ALPHA: Heir Of The Four

Chapter Sixteen | Part II

Chapter Notes: Caleb's POV

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My eyes snapped opened, pulling me out of the darkness and back into reality. It took a second or two for them to shift into focus, but once they did, I saw her. Ava-Rain. I pulled my head away, severing the connection of our foreheads in order to look down at her. The moment my head no longer touched hers, her eyes fluttered open and the breath I had not even realized I was holding was finally released. It took her a second to find my eyes, but once they did, a smile immediately graced her lips.

     "Hi," she whispered.

     "Hi," I replied and returned her smile with one of my own. My hand immediately found its way to her cheek where it was met by her warmth. Inside, I felt my wolf's sense of relief intertwine with my own as we were both clearly thankful that her body temperature had returned to normal. But we still had to make absolutely sure that she was fine, both inside and out.

     "What's your name?" I asked her.

     She smiled again, though accompanied it with a dramatic roll of her eyes. "Really?"

     "Humour me."

     "Ava-Rain Tolbert."

     "And what's my name?"

     She shifted her body slightly and looked on either side of her, only to find the source of her obvious discomfort—the fact that I still had her laid on top of the hard surface of the mahogany desk. "Caleb Brandt."

     "And what am I?"

     She lifted a hand and threaded her fingers through my hair, pushing it back and away from my face. "My everything."

     I was hardly expecting that answer, more so because the question, I thought, had required a more supernatural type of response. But her answer proved to be a thousand times better. "Do you remember where we are?"

     "The den. The library." Her hand slipped from my hair, and soon her fingers began to trail along my cheek before tracing over my lips. If she continued to keep that up, I was going to be the one that needed to be reminded who I was.

     "Our unwelcome guest?"

     She smiled but continued her outlining of my mouth. "Angelie."

     "And, out of curiosity, just how much trouble do you think you're in right now for what you just put me through?"

     "Um. . .a lot?" She smirked.

     I nodded as my head slowly began to descend. "Yeah. A lot," I whispered just before covering her mouth with mine. The kiss ended too soon, but, for the moment, it had been enough. I pulled away from her in order to lift her up into an upright seated position on the desk. After her legs swung over the edge, I stepped in between them and took her face in my hands, remembering a second too late that one of them had been imprinted with the symbol of the four elements while I was inside of Ava-Rain's mind.

     Flashes of the 'Ava-Rain' I had tried to save only moments prior surfaced almost immediately. That Ava-Rain—which I now understood was only a representation of her mind—had been vacant. Absent. Almost lifeless. That Ava-Rain was cold and empty. Dark. And being inside of Ava-Rain's head and literally watching as her mind fell apart and self-destructed, I would have to say, was something I could only pray to Luna I would never ever have to witness again.

     But, deep down, I guess I sort of knew that no amount of prayers would change the innate feeling that the whole thing had been my fault. That I had caused the destruction or, at the very least, played a part in it. I mean, what other reason could there have been to explain why the collapse of her mind included the use of all four elements? How else could I explain how I was even able to enter her mind in the first place? Because that voice had said so? The same voice that instructed me to use the four in order to save her?