Under The Sea

Chapter Sixteen

My body felt like shit, complete shit. It was as if I had heavy weights tied to every limb on my body. My head felt hazy, as if there were a thick cloud of dust preventing me from thinking clearly. Then there was the pain; this throbbing ache in my side.

It took the biggest effort to lift my heavy eyelids. An exhausted groan escaped my lips when I tried to sit up too fast. My eyes roamed around the room I was in, but my vision was too blurry to even recognize anything. Instead of feeling refreshed from sleeping so well, I felt horrible as if I had fallen into a deep wonderful sleep only to be abruptly awoken minutes later by someone stabbing me.

"Easy sweetheart, you've been through a lot," I squinted wishing my eyes would focus on the blurry figure that the deep voice belonged to. I tried to turn toward the figure but pain pierced my side and a breathy whimper escaped my mouth. The figure approached the bed and sat next to me placing his arm around my waist for support. My now focused vision and keen sense of smell told me that I was staring into the face of Aran.

He looked exhausted as if he hadn't slept in days. Heavy bags seated under his eyes portrayed his tiredness, but his green eyes stood bright amongst the baggage.

"Aran," I breathed. The soft sheets wrinkled under my weight as I shifted toward him. He wrapped his strong arms around me in a loving embrace; my back leaned against his chest. Burying his head into my neck he placed a warm kiss there while murmuring my name.

For a moment we just sat there, enjoying each other's company, loving the feeling of being back together after being apart for what felt like weeks. The warm sun streamed through the large window casting the room in a nice yellow glow. It was in that moment that I realized how stressful my situation was. My cousin had nearly tried to kill me after telling me news that could be life changing. I almost died. My kingdom was in danger. Aran could possibly be in danger. My parents and Jacin......I prayed to Poseidon that they were okay.

Aran must have sensed my change of thoughts because he asked, "what are you thinking about?"

"H-how long was I out?"

"Four days," he said almost sadly. Gods, four days? That wasn't even the problem. Now I worried that I wouldn't be able to shift. Dale had stabbed me squarely in my gills, my gills that allowed me to breathe underwater. My body would sense that they were injured, and that they wouldn't help me underwater. My body wouldn't let me shift until my gills were one-hundred percent healed, which could take weeks. However I might be able to speed up the process by letting the water heal me.

"Aran, there's something you should know about me." I said nervously.

"I know, I know but first let me say I'm sorry for going off on you that day. I don't want you to feel rushed to tell me whatever it is about you that's so different. Because in the end whatever or whoever you are won't make a difference, you will always be my mate and I will always love you. But Forest if someone poses a threat toward you, you need to tell me because when I found you, I thought you were going to die. There was so much blood and I didn't know what to do. I tried to stop the bleeding but it was just too big of a wound and you were losing consciousness, I just . . ." His breathing was labored and I could see the panic on his face.

I reached up and cupped his face with my hands, "hey, it's okay. I'm here now, everything is fine, everything is fine." When I looked his eyes I saw raw love there, I saw the panic he felt that day, and I saw grief. His emotions were so intense that I could feel them deep within my chest.