Eclipse Child

She loved him with a messy heart,

he hugged her with fragile bones

She touched him with scared hands

He kissed her with bruised lips

They whispered all their flaws

and inhaled the storm together.

-Randy Mascorro

Time passes much like how it did within the mountains. Soon I’m unable to register if an hour really is sixty minutes or seconds. It flows through my hand, falling like water that is unable to be held. There is no way to keep it.

The days trickle by. Orion finds his place in the pack.

It’s one I never expected from him, but then again, Orion was always surprising me.

I was introducing him to Henry, finally making the two meet. Orion stood silently behind me, not even bothering to make an effort in the conversation. Instead, his finger would occasionally stroke down my back, following the uneven path and making me jump at the searing sensation.

He had a habit of doing that now.

He would touch me whenever he felt like it, with no regard for who or what was watching.

I had just come back from a run, covered in sweat and still breathing hard. Orion stood in the kitchen helping Sandra like how he always did now. With no second thought to her presence, he approached me and pulled me to him, kissing me and making my already gasping lungs collapse.

I had to constantly be on guard for his sudden attacks.

Henry seemed uncomfortable with the wild presence that Orion brought. Even more so when his mate, Katie, showed up holding their half-year-old pup, Reign.

The room as a whole stiffened when Orion approached Katie and held out his arms.

“May I?”

I didn’t blame Katie for hesitating. A savage wildness exerted out of Orion- the sight only added to the hair he rarely combed and beard he hardly trimmed.

Reluctantly she placed Reign within his hands.

And that was that.

For the rest of the time we were there, Orion ignored us completely and became absorbed in the little pup. Henry and Katie stared in awed wonder for how Orion made her calm down, how he kept her peacefully asleep. The sight of his gentle face, mixed in with his harsh appearance, did not blend, but... Orion always had a way of surprising me.

It made me remember that within the pack in the mountains, he had continuously been playing with the younger wolves. I never made the connection until I saw him carrying Reign.

My heart constricted at the sight, guilt eating away like a festering wound.

After that, whenever I left in the morning to train, Orion would walk the other way to the nursery that was near the clinic. I had never been inside the building until then.

All the females soon became used to him.

Henry and I would stare in baffled silence as the giant tan wolf growled playfully at the toddling pups.

Because he was near the clinic, Orion soon became close to Leo.

I would see them together, Leo talking adamantly to Orion’s wolf as they sat on the porch. Some nights mom would join them, others it would be Uncle Mark, Aunt Quinn or even Lilah.

I would never admit to Orion the jealously that ate away inside when I witness the moments like these.

How was he able to make them like him so fast?

How had he been able to wiggle his way into the hearts of so many?

It confounded me because I was under the impression that Orion was an outcast, someone who had been push aside in his pack for never fitting in.

But here he was. The only conclusion I could create was that his parents had not been protecting their son. They had been blocking him away, misleading him to think he could not fit in when all along- he was destined to be with others.

“He’s soothing.”

I eye mom critically, watching as she sketched the back porch railing. I had braved the possibility of her seeing through me, and asked why she accepted Orion.

“Why do you like him?”

I groan at the question and lean back. I had become consumed with training. So consumed that it seemed like I was becoming nothing but an observer. Nothing but a shadow.

Mom patiently waits, a tuneless hum filling the silence as she continues drawing. I watch her.

“He calms me. He...he heals me.”

“How so?”

I consider the question carefully.

“I don’t think much of myself mom-,” I hold out my hand, stopping her before she can speak, “I don’t think much of me. I think in many ways, I’m not a good person. No...” I murmur the word, rephrasing the sentence, “I know I’m not a good person. But with Orion...with Orion, he looks at me and I see that he’s good enough for the both of us.”

“You are a good person Soraya,” mom puts her drawing down, turning to focus on me, “why would you think anything else?”

“Good people don’t cause others pain, ah...” I close my eyes, cutting mom off from my sight, “but I never wanted to be good. I just want to be acknowledged.”

Mom exhales, taking a breath to steady herself, “are you going to challenge him?”

“Soon,” I admit.

I wait for her to say more. From the corner of my eyes, I peek at mom and feel my hands curl as she clings to her chest, her hand gripping it to push back the pain.

I let my eyes close and smile.

She only confirmed my words.

Good people didn’t cause others pain.

I lie on the bed, Orion curled next to me.

The bastard stayed in skin when he was with me. If I had known the key to getting him to shift and stay in his appearance of the wild male was through the temptation of desire, then I would have initiated it sooner.

A month later though, and it seemed Orion was completely used to kissing and touching.

What once caused him to blush, now had the opposite effect- sometimes my cheeks would be the ones to turn red at the things he did.

He leans over, his arms wrapping around my waist as he buries his head in my side.

Without thinking of it, I stroke his head, suddenly missing the tan wolf.

“Did you brush your hair today?”

The knotted mess told me all I needed. His grumbled sound of displeasure also confirmed my thoughts.

“Sit up, come on.”

He sighs, pressing harder against me.

“Orion,” I groan pushing him off. Reluctantly he gets up, going into the bathroom to retrieve a brush. I would never admit out loud how much I loved to brush his hair.

I kept mine purposely short so I had the excuse for it.

