The Little Rose

Resisting Temptation

"So, I know your name.  But what are we supposed to call me?"  She asked softly, amusement lacing her words.  

"Roisin."  Stated Odin, continuing to watch her every move through my eyes.  "We should call her Roisin."

"I've never heard that name before, why are you so insistent we call her Roisin?"  I placed another log on the fire, stalling before answering her, resisting the urge to explain to him that she isn't a stray puppy we found, she's a person and most likely already had a name.

"Because it means Little Rose, and she looks like a rose with all of that beautiful red hair..."  He was right, her hair reminded me of a rose as well, though from Odin's memory I knew that roses at Amethyst City were far more beautiful than the ones I was accustomed to.

"Roisin."  I whispered, testing the name on my tongue.  I liked it. 

"Excuse me?  What did you say?"  Her sweet melodic voice danced around me and I glanced up at her, our eyes locking over the fire.

"Roisin.  We can call you Roisin.  It means 'Little Rose'.  For your hair, it reminds me of rose petals."  Those sea colored eyes would pull anyone in with their beauty and I was finding it hard to focus on the task at hand when all I wanted to do was look at her.  Who was I kidding, the mate bound was pulling at me as if I were drowning and she was the only bit of oxygen that could save me.  I wanted my hands wrapped in all of that gorgeous hair of hers and my lips sealed to hers.

The logs snapped and cracked, falling further into the flames and sending ash and embers flying into the air between us, a few singed my arm and pulled me out of the spell that seemed to be cast between me and Roisin.  Clearing my throat, I dragged my gaze away from her and adjusted another log onto the fire.  

"Anyways, I should go..."  As I rose to my feet Roisin followed my motions, standing as well, seeming as if she were going to follow me.  "Stay here, I'm just going to check my nets and see if there are a few fish to roast."  She made to walk around the fire pit, opening her mouth to say something but I just glared at her and held my hands up, telling her to stay where she was.  "I need some time to my self."  I growled at her. I half expected her to get angry or scared, instead this frustratingly understanding smile curved her lips and she nodded her head, folding her hands in front of her.

Taking a step back my eyes roamed her body, not for the first time this morning.  She was at least six foot tall and my shirt, while covering the important parts, was exceedingly short on her, just above mid-thigh, every time she moved it rose and gave me tantalizing glimpses of parts of her I'd rather not be tempted by.  Turning away from her before she saw me blush I walked towards the trail that lead to the south side of the island and hollered over my shoulder.  "And for the love of all that is holy, please put on some pants!"

"How about you just not look!"  I heard her yell back at me.  I paused in my retreat, tempted to turn back around and confront her, but I couldn't.  If I caught her gaze again I'd do one of two things, say something that would hurt her again, or take her in my arms; and I'd rather not do either of those.

"You should stop running from her."  Odin's irritated voice filled my mind.  "She's spunky, I like it."  He added on at the end, a self satisfied note in his tone.

"You may be able to forget Gracie so easily, but I can't."  I growled back at him, kicking the leaves along the ground as I followed the trail to the south end of the island, I had nets thrown out at all four sides, but the south for some reason always seemed to pull in the best catch.  With my high metabolize I ate a good deal of food, and with no other meat options on the island besides birds, who were few and far between, fish was the main staple of my diet.

"Watch your words human!"  Odin roared back, but I just rolled my eyes at his anger, I'd stopped being scared of him a long time ago.  "I have not forgotten our Gracie, I could never forget our Gracie."  His words drowned out into whisper that actually had me feeling sorry for what I had said.  Sometimes I forgot that he actually had feelings, we'd been so at odds for so long that we'd been enemies much longer then we'd been friends.

"I'm sorry Odin."  I spoke into the breeze, but I knew he'd hear me, he was always listening.  "I'm sorry for everything you went through due to my mistakes... but I lost her as well.  I lost them.  I refuse to just accept some replacement for my mate and children."

