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Artem

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I had been led to a really nice room to wait for Star. I knew that she was going to be gone for a long time so I just needed to be patient. That didn\'t mean I was happy about it though. I was nervous for her the entire time.

I had been impatiently pacing around the room when a maid brought my dinner to me. I was barely able to sit still the entire time that I was eating the food, even though it was delicious. I just couldn\'t bring myself to settle down enough for it.

Stupid and horrible thoughts kept running through my head the entire time. I would think things like: \'What if her father is an asshole to her?\' or \'What if he tells her he knew where she was, what she went through, and that he hoped that she had stayed in that life forever?\'. These things were just ruining my mood.

I think by the time that I had been in the room for an hour, I had already worn a groove into the floor with my pacing back and forth. By the time that Star had been gone for almost three hours, I was certain that I was going to fall through the floor into the room below me if I made just a few more passes over the overly stressed floor boards. I had literally only sat down for about three minutes while I nibbled on the food before I paced the floor once again.

I felt like my heart was going to give out from all the stress if I didn\'t see my Star come through that door some time very soon. I was just stressing about it non stop. I needed to see her. I needed to know that she had made it through this night unharmed. I wanted to make sure she was physically and emotionally OK. Oh, Goddess, what would I do if they hurt her too much?

Finally, after what felt like forever, but was only just a few hours, Star came into the room. Immediately I saw that her eyes were red and puffy. I could tell that she had been crying, and not just a little, she had been crying a lot. Oh no! He had been mean to her. He had said hurtful things to her. She was going to have nothing but bad memories about her time here at the Fae compound.

"Star?" I called out to her the moment she was through the door. I was already rushing to her side before she had even shut the heavy wooden door, before she had even looked at me.

"Artem?" She smiled at me when she saw my panicked face.

I couldn\'t help myself, I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her against my chest. I swept her off her feet and held her suspended in the air, supporting all of her weight like I would support her emotionally for the rest of our lives. I was hoping that with my supporting arms wrapped protectively around her she would be able to start healing that much sooner.

"I\'m here for you, Star. No matter what happened, no matter what he might have said or done, I am here for you. Don\'t ever forget that."

"It\'s alright, Artem." She squeezed me back, and I felt like she was conveying something a lot more positive than the sorrow that I had expected.

"I will hold you, Star. You can feel free to cry. I know he hurt you."

At that I brought one arm down to slide under her legs. I was now cradling her in my arms as best as I could in this awkward position. I expected her to wrap her arms around my neck and start crying softly. However, I was surprised by what she did instead.

"I am fine, Artem." She told me as she pushed gently against my chest. "I don\'t need to cry." I finally pulled back to look at her, at the expression she was wearing. I was shocked to see that she was smiling. It was weird. I could tell that she had been crying so much that her eyes were red and slightly swollen, but she was also smiling.

"Star? What happened in there?" I asked her, my confusion showing as I moved to sink onto the couch so she could sit on my lap.

"A lot happened, Artem." She looked down as she thought about it, avoiding my eyes just a little. "We both cried a lot, and we got to the point where we almost started to fight. But, in the end we were both wrong about what had happened. He didn\'t know about any of what happened. Neither of us had the truth of what had happened."

I saw the heartache filling her again, but this time it was filled with a tinge of something else. Something that made it look bittersweet.

"I don\'t understand, Star. What about the letters he sent your mother?"

"They were not from him. He had been tricked and so had my mother. They were mates, Artem. True mates, like you and I are. He loved her so much that it nearly destroyed him when he was told that she didn\'t love him. But, that wasn\'t her, and it wasn\'t my father that told my mother those horrible things either." The tears were swimming in her eyes now, tears that weren\'t for what she had gone through, but for what her parents had suffered.

"I don\'t understand, Star. If they didn\'t tell each other those things, then who did?" I felt so lost right now. I didn\'t understand any of this.

"Uncle Howard. It all comes back to him. If it wasn\'t for him I would have had a happy family growing up. They would have all loved me and been there for me. If it wasn\'t for him and his wicked ways, we would have been one big happy family. I might have even had siblings." I watched as she smiled through it all, trying to be strong.

"If I could, I would kill that asshole again! He has been hurting you since before you were born. Since he found out your mother was pregnant with you. That\'s just horrible."

"Don\'t be too upset, Artem." She cupped my cheek in her hand and smiled at me. "It\'s hard, and it all breaks my heart. But I would never have had a perfect life. Nothing was bound to be perfect for me, one way or the other." She hugged me tight then, as if she was having a hard time saying all of this.

"I know, Star. I know. It was either your parents were together and happy with a happy childhood and a lonely future, or the life that you have lived. I know it can never make things better, and we can\'t go back and change it all, but if I could, I would have stopped Howard back then. I would find a way for us to be together, if I could fix this all and change the course of our lives. I would never stop searching this world until I found you."

"And I believe that you would do just that, Artem. Knowing that, knowing that you would give up your chance at a happily ever after with me just so that my family and I could be together, makes me love you that much more."

With no warning at all, Star leaned forward and pressed her lips to mine. It was a gentle kiss with no heat behind it. But there was more to the kiss than just lips. It was what the kiss meant, what it represented that made it all worthwhile. To me, that kiss spoke of love, devotion, and a lifetime of commitment. It told me that I never once had to worry about whether or not Star was going to be by my side. I knew, just from gentle kisses like these, that from now until the end of our days, she was going to be right there with me, holding my hand. She was my star, and I was her moon. We were going to be there for each other as a mutual heaven. We would be home, we would be a safe haven, we would be whatever it was that the other needed at the time, and we would do it happily and without hesitation. That was what it meant to truly love someone.

I also knew that I couldn\'t wait to ask her to marry me. I was going to make it special, that was for sure, but I was going to do it soon. I was going to make her my wife as well as my mate. I had thought this many times, but the feelings were growing stronger each time they passed through my mind. I would not put off asking her for very much longer.