Hey guys,
Please comment, vote, and follow!
Sorry for any grammar or editing mistakes!
Enjoy!
-&-
Chapter 3
There was a hard warmth radiating against the side of my body- a smooth, solid, warmth that I tried to cling to with all my might. But my body wouldn't let me. I couldn't move. I couldn't feel any part of me, except for the cold hitting my left side, and that amazing warmth hitting my right.
I could feel myself being lifted and carried, but no idea to where, but it had to have been far. The warmth had been carrying me for quite a while. As time passed I still couldn't move my body, or open my eyes- but I could hear the sounds of the trees we passed, and the breathing of what I assumed was a person carrying me.
What happened to me? Why can't I move?
Where was I?
I couldn't make my mouth open to voice any of those plaguing questions, and the thought of never being able to move again raced across my mind. My breathing hitched in my chest as that fear hit my heart. Well, maybe hyperventilating was a good sign.
"Sh, it's okay."
My panic eased.
That voice.
It was beautiful, like the sound of a waterfall you would listen to from a distance, or the dark melody of the creatures of the night. I wanted to hear it over and over again. I wanted those two words replaying in my head for an eternity. I decided the voice belonged to the person carrying me, the one who was so warm it traveled through my whole body.
It wasn't long before the sleep started to swamp over my shoulders again. The panic started to grow. No! If I sleep I might miss hearing him talk! I couldn't sleep! I couldn't-
I could barely feel that warm body stop walking, and grip tighter onto my immobile body. I wanted to push further into it, let that warmth flow over my entire being. But the vague sound of angry voices reached my ears, and I tried my hardest to listen before that cloud of sleep over took my mind.
"What have you done-!"
I was barely able to make out that one sentence before the voices went to barely-there mumbles. "Give her to me- Healers will help-" The thick arms supporting me squeezed tighter and the body I was pressed against let out a dangerous growl- then more growls surrounded around us. My breath caught in my throat again in fear.
"She's awake- Give her to the- They can help-"
"She's awake?"
I felt my body lift from the warmth that had kept me safe, and the fear of being taking away from that voice I could listen to for hours hit me hard. My chest tightened and the air had a harder time reaching my lungs the minute that warmth I wanted to desperately cling to vanished. I couldn't control my body, and I couldn't stop the hyperventilating the panic brought on. It was gone. That voice, that warmth, it was gone. It wasn't coming back, it left me alone- it left me in danger.
I needed it-
"Sh, I'm right here."
That beautiful voice was in my ears again, and as that warmth surrounded me once more, the hyperventilating stopped. The body curled me tighter into it like I had been asking it to the whole time. "Well, this is a problem-" I heard a voice mumble from the distance as the sleep that wanted to so desperately take over from before finally did.
-&-
Light shined brightly down onto my closed eyelids, and I groaned. My body ached, and my chest and lungs felt sore- from what, I had no idea. I took a few ragged breaths and gently clutched at the sheet beneath me before slowly opening my crust-shut eyes.
Despite the few beams of light shining through the window, the tiny room I was lying in held a thinly lit candle sitting on a little wooden table in the corner of the room- with that big sleeping teddy-bear of a town leader sitting beside it.
A small smile pulled at my cracked lips.
"Hey Lei." My voice was hoarse and rather weak, and I cringed as the sound reached my ears. Leikos jerked awake, and his large brown eyes flashed to mine.
"You're awake." He let out a tired sigh but shot me a wide smile as he stood from the wooden stool so he could kneel beside me. "I was so worried about you, Little Cub." He mumbled as he reached up and gently rubbed down my hair, the dark brown of his eyes shined down at me in worry.
"I'm okay." My throat was dry and it hurt to speak as my voice croaked past my lips.
"Here, drink this." He commanded instead of answering and held a small cup of water up to my lips. I drank from it greedily and pouted when he took it away. "Not too fast, you'll get sick." I gave a weak attempt of rolling my eyes, but he just laughed. Then all the humor faded from his voice.
"Do you know how scared I was when Mae came storming into the house shouting all these crazy things about the King of the North's guards chasing you?"
I dropped my gaze in shame, but couldn't stop my breath from catching in my throat. Just hearing his title sent the memory of our disastrous adventure surging to the forefront of my mind. Oh my god- what had happened? What had made the gold-power lose control like that? Why did it want him so much?
Why did- why did it try to kill me?
