Chapter 18: Chapter 18

Memory Lane

ANDREAS POV

The ledge Cat stood on cracked in two and suddenly she was falling into the flaming river styx, when i saw her fall my body moved on its own. I knew she could have saved herself but i did not want to chance it so i swooped down in an instant catching her in my arms. She wasn't screaming like the first time when I dropped her from the skies nor was she shaking in fear or panic heck she hadn't even released her wings which puzzled me a bit.

Going back up to the floating ledge where my throne sat i placed her on the chair gently before inspecting her to see if she had been hurt only to find her grinning like a Cheshire cat. I stood looking at her like she lost her damned mind

"Why the hell are you smiling you almost died" i all but yelled

"Pffft as if" she scoffed smugly

"First off are you forgetting everything you taught me? Even if I'd fallen into the flames i'd still be fine since i place a protective barrier around myself second of all i knew you'd catch me" she says matter of factly

Now i was feeling dumb i panicked for no reason of course she knows how to keep herself safe i practically drilled it into her head. Slightly embarrassed i turned away to hide the blush i could feel rising on my cheeks

What is happening to me i don't blush!

After a few moments of silence i heard her say my name softly, i turned to look at her only to get lost in her mesmerizing blue eyes.

"Dre!" She says snapping me out of the trance her eyes put me in

"Huh" i say confused

"Could you explain this to me" she says pointing at my appearance

I held my head down as she looked at me i felt ashamed and embarrassed that she saw me like this i never wanted her to. This is a part of me i keep hidden only my siblings the king and the prince knows of my third form.

"It's ok if you don't want to" she rushed out sensing my withdrawal

"No it's-its ok. Your the princess of hell your supposed to know all there is about your subjects" i all but whispered my head still hung low

"I'm not asking as the princess Dre I'm asking as your friend"

"How could you- why would you want to be friends with this" i say my anger starting to rise again

"Because i care about you!" She yells as tears gather in her eyes

I got that uncomfortable feeling again when i saw her eyes got misty with tears. I don't understand this feeling I've never reacted this way before seeing someone sad or crying in fact most times i could care less but when its cat i feel like something is pulling at pieces of whatever soul i have left.

"I'm sorry i never meant to shout at you and i don't wanna force you to talk about something you're uncomfortable talking about, I'm gonna go" she says getting up to leave

The uncomfortable feeling in my chest intensified

"Please don't go" i barely let out

She stopped mid rise at my words before sitting back down on the chair. I felt my discomfort slightly relieved which in turn amplified my confusion

"Dre"

"Dre look at me" she says in a soothing tone

I slowly lift my head to look at her. I really hated her seeing me like this but it was already too late plus whenever i get like this it takes some time before i can revert back to any of my other forms.

"Please talk to me" she pleaded when my eyes met hers

"I-its a long story" i say

She smiled brightly adjusting herself more comfortable on the chair before saying

"I've got all the timed in the world"

My mouth hung open due to shock i honestly wasn't expecting her to be interested in my story i honestly thought the moment she saw me she'd get scared and runaway but here she is even after seeing me like this she still wants to be here she still wants to know me, the real me. With a sigh i sat in front of her on the ground getting ready to relive my horrendous past.

"Are you sure you want to know?" I ask again

"Yes" she replied without hesitation

Taking a deep breath i begin the long treacherous tale that is my life.

It began in the dawn of human age, lucifer had already been cast from heaven and his fight with Hades had ended some centuries ago. Though humans existed theirs numbers were only but a handful and supernatural creatures inhabited 90% of the earth though we hadn't considered ourselves supernatural in that time. We had no human skin just the animalistic parts of us even witches and warlocks were just tangible forms of energy however we still had the ability to communicate with each other.

Though the earth hosted many powerful creatures, at the top of the food chain stood the rulers of the skies, dragons. Dragon kind were fierce violent creatures at heart but since the other species recognized them as superior to them they were able to live in peace with all the other inhabitants of the earth and as such they all coexisted peacefully.

That was until a certain goddess came to earth.

Her name is Aphrodite and she was the goddess of love and beauty. She had came simply because she was curious about the life forms on earth. The first creature she met was a Dragon, but not just any dragon she met the dragon king. After setting eyes on the beautiful maiden the king naturally fell in love with her. Captured by her beauty the king was determined to make her his, the only problem was the goddess did not reciprocate his feelings and so she left.

