Treacherous

20.

unedited

↓Chapter 20↓

I woke to the feeling of being protected somehow. Slowly, opening my eyes, I adjusted to the small streams of sunlight in my room. I had closed all the windows, but some light still managed to sneak in. Then, I realized the arms wrapped around my stomach and how tightly I held the hands back. Atlas was behind me, I realized. His head was asleep on the crook of my neck as a pillow. My back was against his chest and our bodies were pressed together. I felt the sparks illuminating from the mark we had given each other.

Slowly, I released myself from his grip. Just as I did, I couldn't get his hands to release me. I rolled my eyes, realizing how tight his grip was. But slowly, I managed to pull his hands of me. I ran my hands through his hair before realizing I had to check the time, and I most certainly had to see whether someone was coming to my cabin or not.

Taking a deep breath, I planted a kiss on Atlas' nose and went to sneak through a window to know if anyone was coming. Peeking through a window was stupid, but as I looked outside I realized how early it was in the morning. Barely anyone was outside. Checking the time, I realized how it was only 6:15 in the morning. I took a deep breath of relief. I had enough time to make Atlas could get out of here safely.

I turned back to my bed and just as I was walking back, I caught my faint reflection in the mirror. Sure my hair looked like a tornado had run through it, but something forced me to freeze.

Right at the base of my neck was Atlas' mark. A small red speculate of a wolf's bonding. It signified us. Smiling to myself I turned around. However, the second I did, I froze when I caught the small outlined shape on my side rib rage. Just there, below my bra was a moon. A small outline of a crescent moon was embedded on my skin. I stared the tiny crescent moon. I knew I never got a tattoo in my life, but I also knew this was a result of my marking with Atlas. What could this possibly mean? I ran my hands over the moon. Without realizing my hands ran over it, tracing the moon.

The moon was basically a tattoo. That didn't make sense. I already had Atlas' mark on my neck. And then, it hit me. True mates. True mates were those mates whose lives was entwined together, whose fates could each other forever and forever again centuries and centuries after rebirth, writing tragedies after tragedies. The only reason true mates were different is because our fates would be together, but we wouldn't. It was some of sort of symbol of true love, sacrifice and other bullshit like that. I stared at the crescent moon on my skin-what the fuck was this supposed to mean? I didn't believe in the true mates stuff.

The last true mates known to the wolf community were those who had been marked been Rose and Thorn. However, I did not remember what happened in their love story. I looked at my rib cage-Atlas and I were marked with the moon and something. I quickly head back to my bed, stumble through Atlas' sleeping form and see the mark on his right rib cage-a black outline of the sun was on his skin.

The sun and moon. We were true mates. I stared the dark outline of the moon. Confusion-disbelief was the only thing on my face. True mates.

I quickly attempted to wake Atlas up. He had to know what to do with this information. He had to. I didn't know any other solution. What was this supposed to mean? I needed to understand what this meant, and I needed to know now.