"What the hell were you thinking?! Running off into the King's territory like that! You know it's forbidden. You know no one is even allowed near the border!" I flinched at his tone, and my eyes widened as his strong hands gripped my upper arms tightly.
"I-I'm sorry Lei. I wasn't thinking-"
"You're fucking right, you weren't thinking Emrie! What do you think would have happened if you had been caught before the King knew you were his-" His dark eyes flashed and he snapped his mouth shut before glancing away from me.
I felt a frown pull at my lips. Did healing the King make me something to him? His healer? Because if that's the case then they could all forget it. I was never going to use the gold-power again.
"Before he knew I was his what?"
Leikos licked his lips and let out a heavy sigh before standing from the side of the cot I was laying on. "Let me go get the Elders. They wanted me to wait to talk to you until they were present."
"W-What? Wait, why?"
Dealing with the Elders was never fun. They really only ever got involved with villager business when something very bad had happened, or a decision regarding the entire town had to be made. They let Lei usually handle everything, and his dad before him. I didn't even want to wonder why they were suddenly interested in me. I blinked up at him in confusion as he turned to leave the room.
"I'll tell you everything in a minute." The anger from my disobedience seemed to have vanished from his gaze, but it was only replaced with a thick sheen of worry. It made my frown grow.
I tried to sit up on the bed, but my body ached and I could hardly move my arms enough to prop my upper body against the pillows. I let out a heavy sigh and just waited. It was barely a few minutes before the town leader returned with the four Elders of our little village, which only made the worry in my chest grow. It usually took hours to assemble the small council of the village, if not days. And here they were waiting for me.
"Little Cub, there really isn't any easy way to approach this, but they-" Leikos started his brown eyes dark, but a stern look from Elder Zhar had him clearing his throat and starting over. My nerves grew. This really wasn't going to be a pleasant meeting.
"-We believe that you are... are-" Lei couldn't finish his sentence, and that only made the grip on my chest tightened. I swallowed nervously. This was not going to be good. Elder Cane stepped forward and placed a gentle hand on Mae's older brother's shoulder who shot him a relieved smile.
"We have reason to believe that you are the King of the North's mate."
My heart seemed to stop as silence followed Elder Cane's statement- and all I could do was staring up at the four white-robed figures in confusion. "But- but that's impossible- You said that was impossible." None of them seemed to want to meet my gaze, and for the first time in my entire existence I watched them stare nervously at the ground or at one another.
"Yes." Elder Rhin finally stepped forward to answer, but even her voice seemed uncertain as it filled the tiny room. "But certain circumstances have risen that suggest otherwise."
"What circumstances?" My voice was stronger than before, and although no one ever dared raise their tone at the Elders, my demand ringed across the entire room. They glanced at one another again- uncertainly. Like they weren't sure how to approach the subject, or me.
"The circumstances that came from the events that took place on your journey into their territory." Cane's eyes darkened and the glare he shot me didn't hide the fact he was unhappy about my rule-breaking adventure. I clenched my mouth shut.
"We are going to ask you some questions regarding your encounter with the King, Emrie. And we need your honest answers, alright? This should clear all the confusion." That was Elder Lana, she was my favorite out of all the four honestly, and her easy-going mother-like presence helped ease the twisted jumble of thoughts and emotions running through my head.
I paused for an uncertain moment before nodding and letting Leikos prop my pillows as the Elders all took a seat around the bed on chairs I hadn't realized were there. "Why did you venture into his territory?" Cane's voice filled the room before all others, and I actually hesitated before answering.
They wanted the truth, and I wanted to give it to them, but I feel like admitting the whole reason I wanted to go was because of this nagging voice in my head begging me for just one look at the King. "I-I wanted to see if the rumors about the wolf-bornes were true." Which wasn't a lie, I wanted to know that too.
All of the Elders were rather, well, elderly. They had to be in order to make the council. But Elder Cane had a certain- wrinkled-bully look going for him. He wasn't aa council member anyone really wanted to deal with. His beady eyes narrowed at my answer.
"Let's move on." Elder Lana interrupted softly before bringing her warm, inviting gaze back to mine. "What did you feel the first time you saw him- the King?" She asked gently as Leikos stood almost protectively by my side. The council did make big decisions for the town, but if there was a tie he was the deciding factor. Having him at my side was more than soothing.
"I didn't really see him at all. He covered himself from head to toe."
"Did you see any part of him at all? Anything he might have revealed."
