The world faded into existence again. Kaia had expected to see the same white ceiling she'd been staring at the entire time she'd been in the hospital, but instead, she saw a soft yellow. She squinted, sure her eyes were playing tricks on her.
Her mind felt fuzzy like she'd fallen asleep in the middle of the day and woken up in the night. It was backward and wrong like something had gone missing.
And her body felt worse. Slowly, she became more and more aware of the aches that plagued her. Her chest hurt, and so did her shoulder. Everything felt heavy like it would be impossible to move.
Then Kaia heard someone exhale. The sound was full of such relief it made Kaia's heart twist. "You're awake."
Kaia tried to twist her body so that she could see who was talking, but the ache escalated to straight pain when she did. She hissed, holding her side. "What happened?" she asked, breathing deeply. Smoke.
"Stay down," he ordered, then he was standing, looking down at her. His yellow eyes were intense, concerned. "You were hurt badly." His expression turned into a scowl, and his eyes grew distant as though he was reliving what had happened. What had happened...so it had been real.
The man in front of her was the same one who'd helped her in the hall. The same one who... Yes, the smell was still there. She was certain now that she wasn't imagining the wolf part, if only because her brain had been through enough physical trauma in the past day or so that there probably wasn't any creativity left.
And he was here, in front of her. Real. Sitting in front of him, so close, made her feel the same way she had when she'd seen him from the window. Empowered. Important. And it didn't hurt that he was probably the most handsome person she'd ever seen. He was so utterly flawless he might as well have been some amalgamation of killer photoshop skills. Looking at him now, it almost made sense that he wasn't human.
Kaia slowly propped herself up on a pillow, moving so that her injuries wouldn't be disturbed. "Are you ok?" Kaia asked. Kaleb--that was his name, right?--looked so tired, drained, not to mention frustrated. Always frustrated. At himself, Kaia had a feeling.
He turned his attention back to her, confused. His voice grew serious, his reply too quick, rushed...like he was trying to defend himself, "I'm fine."
Kaia blinked, watching him as he slowly came to sit beside her on the bed. She looked around the room. It was well furnished, with everything your average bedroom has. It was cute, with decorative ribbons tied everywhere and a teddy bear in the corner. It must have been a child's room.
"Where am I?" Kaia asked. Fear set in, "Where's my dad?"
Kaleb scowled, "I'm sorry, but I had to bring you to my Pack's Mansion. You weren't safe at the hospital."
"Does my dad know where I am? My brother?" Kaia demanded. "Wait, Pack?"
"They don't know," Kaleb admitted. Kaia was about to let her anger burst out of her, but Kaleb spoke quickly to calm her down, "But you can call them soon. Maybe even go see them if it's safe."
Kaia was silent for a moment. "You can't just abduct someone like that," Kaia mumbled, crossing her arms over her chest and ignoring the stiffness she felt. She had a lot of questions, but there was a part of her that was telling her to stay calm. There had been this little voice in her head these days that told her what to do; it almost never made any sense, but Kaia always felt like it was right.
And besides, the hospital hadn't exactly seemed safe. The part of her that was still terrified of what had happened was overjoyed that she was no longer there, despite the bizarre circumstances.
"I did what I had to do," he said coldly. Kaia frowned. He seemed angry all the time. Honestly, it rubbed Kaia the wrong way. But she still had a feeling that there was more to this man than their brief time together had revealed.
She looked back to Kaleb, who was brooding. Even when he was frustrated, though, he was perfection. Or maybe it just made him even more handsome. Kaia didn't know what was happening to her. She couldn't stop watching him, how his eyes darted around like he was looking for something, how his muscles twitched when he moved, ready for action. He was a bittersweet concoction of shadows, pooled in the curves of his muscles and clinging to his hair, and sunshine, bursting from his eyes and drifting off of his skin.
His black hair was wild like it had gotten a taste of freedom, of wind running through it and the enormity of the world outside. Kaia, for a brief moment, envied Kaleb. But then she remembered how quick he'd been to deny any weakness.
"You said you're fine, but it's ok...not to be fine," Kaia said, "You know that, right?"
Kaleb raised his head, looking at her, his expression stormy. He stood, putting distance between them. He was restless. And then, so quietly that Kaia almost couldn't hear it, he breathed, "Not for me."
