The Little Rose

The Changes

As Orion left the room to check on our clothes get more towels, I found myself yawning, which had Nullar chuckling.

“I apologize for being such boring company.”  He murmured.

“Oh shush, that isn’t it at all. I’ve been up since yesterday morning, I guess the adrenaline is what has kept me awake this long, but now that the excitement is kind of waring down a bit, my body is as well.”  As if to emphasize my words I yawned again involuntarily, setting me and Nullar into another round of laugher.

“You should take a shower Princess; it’ll help you sleep if you are scrubbed clean. As much as I love our saltwater world once you come on land the salt sticks to your skin in the most unpleasant of ways.”  Nullar commented running a hand down his arm to show me the sand and salt dusting his skin, but I already knew what he was talking about, because I felt grimy in every single crevice of my body.

“I think I’ll feel better after a shower as well.”  Unfolding my legs from under me I rose from the couch and went to take a shower, only, once I was in the bathroom, facing the shower stall, I realized I had no idea how to turn it on. At the door of the bathroom I smiled shyly at Nullar. “I don’t know how to turn on the water, do you?” 

“This is so strange.”  Nullar whispered, his face taking on the same odd look it had every time I admitted to not remembering something or asked a question.

“What is strange? Being on land?”  I asked him as he stood from the couch and walked towards me, slipping past me to move into the bathroom and turn the knobs in the shower on, twisting them this way and that to get the perfect temperature.

“No, being on land is as second nature as being in the water, our castles and homes are out of the water. What is odd, is that you do not remember simple things like turning on a shower and yet you remember words. I’ve known you off and on for two hundred years, Odette, and honestly, your personality is different as well.”  He was standing beside the shower with his hand under the water, but his eyes were on me, measuring me in ways I did not understand.

“My personality? What do you mean? How am I different?”  Had I really changed so much?

“It’s like you are a completely different person.” 

“In what ways?”  I was honestly curious as to how different I as Roisin was from myself as Odette.

“Well, you are soft spoken and sweet, you seem to care about those around you, and you find awe in everything you encounter. Normally you are very…”  Nullar’s voice trailed off as his gaze did as well, beyond me, unsure if he should continue.

“Please, tell me, I want to know all I can about what is going on with me, and knowing about who I was before I washed up on Orion’s Island is part of that.”  I pleaded with him, leaning back against the bathroom sink.

“You were very self-centered, conceited. Everything had to always be your way, or you would throw a tantrum. That is what happened a few nights ago. You were unhappy with your father, so you snuck out of the castle and went for a midnight swim alone. Which is never allowed, your father has enemies and with you being his only daughter he wanted you well protected so you would never be used as a pawn against him. You knew this, and yet you left without telling any of us. I would have gone with you, something you knew, but because the fight had been about me, when you ran, you ran from me as well.”  Nullar’s words gave me pause.  I had been a brat, not that I should be surprised seeing as how I was raised a princess with my own future husbands as my guards, I would assume that they would naturally want to spoil me.

“Why was I fighting with my father about you?”  I asked, watching in curiosity as Nullar began shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot, and I swear If his skin were not so dark, I would see a blush spread across his cheeks.

“One of the rules of our engagement was that none of us were allowed to…”  Taking a deep breath his gaze snapped to mine and away again in an instant. “We weren’t allowed to be physically with you.”

“Physical? Like touch me?” 

“No…”  He murmured taking his hand out of the shower and whipping the water off on his clothes, careful not to let it drip onto his legs and feet. “Sexually. We weren’t allowed to mate with you.” 

“Oh.”  Was all I said, it was all I could conjure to say about the information he had shared.

“Yes. But for the last five years you and I would sneak away to be alone.”  He looked uncomfortable again, and with my cheeks feeling as if fire were scorching them, I knew I looked just as embarrassed. When he hazard a glance at me, he looked at my cheeks in surprise and chuckled softly, shaking his head in disbelief. “Like this, you would have never been embarrassed by this conversation before you lost your memories.”  Nullar sobered up quickly before continuing his explanation. “Anyways, that night, you and your father were fighting because he found out that we had been sneaking off together for a while.” 

