Her brows wiggled up and down and he groaned, he was in no position to argue with her much more. "Whenever he touched me, it just felt… strange."
"Mmmm, you mean it felt good." She winked at him again.
"No. It didn't." he snapped.
Frigg giggled again. "Liar! You like it." She sang.
"Back to the topic, what in all of Helheim were you thinking?" he said. "Why did you bind that poor soul to someone as wretched as me? Why punish him?"
Frigg closed her eyes for a moment, inhaled deep before exhaling slowly. She sat up on her knee's, pushing Berodach back against the backrest of the bench. Lifting her lavish dress, she crawled into his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck.
"I'm not punishing either of you."
He scoffed, "Really?"
"Aye, really." she whispered. "You two make a good match."
"You're just playing with our souls you wretched woman. To you, this is just a game."
"No, I actually take this quite seriously. A dragon's lifemate is for eternity you know."
Bear glared, "If you took this seriously you would have matched him to a female who could bear him children and actually love him."
"But that would be no fun." she tapped her lower lip and pouted again. "Besides, he already has so many women who love him. One more wouldn't make a difference."
Bear ripped her arms away from his neck, "Give him to someone else. Do not curse him to my fate. Do not end his life just by giving him to me."
Frigg frowned, "You are being very pitiful. Do you know that?"
"I am more than just pitiful."
"No, you're not. Berodach, deep beneath this scar covered surface there is a good dragon in there. Your soul is not as corrupt as you think it is."
His teeth ground together. "Do not test me Frigg. I've seen how dark my soul is, and I've seen just exactly what I am capable of."
She smiled softly, "As have I. I've seen how loving you can be to that boy. I've seen how much you care for him, ever since he was an infant."
"Having compassion for an infant is an entirely different matter than having him as my lifemate!"
"I have to disagree. That Björn, he is the first person in over a thousand years that you have genuinely cared about. Ever since-"
"Do not say it."
She rolled her eyes. "Ever since that disaster happened. You've been beating yourself up over that incident ever since. It is time you moved on."
"I'm not worthy to just 'move on'. Someone like me is better off dead. If only Björn knew that." Bear's anger broke and he felt defeated in Frigg's presence. "By binding him to me, you've cursed him to a horrible fate."
"You need to move past your trauma Berodach." Frigg said calmly, cupping his face in her hands. "My grandfather and father do regret their decision; they did not know what they were doing. However, they are too stubborn to admit they were wrong. Everything that occurred was because we did not do our best for you. We failed you."
His dark eyes glared at her, "Do not try to feel sorry for me."
"Oh but I do. I pity you because you were a child left alone to discover a terrifying ability that no one knew how to control. I pity you because that same child killed the one person he loved, because no one was capable of helping him. I pity you because that child grew into an adult and spent hundreds of years alone. I pity you because that pure soul darkened the more he killed, because he didn't know what else to do."
He tried to look away but she pulled his face back so their eyes could meet. "I pity you, because the first chance you've had in a thousand years for happiness… you are too afraid to take."
His jaw was tight as his teeth were clenched together. "Do you blame me?"
"No. Never."
"I've killed every single one."
"I know." She whispered. "I know."
"I don't deserve him. I don't deserve anyone. I don't deserve happiness."
"You do, you always have."
Berodach closed his eyes, blinking away his memories that stung his eyes. "No matter what you say to me Frigg, I will not accept him. I will hide in the pits of the empty world your forefathers banished me to if that is what it takes. I will not stain him."
Frigg stood up and backed away from him. "Just realize, the more you deny it… the harder it will get. And the more you will hurt him."
She turned her back to him. "You wont be able to kill him like the others."
He looked away, not offering her a farewell as she vanished in front of him. He was lost in thought, visions running rampant through his mind. Emotions eating away at his gut and causing to have the urge to vomit. He felt miserable.
He had his suspicions that Björn was something more to him the more Björn touched him. Yet for those suspicions to be proven as facts, it crushed him. To know that Björn's pure soul was bound to his corrupt one made him feel no larger than the ant by his feet.
He had committed too many sins to ever allow himself to be happy. How could he possibly ever drag Björn down with him? The answer was simple, he couldn't.
How would he hide this discovery from the prince though? As intelligent as Björn was, Bear doubted he had realized what those sensations were. That boy, he despised the idea of a lifemate just as much as he did. The emerald dragon wanted to keep it that way. He did not want him to discover his sad fate.
How will I be able to hide these growing feelings? I feel possessive… I want to control him…
I can't.
I won't.