There was such a heavy burden on his shoulders, especially for someone so young. He couldn't have been much older than Kaia. What was it that weighed him down? Questions after question flitted around Kaia's head, nipping at her consciousness like a plague.
Kaia stared at him for another long moment before clearing her throat. She couldn't get a read on him, not now. What had happened to hearing his thoughts? "So, Kaleb, all I know about you is your name," Kaia said, shattering the silence into awkward little pieces and trying to lighten the air around them.
He turned back to her, an almost invisible smile on his beautiful lips. Kaia's heart pounded for a second before she told it to shut up. And even then, it only beat a little bit more quietly. "That's not all you know, is it?" he said.
Kaia's cheeks heated and she looked down at her hands, "No."
"No," he repeated, soft.
Kaia took a deep breath and met his gaze again, "You've been following me for a while, haven't you?"
He nodded.
"Why?" Kaia asked, but she already knew the answer. She was his moon. Even though he'd just met her, he was already mesmerized by her. She fought back a blush just thinking about that night, about the way he'd seen her, so surprising, so different from the way she saw herself. Well, Kaia at least thought she'd known the answer.
What she didn't expect was, "You're in danger."
Kaia stared at him, deflated. What had she thought was going to happen? This gorgeous stranger was going to whisper sweet nothings in her ear about how beautiful she was, and then he'd lean down and kiss her? No, that was stupid. Did Kaia even want that? Or was she just caught up in a dangerous riptide, on the verge of slipping into something from which she wouldn't be able to come back?
"Danger," Kaia deadpanned.
"Because of the way you smell," he said, his voice suddenly rough, forced. Kaia looked up at him and realized, to her shock and awe, that he was blushing. This stone cold, always angry, gorgeous god of a man-wolf was blushing. What? Because of how Kaia smelled?
Oh god. Was it that bad?
"Excuse me?" Kaia asked, "Mind shooting that one my way again?"
He blushed deeper, and Kaia's mouth fell a little wider. Holy hell, what was happening? "You...I don't know. You smell..." he was struggling, angry at his helplessness again. "Shit." To Kaia's delight, he covered his face with his hands like a little boy confessing his love to his second-grade crush. He was embarrassed.
"I smell like shit?" Kaia asked, stunned, her voice like a whimsical song dancing around him now. She wanted to laugh. The combination of sheepish gestures and muscles Kaia ached to press herself against (embarrassing, yes, but entirely accurate) was amusing. Kaleb seemed like he was usually in control, of other people, and of his own emotions. He didn't know how to deal with embarrassment.
It was strange because Kaia didn't feel like she was in control of anything at all, not even herself. She looked at him and saw everything that she wasn't. It was the reason she wasn't always confident with other people; if she didn't know how to manage herself how could she handle others?
She watched Kaleb take a deep breath and shake his head. When he turned back around, his face was stony again. Damn. "Your scent is particularly enticing," he said, all business now, "Some greedy lycanthrope in the area will want you."
Kaia tried to wrap her head around that. "Right. Lycanthrope," Kaia said, staring. She knew what that meant. "Werewolves."
Kaleb stiffened, correcting her, back to his regular frustrated self, "Lycanthrope."
"Ok, sorry," Kaia said, pulling the soft blankets up. She didn't know what the difference was, but apparently, it was important. "The...lycanthrope want me? What, to eat me?"
He nodded. "Because I smell good?"
"Better than good, actually," he said, still all business. But this time there was a hint of creamy weakness in his voice. Had Kaia imagined that? Did Kaleb ever talk without being at least mildly frustrated, minimum? "It's a unique smell, something I've never seen before. From anyone. I don't know why, but it's more than..." He trailed off. "It's just unusual. Lycanthrope who are curious about that sort of thing will want to take you."
It was strange, seeing him like this. As a human, he seemed different. This stony, unreadable version of Kaleb appeared. She felt so far from him, like a little girl sitting at the kid's table while Kaleb was off with the other adults. Why? Because he possessed knowledge of the world that she lacked? She didn't like it.
"What's with you?" Kaia asked.
He raised an eyebrow, crossing his muscled arms over his equally muscled chest. He was wearing a loose shirt that exposed his honey-kissed skin, left little to Kaia's imagination. Not that it bothered her. "What?"