“And he didn’t take it well?”

“Not at all, he threatened to break your engagement with me and strip his protection from my kingdom. You lost it, yelling at him, and threatening to refuse the throne. I always thought you were just using me to rebel against your father, and I was okay with that if you were happy, but when it came down to being confronted, you did not throw me to your father like shark bait, you stood up for me. Fought for me.”  He was gazing at me like he had earlier when the spoke of growing fond of one another over the years as my guard, with love and adoration. “I had always looked for the best in you, trying to love you as the woman I was to marry one day, and though you always had qualities I admired, such as your bravery and courage, I found it hard to love you when we barely connected, even in the bed. But that night, seeing you declare your love for me to your father, seeing you threaten to decline the throne just to be with me… it made me realize that I loved you as well.”  During his admission Nullar had gotten closer, now only a foot of distance between us, and with my back against the sink I had nowhere to run.

“Nullar.”  I breathed his name, raising my arms between us to push him away, but he misread the gesture taking my hands in his and pulling me to him, our bodies pressed together as he dipped his head to mine, claiming my lips in a kiss that surprised me. Standing there in shock I froze, unsure what to do, when she came again.

“Oh hell no you overgrown fish stick!”  A feminine growl filled my mind before I felt the odd sensation of floating in nothingness, I could still see everything through my eyes, but it was as if someone else were moving me, controlling my body, and I were just a passenger.

I was yanked away back from Nullar, the countertop digging into my back, one hand flying up to slap him across the face with a loud c***k. Nullar stood there gaping at me, his fingers grazing over his now tender cheek. “Never touch us again!”  I was growling at Nullar, but it was not me. It came from my mouth, it was almost my voice, but it was not me. What was going on?

“Odette?”  Nullar asked softly, reaching out to touch me again, but my knee came barreling up between his legs causing him to cry out in pain and stumbled back. In his blind attempt to escape he tripped over the lip of the shower entrance and fell through the curtain landing in a heap in the water as it poured down on him soaking him quickly, which in turn cause his transformation. His lets sealed together and with a shimmer of what seemed like magic, pearly white iridescent scales flowed over his skin, covering him from low on his hips to his toes. Nullar’s tail was truly breathtaking. His shirt blocked his stomach and chest from my view, but I could see his lunavullar snaking around his arms and up his neck.

“Touch us again, and I’ll help Orion turn you into sushi.”  My voice was growling again, rough and husky, me but not me. With that this other me must have been please, because she rubbed her hands together, made an odd motion of running my finger up my nose before walking quickly out of the bathroom- and right into the hard wall that was Orion’s bare chest.

“What’s going on here?”  He demanded, looking between and the transformed tail of Nullar sticking out of the shower.

“Orion! Help me! It’s not me!”  I called out to him if anyone would hear me it would be him.

“Calm down, let me have a few seconds with out mate.”  The voice pleaded, almost sounding on the verge of begging. Meanwhile she was sliding my hands up his bare chest, wrapping my arms around his neck and pulling his head down to ours… wait, no, mine. This was my body! Even if she had taken control from me, it was still mine!

They were kissing, we were kissing… Orion was crushing me to him, holding me as close as he could to his own body as his lips devoured my own. He stumbled back, out of the bathroom and pushed me up against the wall, his tongue was delving between my lips, taking anything and everything that I was willing to give. That she was willing to give of me. I had to get her out, I needed control back.

Orion pulled away from our kiss and looked into my eyes with a shocked expression of his own, his eyes flickering to Odin’s glowing white orbs momentarily.

“My big bad wolfy.”  I heard myself whisper, the softly spoken words were the bucket of ice water we desperately needed. Orion pulled back, his hands remained on my waist, his fingers digging into my flesh through the fabric of the blue sundress as he focused on my face with an intensity, I was not used to seeing from him.

“It can’t be…”  he whispered, blinking rapidly before peering at me once more with a look of pure astonishment on his face. “Gracie? Gracelynn, is that you?”

“Did you miss me?”