"I am not accepting a replacement mate Orion, she smells the same..."  Why did he say those words as if they meant anything to me. 

"So?  That just means she's our mate, correct?  Dad said that mom smelled the same to him as his original mate."  Breaking through the tree line, I put a hand over my eyes to block out the sun a bit and moved to the tree that had a rope tied around it that lead across the sand and into the water.  Following the rope I walked a few feet into the water before starting to pull the net in 

"Your mother carried the same scent because she was the same spirit reincarnated.  If his original mate had been a werewolf  or Lycan then she would have recovered her lost memories when she came of age again in her reincarnated form.  But because his original mate was a Siren, when she reincarnated as human she had no wolf to bring her memories back to her."  

"Except Gracie was a werewolf and even if she reincarnated, it's to soon.  It's only been seven years Odin, that woman is at least twenty one years old."  

"But she carries Gracie's scent!  She must have Gracie's soul!"  Odin stated in exasperation. "I left mother realm many times to come back.  The only rules are you can't enter a body that has a soul or is dead.  All you need is a body hanging on to life by a thread with a soul that has already passed on."

I almost dropped the net as what he was saying fully sank in.  Could Gracie really be back?  Could her soul really have escaped the here after and returned to find me?

"But what you are saying sounds crazy Odin..."  I argued half heartedly.  If my Gracie was back... then, could I truly find happiness again?

"Who's Odin?"  The sound of her musical voice coming from behind me shocked me into dropping the rope and spinning around to face her.  She was standing there on the shore, her beautiful red hair in a thick braid of her shoulder, the curls at the end waving in the breeze.  She still had the green shirt on, but she'd added a pair of my boxers, and I was mentally kicking my self for telling her to put on more clothes while silently thanking her for doing so.  Roisin was so beautiful it almost hurt to look at her.  

My eyes narrowed at her as she stared back at me with an innocent look on her face, as if she were completely oblivious to the fact that I may be mad at her for spying on me.

"What are you doing here?  I told you I needed time to my self.  Can't you respect boundaries?"  I knew I was being short with her, but I had things to work through, things I couldn't think about when her intoxicating scent was being shoved in my face by the breeze and her hypnotizing eyes were staring at me like that. 

"I put on bottoms, like you asked..."  She mumbled, her long, delicate fingers picking at the fabric of the boxers she wore.  "Well, demanded really... you demand more then you ask honestly."  

"If you don't like it you can go."  I grumbled at her, turning back to pick up the rope and haul the fishing net in.  I couldn't keep looking at her, it effected me in ways I was not comfortable with, especially given our current circumstance.

"Don't tell her to leave!  What if she does?!"  Odin whined through my mind.  Jesus, when did my wolf become such a whinny little pup.

"She won't."  I grumbled back at him, continuing to pulling in the net, from the weight I'd say it was a pretty good catch, which in any other fishermen may seem great, but for me, I was just wishing they were all alive.  I'd only need ten fish max for the two of us for the day, maybe ten more if I cooked and salted them for tomorrow, but more then that was a waste, and I didn't like killing animals just for pleasure.  I required them to survive, I didn't want to hurt them unnecessarily.

"How do you know?"  Odin shot back.

"You aren't this idiotic Odin... come on!  First off, she washed up on the island, how exactly do you expect her to escape?  I have the only boat and it's hidden.  Second, she's our mate, she feels the bound as strongly as we do or she wouldn't be out here now, hunting me down, just like we don't have it in us to swim away and leave her here, neither does she."  I swear, for being over two thousand years old, when it came to our mates, he continued to act as if he no idea what their entailed  He reverted back to a pup when they were involved.

"Right, of course.. I'm just on edge.  You haven't exactly been welcoming to her."  And there he was, grumbling and fussing again.

"I will no accept a second choice."  I growled back at him, I was not going to give in in this instant, and I was beginning to get pissed that he kept on hounding me about this.

