Declan Durinson
The Butcher King
She made camp alone away from the rest of them and a sadness took his heart. The Aelin that he knew, and granted he may have presumed to know her better than he did, that Aelin would've been happy to be amongst them. She likely would've been quiet and reserved, observant of the strange Wolves around her and cautious of making some mistake or seeming ignorant but she also would have been happy.
He did not blame her for staying away. What on this world or any other could bring her joy now? A year of her life taken from her, spent shackled and caged and tortured, only for something far more precious to be taken from her in the end. Her pups; Stolen from her before she even had the chance to hold them. In a galaxy full of all manner of evil, Declan knew no greater evil than that.
A year of beatings and starvation made it slow work for the Anasa and yet as she did with all things she persevered. She'd known hunger and hardship as much as any of them and more too than many and not just in the last year. Aelin on occasion had spoken of her life on Seoul 5 after the death of her father and the stealing of her sisters. A grim and cold existence it had been with death following always like a shadow. A life like many of the Wolves here had lived and yet also unique to her.
Declan watched and waited while she finished and waited longer yet until the glow of a small fire could be seen.
Without an invitation Declan joined Aelin at her camp. She sat near the fire on a log that had been turned on its side, he took a seat on the bare ground next to her, one of his massive shoulders bumping into a resting against her knee.
She hated him, he knew. Yet, he loved her still.
"What do you think of my Wolves?" He asked her.
He was certain that all he would get from her in response was anger and venom but that was ages better than the nothing. For far too long he'd gotten nothing from her. It was his fault her knee and there were times between the drinking, the spice, the fighting, the conquest, that he would think of the nothing and that nothing was terrible.
"Yasmine thinks them stupid, and savage, and cruel, and ignorant." Declan said rather quickly, having given Aelin no time to answer his question, so fearful was he of the nothing.
"They are that." He admitted "but they are also kind, funny, curious, brave. The same as you or I or Yasmine, and this I think is why she hates them."
It was why he wished he loved them.
"Do you love those who you rule?"
Who she ruled.
It was a strange thought, that. Ellen as Anasa, Alpha of all Alphas, though the same could be said of Declan.
Aelin Erevos
He did not blame her for staying away. What on this world or any other could bring her joy now? A year of her life taken from her, spent shackled and caged and tortured, only for something far more precious to be taken from her in the end. Her pups; Stolen from her before she even had the chance to hold them. In a galaxy full of all manner of evil, Declan knew no greater evil than that.
A year of beatings and starvation made it slow work for the Anasa and yet as she did with all things she persevered. She'd known hunger and hardship as much as any of them and more too than many and not just in the last year. Aelin on occasion had spoken of her life on Seoul 5 after the death of her father and the stealing of her sisters. A grim and cold existence it had been with death following always like a shadow. A life like many of the Wolves here had lived and yet also unique to her.
Declan watched and waited while she finished and waited longer yet until the glow of a small fire could be seen.
Without an invitation Declan joined Aelin at her camp. She sat near the fire on a log that had been turned on its side, he took a seat on the bare ground next to her, one of his massive shoulders bumping into a resting against her knee.
She hated him, he knew. Yet, he loved her still.
"What do you think of my Wolves?" He asked her.
He was certain that all he would get from her in response was anger and venom but that was ages better than the nothing. For far too long he'd gotten nothing from her. It was his fault her knee and there were times between the drinking, the spice, the fighting, the conquest, that he would think of the nothing and that nothing was terrible.
"Yasmine thinks them stupid, and savage, and cruel, and ignorant." Declan said rather quickly, having given Aelin no time to answer his question, so fearful was he of the nothing.
"They are that." He admitted "but they are also kind, funny, curious, brave. The same as you or I or Yasmine, and this I think is why she hates them."
It was why he wished he loved them.
"Do you love those who you rule?"
Who she ruled.
It was a strange thought, that. Ellen as Anasa, Alpha of all Alphas, though the same could be said of Declan.
Aelin Erevos