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46. A bad decision

۝ Elise ۝

When I open my eyes, I’m sure I’m died.

And surprisingly enough, it seems as though I’m in heaven. The mattress under me in like a cloud, the sheets covering me are stain soft. The room is beautiful and white and a bit hazy.

Then pain kicks in.

I’m alive alright and the pain radiating from where the bullet had hit me tells me it hasn’t been long since I almost died.

My mind clears, the room comes into focus. Panic and confusion race through my head. How am I still alive? Where am I? Where’s Luke?

With herculean effort, I heave myself up into a sitting position. The room looks like a five star hotel’s master suite.

The canopy ceiling is high above, decorated with an illustration of star constellations. The east wall is practically covered by windows, the curtains drawn over their silhouette. There are two doors, one near the huge bed, the other at the far corner.

The said door clicks open, catching my attention.

Someone steps inside the room, my shoulders tense, bracing for action but soon enough, the rich, intoxicating scent of coffee and pine trees hovers towards me.

“Luke,” Anticipation leaks in my voice, as I stupidly try to get up

His head snaps in my direction, his dark stormy blue eyes focus on mine. His shoulders rise as if he’s holding his breath, eyes wide a fraction. The air is so heavy, almost palpable with tension.

“Elise,”

Something in the air snaps, then tension falls down on me like a heavy blanket.

The next moment his hands are on my shoulders, holding me back so I cant get up. whatever emotion was on his face moments ago gone as if it was just my imagination.

“Rest,” he says, his voice terse “Your wound is still healing.”

In quick, precise movements, he adjusts two pillows behind my back, carefully leaning me against them. I take in his profile, the creaseless grey suit he’s wearing, his perfectly brushed hair, freshly shaved stubble but the shadows under his red eyes tell me what I need to know.

“Luke, why— how am I still…” The question hangs heavy in the air

Even if I had my werewolf strength, a silver bullet would’ve been lethal for me, an omega. It’s impossible that I’m still alive.

Luke sits down in front of me, staring thoughtfully at my face, almost as if trying to believe I’m sitting right here.

“You were asleep for three days,” he says quietly

My eyes widen. Three days? I’ve taken a silver bullet, been unconscious for three days and I still survived?

“How do you feel?” Luke touches his hand to my cheek

I jump away from him due to sheer surprise, my cheek tingles as if someone’s just electrocuted my skin. The confusion in my head only thickens further. Luke has touched me before, and though it feels amazing, it doesn’t make me feel like stars are erupting across my skin.

That’s just… not right.

I see a flash of emotion cross Luke’s face. Almost like… rejection.

But he draws his hand back, his face unreadable as he stands up from the bed and walks to the dresser.

L

uke holds out a small mirror for me. Hesitantly, I take it and look at my reflection.

My cheekbones have hollowed out, my lips are champed, and my skin pale like a sheet. Otherwise I look like myself. Hazel eyes wide and bright, golden brown hair tumbling down my shoulders to the middle of my back.

Luke guides my hand, super-nebulas burst where his skin touches mine, but I focus on the reflection in the mirror as it lowers.

Breath hitches in my throat, my eyes widen. Someone has robbed the breath from my lungs and the life from my limbs.

There, at the junction of my neck and shoulder, a puncture wound has faded, leaving behind something disturbingly well known.

A mark.

When a Lycanthrope is marked, his wolf isn’t just living for himself, but also for his mate. Legends and stories tell over and over again the tales of Lycanthropes surviving what would’ve been fatal wounds because of the presence of their mates.

I turn my wide, terrified eyes to Luke’s impassive face.

“Tell me I hit my head,” I say, my throat suddenly feels parched “Tell me I’m hallucinating.”

“You didn’t hit your head,” Luke says, his voice hard and clear “I caught you before you could fall.”

My organs suddenly start working again. Too efficient this time.

My heart pumps madly in my chest, trying to break out of my ribcage. My breath comes out short and ragged, panic rising like chilling water in my head, numbing my senses.

I push my hair back from my forehead as sweat breaks over my brow.

“Hazel,” Luke tries to pull my hand away “Calm down, I—

“Don’t touch me!” I break away from him

Never had I thought I’d see the day when Alpha Luke Winters, the most dominating and strong-willed person to roam this earth, flinches. Because of me.

My wrist tingles where he’d held it, I resist the urge to rub away that feeling.

Tears well up in my eyes, frustration and guilt hold my heart in a fist. My chest rises and falls rapidly, the pain from my abdomen suddenly numb in the wake of a new agony, one that’s making is too hard to breathe.