Images from our brief encounter flashed through my mind, and my heart skipped at the memories. Those eyes. Eyes that shined bluer than any sea I had ever seen, and made my soul freeze in awe. Yes, I remember the feeling of seeing them for the first time, that sucker punch to my stomach.
"It felt like- like someone had punched me straight in the stomach." I didn't miss how they all seemed to shift uneasily at the statement, even Lei.
"And you felt this when you met his gaze, yes?"
My frown returned and I glanced uneasily between the five sitting around me. My hands curled the blanket around my fingers nervously. "H-How do you know that?" I stammered as their eyes all bore holes into my gaze. I was suddenly feeling more than uncomfortable, like all of my personal thoughts and feelings were out on display for them all to see.
Elder Lana's sympathetic look didn't pass me by and it only made the confusing mess that was my mind worse. "Different shifters find their mates in different ways." She spoke softly, her words warm as she tried to give me a reassuring glance. Well that didn't answer my question at all. "In wolf-bornes they recognize their mate through eyes, or locked gazes."
My fingers twitched unsteadily at my side. Through eyes- His eyes had been the most bizarre, strangest, beautiful lightning eyes I had ever seen. They were an oddity that I could never seem to break my gaze from. But that didn't mean I was his mate. "Mae was there too. She saw how different his eyes were-"
"Emrie." Leikos said softly as my voice started to rise in panic. I shot my wide eyes over to him. He seemed calm enough, but his dark eyes were rather sad and they did nothing to settle the unease in my stomach. "We asked her, she said there was nothing significant about them."
I ignored the slight grip he had on my shoulder and let out a ragged breath. That- that wasn't true. His eyes were significant. They weren't any run of the mill, ordinary eyes- they sparked with an electricity that I could feel shooting through me in just a glance.
"She- She just didn't get a good enough look at them."
"We were both there when he gave you back to us. There was nothing special about them." I felt tears prickle my eyes as Leikos's voice slowly washed over me. I'm not really sure why, but this was all becoming extremely overwhelming.
I sniffled and I tried to raise my hand to rub at my stinging eyes, but failed miserably. My body still didn't want to really move. "What do you mean he gave me back to you?" I mumbled around the tight knot in my throat as his dark brown eyes gazed down at me worriedly.
He shot me a small smile before glancing over to the four Elders watching our exchange quietly. "He met us at the edge of the border with you in his arms. I thought he had harmed you in some way at first, but Mae convinced me to hear what he had to say- or his soldiers at least. He didn't really talk." His eyes flashed angrily at that before the softened and shined down at me once again.
"He did tell us about the gold-power though, and how it tried to- to-" Lei couldn't finish his sentence and his dark eyes flashed sadly before glancing away from me. He licked his lips.
"How it tried to kill you. Yes, we found that very interesting as well." Cane finished for him and edged closer to the bed as Leikos edged away. I shifted uneasily on the cot. I didn't like being surrounded like this, especially by the Elder council. It was more frightening than anything- they often decided what criminals lived or died.
"Why would the gold-power try to hurt you like that?" Lana asked softly as I tried not to make it too obvious that I kept burrowing further into my pillow and blankets. I swallowed uneasily.
"I-I'm not really sure. But it wanted him." I admitted as a wave of sleep washed over me. I pushed it aside. "I don't know how else to explain it, but I healed his arm and then the power would not let me draw it back inside." I let out a shaky sigh and looked over to a frown-stricken Lei. "It was like it- no longer wanted to be a part of me. Every single inch of the power wanted to be in him- And it was going to kill me if it had to."
Silence filled the tiny cramped room as my words hung in the air uneasily around us. The four Elder seemed oddly still- calculating. It was nerve wracking and did nothing to help the anxiety raging through me. It was only a few moments before Elder Zhar broke the tense silence, but it felt like an awkward eternity.
"The King of the North seems to believe fully on notion that you are his mate- and we are slowly starting to agree."
"Even though that's impossible." I muttered as their dark gazes watched over me.
"Yes, even though that's impossible."
-&-
Hope everyone enjoyed! Sorry its so short, but the next one will be longer and a lot more enjoyable!
If you want to keep up with me and my stories go follow the Instagram page! Its run by me and Swimmi79285. Check it out to see cool pictures revolving around ALL of my books and characters! And feel free to DM us pictures and covers that you make, or think reminds you of something from one of the stories. We are excited to see what you guys send us! Go follow @day_dream_1011 on Instagram right now!