Teach me how to love

Manea watched with bated breath as Alastor froze, seemingly shocked by her statement, her confession, his unreadable and stunned expression amusing as it was anxiety inducing. The only reason she had let herself confess these things to him was simply because she had been certain he felt the same. As the moments ticked by with him in wide eyed silence she began to worry that she had read him wrong, but the moment that his grin returned and his tail began to wag she was able to breathe a little more easily, though her heart still pounded in her chest. She could face down a hundred of those giant dire wolves they had killed together and she wouldn't have felt a fraction of the nerves that she felt in that moment, waiting on him to say yes. Once that agreement left his lips a wide, overjoyed grin pulled across her features and her tail wagged against the sand. She thought it couldn't be done. In all the generations of Mendacium women she had come across and spoken to only a small handful had felt confident enough in their relationships to take this step with their partners and now she was one of the chosen few. She had found her soul mate, her lover, her friend, the demon to bring out all of her darkest fantasies and the joy to brighten up her days.

She hung on every word he spoke, listening as she gazed at him with pure love and adoration as he spoke of how she accepted everything that he was without trying to change him, that he loved her in return, that she was the only wolf he wanted to have all of his broken pieces. She wanted all of these things for him. She wanted to bear his children, to live with him, to die with him. No, she didn't just want these things - she needed them. That's why she was doing this. She needed to give everything to him so that he could give everything to her in return. His lips met hers and she returned his kiss ten fold with a happy, excited whine, the kiss over all too soon as she shifted eagerly in place where she was sitting. She looked at him, her love, her one and only, the demon that completed her soul, and couldn't possibly imagine being happier than she was in this moment. Well, perhaps she would find a way once their ceremony was done or perhaps after their first child was born, but for now this was certainly the happiest she had ever been.

Alastor Mendacium. Hearing out loud, hearing it from his lips, it felt right. It felt as if it should have always been a part of his name. His questions and inquiries about the ceremony made her grin and she chuckled as she leaned up to press another firm kiss to his muzzle, lingering there for several long moments and fought the urge to have him right here and now. There would be plenty of time for celebrating when all was said and done. "I love how eager you are," she said softly against his lips with a smirk before rising her her paws. "There's no need for witnesses in this. This is between us and the Ancients. No one else matters in our union." Chuckling softly she turned away from him, whistling for her ravens as she took several steps away from him and then turned to face him again with a grin creeping across her muzzle. "As for what you do and say... You can leave the words to me. Before we can get to the words though, there's a bit of a challenge for you. In true Mendacium fashion, there's far less pomp and circumstance than you might imagine and a lot more of a bloody battle." She glanced up as Temno and Ciemny appeared over head, dropping two similar leather cuffs at her paws.

They were pieces that she had been working on for some time now, her ravens assisting her in finding the materials she needed in secret. She held up the first one - a band of black leather embossed with flame-like markings that mimicked the stunning markings he wore all along his back, the design studded with small rubies that caught the dying sunlight to make the cuff look like it was on fire. "This represents you," she told him before slipping it on to her right leg, fitting it perfectly just above her ankle. She held up the second one, a similar black leather cuff, except the design that adorned this on was a depiction of delicate lines that wrapped like vines, similar to the marking that wrapped around her left eye. This one was studded with amethysts, the smooth surfaces of the purple stones showing their true color as well as reflecting back some of the orange and red hues of the sunset. "This one represents me," she added, slipping it over her left ankle. She had made it slightly larger than her own with the intention that he would soon be wearing it. An advantage to him, perhaps.

She shot him a challenging look, an excited grin pulling across her lips with a flash of her fangs. "To go through with the ceremony you have to take the cuff that represents me by force. A symbol of fighting for your place in the Mendacium family, if you will." She gave him a more serious look, adding, "There is no pulling punches in this fight. We will both bleed and that's how it's intended. If you want to claim my name you'll have to fight for it with tooth and claw - not that I think you'll have any issue with that. Best me and steal this cuff and everything is yours." The smirk returned to her lips as she shifted into a defensive position, already edging her left paw a little further back to prepare herself to defend it. "Alright, Alastor Mendacium... Come claim your title."

Manea | Temno | Ciemny