Chapter 17
Zander
CW: animal attack
“Please live. I need you to live.” A tired voice spoke to me in my dreams. It sounded like Fatima. Why is she sad? I needed to fix it. Whatever ailed her, I would make it go away. She was my mate, and it was my job to keep her happy.
I tried to rise, but my body wouldn’t move. Darkness crept into my mind, and the more I tried to move the darker it got until everything was covered and I fell into the void once again.
After a long while the darkness broke. My thoughts came to me slowly as if they had to travel through mud. I was hot. Too hot. Fear gripped my soul. Did I shift in my sleep? Did I burn Fatima? I’d never shifted in my sleep before. I would have noticed my singed furs.
I needed to get up. I needed to make sure my mate was safe, but again my efforts only led me back into the darkness.
“Daddy!” A young girl ran up to me. She had blueish-tan skin, curly brown hair, a dark blue tail, and horns that were starting to come in.
“Daddy!” She yelled again as she held out her hands. I opened my arms for her and she hugged me tight.
“She missed you.” I looked up to find Fatima smiling at us.
“You were gone for a long time,” my mate continued. “We were scared.”
“I’m sorry,” I apologized. “I’ll never leave you again.”
My pleasant dream shifted into a nightmare. I was no longer with my mate and child. Instead, I was standing in the village. Vianna was announcing something.
“I have chosen Favalor as my mate!”
“No!” I growled and stormed forward.
“You’re too late,” Favalor taunted. “She’s mine now.”
Time passed. Vianna looked tired and sad. I held out my hand to her. “Come home.”
“She is home,” Favalor growled and held out his hand as well.
Vianna placed her hand in Favalors. He led her away into the forest. She looked over her shoulder at me one final time and then they were gone.
I woke up with a start. Pain radiated throughout my entire body, but I no longer felt warm. That as a good sign.
The smell of bacon filled the air making my stomach growl. It took everything within me, but I finally got my body to move. I sat up and immediately regretted it. The lightheadedness I’d been feeling suddenly got much worse.
My head felt as if it had been filled with fog. Thoughts and memories would fly past me before I could grab hold of them.
There was a female cooking near the fire. She was the most beautiful female I’d ever seen.
I wanted to go to her, but I felt too weak. Instead, she over her shoulder and gasped.
“Zander!”
Her belly was big and round, making it hard for her to move quickly, but she eventually made her way to the bed and gently wrapped me in a warm embrace.
Her scent was familiar to, comforting even. I rested my head in the crook of her neck and buried my nose in her hair.
“Lay back down,” she said as she gently guided me back to the bed.
So beautiful. So familiar.
She put her hand on my forehead. “You’re fever finally broke,” she sighed with relief.
