, finding himself unable to say the words he wanted to say back to her. Did he love her? Did he even know what love was? It was something he had never felt before, had never been given—but Manea made him feel ways no other wolf had. With her, he was allowed to be his natural self, violent and depraved and psychotic, and she just took all of him and demanded more. He felt safe letting his mask down around her. Surely, if that wasn't love, what was? Steeling his nerves, Alastor swallowed back the darkness preventing him from speaking, and met Manea's anxious gaze with a softer grin and bright eyes. "I love you too, Manea Mendacium. You are the only wolf I would want to have all of me, whatever broken pieces are left inside, the only fae I want to stand beside, to bear children with, to live and die with."

The words felt so painful and yet so liberating to say. Words he had never uttered on his tongue before, bittersweet for the lack of use, that would now become commonplace between the two of them. Unable to contain himself any longer, Alastor leaned forward to swiftly close the space between their muzzles, going in for a quick, firm kiss in the fiery sunset hues. Gods, she looked beautiful right now, the sunlight bringing out every individual hue in her royal purple fur. Once their lips had parted, he sat back up and fixed Manea with a crooked grin. "Alastor Mendacium... It does have a nice ring to it, I must admit," he remarked with a laugh. "So, tell me about this ceremony. What do we have to do or say? Can we do it now, or do we need witnesses?" He thought back to all the intricacies of the Amarix mating ceremony he had to learn—the one he had never gotten to perform due to his betrothed's betrayal. Not with Manea though. Never with Manea.


"Alastor"