Chapter 29
Mark
I feel my back being lifted, the weight of my limbs heavy.
Someone is carrying me, but everything seems distant, shapeless, meaningless. The world is out of focus. My head spins, the emptiness around me is a black hole, an abyss that pulls me in, without mercy.
Then, a familiar sound, so clear in the darkness, so real, so... close. Her meow. The feeling of familiarity makes me try to open my eyes, but everything is blurry, the muscles in my body refusing to cooperate.
The sound holds me, anchors me for a few seconds.
I feel her presence, but the darkness swallows me again.
And then the icy water.
It hits me like a shock, making me shiver to the bone. I feel the dirt and blood running down with the water, the metallic, dense smell becoming lighter, fading away.
"Try to sit up, Mark," Ethan's voice sounds distant, even though I know he's holding me by the shoulders, feeling the pressure of his fingers on my skin.
The pain still throbs in me, my skin, my bones, everything hurts, but the feeling of being dragged back into the abyss makes me want to fight.
The wounds pull back, closing slowly, millimetre by millimetre. The feeling is strange, as if my essence is weak and broken, dragging through my veins like sharp shards of glass.
I've always healed instantly, but now... now it's agonising.
It's a more intense process than anything I've ever felt.
"He can't stand up," Ethan says from that distant place.
Who is he talking about?
"I'll take him." This time it's Ted's voice.
My friends are here.
I want to ask where she is, I want to call her name, but my voice fails me, stuck in my throat. Nothing comes out. Only silence.
Darkness closes in on me again, and I am consumed by it.
No form, no sound, no feeling.
Suddenly, something pulls me back, an invisible thread dragging me from the void. I take a deep breath, warm, fragrant air filling my lungs. I try to open my eyes, but it takes tremendous effort; my heavy eyelids won't let me.
I realise I am lying in bed. The sheets and pillows are soft against my half-naked skin.
But that smell... it's all I can focus on.
Then I feel the warmth and weight of something on my hip.
I recognise the sensation, and for a moment, everything around me takes on more shape, makes more sense.
She is here.
It's her. Unmistakable. That delicious, warm, earthy aroma, a smell that makes my body tingle with desire, that makes me feel complete, as if everything fits together.
The pressure of her thigh against my hip is intoxicating. I feel my body respond, my cock throbbing and hardening against her touch.
No... This can't be real, can it?
Am I delirious?
Dreaming?
I don't know anymore.
The darkness still calls to me, but her scent is strong, her warmth and weight anchor me, she is all I can feel.
I recognise her, Sandra, my fated mate.
I never imagined it would be like this, that she would exist for me, but my wolf instinct, that primal, undeniable desire, made me recognise her. It made me mark her under my skin, without her knowing.
She... still doesn't know, doesn't understand.
But I knew as soon as I saw her for the first time.
Males feel it intensely, it's wild, a call from the soul that consumes us completely. For females, it's more subtle. They have the option to deny it, to walk away, while we males are consumed by desire, as if it were an insatiable hunger.
But I... tried to repress it.
I didn't think I was worthy of her, a brute like me, a beast.
And she... perfection personified, a mischievous goddess with a sharp tongue, who loves to tease me.
But now I can no longer deny it.
She is mine, and when I find her again, I will not let her get away.
I take a deep breath, feeling her scent flooding my nostrils, calming me, filling me. The desire is voracious, but at the same time, she calms me . Everything around me disappears, and all that remains is the warmth of her skin, the desire burning inside me.
"Sandra..." I murmur, the word coming out hoarse, almost like torture.
The next moment, she disappears.
Like a fleeting dream, reality dissipates, and I exhale, trying to hold on to what was there. But I can't. Darkness pulls me back, and all that remains is emptiness.
I can't hold on to the dream, I can't stay there with her. And so, I return to nothingness.