Elena’s Point Of View
My body felt like it had been wrung out, every muscle limp and quivering, like I had just run for miles barefoot across jagged glass. My lungs burned as though oxygen was some luxury I had to beg for, each breath coming shallow, frantic, broken. My skin was damp, trembling from aftershocks that refused to settle, and the weight of his arm around me felt like an iron shackle, steady, immovable, inescapable.
I wanted to move. I wanted to scream. I wanted to claw his face off. But all I could do for those first few moments was lay slumped against his chest like some ragdoll he had used and discarded. His heartbeat thrummed steady, smug, unbothered, like he hadn’t just dragged me through hell and back with nothing but his will.
And then his chuckle… low, dark, absolute
