SHE FEELS HIS PAIN MOST KEENLY . try as he might to hold back , they have been together for far too long , she has shared his feelings as if they were her own . a hand lands quietly on his arm , but the words she means to speak die on her lips , as soon as she sees his face . more importantly his eyes . A LURID RED , crimson irises stare back at her and it feels like she’s had the breath knocked out of her . sorrow cuts deep , she sinks to her knees . all she sees is red , red like the first time they ever met , on that lonesome rainy day . she should have known , should have seen . aro barely even allowed her to hunt , and never unaccompanied , and it was only ever because he saw her as a prize . he did not have reason to treat jasper as kindly . but the eyes , the eyes were only the tip of the iceberg , of all the dastardly things he had made her husband do . she knew about being forced to attend to the wives , she knew about the fighting and the killing and every day it broke her heart . it sickened her , and over and over again , the same thought , that she had never wanted this for him . when he first arrived , they had fought terribly , she had pushed him out of the room where he stayed for days , until she came , crawling into his arms , in a flood of tears. weak , that’s what she had been , and now jasper was suffering for it . ❛ – no , sweetheart . ❜ she loves him still , of course she does , hers is a love with no strings attached . ❛ you have nothing to be sorry for . i’m going to aro , i’ll tell him , he can’t treat you like this . i won’t let him . ❜
he shook his head, hands combing through and gripping his hair. “n-no. alice, don’t. it’s ——— it’s my fault.” the animal blood — carnivorous or otherwise — had never satisfied him. he’d never been as strong or self-sacrificing as his family. the blood of deer and bears and mountain lions could never fill him up — not the monster war and nearly a century of murder and murder, year after year, had made him. “p-please, alice. please, don’t.” he’ll punish us both if you ask for too much. there could be nothing worse than being ripped from alice completely in a place such as this. he wouldn’t be able to protect her if aro never let him see her — or worse: if he decided jasper was more trouble to his new, favorite pet than it was worth for any of them. maybe it’s better this way. he knew it wasn’t. he could taste the fear on his tongue from the girl they tossed at his feet, already half ripped open by felix’s hands. he could still smell her and feel her trembling limbs in his hands. “i’m... stronger this way. maybe it’ll make things... better.”