Chapter 39
Sandra
Sleep slowly fades away, and a lazy sigh escapes my lips as I stretch. My muscles lengthen, my body awakens, and my hand automatically slides across the mattress in search of warmth. But the other side of the bed is cold.
I frown, still without opening my eyes. I don't remember what I dreamed about. In fact, I barely remember what I did before going to sleep. I only know that I feel rested, strangely invigorated.
"Mark?" I murmur, blinking slowly as I scan the room.
Then I see him.
Sitting in a chair next to the bed, his large body hunched over, elbows resting on his knees, head bowed.
His golden eyes are half-closed, almost overcome by fatigue.
But at the sound of my voice, he awakens with a start, his body tense as if he had been shocked.
In one swift movement, he jumps up and comes to me.
"Kitten..." His voice breaks, a choked whisper. He climbs onto the bed with one knee, leaning towards me, his eyes wild, desperate, and kisses my forehead. The gesture is sweet, but it has a weight I don't understand. As if something bad had happened.
Then, a flash.
The impact hits me all at once. I remember Luther. The attack. The brutal force throwing me through the air. The thud of my head against the floor.
My heart races, and I grab Mark's arms, panic rising inside me.
"Mark, what happened? Are you okay?"
He hisses in pain at my touch and pulls away slightly. Confused, I look down and see. His left arm is completely bandaged, from shoulder to wrist. The shock hits me like a blade.
"Darling..." My voice fails me, a lump forming in my throat. "What did he do to you?"
I sit up abruptly, my head spinning from the sudden movement. I force my sleepy eyes to inspect him, my chest tight, but Mark just shakes his head and mutters:
“I'm fine, Kitten. It's you who worried me. But now you're safe. We're no longer in danger. You can rest easy.”
A knock sounds at the door before it opens.
Ethan enters the room, carrying a tray with bandages and small bottles. He gives me a dimpled smile before speaking:
"Good to see you're awake."
Then he turns to Mark.
"It's time to take care of your burn and change the bandages."
Mark lets out an exhausted sigh, without even arguing.
But I'm not going to let them distract me.
"Can someone explain to me what happened?" I demand, my tone harsher than I intended.
When I look back at Mark, something makes me hesitate.
He looks... different.
I tilt my head, assessing him.
I run my fingertips over his face. He allows himself to be touched, his expression relaxing under my caress, but there's something new there.
Fine lines around his eyes that weren't there before.
Almost imperceptible, but I've spent ages admiring that face over the last few days. I notice the difference.
Then, something else.
My gaze moves to his hair.
Among the blond strands at his temples, I see flashes of silver.
The air leaves my lungs.
My hand recoils as if it had been burned.
"You look... older." I swallow hard. "Have I been in a coma?"
Ethan immediately shakes his head.
But Mark...
He presses his lips together, his golden eyes shining with intense emotion before finally speaking.
"No, my love. You were only unconscious for a day, recovering from yesterday afternoon's attack. But I..." He swallows hard, looking away. His good hand finds mine, his fingers intertwining with mine. "I bargained five years of my life with the old woman to save you."
My chest tightens.
Tears cloud my vision.
But something in his tone tells me that's not all.
"Is there more?" I whisper, my voice breaking. "Did you give her more than a few years?"
He closes his eyes for a moment, his chest rising and falling with a heavy sigh.
"A part of my fae essence."
The world around me dissolves.
"What?"
"Even when we feel our essence depleted, there is still a seed within us from which it springs.
The witch, in her greed, wanted my entire essence in exchange for saving her last life.
" He smiles slightly and squeezes my hand in his.
"But I bargained. Five years of my life and only a part of my essence. Not all of it."
My throat tightens.
"So... you can still...?"
"I can still put up barriers to protect you. I'm just not as strong and I won't heal as quickly as before. I also won't be able to transform magically, in the blink of an eye, it will be like any other shapeshifter.
"Mark..." My whisper is a thread of pain.
He lets go of my hand to hold my face, his eyes burning into mine.
"I would give anything for her, my love." His forehead rests on mine, his lips hovering sweetly over mine. "I won in this bargain. I got my partner back."
The words enter my heart, filling it with so many feelings that I can barely contain them, so they overflow from my eyes.
And there, with his firm touch, his breath mingling with mine, all hesitation disappears.
"I love you."
Mark's eyes widen for a moment, hearing those words from me for the first time.
Then he smiles.
And it's the most beautiful smile I've ever seen.
"I love you, my Kitten." He caresses my lips with his thumb, then replaces the gentle gesture with a kiss, sealing his words on me. "I will love you until my last breath."
***
We are at my old flat. Ted is helping to carry the few boxes with my belongings into Mark's pick-up truck.
When we arrived, the landlord didn't seem to mind my disappearance so much, and willingly handed us the spare key when Mark offered him the rent I owed. The old man just muttered that it was good we arrived in time, because a few more days and everything I left there would have been thrown away.