Sad and heart broken the dragon king isolated himself from his kind as he mourned his loss. A few years later Aphrodite returned to earth and this time she met a shifter. However this particular shifter was not like the others, instead of shifting into strong beasts such as tigers lions and wolves he could only shift into one strong beast which was a panther all his other forms were more docile animals such as bunnies and smaller cats.

Because of his peaceful nature the goddess took a liking to the shifter and in turn returned to visit him frequently, and they eventually fell in love. However due to the obvious that this creature had no human skin presented an obstacle in them being together and so Aphrodite went to visit another goddess who was not affiliated with olympus for she was way more powerful than any olympian, you may know her as the moon goddess.

When Aphrodite visited her she asked the moon goddess if she could grant the one she loved the skin of a human so they could be together since she was the one in charge of the creation of these creatures and their wellbeing. The goddess granted Aphrodite's wish giving the shifter she loved the ability to transform into a human. The two were happy that their love finally had no barriers but their happiness would not last long.

The other shifters in seeing their companions ability to shift got jealous wanting it for themselves and so they sought out the help of the dragon king the strongest of all dragons. The king at first refused their request however when he learnt that the one he loved now belonged to another he too was ensnared by jealousy and so he gathered his fellow dragons in alliance of the shifters to kill the shifter who had now become exceptionally stronger than them due to his mating with a goddess.

They waited until Aphrodite had left her love to return to Olympus something she did after certain amount of time spent on earth, they chose that particular time to attack. When their attack commenced he fought back vigilantly with his new found power but due to their numbers he was unable to fend them all off and as such they overpowered him and killed the man thinking they'd gain his power to transform. Instead they were met with sheer disappointment when they didn't received the reward they expected. When Aphrodite returned to find her lover dead she was consumed by loss and rage and in that state of mind she eradicated the dragon and shifter race.

The moon goddess though she understood Aphrodite's reason for her actions was still upset the goddess killed entire races so she took away her most valid possession, her beauty. She was also heavily disappointed in her subjects so in order to prevent an reoccurrence of events she split the other creatures souls in half and blessed them each with a mate and the ability to transform into a human skin however the dragon and shifter race was lost forever

Or so everyone was led to believe

Some centuries later war had began to plague the earth between human and supernatural. After the humans had learnt of the existence of the supernatural races due to fear and greed they declared war on them in efforts to suppress and enslave them. Amidst the chaos goddess Athena came to earth where she met a mysterious man. The goddess who's beauty rivaled that of Aphrodite's captured the humans attention and after spending a night with this man Athena had became pregnant which was strange because it was believed that the olympian gods could not procreate the way humans did. This was true to them since Athena herself had not been bore by a mother she was sprang from Zeus's head fully grown and clothed in armour.

Alarmed by what this strange occurrence meant she tried to destroy the souls growing withing her body but was stopped by the goddess of the moon who told Athena that she was the one responsible for her becoming pregnant. She later on informed her that the children she bore would not be human nor gods and that no other olympian should know of the children she carried.

Athena gave birth to two boys one a shifter and the other a dragon.

After giving birth the goddess instructed Athena to leave them in two different places, the dragon was sent to the warlocks and the shifter to the weres. Sometime later Aphrodite had come to learn of the birth of the shifter and the Dragon. Still consumed by her hatred of the races who had taken her love from her she sought to find and kill the two boys.

She left countless dead weres and warlocks in her search for the boys, by the time she found the shifter she was too late since he had already been killed by the people who raised him because of his sexual preference. The shifter died not knowing he was being hunted by a goddess that he had a brother nor of his species history.

She found the Dragon a few centuries later and they engaged in battle. He turned out to be a powerful adversary with powers equaling that of hers and so she turned her sights on the other half of his soul. Aphrodite removed the dragon's mate heart and used her as a weapon with the promise of returning her heart if she killed her mate. When the dragon's chosen one refused to kill her other half Aphrodite returned her heart only to dismember her alive before stringing her up on a post for him to see.

Weakened by the death of his soulmate the mighty dragon was struck down by the angry goddess sealing all of her anger and hatred inside his heart so he'd be tormented even in the after life and as a result the Sin of Wrath was born.

