21. Chapter Twenty-OneMelina
Chapter Twenty-One
Melina
“ A aron!” I cried. This wasn’t him, but my soul knew differently.
The creature looked in my direction, and I sucked in a breath. The eyes. They were his gray eyes, unchanged. I fought to remain standing, stumbling slightly. My hands shook on the rifle as I fought to compose myself.
He hissed at me, a long-forked tongue sticking out of his mouth. I nervously stepped back. Was he in there? Was his mind still working, or was he something else now? Was there a way for him to come back from this?
Before I could think further about it, the other Fae beast jumped off Aaron and straightened up. Broad, pointed wings expanded from her back, her four yellowed eyes now trained on me. She roared viciously, sending the hairs on my arms up, and flew at me. I fired at her, but she zig-zagged in the air, not getting hit in any mortal areas, wherever they were located. I vaguely could see a blur of green trailing her, running toward me, but my focus was on the flying beast.
I kept shooting, knowing I would be too slow if I tried running, and my blasting magic would hardly do anything. However, it wasn’t enough, and the creature tackled me to the ground, knocking the weapon out of my hand. She pressed me into the dirt with her large hands, claws pressing into my skin. I kicked at her and screamed as she reared back, opening her wide maw to bite down on me. Sending my blasting magic out as a desperate attack, she shot off me and into the air. I quickly scrambled back on my hands, moving to the rifle. I had to shoot her in the head, anywhere else wouldn’t stop her. I didn’t want to kill her, she was a victim too, however, I valued my own life, and there was no other option.
Suddenly, several rows of what appeared to be green tentacles exploded through her chest, splashing black blood on the ground and onto my legs. She dropped to her knees, and I saw the green beast, Aaron, standing behind her, the tentacles protruding from his ribcage on both sides. The creature shrieked, shaking me to the bone, and I winced in pain at the injuries from my still-healing body. Aaron then grabbed her by the head and twisted. A sickening crack of bone filled the quiet of the night, until her head tore from her neck. He tossed it to the side, and we watched as the headless body fell sideways.
My hand touched the top of the rifle as I looked up at Aaron from my seated position on the ground. He didn’t move, just stared at me. But those eyes, his eyes, looked heartbreakingly sad. A tentacle shot out and brushed against my face. Cold and smooth against my skin. I yelped and clutched the rifle, knowing I wouldn’t, couldn’t, use it. Still, I was terrified. Was this my Aaron? The way that he touched me was gentle and oddly familiar. And he had saved me. Again.
I hiccupped a cry. “Aaron?” I asked again, hoping he would respond back to me.
“Go,” he replied. His voice sounded like a deep whisper, strained almost .
Before I could respond, movement from behind him caught my attention. Soren.
She looked at me with blazing anger, her eyes wide and crazed. Her fellow Fae and her pet creature were now dead. She was alone, and although she had magic, she was weak. I could see her swaying slightly as she stood. “You are so stupid!” she screamed. “You could have joined us and helped us to end these forced marriages. But I see now, you are just as much of the problem. You’ve allowed that monster to poison your mind. And now he will be your undoing.”
She outstretched her hand, and I didn’t bother looking at Aaron. I already knew what she meant to do. She was going to control him, just like all the others. I aimed my gun at her and pulled the trigger, but Aaron jumped in the way, taking the hit on his shoulder. He howled as he hit the ground. I screamed in frustrated horror. I didn’t want to hurt him.
I had to kill this bitch. I shot at her again, but he quickly teleported in her path, taking another hit to his side. I broke inside. I was hurting him. Killing him. Because of her!
As long as he was near her, my options were limited in destroying her. I had to think smart. I turned and ran as fast as my own weakened body would allow. Only I didn’t try to run away from them. I wouldn’t get far. Aaron could teleport, and there were only so many times I could effectively blow him away from me. I could try more, but I was already weakened from healing myself, and more importantly, I didn’t want to keep hurting him.
No, my other option was to get to Soren and kill her. However, to do that, I had to get Aaron away from her and subdue him somehow. I ran around our tossed transporter, which blocked me from Aaron, who I could see getting to his feet. Soren moved closer to him, eyeing me from the corner of her eyes. There was no coverage on this vacant road. No building to hide in or behind. Soren’s transporter was several hundred feet away. I could get to it but needed to hide to get there. I needed the darkness.
