Chapter Two Hundred Eighty–Eight
PAUL
Every single suspicion I’ve been having, every single doubt, disappears while I watch Anastacia choke to death on the yacht. It’s as if someone or something has wrapped its invisible hands around her throat and closed it off. Her eyes go bright purple, glowing with a pulsing light and violet mist shoots everywhere I look. Clouds of plum velvet fog roll from her body to dance about the drizzle coming off the sea, so thick that I notice for the first time that they do not touch the. Also… that no one else seems to see them.
“Baby!” I shout, reaching for her as she convulses and drops to her knees, “Breathe Anastacia, please!”
This can’t happen! It can’t!
She’s mine and I won’t let anything take her!
“What the fuck is wrong with her?” Rainier shouts from the helm. “Do something, Paul!”
In the back of my mind I’m aware of Timmons, Koda, and the others as they haul the shadow hound onto the yacht. I hear him squealing and begging and crying out for his Alpha to save him. Somewhere in my head I take notice of the yacht shaking with the weight of a struggle just as the sun peeks over the horizon. I hear the reverberating sound of a terrorized howl that fills the air until it’s cut from the skies like death, then the splash of water that signals the drop of a body into the sea and finally, I return my attention fully to the beauty at my feet.
Ahelpless sort of fear crowds over me as I pull Anastacia into my arms. Her hands are clawing at her throat and her face is a mask of pure
horror.
I shout down at her, “If you won’t breathe, then I’ll breathe for you!”
I dip her back over my lap as I crumple toward the ground, then I place my lips over hers and the entire world erupts in magenta fire. The air stills around me, not a whisper of wind or breeze catches my skin. Every inch of me heats, igniting with a kindling flame. For too long a moment, I forget where I am and what I am supposed to be doing, simply content to burn with her. Against her. Too intoxicated by pleasuring myself with the erotic devilry that is Anastacia’s mouth to do something as trivial as saving her life. It takes more than a moment of flashing warmth and flames to remind me that my girl isn’t breathing in my arms, she’s choking.
Kiss her later, idiot!
“Fuck,” I snarl, shaking myself of the phantasmic trance.
Focus, Paul. Get a grip.
Readjusting my lips over Anastacia’s, I push my own air into her lungs. Her chest inflates and her eyes darken to blue, the purple clouds around her drawing back and caving in, as if reversed. She suddenly sucks in a deep gasp of air and sputters into a coughing fit.
“Goddess,” she rasps as I coil her body into mine and hold her close.
“Thank God,” I whisper, drawing her into my arms as I stand. “Breathe sweetheart, breathe.”
“Sw–sweetheart?” she stammers. “Since when?”
I have to laugh at that and it’s my deep chuckle that has her smiling up at me. My heart is beating against my chest erratically, my helplessness from a moment ago – the fear I experienced at the thought of losing her – still palpable.
“Where did you go?” I bite out almost angrily. “What was wrong with you? You scared the fuck out of me!” I accuse.
I almost lost this. I almost lost her.
1/3
Chapter Two Hundred Eighty–Eight
I can’t let it happen again.
I don’t… She looks around as if confused. “What happened to the file? Where are we?”
“The fire? My eyes narrow, my mind rolling over the way she looked only minutes ago as she clawed for air. “There’s no fire. You weren’t breathing. I snap callously. “Why?”
“I tried to… but there was so much smoke… so much heat…” she closes her eyes. “I think I was burning, Or… someone else… was–was burning.”
What?
What the fuck is she talking about?
Lifting my chin, I scan the skies above Port Orchard, searching for any wisp of smoke or any tiny little sign of a fire.
I don’t find one.
“Hush,” I tell her, keeping her tightly clasped in my arms. For whatever reason, I don’t want to set her down again. I think it’s best if I just keep her in my arms forever. That way nothing can touch her but me and everything will be as it should be. Controlled, Complete. Connected.
With quick steps, I carry her into the cabin and take a seat inside the sitting room on the couch. With Anastacia cradled in my arms like a small child, I lean back against the cushions to relax and watch my brothers through the windows.
Rainier and Koda each hold iron chains in their hands, the length of which disappears over the yacht’s railing. I can only assume they’ve hooked the shadow hound to the other end of it, and he must be dangling like a charm on a necklace.
The yacht’s engine suddenly roars to life and we’re in motion. A chorus of haggard howls chase the wind over the ocean and Anastacia stiffens in my arms.
“They’re mourning him,” Anastacia hisses, meeting my gaze briefly before scrambling off of my lap to head toward the cabin doors.
I don’t let her, reeling her back toward me with a gentle tug of her hand. “Get back here,” I demand, my voice thick with emotion. Her eyebrows furrow curiously as she studies my hand on her wrist. Throwing out another arm, I circle her waist and pull her to me where I can press my forehead against her ribs. “Just… just please. Just for a few minutes. Just be here with me.”
Planting her between my knees, I close my biceps around the back of her legs to seal her in my embrace, then gaze up at her persuasively. “Stay right here. With me. Please.” Her indigo gaze glimmers with moisture and her delicate fingers string themselves into my hair, tugging and massaging as if to chase my fears away. It is exactly what I need from her at the moment and I sigh with pleasure. Closing my eyes, I will the image of her suffocating out on the deck – only seconds ago – completely from my mind. I was so scared in those few minutes, so rattled. I despise the feeling so much that I’m nearly on the verge of tears..
There’s only one other time that I have ever felt that way.
One time that I have ever been that terrified.
That… immobilized… that helpless…
It was on the night my mother died.
I hated the feeling then and I hate it now.
Suddenly, without a doubt, I am certain that Anastacia is exactly who she claims to be and that everything she said was and is true.
Mystic or Witch or Gifted or not.
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Chapter Two Hundred Eighty Eight
Purk!
feas found m
Thinking of Domonic, I send out a silent apology.
For all the shit I said to him. All the bullshit I cursed him for. All the blame I laid at his feet.
I think I understand a little better now. Everything he did, he did to disown the weakness he was feeling. The powerlessness.
Because a few minutes ago, I could have sworn I’d been paralyzed.
Now… I know I’ve found my mate.
And… I’m more afraid than ever.