"You're different," Kaia said before she could think. Different from what? From a huge wolf? Uh, yeah...obviously.
But Kaleb just sat down at the edge of her bed, his weight causing Kaia to slide slightly closer to him. Her leg lightly touched his back, and she felt like a middle schooler going crazy over the tiniest contact with the opposite gender. But...was that intentional? God, what was this?
"Is that so?" he asked, but he said it like he didn't believe her, his voice wrought with condescension. "Different from what?" That can't be, Kaia. What are you talking about, Kaia? You don't know a thing, Kaia.
Kaia frowned, emboldened by her frustration and by his just being there. It was like he was belittling the moment they'd shared together in the woods like it was some dream within a dream that didn't mean anything now that he was human. So she leaned forward, letting her palm rest lightly on the side of Kaleb's face, turning his face towards her so she could peer into his eyes, like looking over a cliff and feeling the reality of how far you could fall. Her voice turned silky, like a feather gliding along bare skin, "Where's my gentle wolf?"
Kaia could see that he didn't know what to do. His entire body locked up like she was Medusa and just looking into her eyes had turned him into the most beautiful statue the world had ever seen. His expression conveyed the purest shock as though the touch Kaia had bestowed on him was unknown to him, a mystery that he hadn't expected.
And then his gorgeous golden eyes fell a bit, his dark lashes framing them perfectly, making him look almost like a tiger with dark kohl around his flaming irises. He turned his head practically unnoticeably until his lips graced Kaia's skin, soft as a petal drifting onto her palm.
And Kaleb was her wolf again, kissing her palms and healing her pain, assuaging the loneliness that had quietly existed in Kaia's soul since her mother died.
If someone were to ask how her heart or her soul, whichever ethereal existence you prefer, felt about such harmony, all the words in the world would not be enough for Kaia. Her head could provide an answer, though: that she was insane, losing it, off her rocker. But that despite the common sense that hummed somewhere quietly in the depths, she relished the closeness. She felt a pull she didn't think she could deny herself. She felt a rightness. The years of loneliness had been worth it.
Maybe it was just that loneliness that drove her to act the way she did, to stay calm despite being far away from her home and in a world she didn't understand. Perhaps, though, it was something else.
Kaleb's eyes slid shut, his eyelashes brushing Kaia's hand. Then pictures and emotions bled into her from where they touched, her skin warming.
Kaleb was scared, but it was a wonderful, addictive fear. He was scared of what a hold she had over him already, and she'd said so few words to him, done so little; yet it was powerful, something more than just the fascination at her ghostly, elegant existence through a window far away, as it had started. This was something age-old, looming over them like a god over his ants; it could shatter and destroy, bring even the lycanthrope who declared themselves the strongest to their knees, but it could also give, share pieces of itself with those it touched. It could bring pain, loneliness, heartbreak. It could bring joy, fascination, ecstasy.
Kaia was his destiny, what, unbeknownst to him, he'd been searching for his entire life. She was his mate. But, of course, he couldn't tell her that. Not yet. Not when she knew so little about...
Kaia didn't realize it until Kaleb's peaceful face blurred behind a wall of relief. She was crying. Kaleb had called her his moon, but he didn't know quite how much darkness was hidden behind her light. Until that moment neither had she. The only reason she knew it was there now was that she could feel bits of it chipping away each time Kaleb touched her, like the hardened core around her heart was vanishing with each breath he breathed into her.
"Kaleb," Kaia breathed, letting her tears fall, her heart stir to life. She trusted what she'd felt, what she'd seen now. She didn't know why, but she had to trust. This was the best opportunity for freedom that she'd had in a long time, and she had to take it.
His eyebrows drew together when Kaleb heard his name from his moon, reveling in the feeling of how different it sounded coming from her, how soft. He opened his eyes and was struck by confusion, "You're crying."
His hand unconsciously covered hers, giving in to the urge to touch her, the urge he'd never let her see for fear of scaring her away. Her hand was small in his, her fingers so thin. The concern in his eyes, how quickly she'd managed to melt that harsh, angry armor, gave Kaia a strange sense of delight and accomplishment.
So many questions burst forth within her, the world suddenly much more of a mystery. But one, in particular, wouldn't let itself fade out of significance. She could do nothing but ask.
"What do you mean? I'm your mate?"
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