I staved them off the best I could, for one because there was no denying the relationship between you and I, and two, because I found Mina repulsive.
It was no one thing that she had done to bring this about; it was her very existence that I despised. I saw her only as a threat to you. I knew that with her family vying for her place at my side, that it was dangerous for you.
I rebuffed her at every turn and refused to have anything to do with her. Through cunning and no doubt some witchery, she and her family had convinced some of the elders of the society to call a conclave and have her designated as the one that had been meant for me.
They could’ve had twenty meetings it would have gained them nothing, since at the very first one I showed them a side of me that had been kept well hidden before then.
Arriving in the middle of their secret appointment, I showed them what could happen if they forced the issue, or tried to.
They would need my full cooperation for this child of theirs to be conceived, and thanks to my earlier teachings, it would be a cold day in hell before I let that happen. Not to mention I threatened to strangle her if we were ever alone.
So they backed off with a contingency. I had until your eighteenth birthday to find and bed you, or I will be tied to that viper for life.
I wasn’t too worried, since I knew where you were by then and had all intentions on coming after you when the time was right.”
She hadn’t said anything else in all this time, just listening to me go on and on. It must be a lot to take in, but she held her own.
Had I known that this day would come, I would’ve done things differently. I should’ve killed Mina years ago and be done with it, but I thought I had it all worked out.
Now the evil was nipping at our heels once again. The last time I hadn’t been here to protect what’s mine. Others had dictated to me then, because of my youth.
Now I know what I am facing, understood the danger to her, because she was my choice. But what they didn’t understand, even the ones who kept the legend, was that there hadn’t been a choice.
She’d belonged to me and me to her since before her birth, almost from the moment she was formed in her mother’s womb, she had called out to me, and I had answered. They may doubt, but I knew the truth. There was no one else for me.
I’ve shielded her from afar all these years, keeping her hidden until I was stronger and she was almost ready. Had I come to her any time within the last fifteen years I would’ve been putting her in danger.
Though it had been hard to not be there, especially on those nights when the young Jasmine cried herself to sleep, or when her sorrow pierced me like an arrow through the heart.
Instead I’d comforted her in her dreams. There she was safe, and as long as I kept my shields up, they couldn’t find her.
But now they knew where she was, which was to be expected. I knew it was a risk, but I couldn’t wait any longer. I wanted her to get to know me in the weeks before I took her to my bed.
I didn’t want to just show up in her life and fuck her until I bred her on our first date. It might’ve been the safest way to do things, but I couldn’t do that to my Jasmine.
A part of me had been hoping that she would recognize me before the joining. It was a given that the moment I breeched her body with mine, her eyes will be opened.
But I had selfishly wanted her to remember those early days together, our beginning, before things went dark for us.
I wanted at least one moment, when we could bridge that gap that had been opened up between us; from the day she was taken from me, until now.
Her voice brought me back to the here and now. “That night, the night I was taken, what happened do you know?”
She cried when we spoke of that terrible night, so I did not dwell on it for too long.
She had once escaped from it for fifteen years. I didn’t want her going away in her head again, not even to protect herself from this.
“Would you like me to erase the memory for you?”
“You can do that?” She gave me a look of wonder tinged with fear.
“I can, but you have no need to fear me, I will never do that to you, unless of course I deem it absolutely necessary.”