The-Wrong-Bride-Ares--Raven’s-story-(Maura,-Catharina)_bibis

I turn toward her and mimic her position, keeping a bit of distance between us. “Rave,” I whisper.
She tenses but doesn’t reply. Instead, she tightens her grip on our covers. Fucking hell. It kills me to
know she’s hurting and that I can’t make it right. The things she just told her mother… fuck. I had no
idea I’d made her feel so unwanted. I may not be able to fix her relationship with her mother, but I
don’t want her to feel insecure in our marriage. The fact that she does means that I failed her as her
husband.
I reach for her hesitantly and place my hand on her arm. She sniffs, and for a moment I think she’ll
pull away from me, but then she turns around to face me. “Ares,” she says, her voice breaking as fresh
tears fill her eyes. “I… Can I have a hug?”
Fuck. The pain in her voice fucking guts me. My heart wrenches as I pull her into my arms with
more force than I intended, one hand wrapping underneath her, while the other curls around her. I hug
her tightly, her body flush against mine.
Raven nestles her nose against my neck and inhales shakily as her arm wraps around me. Her
touch is cautious, hesitant, as though she’s scared she’s asking for too much. She’s my wife, yet she
hesitates to ask for a hug. Just how uncomfortable have I made her?
“You never even need to ask,” I whisper as my hand threads through her hair, my grip tight. She
holds onto me so tightly that I find myself holding her a little tighter too. She fits against me so
perfectly, it’s unreal. Her breathing is uneven, as though she’s still holding back tears, and I let my
fingers trail over her back, slowly, soothingly.
“Are you okay, Cupcake?”
She shakes her head and balls the back of my shirt in her hand. “I don’t think so.” She sounds so
fucking hurt that I’m blinded by rage for a moment. Listening to that conversation with her mother and
not interfering was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. I’m so tempted to destroy every
single thing that hurts her, but I can’t do that when it’s her mother.
“Talk to me, baby. Tell me what’s going on in that beautiful mind of yours.”
She drags her nose up my throat and shifts in my embrace, pressing her breasts against me harder.
It takes all of me to keep my attention away from how she feels against me.
“It’s just too much, Ares. I feel… I feel so unwanted. So unloved. I just… I feel like a failure,
like no matter what I do, I won’t ever be what anyone wants me to be. Even work was a nightmare
today, and I just… how could I fail so miserably? It’s one thing to fail at everything else in life, but
my career is my escape. I just… today I just really needed one single win. Just one.”
She inhales shakily, as though she’s holding back tears all over again. I don’t know which
photographer she worked with today, but she’ll never work with him again. Matter of fact, he’ll never
work again. Not in this industry. For his sake, I hope he enjoys wildlife photography, because that’s
the only avenue I’ll leave open to him.
“And then there’s my mother and you. You both want me to be something I’m not, someone I’m
not, and it hurts. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not blaming you at all. I get it. I really do, but—”
“—no,” I cut her off, “you don’t get it, Raven.” I grab her tightly and turn us over so she’s on her
back, my body on top of hers. Her eyes widen as I hold myself up on my forearms so I can look at her.
For a moment, I see something flash in her eyes that I recognize. Loneliness. Longing. Those are
feelings I know all too well, and I never want her to feel them around me.
“I don’t need you to be anything or anyone else. Not ever. You’re my wife, Raven. You. No one
else. You don’t need to compare yourself to anyone else, and you don’t need to measure up to anyone
else either — because whether you realize it or not, you’ve already surpassed every standard anyone
has ever set for you. Just because they won’t or can’t acknowledge it doesn’t mean you’re anything