Chapter 289: The One Before You
GAHRYE
Gahrye didn't know whether to marvel at this place they'd walked into, or at Kalle's strange scent—that he could only just catch and decipher over the strong plastic tang of the hallway they walked. It was lined in some kind of covering that made it hard and shiny, but it stank enough to wrinkle Gahrye's nose.
"Thank you, but that really wasn't necessary. He's an asshole, but a harmless one."
"Do males in your world always handle females in that way?" Gahrye said through his teeth.
"No. I mean—he really didn't hurt me. He was just trying to stop me leaving. I would have done the same to him."
"The difference is, should he not wish to be stopped, you would be incapable of stopping him. Those who are stronger have a responsibility to take even greater care for their effects on others."
Kalle stopped walking and turned to face him, her jaw slack. "Where… who told you that?"
He frowned. "You disagree?"
"No! I just usually only hear women talk about that. Men usually… laugh it off as something we're too sensitive about."
Gahrye snorted. "This world is… not what I expected," he muttered. "In Anima it is known that the stronger you are, the more care you must have for others. Domination is fine when one is challenged—it's necessary. But to harm someone who is not strong enough, or capable enough to defend themselves or harm you in return is… dishonorable. My people would reject anyone who did it."
Kalle shook her head. "I'd heard about this—this is that whole incapable thing, right? You don't fight people who are mentally deficient, or weak?"
"It is entirely appropriate to defeat an opponent, or anyone who challenges your place in the dominance hierarchy. But someone who doesn't know, or understand what they do? Or a child—or as weak as a child? No. In my world, if I were to harm that person, I would be the one under discipline. And in relationships between male and female, it is always ultimately the females choice if she is touched, or… anything else…" he trailed off. He hadn't intended to go there. He cleared his throat. "In my world for him to touch you that way was dishonorable to him. He's lucky he's weak or I would have hurt him."
"Weak?!" Kalle laughed. "Don't let him her you say that. He works out every day for those muscles."
Gahrye had to search, but he remembered Elia calling their early training "working out." He shook his head. "You humans have strange customs," he muttered.
"You have no idea," Kalle chuckled, but she sobered quickly. "Anyway, thank you, but I want you to know, he'd never like, hit me or anything. He's actually a big softy at heart. He just needs to grow up. And stop being selfish."
"Soft is right," Gahrye muttered under his breath. "Who is he to you? He clearly believes you are… mated?"
Kalle choked. "Uh, not if you mean, like actual partners, no. Not the way Anima would see it anyway, I don't think," she said, her cheeks coloring. "He's my ex-boyfriend."
"Ex… boyfriend? This is…" Elia had explained it once, but he wasn't sure he remembered all the ins and outs of the different relationship structure here. Humans were complicated.
Kalle's lips twisted and she looked at her hands. "It means for a while we… mated, just with each other and no one else, but we were never Mates. Not in the true sense. We were… considering that kind of connection."
"You wished to Mate him?" Gahrye gaped. "That… softy?"
"I know, I know. I'm terrible at picking men. The truth is I have a habit of thinking I'm picking Alpha's, when they always turn out to just be assholes. And in my defense, he's a very, very pretty softy," she sighed.
Gahrye looked back, but Dillon had disappeared. So he was considered handsome by humans as well. Gahrye raked a hand through his hair.
"He… wanted to take you as a True Mate?" Not that Gahrye could blame him, but if another male had a place in her heart—
"Aren't you adorable," Kalle said dryly and started walking again. Gahrye fell in step as they passed down the long hallway, passing solid wood doors on both sides. "I doubt Dillon thought about anything beyond wanting what he couldn't have," she said through gritted teeth. "I caught him cheating and he's still trying make me believe I didn't see what I saw."
"Cheating?"
Her cheeks bloomed red and she kept her eyes straight ahead on the double-doors they were approaching. "While we were supposed to be… sleeping just with each other, I found him in our bedroom with another female and they had obviously just been… mating," she said, embarrassed.
Gahrye frowned. "Males here can't mate different females?"
"Oh, they can and they do, trust me," she said shaking her head. "But when you have an agreement, they shouldn't. It's called cheating. And even worse, it was a sort-of friend of mine. I introduced them… anyway, it doesn't matter. Dillon is a hound dog and I'm not interested in those, so I told him goodbye. And now, suddenly, when I don't want him anymore, he's decided I'm far more interesting and desirable than he ever found me when we were together. Men, huh?"
"I don't understand… you had an agreement? He must have thought you were desirable to have made that agreement in the first place?"
"Well, there's desirable, then there's desirable if you know what I mean. Dillon's out of my league. I never really understood what he saw in me anyway—I shouldn't have been surprised that he cheated really. The writing was on the wall."
"Wait, what wall? And you're talking about that male?" Gahrye stopped and turned to face her. Kalle stopped too, a strange look on her face.
"Yes," she said.
"Out of the league, this means… he was more eligible than you?" Gahrye asked, shocked.
Kalle chuckled. "Yes, I guess that's the terms you would use."
"But…" he turned and looked back the way they'd come, back towards that weak, pathetic male. "Who would possibly see him as out of your… league? He has no spine!"
Kalle rolled her lips in to stifle whatever she'd been about to say, but her eyes were twinkling. "You are so sweet, Gahrye," she said softly and patted his chest.
Gahrye felt the touch like a wave crashing over him and caught her hand, holding it there to his chest.
Kalle blinked at where he touched her, then looked up at him uncertainly through her lashes. But she didn't pull her hand back.
"I am not being sweet," he bristled. "That male has nothing to offer you."
"Oh, I'm aware, trust me."
"No, Kalle. Not if you would say he has value over yours. You are… I know we have only just met, but you have strength, and beauty, and… you are unique. He is… is a plaything. And now you're… free, yes? To pursue others, I mean?"
She blinked several times. "Um, yes. I mean, I am. Free. Single, we call it."
Gahrye nodded. "Good," he said.
She stared into his eyes then, hers shadowed both with fear and something else. Something alight. Then there was a moment where Gahrye felt her, as if her heart reached for his. A tugging right at the center of his chest, pulling for her—and it was as if he could feel her pulling towards him.
Then she blinked again and stepped back, sliding her hand out from under his. "Thank you," she said, turning away so their eyes weren't locked anymore. She tipped her head and started walking. "Thank you, that was very kind what you said about me. And… thank you."
She sounded flustered, but Gahrye found himself so off balance—that piece of himself that belonged to her churning in him—that he couldn't find the right words to soothe her.
So, with a sigh, he followed her through the double-doors and into what was perhaps the largest room he'd ever seen.
*****
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