Page 10 of Hitched to the Shadow Creature (Monster Matchmaking #3)

A ya

I ran until my lungs burned.

The forest blurred around me as I forced my legs to keep moving, one foot in front of the other. The interruption of the ritual still left blood trickling from my arm. My head spun. The partial bonding with Varkolak had drained me more than I realized.

"Slow down." His voice came from everywhere and nowhere at once. The shadows themselves seemed to speak. "You're pushing yourself too hard."

I stumbled, my knees buckling beneath me. Strong arms caught me before I hit the ground. Varkolak materialized from the darkness, his solid form now holding me against his chest.

"I'm fine," I lied, my voice barely a whisper.

His dark eyes studied my face. "You're not. The ritual took too much from you."

The ritual. Those who feared my human bloodline contaminating theirs interrupted the ritual, intended to fully bond. I shuddered at the memory.

"We need to keep moving," I insisted, even as my vision swam. "They'll be tracking us."

"We're in the wild territories now. Between tribal lands." His voice was deep, reassuring. "Few dare venture here."

"With good reason," I muttered, glancing at the twisted trees and strange fungi that glowed faintly in the darkness. This was no-man's-land for a reason.

Varkolak lifted me effortlessly, cradling me against his chest. "There's an old human outpost nearby. We can shelter there until you recover."

I wanted to protest, to insist I could walk on my own, but my body betrayed me. My eyes grew heavy, and I nestled against his warmth. For a creature made of shadows, he felt surprisingly solid. Real.

"Rest," he whispered. "I've got you."

I must have dozed off because when I opened my eyes again, we were approaching a dilapidated structure half-buried in vines and moss. What might have once been a research station or military outpost now stood abandoned, reclaimed by the wild.

"Will it be safe?" I asked weakly.

Varkolak's expression darkened. "Safer than being in the open."

He carried me through the entrance, shadows extending from his form to push open the rusted door. Inside, dust motes danced in the weak light filtering through cracked windows. Ancient equipment lay scattered and broken across tables. This place lay abandoned for decades.

"Let me check for threats," he said, setting me gently on what appeared to be an old examination table.

I watched as his form partially dissolved, tendrils of darkness spreading throughout the building. It was still strange to see him like this, part solid man, part living shadow. The blood sample that had matched me with him had changed my life forever.

Varkolak reformed beside me minutes later. "It's secure. No one has been here in years."

"Good." I tried to sit up and winced as pain shot through my arm.

He was beside me instantly, his cool fingers gently examining the ritual cut. "The wound is still fresh. It needs to be cleaned."

I nodded weakly. "There might be supplies somewhere."

While he searched the abandoned outpost, I closed my eyes and tried to make sense of everything that had happened.

Just three weeks ago, I'd been fishing for crustations by the great sea, dreaming of something more than my crowded colony life.

Now, a shadow creature from the East and I, partially bonded, fled from those who wanted to kill us for uniting our bloodlines.

"Found something." Varkolak returned with a dusty first aid kit. He opened it carefully, revealing antiseptic that had somehow survived the years.

I hissed as he cleaned the wound. His touch was gentle despite his intimidating appearance.

"The ritual," I said quietly. "How much did it change me?"

His dark eyes met mine. "Not enough for them to track you by blood. But enough that you're no longer fully human."

The words should have terrified me. Instead, I felt a strange sense of belonging. All my life, I'd been an outsider, an orphan dreaming of parents I'd never known, of a home I'd never had. Now I existed between two worlds, belonging fully to neither.

"Is that why I feel so weak?"

Varkolak nodded. "Your body is adapting. You need rest."

He found blankets in a storage locker and made a makeshift bed on an old couch in what must have been a break room. I sank gratefully onto it, my body aching with exhaustion.

"You should sleep," he said, moving toward the door.

"Wait." I reached out, grabbing his hand. "Stay. Please."

Something flashed in his dark eyes. After a moment's hesitation, he sat beside the couch, his large frame making the old furniture seem small.

