Ten Thousand Ways To Lose

Lying beside Relm, their bodies gently leaned into one another's, sharing warmth while they gazed out at the snowy world just beyond the mouth of the den felt right to the dire brute. There were precious few times in his chaotic life when Alastor felt truly at peace or like he was home, but when he was with her, those feelings overtook him. Only two wolves had ever been able to make him feel this way—Manea and Relm. Not even Lurid, even when they'd been betrothed. Everyone else saw him as one of three things: a monster, a weapon for them to use, or something they could mold and manipulate to their will. Only Manea and Relm had ever seen him as someone. A few precious others, like Kichi and Seraphina, had accepted him for who he was, but not in the same way. She brought out the good in him, what few traces of humanity remained in his tattered soul. She took him as he was, and what was more, she loved him for who he was. Alastor would forever be bound to the Abraxas fae for that reason.

Together they held paws, the brute listening to how the fae sighed and relaxed as he showed her the simple, tender affections. Their relationship was complicated, complex, yet also so innately basic. A mutual attraction, a similarity of spirits, an understanding of one another at their core level. After some time of lying cuddled close, Alastor felt Relm shift until her muzzle leaned up to connect with his in a soft kiss. Sparks seared through his nerves, radiating warmth out from where her lips pressed into his until his whole body was consumed by the tingling sensation. He kissed her back, their lips parting a few too-short moments later and drawing a subtly growled breath from the behemoth of a wolf. Relm uttered a single syllable beneath her breath, looking up to him with pleading eyes. She didn't need to; Alastor would have given her more just from her kiss alone. Without another word from either of them, Alastor brought his free paw up to cup Relm's cheek, moving to guide her mouth back to his as he claimed it with his own in a much deeper, lingering kiss.

The fire swelled inside him again, the molten heat in his core churning and boiling to the surface as desire stoked it like bellows to a forge. Obsidian eyes drifted closed the moment their lips met, giving himself wholly up to Relm and his desire for her. She may have hesitated, but Alastor did not. He knew what he wanted, knew what she wanted—he could read it in her body—and he was willing to give her everything she wanted and more. She didn't speak the words on her mind, but his actions spoke his clear as day to her. I want you. I need you. I love you. You're mine. All the things she hadn't said nor wanted him to say. His paw holding hers gripped a little firmer, keeping a secure hold on her, a reassuring gesture that he wasn't letting her go. His tail, now wagging slowly behind him in bliss, shifted to try and find hers so it could snake around and embrace it, doing all he could to keep all of him wrapped around her body. No matter how close they got, it never felt like it was close enough. Alastor only broke their mouths apart when his lungs demanded air, separating their mouths with a gasp for breath, but not withdrawing more than an inch from her, already prepped and ready to go back in for another helping of the intoxicating young woman like she was his own personal brand of heroin.

"Alastor"