Cold air brushes over my sore body making me shiver. Every part of me feels like I have been hit with a baseball bat but surprisingly nothing is broken. My body curls in on itself, trying hard to keep what little warmth my body has left. Something warm and smelling like mint and vanilla is draped over me, making my tense body relax. Taking a deep breath, I smell the burning wood of a campfire and I groan when I try to wiggle closer to it.
“Shit.” A deep voice curses, their strong hands pulling me away from my target.
“Brynlee, you need to stay still.” The voice softly warns. I growl at this voice but the sound is meek. It is like all my strength has been zapped leaving me without any fight. But the arms feel safe and secured, so I snuggle closer.
“I know you’re cold, but just rest.” The voice continues, soothing and comforting me and as the person hold me tighter, I feel their warms seeping through what confines me and relax further. The voice is right though, I am cold and exhausted and need to rest. I snuggle closer to the body, getting a groan from them as I drift off into unconsciousness once again.
∭
Waking up facing a crackling fire, I smell the scent of meat cooking and look around for the source. On the other side of the fire, a man sits rotating sticks with rabbits skewered onto them, the meat emitting a mouth watering smell. My stomach decides to grumble for the food and this must have alerted the man that I am awake as he lets out a chuckle.
“Hungry?” He asks, the haziness of my brain clearing as I register who the voice belongs to. Bolting up from where I lay, I fumble for a moment and fight what ever is enclosing me, my fingers turning to claws as I rip apart fabric.
“What the hell are you doing here!” I demand now that I am free from what I realize was once a sleeping back holding me inside.
“Making food and making sure your heat has passed.” He shrugs, picking up one of the hand made skewers and taking a bite of the rabbit. His words are the fan that clears the haze from my mind as the events of the last few days run through my mind. From being kidnapped and held hostage in Onix Moon to the injection and Alpha Viren touching me. Finally my mind sets on the fact Rune rescued and carried me away. I remember the heat. The flames and the pain. Then I remember the cooling sensation and the…pleasure.
My eyes widen as I take note of my body. My bones are no longer broken but there is a soreness I felt once before. It is the same feeling as when Rune took my virginity.
“You fucked me!?” I growl out, angry that my ex had touched me.
“It was either that, or let you die.” He states seriously, his eyes staring into mine with such intensity that it dazzles me for a brief moment.
“I wouldn’t have died from my heat. Been in extreme pain, yes, but not die.” I point out, standing to my feet on shaky legs. Rune sighs, standing and moving so fast that he has my hands held behind my back and me unable to fight back.
“You’re still too weak. Sit and eat.” He orders me. I growl back in defiance, trying to kick my legs back to injure him, but he surprises me by letting me go and sending me off balance. Before my face hits the ground, he catches me once more and it is then that I understand what Rune is doing. I am too weak, my body sore and exhausted from the forced heat as well as from Rune practically raping me.
“I didn’t rape you.” He corrects, shocking me. I thought I hadn’t said those words out loud.
“You didn’t but due to the circumstances of your heat being forced, I had to help you in only the way a Mate can and, well, the bond became stronger again.” He sighs out with a small smile.
“I can hear your thoughts just like you can hear mine when you calm down.” Rune finishes, helping me to sit on the ruined shreds of the sleeping bag. I say nothing as I close my eyes and focus on the Mate Bond. He is right once again as I feel it sparking and shining once more. It is not whole thankfully, meaning we can still let it die and fizzle out but the thoughts of happiness and love I feel coming from Rune has me pausing. He wants to be with me, that much is clear from what I can feel from the bond.
“Here, you need to eat.” The scent of cooked rabbit is in front of me and I open my eyes to see Rune standing beside me holding two skewers. I take them while saying a mumbled thanks. Rune just shrugs, returning to his spot on the other side of the fire where he resumes eating the skewer he had earlier. With a sniff of the meal, I make sure that he didn’t poison the food before I devour the two skewers. Rune chuckles, handing me another two wordlessly and I eat them as well.
“I didn’t make you, if you are wondering that.” Rune breaks the silence with this statement and I once again find myself looking into his eyes. They are filled with regret and guilt as well as hope and love. I pause from taking a bite of my fifth skewer and study him. He sits shirtless with only a pair of pants on. The mark of a Mate Beater sits firmly on his neck where a Mate mark would normally be and the four claw marks I left still cover his face. There is no boyish charm left from the person I left weeks ago in Pine Moon. Before me sits a man that has been through some sort of hell and has a story to tell.
“I know. I would feel it if you did.” I shrug, returning to eating my food.
“What you don’t know is I had to stop you from marking me in your heat haze.” I nearly choke on the rabbit meat with this news. Surely he must be lying.
I search my memories from the time I was rescued to waking up. Everything is a haze of flames and pain but a snippet crosses my mind and I realize Rune is telling the truth. I nearly marked him.
“Goddess that serum is dangerous.” I mumble out. Everything I know about a heat had been amplified from the lust to the pleasure to the haze of heat. All I can do is blame what ever Alpha Viren injected me with.
“It was.” Rune agrees solemnly.
“Your pheromones where something even I had to mentally fight to keep myself from marking you. If it weren’t for how intense this forced heat was, I wouldn’t have…helped you… the way I had to.” I catch a blush creep along the skin of his cheeks not marred by the scars and scent the air. He isn’t lying and I sigh with relief. Rune only did what he did to keep me from dying. I can’t fault him for that.
“Thank you for saving me.” My voice is a whisper as I push my pride aside. This is still the man that rejected and hurt me. I know he did it for the good of the pack to protect Pine Moon from Blood Claws, but it is still the worse thing he ever did; especially since he kept everything from me.
“I’m your Mate. It’s my job to protect and save you.” My heart skips a beat and I curse the mending mate bond.
“You’re not my Mate.” I correct him with a growl, glaring at him.
“You made that clear nearly three months ago.” I continue.
“And I regret that day will every fiber of my soul Brynlee.” His eye stare into mine once again. I can scent the sincerity and the guilt inside them. I know I need to harden my heart against this gaze and against the mending bond that threatens to pull me back towards him. With a scoff, I stand and stretch my sore body, Rune watching me with concern.
“I need to get back to my pack. You can come since Asteria told me all about how you volunteered to save me.” His face lights up into a smile and I growl, watching Rune flinch for a moment.
“Don’t think that my invitation means I am considering getting back with you. You just earned your spot in Crescent Phoenix as a Warrior for saving me.” With that, I shift into my wolf, relishing in the feel of being on all fours. I watch as Rune kicks dirt onto our fire, putting it out before he takes off his pants and stuffs them into a backpack. In no time he has shifted and stands before me in his black wolf form, his body towering over my small cream furred form, with the backpack in his mouth. The scars on his face are still there and I feel slight guilt before I shake my head and take the lead.
I don’t know how long I have been out of it because of my heat, but one thing is for sure and that is I miss my pack.