"I won't leave you," he promised.

I drifted off to sleep with his cool hand in mine, feeling safer than I had any right to.

Morning came with pale light filtering through dirty windows. I awoke feeling stronger but still tender, as though my very cells were rearranging themselves. Varkolak was no longer beside me, and for a moment, panic gripped my heart.

"You're awake." His voice came from across the room where he stood examining old papers.

"What are those?" I asked, slowly sitting up.

"Records. This wasn't just any outpost." He brought several folders over. "This was a research facility studying human-monster bonds."

My heart skipped. "Like ours?"

"Exactly like ours." His expression was unreadable. "They were documenting successful offspring."

I took the folders with trembling hands. Inside were photographs, medical charts, and birth records of children born to human and monster parents. Children that seemed healthy, normal even, despite their mixed heritage.

"Someone wanted these records hidden." Varkolak's voice was tight. "Someone has been lying to both our peoples."

I flipped through the pages, stunned. The children in the photographs appeared to have inherited traits from both parents, some more human, others displaying more obvious monster characteristics. But they existed. They were real.

"Why hide this?" I wondered aloud. "This could bring peace between our kinds."

"Or it could threaten those in power." Varkolak's shadow form rippled slightly, betraying his agitation. "Those who benefit from keeping us separate."

I looked up at him, really looked at him.

In the weak morning light, his features seemed less alien than they had when we first met.

His dark skin had a subtle sheen that caught the light, and his eyes—deep and watchful—held an intelligence and emotion that defied the rumors about his kind being mindless predators.

"What are you thinking?" he asked softly.

Heat rushed to my cheeks. "That I've been lied to my whole life. About monsters. About you."

I stood, my legs steadier than yesterday, and moved to the window. Outside, the wild territories stretched in every direction, beautiful and dangerous in equal measure.

"When they matched our blood samples," I said quietly, "I was terrified. Everyone told me shadow creatures were violent, emotionless. That you'd consume my shadow and leave me hollow."

"And what do you believe now?" He moved behind me, not touching but close enough that I could feel the coolness radiating from his body.

I turned to face him, heart pounding. "I believe they were wrong about everything."

The moment hung between us, charged with something I couldn't name but felt in every part of my being. Since the partial ritual, I'd been more aware of him, more connected. Could feel his presence even when he wasn't visible.

"Aya..." My name sounded different when he said it, like a sacred word.

"I know it's crazy," I whispered. "We've only known each other for weeks. But since the ritual... I feel..."

"Connected," he finished.

"More than that." I gathered my courage. "I have feelings for you. Real feelings. Not just because of some blood ritual or genetic match."

His expression softened, shadows receding until he appeared almost human. "I've existed for twenty-eight years in darkness, Aya. Until you, I never knew light."

My breath caught as he reached out, his fingers tracing the line of my jaw. The touch sent electricity through me, awakening nerve endings I didn't know existed.

"I shouldn't want this," he murmured. "You deserve better than a life on the run with a creature of shadows."

I leaned into his touch. "I've spent my whole life dreaming of belonging somewhere. With someone. Maybe it doesn't make sense, but I feel like I belong with you."

His eyes darkened, pupils expanding until they consumed the iris. "The ritual only partially bonded us. If we complete it..."

"I know." I placed my hand over his. "I'm not afraid."

The tension between us was unbearable, a live wire of need and restraint. I could feel his desire, not just physically, but emotionally, through our partial bond. Could sense his struggle between protecting me and claiming me.

A crash from outside shattered the moment.

Varkolak moved with inhuman speed, pulling me away from the window as something metal clattered against the outer wall.

"Get down!" he shouted, throwing his body over mine as an explosion rocked the building.

My ears rang as dust and debris rained down. Through the new hole in the wall, I could see shadowy figures approaching, not Varkolak's but something else. Taller, more angular, with eyes that glowed amber in the morning light.