The dragon's soul was retrieved by lucifer who granted him the title Dragon son of wrath and gave him a domain over purgatory to rule. With the goddesses anger sealed in his heart the dragon gained a third form one that could make the even the gods of olympus shiver in fear at just one glance. The goddesses wrath continued to eat away at the dragon's soul and soon enough the anger he held was the only thing that kept him alive.

When i finished my 'little' tale i looked over at Cat to see her reaction, except their was none she just sat their staring at me blankly. This made me very nervous because i couldn't tell what she was thinking. Would she deem my past too messy and not want to be around me anymore? The thought made that uncomfortable feeling in my chest return.

"Cat?"

"How could you not tell me your mom is a goddess" She yells

"Because it's not something i like talking about plus she's crazy and her father is a petty moron who thinks he's the only olympian who can procreate"

"Ok i understand. So to sum this all up your mother is the goddess of wisdom and war but your not a god and Arthur is your twin?" She asks

"Wait how'd you know it's Arthur i never called the shifter's name" i say surprised

"Well Arthur is the only known shifter in all the realms plus he told me his parents drowned him in a lake because he's gay so i put two and two together" she shrugged

"Oh, i didn't know he told you that he's not one to talk about his past"

"Well its a long story but he did it so i wouldn't beat the crap out of him"

"I see. Well is there anything else you'd like to know"

"Does Arthur or the other sins knows about your past"

"Author died before he could find out since he died at 10 years old and we didn't know each other it was actually your father who told us because even i didn't quite understand what happened all i knew was that some crazy goddess came after me and killed my mate. It was sometime later before we told the others"

"Can you tell me about her? your mate" she asks

This was not my favourite topic but I decided to suck it up this once

"Her name was Emelia, she was a were-"

"What's a were" she asks cutting me off

"Weres are creatures similar to shifters except unlike the shifters they can only transform into one animal"

"Oh you mean like how werewolves only shift into wolves"

"Exactly"

"What kind of were was she?"

"A were-tiger"

"Omg that's so cool" Cat all but screamed her blue eyes twinkling

"Yeah she was" i say chuckling at her behavior

"We met around the age of 16 like most mates and had been together for almost a year when the psycho bitch found me. Though her beast was a vicious animal she had a gentle heart"

"Sounds like she was a wonderful person"

"She was. Too bad she ended up with a cursed mate" i say

"What!? You aren't cursed that's nonsense"

"Yes i am my fate was sealed the day i was conceived and emelia got caught in it, her association with me got her killed. I truly am evil"

"Dre its not your fault Aphrodite was the one who did this and you're not evil"

"How can you say that look at me can't you see all this" i yell pointing to my body

"Of course i see you Dre i always have, i know evil and you are far from it" she replies

She then slowly stretched her hand out placing it on my cheek and something that has never occured before happened shocking me beyond relief. As her soft hand palmed my cheek i felt my monstrous skin break away and my human skin returned, i could not believe it. I lifted my head to look at her, in that moment it was as if her beauty replaced all things evil from this dreadful place and so i couldn't help myself when i gently pulled her to me and place my lips onto hers in a soft gentle kiss.

Now I've kissed and have been kissed countless times in my life but as cliche as it sounds that one small kiss was the best I'd ever felt. However it wasn't until i pulled away did i realize what i just did. The shock on Cats face made the situation even more clear

"Cat I'm so sorry i didn't me-" i began to apologize but was cut off by her suddenly teleporting out of my arms and quite possibly out of my life

Shit!

How could i have been so stupid she is the princess and my commander how could i have done that. I'm so stupid i feel like diving head first into the river of flames. As I'm mentally reprimanding myself i felt someone trying to link me so i released my mental barriers only to hear the kings voice pop into my head.

I'm so fucked

"Andreas i need you in my office asap" he says

"Yes sir" i reply

Then with a chuckle he says "so Casanova you finally told her about your lineage huh?"

"Yeah i did but not everything"

"Of course not no one can know the rest of that story the only reason i told you is because it'll affect you more than anyone else"

"I know"

"Good now get your self in my office"

"Yes sir" i say about to cut the link

"Oh and Andreas" his highness says stopping me

"That funny feeling you get whenever cat's around you'll understand what it means soon enough"

Surprised at his statement i say "what do you mean sir?"

Instead of answering me he cuts the link himself.

Arrrggg!

Damned geezer!