When we opened the apartment door, the thick, putrid air hit me immediately.
The smell of my vomit mixed with spoiled milk is still there, impregnated in the walls, a vivid and distressing reminder of the day of the curse.
That moment when I was forced to transform and become trapped in a feline body still lingers in the air, like a horrifying echo.
But thankfully, I am now free.
The curse was broken even before Luther died.
It took me a while to realise it, but when I stopped to think and analyse, after I already knew it was him, I finally understood: it was broken the moment I opened my heart to Mark, when I accepted being marked by him, when I accepted our partnership.
That's when everything changed. When I allowed myself to love and be loved.
The key was always there: opening my heart.
Enigmatic words that Luther whispered when he cursed me, and which now make perfect sense. I began to be able to transform myself into a human when I opened up to Mark, to his care, to his love...
After I freed myself, I ended up transforming into a kitten of my own accord when I fell asleep. My body, so accustomed to seeking warmth and security in feline form, instinctively nestled against Mark's chest.
But this time, it wasn't the curse pulling me. My essence flows freely, without ties, without barriers. For the first time, I am truly myself.
And maybe that's why, when I enter the flat, the memory of that night when I was cursed no longer weighs so heavily on me.
It belongs to the past.
The place, however, is even worse than I remember. A messy cubicle, where dirt and chaos intertwine, with the still-strong smell of what happened there.
I take a step forward, leaving my shame behind as Mark and Ted enter right after me.
My life before was difficult, full of challenges, but I did everything I could to keep myself going. And I would do it all again to be with my grandmother until her last days.
I begin to gather everything into the cardboard boxes Ted brought.
In the end, material possessions don't matter.
I don't have much to take with me, just documents, my mobile phone and some clothes that I still like. Just the essentials.
Mark picks up the photograph of my grandmother and looks at it closely, the only thing I have left of her.
"She would have loved you," I say, with a gentle smile. "If she were alive today, she would be spoiling you with food, telling you that you need to eat well to maintain all those muscles."
"I'm sure I would love her too." He smiles back and puts the photo back in the box, which Ted then lifts up and carries out of the flat.
Mark frowns, muttering to his friend's back that he could carry that box with his good arm.
Ted ignores him, by now accustomed to his frustration.
Mark is upset that he is still injured, that it is taking so long to heal.
But it has only been two days since the attack by Luther, and it will still take time to fully recover.
Even more so because he refuses to take potion, afraid of becoming dependent on it.
I stand on tiptoe and kiss his cheek, trying to calm him down, a warm feeling washing over me as I pull away and see the details that make my heart beat faster.
I can't help but admire his face, and it seems like that's all I've been doing lately.
"What is it?" He frowns, but there is a small smile on his lips.
"You were already handsome, but now..." I bite the corner of my lip to stifle a little moan. "With that older look, you look like a hot daddy."
He blushes, his face taking on that serious, rough expression that makes my knickers wet...
Then he takes a deep breath, his nostrils flaring, his pupils swallowing his golden irises. And the intensity with which he looks at me makes my breathing quicken.
"You're turned on," he growls softly, holding my neck, his thumb sliding under the velvet ribbon where he left his mark. "Do you like older men, Kitten?"
"That was obvious, wasn't it? You're eleven years older than me..." I sigh, pressing my breasts against his body, rubbing myself against him.
He wraps his hand around my neck, pulling my face towards his with a delicious, rough grip. Then he leans down, sucking on my earlobe before whispering in my ear:
"Technically, I'm sixteen years older than you now."
I feel the impact of those words, and he seems to notice the tension in my body. I shudder and he groans as I rub myself against him, pressing myself against his cock, which is bulging against his jeans.
I throw my head back, my lips waiting for his, but before Mark can kiss me, we hear Ted's voice coming from the hallway, interrupting the moment.
"So, what are you still doing there?" he asks, his heavy footsteps approaching. "I've already loaded everything into the pick-up truck."
I pull away, smiling discreetly at Mark, and whisper:
"We'll continue later," I whisper my promise, feeling his cock through his trousers.
Mark pulls the air between his teeth, closing his eyes.
"Then let's go home, my love..." When he looks at me again, the dichotomy between the fierce intensity in his eyes and the reverent softness of his touch on my face makes me shiver. "Because having to wait a second longer to touch my female is torture."
The next moment, we're walking down the stairs of the building and getting into the pick-up truck waiting for us.
Ted seems to have noticed the tension in the air, and with a mischievous smile, he makes up an excuse about a last-minute appointment.
He quickly gets out of the car, preferring to walk to I don't know where, leaving us alone.
Mark drives almost exceeding the speed limit, and in ten minutes we arrive at the cabin. The boxes are left behind in the back of the pick-up truck as we practically run inside.
As soon as the door slams behind us, I run my fingers down the waistband of his trousers and flash a provocative smile.
"I want to suck you off."