"What if she is Gracie?"   I paused as the gently spoken question vibrated through my mind.  What if she were Gracie?  How could I ever even really know?  Was there a way to know?  Looking over my shoulder at her, I had expected her to have turned around and go back to the clearing with her tail between her legs, instead there she was, smiling and waving softly when she realized I was watching her again.  I turned away from her quickly and frowned out into the water.  This was all so complicated.

"If she is Gracie..."  I mumbled, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath. "Then I will accept her."

"Orion?"  I swear her sweet voice was made to sing every single word she uttered.  How could she made my name sound both beautiful and seductive when she was just trying to get my attention.

"Sorry, um, Odin is the voice in my mind that I talk to."  I answered back, struggling not to give in to the need to turn around and drink in my fill of her beauty.  

"Really?  The voice in your head that you talk to?"  I could almost hear him rolling his eyes at me.  

"What was I supposed to say Odin?  We don't know what or who she is?"  

"Exactly!  She knows nothing!  Why not go ahead and get her use to the idea of a Lycan mate now?  Before her memories return?"  I didn't know if his plan was idiotic or genius, but either way, he was kind of right, she knew nothing, so why hide?

"Voice in your mind?"  Roisin asked from the shore.

"He's my wolf."  I muttered back in response, praying she freaked out and stayed far away from me... while a tiny sliver of my mind secretly hoped shed accept it, and me, without question.  "I'm a Lycan, like a werewolf, but my wolf Spirit is stronger then normal werewolves, he's an original, and there for Lycan.  It can be a lot to take in and explain."  Why did I sound nervous?  I wanted her to run away in fright?  Didn't I?

"Oh okay, I understand."  The acceptance in her tone had me spinning around to stare at her like she were crazy.  She just stared back at me with a pleasant smile on her lips while I watched her with a jaw so wide open I could use it to catch the fish I was trying to bring in.  She giggled as she watched my reaction, her shoulders shrugging softly.  "What?  You seemed surprised by something?"

"I just-"  I didn't even know what I was trying to say, she was human, right?  I mean, even though she carried Gracie's scent, it was missing the werewolf scent I was use to smelling off of other wolves.  She had to be human?  "I'm not use to humans accepting that explanation so readily.  Humans don't usually know about us, and we prefer to keep it that way."

"Hmm, that is curious."  She said, her lips pursed and turned to the side as her eyebrows pulled together, like she was contemplating a major issue and looking for an answer.  "I don't know... maybe I'm not human?  Perhaps, even with my memory gone, my brain is hard wired to accept werewolves and Lycans?"

"She's right."  Odin added in curiously, also intrigued by the puzzle our new mate was turning out to be.

"I'm not having this conversation right now.  I have enough rattling around in my mind to think about, you two just need to stop and give me some time."  I pushed him to the back of my mind and threw a block up to keep him there for the time being.  I needed time to think, and neither of them was helping me in that regard.  "Go back to the cabin Roisin.  I'll be there soon."

"But I wanted to-"  She began, but I just turned around and glared at her, cutting her words short.

"Go.  I told you I needed time to my self and you gave me all of five seconds before following me.  Please respect my boundaries and give me some space!"  I didn't mean to yell at her, it hadn't been my intention, and even as the harsh words left my mouth I regretted them.  But I stood firm, I needed a few minutes of solitude to think and work through my feelings, fears, and thoughts.

"Okay."  Roisin said, taking a step back towards the tree line.  "I'm sorry, I should have listened..."  She didn't sound upset, just resigned.  As she turned and walked back through the trail towards the cabin, I wanted to shout out to her to come back.  I wanted to take her in my arms and bury my nose in her neck, breathing her scent into my lungs like it was the very air I needed to survive.  But I couldn't.  I needed this time.  I needed to consider my options here and work through some of my feelings before they tore me apart and I made mistake I couldn't take back.