Your Blood and Bones are Mine to Hold

There was something in Chimera's eyes that she couldn't quite place. It looked like the possessiveness he held over her always, but... softer? More caring? Words failed Aliana while she gazed into her master's eyes, wondering where these questions were coming from. The behemoth released her collar after a moment, and the monochromatic fae gasped softly for a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. He looked like he was appraising her, trying to determine an unknown answer in his head. Ali peered up at him, eyes soft and gaze demure through her lashes while she waited for whatever was coming to happen. Would he strike her? Bite her? Kiss her again? That nervous flutter started up in her stomach once more as the anticipation ate away at her nerves.

For all the things Ali thought he might do, she did not expect the gentle caress of his large paw against her cheek, though she leaned her head appreciatively into his touch with just a slight tilt of her skull, almost nuzzling into his uncharacteristic affections. The words he spoke next shook her world. They were never even a thought in her head. Aqua eyes widened in shock, petite mouth hung agape in a silent gasp. He was freeing her? Ali's breath caught in her throat, but resumed into quick, stuttering breaths as his face lingered so close to hers that she could feel the warmth radiating off of his skin, his scent so rich and masculine in caught in her nose like a fine cologne.

Aliana's body quivered with that yearning as he spoke, deep voice coming in rumbles, telling her she was now to sleep with him in his bed, that she would be an equal to Viper. Her head swam with the very notion, the world now seeming closer to a dream than reality. Where was the rub? When would she be suddenly yanked back into reality from this impossible fantasy? He said her name in that purr that made her heart skip beats, scarcely breathing while soft, wet tongue ran up the end of her muzzle. What would her first words as a freed woman be? This moment seemed like such an impossibility, the gray-clouded fae didn't know how to respond.

Thank you. No, questioning him for this gift didn't feel right. Chimera hated being questioned on a good day anyway.

You don't know what this means to me. Oh, but he did! That was why this moment was so impactful and had shaken her to her core.

I love you. Did she even know what love was? It was a foreign concept, an ideal she'd never felt from anyone in her life. But surely, if there was to be a definition of love, was this not it? Her master, the one who had saved her from slavers, the one who provided and kept her fed and sheltered, had released her into a breathtaking new world. Was that not love?

"Thank you for giving me this life, Si-" She hesitated, realizing once again that she was free. "...Chimera." For the first time, saying his name unabated with fear of reprisal, it tasted good on her tongue. As she gazed deeply up into his contrasting eyes, a shy smile pulled at her lips and she felt a little more emboldened to act than she ever had before. Putting her new freedom to good use, she tipped her muzzle up to glide her own tongue along the bottom of his chin in a ginger, submissive kiss. Her heart hammered against her chest from such a daring act, never thought of by a slave before! She was freed, but she was still his, and would forever be his, and she wanted to be sure to show him that every day of her life, starting with this.

Tiny paws slowly came up to rest on his chest, finding the edges of his defined muscles and following them along the contours of his body. "Would you still have me as you did before, Chimera?" she asked, wondering how, if anything, being a free woman would change what she knew as normal. Aqua eyes gazed longingly up into his, wanting to lose herself in him for all time. "Would you have me like you just did, and would you have me the way you did when you marked me?" A paw moved from his chest to the back of her neck, where the scars he'd left on her neck after the jaguar attack were hidden by her collar. She wanted to revel in being free, but she also wanted all of Chimera, from the gentler wolf that had laid her down and brought her such pleasure in this very spot to the predator that had ravaged her senseless time and time again.

"Aliana"