Realization hits me like a brick in the face.

I’m feeling Luke’s pain.

Oh my moon, oh my moon, what has he done.

“You should have just let me die,” I choke out, holding my head in my hands, blocking out most of his emotions

A low growl reaches my ears “Don’t say that again.”

I snap my eyes to him, my own blurry with tears of frustration and anger.

“Wasn’t this what we had fought?” I demand “What about all your promises Luke? Were they for nothing?”

Tears race down my cheeks, but I don’t move my steely eyes from his unreadable face. Luke leans forward and brushes the tears away from my cheeks. I hate myself for wanting to give in to his touch. I hate that its effect on me is only stronger now.

“You said you love me.” He says softly

I push his hand away “I was dying. People say stupid stuff when they’re dying.”

I sense the tension in his frame, the storm in his eyes ready to devour me whole.

“You didn’t mean it?”

My shoulder slump in defeat, my feral expression slips away to give way for the helplessness welled inside.

“I did.” I whisper, afraid of saying the words aloud “I do.”

“Then what’s the problem?” Luke asks “You have my mark now, there’s nothing standing between us anymore.”

I want to rip my hair off my head “What about the pack? They know we’re not mates! What if someday your real mate comes in front of us? Or my real mate? What will we do then? This is wrong. So bloody wrong, you should’ve just let me—

Something warm presses against my lips. Not a finger this time.

A million burning flames heat up my face. Luke pulls away, creating an inch of space between our lips.

“Shut up,” he puts his forehead against mine, eyes closed “Do you have any idea what it was like to see the shine fading from your eyes? To carry your bloody, limp body in the mansion at the finish line? To look at you on that bed, not chattering my ears off, not complaining?”

He presses his lips to the corner of my mouth, almost sighing into the kiss.

“I would’ve set the world on fire if that’s what it took to have you back.”

I swallow the lump in my throat, try to force my heart to stop beating so fast and hold onto the remains of my morals and logic.

“That doesn’t change anything, Luke. I’m not—

Luke opens his eyes, almost challenging. The words that come out of his mouth tell me I’ve definitely hit my head somewhere.

“You’re my mate.”

I blink, my features contort in confusion “What?”

“I should’ve told you before,” he says “You should’ve told me before.”

“I don’t…” Words stop making sense

“The night I shifted, even when I told you to stay away, you came to me.” He says, I nod blatantly “I told you I would rip apart anything in reach. But I didn’t hurt you.”

I remember it clearly. I remember knowing somewhere in my heart that he wouldn’t hurt me.

“A few centuries ago, Lycanthropes lived in their animal form for the most part. They couldn’t sense their mates in human state.” Luke says, tracing his fingers along my cheek “Since I was shoved back to that primal state, I need to be in my Lycan form to find my mate, and until I mark her, neither of us would feel anything in human form.”

“But you said,” I struggle with my words “You will hurt anyone and anything.”

Luke stares at me like a teacher stares at a hopeless student.

“Anyone and anything except my mate.”

Everything clicks in place. His travels in the past five years. Training with packs. All the other pack leaders must’ve allowed him to shift— in a dungeon maybe, tied with that chain, maybe some other way, and tried to see if he can sense his mate.

“You,” Words betray me once again

My mate. My escape. The man I always thought of as a way to run from my pack, a chance of new life and yet a man I wanted to be true to.
Korra’s words from long ago echo in my head;

You will find your mate after you fall in love.

Luke Winters, the man I fell in love with despite my every effort not to. Feelings that I knew were hopeless, feelings that wouldn’t go away.

A strange sound reaches my ears. It takes me a moment to realize what it is.

My own sob.

“Elise,” Luke says, as if softly chiding me. He pulls me towards himself, his arms warm around me “Hazel, why are you crying?”

“I’m not crying,” I lie, hiding my face in his chest “my eyes are sweating.”

This was the stupidest plot twist, fate. And I know you’re a bastard but thank you, thank you and thank you a million times.

We sit in silence, my small frame cradled in his arms. Neither of us say anything, as if exhausted by words.

The tears stop, the confusion and panic clear away, leaving a strange serenity in their place. I take a deep, soothing breath, relishing the scent of pine trees and coffee. Luke's scent. My mate's scent.

Luke presses a kiss to my hair, his voice is soft as three little words caresess my ears;

“I love you.”

And finally, finally, finally, those words belong to me.

A laugh bubbles past my lips, happier and lighter than its been in ages. I look up and brush away the tear streaks on my face, a smile on my lips.

“A bad decision, really,”

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