My hand burned as though molten fire had erupted beneath my skin, veins igniting until it felt as if the flames inside me had turned traitor. They didn’t warm, they consumed. My breath came ragged, broken, and every tremor in my body betrayed how close I was to losing myself. The rut had me by the throat, tearing through flesh and bone until my wolf’s instincts pressed against every boundary of control I had left.
“What a fucking birthday gift”
A bitter laugh slipped from me even as my lips twisted into a snarl. Twenty–five. Of all cursed days for the rut to sink its claws into me, my birthday had to be today. The very moment the sacred white feather doors were meant to open.
The heat surged hotter, scraping raw across my ribs, demanding release. But there was no door waiting for me. No salvation. The rut was unholy, a stain upon the holy ritual, and so the path had rejected me.
“That’s good,” I muttered through clenched teeth, the words tasting like ash, “She wasn’t with me. She’ll get through her door. Safe.” I closed my eyes, not paying attention to the cruses coming out of the trees and mist in the far and slowly advancing towards me.
While I let myself drown in her smile. The memory of her trembling hand sliding into mine, the fragile weight of her against my chest when she finally let herself sleep in my arms. When she kissed me back…gods, that kiss. My wolf clawed at the memory, greedy for more, aching for her scent, her warmth but suddenly a loud and heavy sound ripped through the forest.
My eyes snapped open only to find a door slamming on the ground as if it fell from the sky.
The doors had vanished, I had seen it with my own eyes. They had dissolved into smoke. So how the hell… how the hell was one opening again?
From the mist, pale, slender fingers forced a door apart, prying it wide against the rules of this cursed place. My breath caught, my heart staggering as a silhouette emerged, graceful steps, hair like wildfire spilling into the gloom.
My heart skipped a bit. “Seraphina?”
Impossible. She was gone. I must have been hallucinating, rut delirium twisting my senses into cruel fantasies. But her eyes, those storm–born eyes, were locked on me alone, steady, unwavering, as if nothing else in existence mattered. Not even the horrors watching from the shadows and mist.
Even in my imagination she was so beautiful…
I wanted to be lost in this illusion forever. To stay buried in this breathtaking lie.
That was until, from the corner of my vision, I saw them.
The curses advancing towards me had stilled.
Their hollow faces turned toward her, grotesque bodies frozen mid–lurch. Then, as though awakened to some forbidden prize, every last one of them pivoted, fixing their soulless hunger on her.
My blood turned cold. Wait….they could see her? How? It was impossible… unless… she wasn’t a hallucination.
She was real.
Every bone in me went rigid, my rut twisting into violent panic. The curses screamed, a sound of knives dragged against bone, and charged her with merciless intent.
“SERAPHINA!” The roar ripped my throat raw. Desperation shredded my voice. “GO BACK! GO BACK NOW!”
Chapter 177 Your Anewer
I ran, trying to tear their attention back to me, wanting she’d slip through the door behind her. Of course, she did not even try to retreat let alone think of it. Instead the white feather door dissolved into smoke behind her. Completely gone.
“No,” my chest caved, lungs collapsing, “No, no, no why the hell did the door….”
She lifted her gaze to me with unbearable calm, though her amber eyes shone slightly with a wet glearn. “You said you love me.”
The rut roared in my blood. My wolf howled, claws raking at my insides as her voice chained me, steadying me, undoing me all at once.
“I’ve come,” she whispered, her words shaking as the curses closed in, “To give you the answer to your confession.”
My feet faltered, the world cracking beneath me. Her answer?
The curses shrieked louder, circling, laughter hollow and grotesque. I could taste their hunger. Even though I could taste hers more.
“So if you want to know my answer,” she blinked, eyes breaking open with raw emotion, and shouted with every breath in her body, “DON’T YOU DARE DIE!”
Then she ran towards me.
My heart skipped not once, not twice, but hard and endlessly as if it would never recover.
It was said that when a coin is tossed in the air in that brief instant of suspension you truly know what your heart desires.
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