บท 7: 7. It Must Have Been Love.
Mariella was waiting to see when Damon would realize that Mimi had to be gotten back and when Damon would have the courage to bring out the feelings that Mimi had. Past tense, but at least Damon would know that once Mimi had felt this strongly, this completely, about him. It would be a big part of this painful journey that had started a few years ago. Mariella was not even sure how long it had been exactly. The road would be rough, long, and hard, for every one of them.
It would take a lot of time, and years to fix this mistake and what it did to Mimi. if she would want to return. Mariella had given pretty much anything to have some excitement in her life, but no. There were no enemies. Her business went smoothly. There was no bigger conflict. Damon was as mellow as ever. There was no hint of Salvatore rage, and Mariella had time to read. There had been a book about Salvatore rage, it could be hidden for years and it was not so necessary to unload all the time. Little rage, or more rage, would give fuel for the soul to feel. If all the rage were unloaded all the time, the soul not could deal with intense emotions so well.
But when and what would come of it, no one knew because the future was grey, at least for Mimi and for the pack if you looked beyond three months. But it had been that way for three years, and Mimosa had explained that they didn't have the strength to look beyond three years if there was no Mimi. Mimosa and Shadow had found again their wolf form, and they enjoyed running free. Splashing in mud puddles and making a mess inside.
They had lost their former strength and the cost of losing so many abilities and being so powered down had been rough to accept. But they had adapted. Peaceful pack life didn't require gazing into the future and surprises were spices of life when they had no idea what would actually happen. No one was after them. Everything had been calm and nice, perfect. But so freaking boring.
There is no battery to draw power from in the pack. But it's not right to ask Mimi to come back to the pack to be just a battery. For now, they should be fine without it, and maybe someday. No one even saw what Mimi was doing; she had protected herself with her powers, and Mariella knew for a fact that Mimi was much stronger than Damon, almost stronger than all ten Salvatores combined. Mimi was the force of nature, really, but somehow Mariella knew, upstairs had not specified it, but Mimi's life would not have been easy or calm. But she was pretty powerful chaos. So it is something that they could expect.
Mariella was patient. Every day. Little by little, Damon cracked open the feeling that had flooded from Mimi's soul straight to his. He had put it into the shell, not wanting to open it, to feel it, but slowly. Mariella could see when Damon sat by himself in one armchair while she was cooking with numbers two and five, five was singing to her Army of Lover's obsession, and she giggled.
But Damon sat in the chair, focused, and again, cracked a little bit more of that feeling open. Then he laid a little more back, rested his head, and closed his eyes, letting the love and trust and everything that Mimi felt for him, wash over him. It was so a tiny amount, merely maybe one part of a thousand, what he took every day and felt it, but it was something.
This was all progress. Day by day, Damon could handle that feeling, and time would tell them what it would make happen. The first little change happened a few months later. Mariella had been a little wild again, jumping in Damon's nose, meaning, not eating how she should have been. Mariella saw Damon as her husband, not so much as a pack leader. Damon was tame, not anymore dangerous, he was kind husband, loving man.
Charles was not so much a protector and he had almost given Mariella's radar to Damon as there was no Mimi, so Damon was free to care for Mariella. Mariella had made herself a mushroom risotto. Not food that Damon approved. And she would not listen as Damon asked her to put that away and eat as she should be.
Well, Mariella had been in the fridge to get herself pomegranate juice, again, not what she was supposed to drink, but this was her favorite. Damon stood up, went to the fridge, and broke her neck.
Mariella woke up in the cage. Damon sat on the barstool and said in a somber, sharp voice. "Morning student, time for this pack to start to remember how good a teacher I am. I have now taken the cage in use. It is bespelled, so no teleportation. And your sentence is four days, you will be supplied food and drink, it is your choice whether you eat or drink. Moping is no use, I am not budging. Mimi's feeling woke me up. I am now a pack leader, meaning what I say, goes without asking. Let's just see if next time when I order you to eat more reasonably, you will actually do as you are told. I am ready to do this lesson many times. As many times what it takes you to learn."
Damon stood up and walked away.
Mariella got three days a meal that was saltless, burned, and not tasty, but she ate it anyway. She got drinking some electrolyte concentrate that tasted just awful and she drank it anyway. After four days, she was very relieved to get out.
But learning continued, she did not see the danger. She had her own way of doing things, and she did not take Damon seriously. She missed the danger signs. Damon seduced her into bed, kept his pheromones open, and made her addicted to them. It took a month, but she was hooked as she could be. And it was again lesson time.
Once again, Mariella found herself in the cage, and she felt awful. She had a headache, and nausea and she was not sure if she was sick. When she got her eyes open, she could see Damon standing near the cage. Light shone in her eyes and her muscles felt weak.
He looked at her quite coldly and said, "Hello student, time for the next lesson. This is now your withdrawal from my pheromones. I can make it happen like this," he snapped his fingers. He continued," This lesson is three days. Those symptoms won't ease up at all. So you better just start learning, so you just felt awful, student." He walked away.
Mariella groaned. She was not hungry. She felt absolutely awful. She lay on the bottom of the cage, on the thin mattress, vomited into a bucket, and sweat, shook like a leaf, and suffered. Damon had just walked away.