He winces as I loosen the curls, trying to ease them apart.

“No use,” I shake my head sadly at the sight, “come on, bath.”

He eagerly gets up, scrambling to race ahead and fill the tub with water and bubbles. I laugh at his excitement, shaking my head at his childish actions.

Moments later we sit together. Orion’s back is pressed against my chest, his eyes closed as his head leans back to lay on my shoulder. I run my fingers through his hair, easing the shampoo through it.

I tsk at him, “when was the last time you had a bath.”

“Two days ago.”

Heat crawls through my body when I remember just what exactly happened two days ago. A wicked smile curves around Orion’s face as he remembers also.

I slap his shoulder lightly, “stop that.”

“I’m doing nothing,” the innocence in his voice makes me laugh.

We sit in a peaceful silence, the heat of the water soothing my muscles from the training it had exerted earlier today. It’s our routine now, one that Orion knows.

Once I’m done with his hair he turns around and grabs rubbing salts, pressing them along my back gently.

“Does it hurt?” I bend forward, closing my eyes as his lips trace along the top edge of my shoulders and up my neck.

“No. That always helps.”

A satisfied noise leaves Orion, that he has managed to clear away the pain. I never would reveal that the pain would always be there. Would always be present and constant.

It just was less now.

“I...I overheard you and Lexie.”

“Oh?”

I keep my eyes close, my heart speeding up in worry for what part he might have listened to.

“You’re going to challenge Atlas?”

A breath of relief leaves me, “yes, you knew I always was.”

“Yes...”

I twist around to look at him.

“You don’t think I can...”

He quickly shakes his head, “no...no that’s not it.”

I wait for him to find the right words. Absentmindedly he raises a finger, letting it trace down my back. I shiver against the sensation.

“You can do anything,” he leans forward, resting his head on my shoulder. I raise my hand, cupping his cheek and twisting my fingers into his beard.

“Orion...What if something happens to me.”

There is a broken silence. I turn around to find him smiling at me. It only makes me panic more.

“I’m being serious-,”

“I know-,”

“If something goes wrong-,”

“I know-,”

“Even though he’s my father I-,”

He leans forward, cutting off my words with his lips.

Our foreheads kiss the two skins connecting as his hands slide to my neck, curving around. His eyes are closed, a look of deep concentration on his face, as he whispers, “I know.”

My mind flashes to Leo and the deep sorrow that embeds within him. I picture the smell coming off of Orion but the image can’t come to my thoughts. I can’t conjure it.

All I could see was a tan wolf, running away into the mountains to be with the wild.

“Isn’t it...frightening... to think of your life so connected to someone else?”

“Yes,” Orion bluntly answers the question, shrugging in response, “but isn’t that what makes the mate bond so powerful? Soraya...”

He kisses me, cutting off his words now. I don’t hesitate, letting his tongue slide in, letting his body turn around so that I am on top, he is below and we are pressing together, sloshing water over the edge.

In all our moments together, Orion has always been silent. But now, to my surprise, he pulls back, gliding his lips up my neck and whispering in between, “when you breathe, I breathe.”

I gasp as he stands, holding me close to him. He gently steps over the edge of the tub, but looks down to say, “when you are in pain, I am in pain.”

He walks into the bedroom, sitting me down at the edge of the bed, so he can bend in front of me, as he presses his hands to my knees, leaning in.

“When you are happy, I am happy.”

His lips trail up my legs, the bare wet skin heating with his touch, gliding against the water that still beaded down. He bends down, lifting them to curl around his neck as he moves closer to stroke my hips, my stomach, rising to fall between my breasts.

“When you die, I die.”

I inhale sharply, grabbing his face to get his attention, but Orion is not done. Whatever has come over him, whatever has possessed him- it’s not letting go yet.

He presses on me, letting me feel his need, desire, against my thigh.

“My life is yours Soraya. Always yours. I wouldn’t even want to live in it unless you were here. You’re not my other half-,”

Grey eyes that I always thought of steel come closer to kiss the hollow base of my neck. It’s too much. His words are too much. I’m overwhelmed.

“You are my whole. You are my everything.”

“Orion,” I shake my head, embarrassment filling me at how my voice cracks. I rapidly blink away the tears that are threatening to spill. He gently presses his palms to my cheeks forcing me to listen to his last, final confession.

“Soraya...my pack...you complete me.”

He pauses, a grin spreading across his face as he watches the single tear that I couldn’t stop, escape. He doesn’t kiss it away or take it off. Instead, he stares, letting its path become engrained in his mind.

I try to turn away, but his smile only widens.

“Will you let me be yours?”

A hiccup leaves me, the forced effort of containing my sobs revolting against me.

“Soraya?”

“Damn you,” I furiously wipe away the next tear that leaves, “damn you Orion, the one time you do speak and it’s...” another hiccup interrupts me.

He laughs softly shaking his head and kissing my cheek.

“Soraya, let me be yours. Please.”

“Fine,” I hiccup again, cursing myself for ruining this moment, cursing him because I can’t think while his words and body press against my mind and skin, “fucking fine. I would have agreed anyway, you didn’t need to rip into my heart like that.”

He doesn’t laugh softly at that- his head is thrown back in pure joy at the clear victory on his part.

And without another word, he goes back to kissing me.