I ran into the woods, tripping over something I could not see. Perhaps a rock? It didn’t matter. I remained on my feet and moved as silently as possible in the direction of the transporter. Perhaps I could fly it into her. I wasn’t keen on killing anything, and tonight, it would be two.
“Get her!” I heard Soren shout. “Kill your mate!”
I moved faster. I had no time to waste. I had to get to the transporter, especially before Soren. She couldn’t get away. She couldn’t continue to destroy lives.
Something solid wrapped around me and picked me up, leaving me kicking my legs in the air. Aaron. Despite his changed form and damaged mind, he still had his earthy scent. Still, he wasn’t himself. I struggled against his hold, but it was like pushing against steel. A tentacle wrapped around my gun and tore it out of my hand, tossing it deeper into the woods.
I knocked my head back, hitting him in the nose, and he loosened his grip around me. “Sorry, love,” I said as I elbowed him. That was a mistake. At the contact, pain vibrated up my arm to my shoulder. The only damage I did there was to myself. He was simply too hard.
In retaliation, he tossed me to the hard ground, the center of my back connecting with another larger rock. I cried out, rolling off from it. I couldn’t remain still. Despite the pain, I had to keep moving. I crawled forward, continuing to move as I got to my feet. Something wrapped around my ankle and pulled. My legs pushed against it, but it was strong—Aaron’s tentacles. I panicked, remembering what those appendages did to the other Fae creature. Would he do that to me, too? Could he kill me as the other beasts did to their partners? No, it was different. We were mates. The queen said mates had a better chance. I could break him of this.
My mind raced with ways to save him. Save myself. I clawed my fingers into the ground as he pulled my body to him, breaking nails, cutting my skin against the sharpness of jagged earth. I was flipped over, and several other tentacles wrapped around my arms and legs, leaving me open and vulnerable. I took several panicked breaths, fruitlessly searching around for anything to help me, but my eyes barely adjusted to the darkness. All I could see on the main road was the light from the orbs and the functioning transporter.
Aaron dropped to his knees in front of me, at least that’s what it sounded like, and I focused my attention back on him. I could feel his knees touching the inside of my legs, so I assumed he was kneeling between my thighs. I had to see him. Have him see me. However, I could only see the flash of his still silver eyes. That would have to be enough .
“Aaron, my alpha, you don’t want to do this. I am your mate. I am yours. And you are mine.” I perfumed, my adrenaline of fear most likely souring my scent, but I had to pray to the gods it was enough to bring him back. Bring him back to me.
I sensed movement by my ribs, maybe his hands. The rustling sound of clutched grass, sharp nails in the dirt, and a trembling cry. His tentacles loosened, and I brought a hand up slowly until I touched his face. The cold, scaly skin shocked me. But he was in there. He was still my Aaron. We were mates, and our magic was stronger together. I could share what I had with him. Show him that our connection was stronger than anything Soren had over him. “You are stronger than this, my alpha. Our spirits are stronger. I give you all the strength that I have to fight her. Fight her control.”
I poured out my magic into him, wrapping my arms around him, ignoring the pinch of his spikes as I settled my hands on his back. He pressed into me, enveloping his arms under my back, his tentacles still loosely wrapped around my limbs. Something familiar from him radiated into me. Fear moved behind love and comfort. He was home—my heart. And I would not let him go.
He moved the side of his head against my own, and I felt him shiver above me. Breaking my heart. “Omega. Rabbit,” he said in a low voice, the chill from his breath causing my body to tremble.
I took that moment to press him tighter, strengthening our connection. “Aaron.”
“What are you waiting for? Kill her!” Soren shouted again, her voice sounding much closer .
His body stiffened, and for one fearful moment, I felt as if I was losing him. I would not. “Fight for us, Alpha.”
He pulled back from me, and I froze as I looked into those silver-beamed eyes. What was he going to do? He could kill me in an instant, and I couldn’t prepare for it. He was too strong. My heart stopped, at least that’s how it felt. And then the eyes became a blur, a wind of movement circling around me in an instant. Then he was gone.
I heard a scream—Soren’s.
I scrambled to my feet and looked to the road, seeing him on top of her now, slashing into her body. He punched a fist into her, the hand concaving her chest, ceasing her movement. I put a hand to my mouth, feeling sick for the second time that night. When he tore out his hand, it was covered in a mess of gore and bits of other bodily matter. He looked down at his hand. His mind is a mix of sorrow, frustration, and anger. His emotions stabbed into me like invisible spikes through our mate connection. He then reared back, looking up to the starless night, and screeched a hair-raising sound.
