At one point, Asher’s palm cups the side of Olivia’s neck, his thumb behind the ear, and the gentle pressure he exerts suffice for Olivia to understand the demand.Asher cradles the left side of Olivia’s head in a makeshift of a cushion as the latter tilt it in the direction Asher mutely asked, and something in Asher relishes at the instantaneous compliance.Olivia’s trust is pliant under Asher’s touch, bending this or that way as she bares her neck while Asher scrapes his nails from the temple and down to the nape before climbing back up, halting at the ear to clean the back of it only for his fingers to card through the locks.They resume their previous patterns again and again. Asher himself soothed and lulled into a faint somnolence.“Feels good, Asher,” Olivia whispers after a while, limp in Asher’s hold.“Yeah?” Asher glances at the goosebumps erupting on Olivia’s skin and, galvanized by the reassurance and reaction, he grazes his thumb along the curve of the ear, passing by the

“Can your brat wash your hair tonight?” Olivia asks with expectations.The reply came easier than Asher had expected it to. “Yes, she can. Taking care of each other?”“I’d love that,” Olivia says, her hands clenching at the back of Asher’s hoodie.“Me too love,” Asher rushes to say, the phrase he wanted to utter jumbled together in a questionable sentence.“I meant ‘me too. I’d love that’. I wasn’t calling you ‘Love’. My mind has been a little broken since I saw your wolf ears, and as we speak, I’m focusing really, really, really hard on not annoyingly fondling them.”Olivia bursts into laughter, her body shaking in Asher’s arms. “First asking for my hand the day we met and then calling me Love? I really earned that ring, didn’t I?” Olivia says, Asher, smiling against her crown.“I wonder what’s the next step, Mob Boss Ash,” she teases and reclines enough to peer up at Asher. “Maybe sharing custody of Mini? I have to present you to her beforehand.”Asher combs his fingers through Oliv

Asher is scared, Olivia understands.His fear is palpable, evident in his shifting gaze darting between Olivia and the wall, the cupboard, then back on Olivia where they settle.It’s more visible in his trembling hands when he grasps onto the edge of the bathtub, his hands knocking against Olivia’s.It’s loud when Asher turns around, the water and bubbles wavering against his waist when he does.The first thing that strikes Olivia is the crisscross of large, ragged scars slashed along the span of Asher’s back.Three of them are parallels, starting from the shoulder blades and carved down to the lower back, where two long crescents frame Asher’s waist, one higher than the other.As if a beast cleaved at Asher while he was not looking, and when it was not sufficient to put him down, it bit on one side of the waist, then on the other, then the right bicep, the upper chest under the left armpit, the right rib, twice, the—Everywhere.The myriad of bite and claw scars are everywhere, engra

"Ash?" Olivia says, and Asher freezes at the appellation. "Do you feel that itch sometimes?""That itch?""Yeah, in your chest," Olivia explains while she rubs at a spot between her lungs, hoping to alleviate the incessant swirling there. "It's a good itch. It feels nice, even more, when it's scratched.""I think I know what you mean," Asher says, Olivia's mouth parting around an 'Oh'."Really? Do you feel it too?""I feel it right now," Asher says, and once more, his gaze attaches to Olivia for a brief moment before he diverts his attention back to the pot. "I felt it earlier when we washed each other's hair. Or when we were at the pet cafe.""I felt it too," Olivia murmurs, a coyness enveloping her at the boss' unbounded honesty."I feel it a lot when I'm with you," Asher says, lowering his own voice, and this time his searching eyes don't stray away from Olivia's."Do you feel it with someone else?""No," is Asher's instantaneous answer. "Never. Only you."Olivia worries, her lip p

Asher exhales a sigh, and he plays with the ring he gave to Olivia, rolling it between his fingers. “My clan and I rehabilitate hybrids from my world, to put it simply. We also intercept shipments, usually of predator hybrids about to be sold to the black market or any buyers, really. We help them find the freedom they were deprived of by integrating them into the system, finding them adopters or families, and if not, we try to give them their independence by creating fake adoption contracts so they can still live a normal life even if they’re unofficially not adopted.”Asher continues to speak and mentions how what they’re orchestrating isn’t legal in any way, that it requires connections he can only acquire in the underground.He also speaks about how the tournament would allow them to access the list of people participating in it, and Olivia hears the sentences.She listens to them and pays attention to Asher’s voice. However, everything is muffled by that unbridled surge of affect