After three days that had felt like three years, Damon came and opened the cage door, he picked Mariella to his arms, opened his pheromones, stopped the withdrawal, and let Mariella be in a pheromone bath, deepening her addiction, he carried her into the bedroom; they fucked for a week. Damon filled her, so she was not in terrible shape afterward, but again, one lesson was learned. She now learned just what power Damon had over her. And he was not afraid to use it.
The cage was not always empty. It took time for everyone to learn to their new pack leader and Damon had learned also a new ability. He sucked mental energy from that feeling at Mimi had flooded into his soul. So every day when he opened that shell a bit, he ate it; it was little same thing as he would have eaten Mimi's rage.
He got stronger, and firmer day by day, but also his emotions came more to the surface. He was not so cold anymore. He was passionate and empathetic. He felt everything very deeply, but he kept his pack in tight under control. He had now grown his role as pack leader, not alpha male, but pack leader.
Mariella had watched his slow transformation with awe. To her, Damon had always been a beautiful creature, perfect in every way, and this metamorphosis almost made him even more wonderful. It made also everyone else grow, to accept all sides, and one of them who had the biggest transformation was Charles.
He had given in to his darker side. It had made few Salvatore quite wild as they saw Charles very sexy. As did Mariella. But this Charles was not into fucking, this Charles had picked her up and thrown her into the wall by her throat. Not apologizing at all. Just because she was trying to seduce him in the wrong time, not again read his danger signs. Charles, Adam, and the boys hunted. They were a little more violent, but they fought off in the gym too.
Of course, Damon had put every house feline room where the pack was in feline forms and played and had fun here, not fuck but play fight, run, climb, jump. Mariella had found a very strong catnip, and it made everyone quite loopy, so they had a once-a-week catnip day, a good hit from those toys, and all of them saw little yellow birds, almost. Mariella had never felt so high as they got from catnip.
Day by day, week by week, and holiday by holiday, Mariella and the entire pack could see the change in Damon. Years had gone by. Damon had finally opened that shell, gotten every bitten power out of that glorious feeling, and he knew the extent of what Mimi had once felt for him.
He had been honored. He was sad. Mimi had felt so strong, that it had felt like heaven when he had let the whole feeling wash over him. He had shared this feeling with everyone, as they were in the pack now. Mariella was very proud of Damon. She could see how deeply Damon mourned what he had lost. Maybe forever, too.
Damon said to Mariela. " Six fucking years. I'm so fucking weak then. And I'll never get her back. You know, once upon a time, six years would have gone by in a flash, wouldn't have felt anywhere, and now it feels like forever. And I miss Mimi like hell; I've been missing her for a while now. And I know that the connection we had. I'll probably never experience it again, and I don't know if Mimi will ever be in my life."
He sighed. He looked at his hands. There was no ring from Mimi. He had destroyed it. He looked at Mariella. He had almost tears in his eyes. Mimi had done it herself. It had not been as perfect, but she had done it herself.
"Oh, why do I have to be such a wreck about these fucking feelings and then react all wrong? This must be the punishment for all those relationships, all those times I cheated on Mimi. And even though I swore you were enough for me, I'm greedy. I want more, but I don't deserve it. "
Mariella looked at her husband and smiled. She wrapped herself around him. squeezed him.
She said, " Well, now we're getting somewhere. This is growth, Damon, growth of the pack, your growth as a husband, man, and lover. Everything has a purpose, which will help us grow and appreciate what we have. And maybe one day, we'll get Mimi back in the pack. The way I understand it, the saying that you don't appreciate something until you've lost it is true and well. "
Damon grunted and said, " I don't even know what she's doing. Is she okay if she has someone else? She certainly has no reason to go back to the pack, not after that stunt and that letter."
Mariella replied, " Look, Damon, you need to get back into Mimi's heart; it's a place of growth for Mimi, too. You can't always be so unconditional; sometimes, you need something else. Now you contact every one and start asking about Mimi, but try to do it so Mimi doesn't find out. I want to spy on her. See her new life, and then we can figure out the best way to win her back."
Damon got up, took his wife to bed, and fucked her for two weeks straight before going to make the call.
Damon growled. He'd found Mimi, heard how she worked hard, won awards, and was a pretty competent shapeshifter doctor, a flea. Damon had talked to Alaric and Colin and explained it to them, and they had miraculously understood, but when Damon heard about the gigs and the surgeries, he wanted to see Mimi for the first time in over six years. It would be very emotional, at least for them.
Colin had been quite cool, but he had been professional. Damon could understand just by the tone of his voice that this time had not been easy or fun for Mimi, so no perfect life for her.
The biggest surprise was Mimi's new defender. Wulfe. Damon couldn't just wrap his mind around the fact that once their enemy, the one who had put him in tick form, was now Mimi's new best friend. Her protector, boy wonder. But as they wondered this, Mimosa just smiled smugly, like she would know something that they did not. Wulfe had been a very important part of Mimi's life the whole time and Damon did remember a few times in the past when Wulfe had helped Mimi, actually.
As Mariella had talked with Constantine and Dresden, the same deal. Wulfe was the good guy. A strong wizard and he had helped Mimi a lot and Mimi had helped him a lot too. Mariella found herself of being very curious about Wulfe. Damon was still a little unsure. But soon he would see the actual Mimi. First time in years, not one of those other women whom he had seen in shops and he had almost gone and talked to them until they had turned and he had seen that they weren't Mimi.
Damon was not sure what he expected from this. He wanted to do this but then this was one of the most scaring thing in his life. Could he take it?
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