What You Mean to Me

Waiting for Chimera's response felt like it to agonizing eons, and yet was really no more than a few moments. He had been quiet throughout her emotional outburst, allowing her to speak freely and bear her heart and soul to him. All of her past, her pain, her fears, her doubts. She would see his brows raise or furrow when she spoke, subtle little tells that gave away what might have been going on behind those contrasting eyes. Ali knew she was making a mess of herself, but this was the first time she'd ever been allowed to really feel anything, and the floodgates were opening. To his credit, Chimera took everything in stride, finally giving her the reaction she sought so desperately once she'd let everything out.

Chimera began by taking her delicate paw in his once more, bringing it up to his lips to brush his muzzle against her. The scruffy short furs on the end of his snout tickled her and made her heart do wonderful feats of acrobatics within her chest. Although seeing straight with tears in her eyes was a challenge, she focused every part of herself on the monochromatic brute that had changed her life forever. Nobody had ever treated her as sweetly as Chi was right now. It only further solidified that his words on the beach had been true. She didn't think for a moment that Chimera would have lied to her, but his claim had been so ludicrous that she hadn't known how to react to him other than blurting out the obvious statement that she was carrying his pups. She still didn't know if she knew how to respond to his affections. He was the first and only wolf to ever treat her this way in her entire short life and it perplexed poor little Ali.

If she thought she'd been captivated by her king before, his loving words only served to further enthrall her mind, body, and spirit. She was chosen for him, but he had indeed chosen her. Time after time he chose her. He chose her when he defended her from Viper—twice. He chose her when he saved her from the jaguar. He chose her when he helped her build her beehives. He chose her when they came to find their new home. And now he was choosing her again. Aliana leaned her cheek into his massive paw, breathing a gentle sigh of bliss as she found sanctuary in those paws that could have ended her life at any moment. Ali's heart was beating so fast she thought it might burst. His words... they were not meant for someone like her, and yet he spoke them to her with conviction. She wanted to say something to him in return, but she couldn't find the words to represent what was going on inside her head and her heart.

Fortunately, Chimera solved that problem for her when he brought his lips to hers and kissed her with a soft and loving affection that was totally foreign to her. Aliana's aqua eyes easily drifted closed, leaning in towards him as she gave herself up entirely to her king and her lover. That was when Ali knew how she could tell Chimera how she felt. Pressing into their kiss, Aliana raised both forepaws to rest on Chimera's cheeks, stroking and brushing her paws over every part of his handsome face she could reach. She ran her paws through the fur on his scruff, then back up to stroke and glide over his ears and crown, covering him in whatever affections she could show him. Chimera had kissed her before, but this time was different. There was no pushing of dominance, no claiming her. This kiss conveyed the love the man held for her and how much she meant to him, and so she would show him how much he meant to her. With every subtle movement of her lips against his or a stroke of her paw against his cheek and jaw or down his neck she told him in her own ways that she loved him.

"Aliana"