"Malakar assassins," Varkolak growled, pulling me to my feet. "From the northern tribe."

"How did they find us?" I coughed, struggling to see through the dust.

"The ritual." His face was grim. "They can sense our partial bond. It's like a beacon to them."

Another explosion hit the far side of the outpost.

"We need those records," I said, scrambling toward the fallen folders.

Varkolak nodded, helping me gather them. "The back exit. Now!"

We ran through the crumbling outpost, the sound of pursuit close behind. Varkolak's form shifted constantly between solid and shadow, absorbing impacts from debris falling around us.

"They're cutting us off!" I shouted as two tall figures appeared in the hallway ahead.

Varkolak pushed me behind him, his body expanding into a mass of writhing darkness. The Malakars hissed, their amber eyes narrowing as they advanced with weapons that glowed with strange energy.

"Run for the trees," Varkolak commanded. "I'll hold them off."

"I'm not leaving you!" I clutched the folders to my chest.

"Trust our bond." His voice was strained as he fought to maintain his form against their weapons. "I'll find you. Always."

Heart breaking, I turned and ran toward a small hole in the outer wall, slipping through as sounds of combat erupted behind me. The forest was only twenty yards away, if I could reach it, I might have a chance.

Something whizzed past my ear, embedding itself in a tree ahead. A poisoned dart. The Malakars weren't just trying to kill Varkolak. They wanted me dead too.

I zigzagged as I ran, making myself a harder target. The records clutched to my chest felt impossibly heavy, yet too important to abandon. Proof that our peoples could coexist, could create life together.

The forest edge was just steps away when I felt a searing pain across my back, not a direct hit but a grazing wound from something sharp. I stumbled but didn't fall, pushing myself into the treeline where dense foliage offered some cover.

I didn't stop running, even as branches whipped my face and roots threatened to trip me. Behind me, I could hear pursuit, though whether it was Varkolak or the Malakars, I couldn't tell.

"Aya!" Varkolak's voice came from somewhere to my left, weak but alive.

Relief flooded me even as I continued running. He had survived. The connection between us pulled like a physical thread, guiding me toward him.

I found him leaning against a massive tree, his form flickering between shadow and solid, one arm clutching his side where a strange blue light pulsed from a wound.

"You're hurt," I gasped, reaching for him.

"Poisoned weapon." He grimaced. "Designed to disrupt shadow matter."

"Can you move?" I glanced nervously behind us. "They're coming."

He straightened with effort. "We need to reach the eastern ridge. There's a network of caves my people used centuries ago. We might lose them there."

I slipped under his uninjured arm, supporting him as best I could despite our size difference.

As we moved deeper into the wild territories, I noticed how much had changed in such a short time. I was no longer just Aya Fletcher, the orphaned girl from the sea colony. I was something new, caught between worlds, but no longer alone.

Varkolak's weight against me felt right somehow.

The connection between us, even interrupted and incomplete, was stronger than any human bond I'd ever known.

And despite the danger, despite being hunted by multiple enemies now, I couldn't bring myself to regret a single choice that had brought me here.

"The records," Varkolak said as we caught our breath in a small clearing. "Keep them safe. They're more important than either of us."

I nodded, tucking them more securely into my tattered jacket. "They're proof that we're not wrong. That what we feel isn't forbidden by nature itself."

His dark eyes met mine. "What we feel," he repeated softly.

Even in danger, even injured and hunted, the pull between us was undeniable. I reached up, touching his face gently. "When we're safe, we finish what we started. The ritual. The bond. All of it."

For the first time since I'd met him, Varkolak smiled—a genuine expression that transformed his fierce features into something heartbreakingly beautiful.

"When we're safe," he agreed, his voice rough with emotion and pain.

In the distance, we could hear our pursuers. Not just the Malakars now, but likely others from Varkolak's tribe who opposed our bonding. We were being hunted from all sides, carrying explosive secrets that could change everything.