Chapter 70

The days dragged on as Ari stayed in the same place patiently. Funnily enough, despite being unable to leave, he did not feel trapped. For once he felt like he had a way out if he wanted to take it, but he was reluctant to do so.

It wasn't like he didn't want to leave. Ari wanted to, desperately so, but if he let Constantine drag him away, they will definitely be met with resistance. It was easy to guess the outcome of that. Ari would find himself back home where he wanted to be, and many deaths would be the result of that.

More than just feelings would be hurt because of him, and he already has three deaths on his conscious. It's not like he cared much about those innocent people dying, but they will drag something else with their deaths. People will hate him, people will blame him, and some might go after him.

And Ari was just tried of that.

He just wanted to disappear and start anew, and he didn't want to hurt anybody to do that. Not really. All it would take was for him to wait, and if he waits then many of his previous pack's members wouldn't have to die because of him, because he just wanted to leave.

There is just enough agony in this world, and they all showed him kindness so far during this miserable stay. It's time to just leave peacefully and let them return back to their families.

And so he waited.

He waited until he heard his surrounding grow quiet telling him that everyone left. Knowing what that meant, all he had to do was just wait for a little while longer before Constantine walks through the door. Then he'd ask how many nights, and he'd savor those nights until it happens again.

But this time he smelled the familiar scent of blood accompanying the heavy steps that were approaching his door. While that scent was nothing new, it usually isn't that intense, that fresh.

When Ari turned to the door, he saw Constantine at the doorframe looking at him with a suspicious redness in his green eyes that was waning away. "I threatened Hawthorne, you can leave now, princess."

Ari didn't allow himself to relax yet as he showed clear disbelief at hearing those words. "Leave?"

"Yes, Ari. It's over."

"They won't bring me back here if we leave?"

Constantine shook his head. "I made sure that wouldn't happen."

"Oh."

Years of abuse and feeling trapped were not easy to forget. Years of hiding what he is and not feeling like he fit anywhere made his anxiousness normal. Years of living in this town only to finally get out of it then be dragged once again made him unable to allow himself to feel happy just yet.

And years of feeling like he only had his mother to rely only to get a terrifying killer as a mate made him give up any hope he once had.

It was hard to really breathe in this town that smothered him, and it was harder to breathe when he felt his foot touch the ground as he took tentative steps towards the door. His head was still swirling with so many thoughts and so many worries. Ari was used to expecting something to go wrong once something good happens to him. The good thing is always snatched away from him.

It never lasts.

Even when he finally reached the open front door, he felt like there would be an invisible barrier preventing him from going out. Ari might have not been a victim of Constantine, but he had always been a victim of abuse. Of feeling helplessness.

Honestly, Ari was not aware of the moments that passed from walking out of the room to the front door. Those moments felt endless, yet he barely remembers them.

But he vividly remembers the first step he took outside feeling the wooden steps beneath his feet creaking under his weight. The chilly air caressed his face, and his hairs moved with it as he stared at the wretched town that was once his home, and he hated it so much.

Yet he still loved some parts of it.

And it was finally his choice whether he wanted to stay there or not.

Oddly enough, it still felt like his mother was still alive in that town somewhere, like a dark cloud looming over the place. Threatening to rain on his days as long as he's under it. As if she was adamant to be the source of all his misery.

She still lives on it seems.

And the warm hand that held his own kept him grounded.

It was only when he stepped into another unfamiliar place, so plain and just enough to be livable, did he finally feel the heaviness in his heart lift. Ari could breathe again, and the whole place around him had traces of Constantine. And places that smelled like Constantine were places where he woke up without his anxiety attacking him the moment he does.

Places where he was safe, relaxed, and not prone to getting hurt.

Ari blinked back in surprise when two hands held his face.

"You have been standing there for a long time, you alright?"

"Yeah, sorry, I was just-" At first Ari was nodding his head wanting to reassure him with a smile, but his voice broke and so did he, and hot tears fell on his face because he was afraid of being happy. "This just doesn't happen to me. This isn't something I get."

Constantine was not only a Dietrich, but was the first son of Christopher Dietrich. They were wealthy, powerful, and in a class of their own. They were so many things, and Ari remembered being in one of their parties with his mother wishing he was actually their son's mate just to make her eat her own scathing remarks.

At the time he didn't know he actually is, he didn't know who Constantine was.

And now he was standing there somewhere in the city in an apartment that was less than impressive and not even close to the life he was supposed to have as a Dietrich's mate.

And it was more than what he ever dreamed of. More than enough.

He even thought he didn't deserve so much.

"This isn't exactly a place worth crying over." Constantine's words were of someone who just didn't get the magnitude of all of this. It wasn't the place, it was the freedom and serenity that came with it. The freedom he was given. "We're not exactly staying here forever."

Ari nodded his head again as thumbs gently wiped away his tears barely able to speak let alone do so steadily. "I know."

"Why are you crying?"

"I don't know." But he did know, the words were just not enough to express it. He didn't know how to describe everything he was feeling. He just knew that he felt it, and that he couldn't believe how happy he was to have his hand rest on Constantine's wrist. A simple touch.

But it was never simple touches with Constantine.

They always mean so much. Always made him feel a lot.

Constantine brought his face closer to kiss him, and then he gave a soft laugh when Ari sniffed away his tears. "Where do you want to be? You get to choose."

Ari breathed in at that, because if he didn't, he'll cry some more. "Anywhere?"

"Yeah, wherever."

It like he's being told that it goes without saying that he should have a say in this, in all of this. As if what he wanted mattered, had weight in the decisions that were affecting him. Constantine might not even know it, that's just something that he does as if it was the natural thing to do – Ari didn't know that it is – and it just feels unbelievable to him.

Ari didn't even get to choose what he ate most of the time, his mother didn't care.

But now he was with someone who cared.

"Where do you usually stay?"

"Hm?"

Ari bit his lip, he always wondered. "When you're not staying in temporary places."

"Ah." A smile appeared on Constantine's face and Ari's heart skipped a beat. "A bit far from here, somewhere around humans. I don't like packs."

It was close to where Constantine's mother lived, and also a bit close to other packs where he is able to continue his fun. That place was actually his own, and the only reason why he kept changing places when he came here was to frustrate his father. Whenever his father finds where he stayed, he moved to the next one.

But his father didn't bother with where he actually lived, it was far from his pack.

Far from here, and very much what Ari wanted.

"There. I'd like to go there." In truth, he just wanted to be where Constantine is, but he was too shy to voice that desire out. Not that it wasn't clear to the other.

Even if he didn't say anything, his heart wasn't calming down.

The way Constantine looked at him in amusement before he brought him closer for a kiss didn't help with calming his heart, it made it worse. Ari closed his eyes not knowing when he stopped crying or when his hands wrapped themselves around Constantine, but he felt as if he was floating.

That feeling rarely remains just that, and Ari would always find his feet in the air due to their frustrating height difference. A problem that was easily dealt with when your partner handles you like you're weightless.

"I'll take you there." Ari was gasping for breaths when he was told that, yet he still went for another kiss. A little peck just to soothe his urge to be affectionate. "Just don't get kidnapped."

A voice akin to a whine escaped Ari, and before he could retort, he was swept away yet again with kisses that made him unaware that he was being taken somewhere else.