Page 31

Knight

As I follow everyone up the stairs to check on Paisley, my wolf grows increasingly frantic. He howls so loudly in my head that I can’t even make out what’s being said outside Paisley’s room. The door at the end seems to call to me as I slip away towards it unnoticed in the chaos.

As I draw closer, I understand what’s pulling me down this hall. Memories assault me as I scent her—Emaline, the mate who rejected me years ago. The compulsion to go to her is so strong that it’s obvious my attraction to Paisley was just that—a fleeting attraction.

I silently open the door without knocking.

There she lies on the bed, staring unseeingly at the ceiling, so small, so damaged, just like she was when she rejected me.

I couldn’t leave her then and wouldn’t have, but I’d been forced.

I’ll never leave her again. I kneel at her bedside, clutching her hand.

“Emaline?” I sob, gutted at the sight of her.

Emaline

Darkness.

Thick and heavy presses upon me so that I can hardly breathe. My limbs are tangled in the sheets as if wrapped in chains. I have no strength left to fight, and nothing breaks through the bindings.

Hopelessness.

It clings to me like a film, covering my skin and leaving me cold and empty. There’s no escape from it; it’s been like a lover’s kiss for so long, holding me enthralled. Nothing can change it; I don’t even bother to imagine a different life–there’s no point.

Despair.

Rising in my throat, bitter and thick, like a soundless scream–unbearable. I lie here, staring at the ceiling, waiting for something that will never come.

Desolation.

I roll over onto my side and pull my knees up to my chest as the walls seem to close in on me. Suffocated by emptiness and silence, I feel the weight of complete isolation. Even when I shut my eyes, there’s no escape.

Void .

It fills my mind until there’s no room for anything else–the darkness, the endless black. No space for light or hope, only these mangled memories. Goddess, how I long for nothingness, for my thoughts to be swallowed up and lost as if I never existed in the first place.

Anguish.

The raw, all-consuming anguish tears at me from the inside.

The only outward evidence is my nails digging into my skin as I clench my fists.

I don’t feel external pain anymore, so engulfed in the nightmare, just lurking beneath the surface, on the verge of breaking free and pulling me down, drowning me in it.

Broken.

I look in the mirror and recognize the face staring back at me, but that’s not the person inside.

The calm facade in the mirror doesn’t reflect the hollow shell that I am.

The fragile image in the mirror is made of glass, yet I’m already shattered and cracked beneath the surface.

I’m broken, and nothing can be done about it.

I lie here in my bed at the clubhouse, spiraling and trapped in my thoughts, each one darker than the last. I can’t escape, so I'm lost in my head. Then the door opens, and light splashes across the sheets. I scent him before I hear him. Suddenly, he’s here, clutching my hand desperately .

“Emaline?” The pain in his voice shatters me all over again.

“Knight?” I croak out, my throat dry. “Mate?” my dragon calls, lifting her head for the first time in years. “He’s back.”