Context: a human corespondent came into the wolf pack home and took great offence to Morrigan's presence - just the usual stuff of how humans think they are the superior species and vampires are parasites. Throughout the whole meeting and conversation, he snipes at Morrigan and constantly attacks her, which sets off Gideon's hackles. When he finally leaves, she finds all her blood bags from her bag on the floor, ripped up and ruined. 

"I think I should go," she huffs. 

Gideon jolts and sits up in his armchair. "What, why?" 

"I'm getting hungry and I don't wanna be around you guys when I do get hungry. I have stuff at home so I should go there." She shrugs, as if to convey how simple the statement of action is but he can see the nerves in, can feel her tension. 

Alpha Johanna seems to pick up on it too and asks solemnly, "What are you like when you're hungry?" 

Morrigan keeps her eyes on the coffee table when she responds, shoulders closed in on herself. "I tend to lose control of my sensibility and I can barely focus on anything except if I can hear heartbeats near me. I never usually get to that point, I mean that haven't in a very long while, but it's still a reason to leave now so I don't cause disruption. The last thing I want to do is lose control, kill one of you and start another all out war." 

"That is... definitely fair enough," Johanna agrees. "Please don't take it personally but I am really kinda glad you suggested leaving." 

Morrigan's face twitches but there's no full smile, not that heart-stopping one that Gideon loves so much. "I'm not upset, how can I be when you're correct? If you excuse me, I must get my things ready." 

As he watches her leave, he feels deep in his heart that he's making a mistake. She's drawn to him, she pulls him into her world, he can't let her leave. 

Johanna raises a brow but he can barely pay any attention to her as he hurries as fast as he dares after the vampire, catching up to her by the time she gets to her assigned bedroom. 

"Morrie," he gasps, breathless from what he's dying to say, "how far away is home?" 

There's little surprise on her dark face. Her fiery eyes only watch him intently, curious as to what his point is. "A day's journey." he reckons she's had a lot of practice removing the emotion from her voice and face. Gone is the anxiety of being stuck with her hunger and having no solution. 

"I... I really don't think you should leave," he tells her honestly. Her only response is to raise an eyebrow, a silent Oh really? 

She has so much more composure than him and it's so unfair. "It would be better for you to stay here to prevent running into anyone on the way, you could lose control and then we'd have another war or more problems." He can feel himself trembling at the thought of her getting hurt, trembling at the strength it takes out of him to keep himself strong. 

"I don't have another choice," she states simply. "All of my... supplies are gone and wasted, I cannot afford to lose sense of myself and kill any of the people in this house. If i did, it would start great chaos and destroy everything we worked towards in the last fifty years. I'm sorry, I would love to stay in your cosy home but I have no choice." 

Gideon pushes himself to stay strong as he says as calmly as he can, "What if you had blood here that you could use maybe just once and then would never have to again? We could send somebody out tomorrow to the nearest blood bank and get what you need tomorrow but today, tonight, you could have another source." 

She doesn't get what on earth he's talking about until he glances at her neck and her mouth and the penny drops. Her hand reaches forward, her palm seizes his arm, and she drags him inside the nearest room before shutting the door as quietly as possible. His heart drops when she whirls around and glares at him with such horror. "No," she gasps. "No, that's ridiculous, no, no, are you insane?" Her voice is torn in a way he's never heard before, strained with weird emotions he's not sure of, never heard of in such clarity. 

"It was just an idea," he mumbles softly. Shame burns inside of him, charring all of his internal organs and ruining his heart. "You don't have to act like that." He feels so small now, so idiotic and immature. 

"Do you not get how bad of an idea that is?" she hisses. "It could ruin the decades and decades of hard work put forward to create peace between your people and mine! If anyone were to find out-" 

"But they wouldn't have to know!" He protests. "We don't have to tell anyone, we could keep it between you and me! It would be a one time thing to prevent you losing your control and then we'd never have to even come closer ever again, I promise!" 

Morrigan's mouth drops, ready to argue further and then her eyes widen even more. "What?" Gideon wonders, "What is it, what's wrong?" 

She storms past him and throws open the door to see alpha Johanna with concern lining her face. "Sorry for disturbing you guys, but is everything ok?" 

Icy panic freezes his blood. Morrigan could rat him out, reveal what his intentions were, get him in trouble with the alpha. He'd be screwed in Johanna took his intentions as foolish or dangerous or in the species traitor region- 

"Nothing, we were just discussing private matters. I must pack my things." 