I slowly walked to the edge of the road. Now that Soren was gone, was he himself again? I waited for minutes, watching. He did not change, nor could I tell if his mind was fully back. That was not a good sign. If her magic remained after her death, it would not be easy to lift. Maybe impossible.
I glanced to my left at the transporter Soren and her cohorts had arrived in. I could leave. Get help. There had to be someone who could undo her magic. However, the thought of leaving him there, surrounded by death and gore, in a body that was not his own, felt cruel and only saddened me.
I stepped onto the road and walked to him cautiously. He shot out an arm in my direction to stop me, not looking at me. “Don’t.”
I paused. “Will you hurt me, Aaron?”
He sighed, dropping his head to his chest. “Never.”
I studied his face under the light, trying to assess his mood, but that reptilian face remained emotionless, and I could not see his eyes clearly. They were the only part of his old physical self that remained. “Are you my Aaron?”
He turned his head to me, dropping his hand. There he was, those eyes. Now heartbreakingly sad but still filled with love. He was still there. “I will always be your Aaron.”
I walked to him, forcing Aaron to turn his body away from Soren’s massacred form. “Then I will always be your Rabbit.”
His eyes glistened, and I held his face in mine. “How can you be? I am a monster.”
He had changed. He might never return to his former handsome form, but he was still my alpha. I could not close my heart to him. I was simply relieved that his mind was back. That would have to be enough.
I smiled, wiping at an errant tear on his cold cheek, the smoothness of his skin now less shocking. “A monster does not have the heart that you have. I’m afraid to say you are stuck with me. Plus, the tentacles could be fun.”
He made a snorting sound, shoulders lifting in a laugh that warmed me for the moment. “You have humor about this, but that will change.”
“Do you think I’m that superficial?”
He glared down at me, his form towering over me. He gently removed my hands from his face but held onto them. They were large and bloodied, but I didn’t remove my hands. I knew he wasn’t thinking about how messy they were. He just wanted to touch me, hold me. And I wanted the same. “There are limits, Melina. How could you want this?”
I took a better look at him now that we didn’t have the urgency of fighting in the way. He was still in the familiar shape of a more humanoid Fae. He was broader, taller, more muscular, if that was possible. The dark green of his skin was cold but not unpleasant to the touch, deceivingly smooth despite the scales. The black spikes on his head and back were a hazard but not unpleasant. His mouth was wider and lipless and filled with rows of sharp teeth, so kissing would be a challenge, but that forked tongue did give me ideas.
I shook my head. “I want you, Aaron. I’ll always want you.” I knew there was nothing I could say to him to change his mindset. I’d suffered with loving my marks and covered them with glamour. It was far from what he was now, but I could understand his mental space. He was a beautiful man. Practically flawless. Now, he was a creature, unlike any Fae we’d ever seen. Not all Fae were humanoid, and there were other races of our kind. Tiny and short, almost giants, complexions beyond those similar to a human. However, he would be uniquely different. He knew it already, and he hadn’t even seen his face .
“We could try my glamour magic when I get my strength back.”
Hope sprung in his eyes. “Could that work on someone in my condition?”
“I don’t know, but of course, I’ll try.”
He looked down at our joined hands and sucked in a breath, dropping my hands. “I’m sorry. I got blood all over you. I wasn’t thinking.”
I grabbed his hands again, avoiding the claws. “It’s fine. I’m all bruised up and dirty. Don’t let go of me, Aaron. Please.” My eyes watered because I felt his pain. It was a mix of embarrassment, despair, anger, self-loathing, and fear. He was breaking in front of me, and I could do nothing to help him other than let him know that I wanted him. Always.
He pulled me closer, wrapping his arms around me in a tight embrace. “Thank you, Melina, for bringing me back to myself. If I had hurt you, I would have ended myself. I wouldn’t be able to go on.” He pressed me closer to his chest, and it felt almost desperate as if he were afraid I’d disappear if he let me go.
“Thank you for saving me as well, Aaron. We’re going to get through all of this. No matter how long it takes, I’ll stay by your side.”
And I would. He had shown me more love than I’d ever had in my life beyond my family. He’d given me what I always wanted and saved my life numerous times. I had no doubt that he would continue to treasure and protect me. And I would do the same for him.