Remorseless

Although Irilyth did not resist Manea's assistance and touches as the larger woman helped clean her up and wash away any traces of the punishment Alastor had doled out on her, there was still a tension to her body that Manea would undoubtedly feel while she groomed the petite fae. The trauma was still fresh, her body still burning through the adrenaline that had kept her going during her assault. Despite knowing the danger and harm had passed, her body and mind were still on high alert, racing with the adrenaline-fueled high of her fight or flight response. When Manea leaned down to place a gentle kiss on her cheek, Iri instinctively jolted, startled from her own distracting thoughts by the touch, but was quick to relax back into her lover's touch. She wasn't jumpy or startled easily on a normal basis, Manea would know this, but Alastor had awoken a repressed part of her that she hadn't seen since coming into Manea's service. It was her old survival mechanisms when her former masters had been much more violent with her. It had been gone since coming to be with Manea, and now it had made its way back to the surface.

Manea said that she didn't expect her to be sorry, and Irilyth was grateful for that. It meant that at least one of her alphas would understand why she did what she did and why she had defied Alastor so brazenly. Iri nodded silently, understanding Manea's regret that this situation happened at all. If given the choice, she also wished it never would have happened, but those were not decisions or wishes for her to make. All she could do was make the best choices with the things she was given to work with. The little golden woman felt Manea shift behind her, heard the sloshing of water being disturbed, and then saw the violet form of her alpha appear before her, Iri glanced up briefly into her alphess' aqua eyes, but quickly diverted her gaze back down to the water and her paws below its surface. She didn't feel like she could make eye contact with Manea right now—not after she'd been so violently violated by her husband. There was a shame to having Manea clean up her husband's mess, like for all the improvements Irilyth had done to herself, none of it mattered in the end. She was still just as weak and helpless to prevent herself from being used and abused.

The next words that came from Manea's lips struck Iri in the heart. She didn't want to be forced out of her home for reasons beyond her control. It felt like she was still being punished for the sins of others. Because Alastor had stuck his dick in some other woman and gotten her pregnant, she was now the bad guy for enforcing her patient's right to privacy and she was the one being penalized. Irilyth's frown deepened and she shook her head to Manea's offer. "I can walk. Thank you though." She had made it down to the lake on her own, after all. With a bit of pain and difficulty, but she had done it. Iri didn't resist Manea's paw as it stroked her cheek, but she also couldn't lift her gaze to meet her lover's either. She rose to her paws again, letting the cold lake water drip from her soaked pelt while she turned towards the stony shore.

"Manea" & "Irilyth"