"You should not be here." Elara took a step back in the dark woods. A dry stick cracked beneath her feet and she heard the voice whispering in her ear again. "The curse is closer, Elara. Run!" and she ran faster than her breath, farther than the wind to the brink where she could not find herself anymore. Yet the whispers and the footsteps keep following her.
She ran until she was standing at the edge of the cliff. Her breath caught as there was no more path to run.
"You are to be bound by blood, Elara. You could not run anymore." The whisper forced her to jump. She closed her eyes and a scream left her lips. She woke up in her bed in the hospital. Her breath came hard, rugged and her body was covered in sweat.
"Do you often have nightmares?" Elara flinched and her head snapped to the window. Callen jumped inside the room and walked to her.
His eyes were full of worry as he brought a cup of water for her.
She took it with shaky hands. The dream had nothing to scare her. It was all the same, she ran from the inevitable until they came and found her. She was bound to the curse. Her mate? Was that why her mother refused to find her real mate? Was he a monster? Would he kill her?
These questions had hated her all her life. Callen sat at the edge of her bed and watched her carefully.
"You look afraid." she nodded as she held the cup tightly in her hands.
"My mother had died in the wilderness while protecting me. I did not remember their faces. But they come haunting me in my dreams often." she confessed. Not a whole truth, not a whole lie. But this was all she could offer to this kind man who kept coming for her.
He came closer and hugged her and she let him. His broad shoulders made her feel secure. Sheleaned on his warmth and for once, her nightmares did not haunt her anymore.
"You are safe here," he whispered. "You are going to stay here. No one will ever ask you to leave, Elara." he rubbed her back and she laughed.
Has anyone ever done it for her? She felt like a spoiled child and it made her laugh.
"What are you doing here?"
He blinked as if infally remembering that he had jumped his window on the fifth floor in the middle of the night.
"I talked to Alpha today about your hard work." her breath hitched at once and her eyes widened. She looked pale, which surprised him. He thought she would be happy.
"Elara, he is a kind man. He is working hard to protect our territory. If you worry because of the war, we had not started it. It is the shadowburn pack that wants to devour us and all other packs." he explained, tucking an astray hair behind her ears.
Elara inhaled a deep breath. She felt guilty when he explained with worry.
"This place has made me feel like home. I am just afraid that I will lose it." because they would know what I am!'
"Oh! You do not need to worry about it anymore." he beamed with joy but she only felt restless. "I have told him about your contribution and many other warriors accepted. He is indebted and told us that you can live here permanently. Not only that, he would offer you a house in the pack. You do not need to live in the hospital anymore." she could see the happiness, the pride and relief in his voice.
For once, she wanted to believe that she did not need to run anymore. Yet, the crawling feeling in her chest did not go away. It burnt her.
"Thank you." she whispered and he leaned further.
"That is not how it is done. You should at least offer me something sweet to celebrate. I brought good news." His voice was raspy. And she felt her skin tingling. With desire, with heat and something she did not understand.
"I… I do not have sweets." she whispered, words caught in her breath when she felt his breath caressing her cheeks. He smells like sea and salt. She gulped looking into his chocolate eyes that seemed to be enveloping her.
"What could be sweeter than your mouth, Elara. May i?" his hands were on her both sides. Her back hit the bed and she was trapped between his strong body and locked with his dark eyes.
She felt herself nodding and it was all he needed. His lips found her like a beast starving for ages. His lips claimed hers with a hunger that stole her breath away. It wasn't soft—it was fire meeting fire, a collision of need and longing that had been building for far too long. Elara gasped against him, her fingers instinctively curling into his shirt as if anchoring herself to something real, something solid in a world that had always felt like it would slip through her fingers.
Callen deepened the kiss, tilting her chin gently, possessively, as though he was trying to memorize the shape of her mouth with his own. His body pressed closer, one hand sliding to her waist, the other cupping the side of her face with a tenderness that contrasted the heat between them. His lips moved over hers, slow and coaxing one moment, then hard and desperate the next, as if he couldn't get enough of her.
Elara's heart pounded against her ribs, a wild, unsteady rhythm that matched the firestorm in her blood. Her body reacted before her thoughts could catch up—her hands slipping up around his neck, pulling him closer, closer still. Every part of her burned where he touched her, where his breath ghosted against her skin.
She felt like she was falling, spiraling into something dangerous and beautiful. A single tear slipped from the corner of her eye, not from fear, but from the overwhelming sense of being wanted—of being chosen. His lips slowed, sensing it, tasting it, until he pulled back just enough to rest his forehead against hers.
"Elara," he whispered, his voice rough with emotion, "you don't have to be afraid. Not me. Not here."
She closed her eyes, clinging to the echo of his words, to the warmth of his breath against her skin. For the first time in a long, long while, the shadows didn't feel quite as cold.
But somewhere, beneath it all, the whisper of the curse still lingered.