His head shoots up, eyes locking on the vampire matriarch before she swans out of the door. He has so little time to compose himself, thank god that this all attention capturing woman has saved his ass yet again, before the alpha is onto him. "What's going on?" 

"Uhh... I was trying to make a move on her and she was worried about the treaties between us." It's the best thing he can come up with and is sadly not so far from the truth. If she had used him to sate her thirst, he would have confessed. 

Johanna seems befuddled by this, her might brow wrinkling up in confusion. "Someone clearly hasn't told her the extent of the treaties then."

That throws him off. "What?" 

She sits down in the armchair in the corner and addresses him directly. "The only thing that isn't allowed is murder between wolf and vampire. That's it, apart from gruesome stuff like trafficking and exploitation and rape. There have been a few cases in the past, which means that these specific types have been listed as big non-nos. But if a wolf and a vamp wanted to have... intimate relations," she smirks at him, "there is no law that could prevent it. They would be free to be with each other." 

He almost feels like he hasn't heard her correctly. "You're serious?" 

"One hundred percent." Her gaze is all knowing and earnest. "You would be free to care for each other and grow closer. No one would have any right to disagree with it." 

It's like he's fallen asleep and is dreaming. Except for one complication. "She doesn't like me so I don't know why you're encouraging this so much, Alpha." 

A truly heartbreaking fact. Her stiffness with him can't be just because she doesn't know him well enough. He knows what dislike looks like and that must be it. No matter how he feels for her, the whole thing is impossible because she's not into him. 

The alpha doesn't seem to think so, however. She actually snorts, as if him saying this is a joke and a funny one at that. "I know I'm old," says the thirty nine year old alpha, "but I know what I'm talking about. I have never seen someone stare at another person with such want in their eyes more than how Morrigan stares at you. She probably only acts stiff with you because she's a sensible, no nonsense kinda chick who is known for only ever thinking about the happiness of her coven. She probably has no idea what to do with her feelings for you which is why she acts the way she does." 

He thinks back to their last interaction before that night, when she had come with him when he went hunting so she could watch and give him tips. She had been gentle and soft with him and he had a glance at the real her. 

He dare not believe what Johanna is saying, his brain can't comprehend that the all powerful, immensely serious and sensible being could like someone like him. 

But it wouldn't start world war three if he did try to pursue her so maybe if he did propose another solution for her and told her that it for sure wouldn't cause another war... he might get a different answer, one that isn't because of her coven. 

She throws open her door when he knocks, her whole face portraying exasperation and bizarre exhaustion. The astonishment in her face is worth facing her irritated expression. She doesn't speak, waiting for him. 

“It says in the peace treaty between vampires and wolves that the only thing hung that could start a war is if one of us kills the other,” Gideon breathes, desperation carved into every pore.

“Are you sure?“ she hisses.

“Alpha’s words. Rape, trafficking, exploiting are not allowed. Relationships aren’t in the do not list. No one would be entitled to protest or get angry if we took this further than friends.”

But still she hesitates.

“Morrie,” he whines, unable to stop himself, “please. For once in your life, can you please just be honest about what you really want.”

“What did you call me?” He trembles as he swallows, noticing the look in her eye. Holy hell, she looks feral.

“I called you ‘Morrie’. A shortened version of Morrigan.”

“Good god, you’re so frigging cute!” She growls before lunging at him and welding their lips together. Kissing her is the most amazing aphrodisiac sensation he's ever felt, not that he's actually taken drugs and aphrodisiacs before but he imagines that no drug would compete. The way she just conquers his mouth so fully makes him feel so complete inside.

After a few minutes or what feels like hours, she pulls away and breathes deeply. “Ok. Let me just explain. Outside of my coven, the reason that feeding from you gave me discomfort is because it’s said that if a vamp feeds from another person, it can tangle their lives together and making it hard to leave. I don’t wanna trap you like that, you might not want this in five years but you would find it so hard to just walk away because I’ve drunk from you. I mean, yes we can only do this once so as to prevent this from happening but it’s still important that you’re aware of the risks. I want you to be aware of what’s going on, what the real issue is here. I don’t want you to feel trapped.”

Staring at her, Gideon realises that he’s never wanted anything, anyone, more than her before. So he tells her this. "I might not want this in like, ten years time but I want this now. I want this... you... more than ever."

Her eyes are like the finest rubies as she smiles down at him. "If you're sure? Because if you change your mind at any time, I need to be aware of it."

"I am sure," he promises. "And this might be right now talking but I really want this. I want you. And I know you're hungry so use me and my devotion to you for your own gain, I'm asking you to do it so it's not wrong."