Cursed, Loved, Redeemed

Separation

“Dominic, please stop!” Ellie begs her mate as he runs off into the forest, growling menacingly at the wolf he is pursuing. “Pyro! Pyro stop this!” She tries again, directed to the wolf this time. He doesn’t respond to her at all, picking up his pace as he goes.

“What happened to my life? What happened to my mate?” Ellie thought to herself, sick of going after the deranged werewolf every time he gets angry, which seems to be happening more and more frequently. Something will trigger his, and then it’s like he becomes a mindless beast, hell bent on death and destruction.

He wasn’t always like this, he used to be mostly sweet and kind. But the last 3 years since they mated have been crazy. This anger takes hold of him, and his eyes turn this horrible shade of red, so bright and piercing it’s almost as if they glow… and then once he’s completely shifted, instead of his big, black wolf with his sleek black fur, muscular and powerful like a great alpha wolf, his wolf has slowly morphed into a lycan-like beast. He stands on 2 legs, somewhere around 8’ tall. His fur is no longer a sleek, beautiful and shiny, but instead it’s dull, matted and rough. No longer was her mate the werewolf she fell in love with, but instead he is a closed off, violent, angry brute. And she can’t handle running after him every time he snaps anymore. At first she didn’t mind, he would only get upset and run off, she would go after him and calm him down, thanks to their mate bond it was a pretty simple task. But it seemed like each time he snapped, he got a little worse, a little more violent, a little harder for her to calm down. And then he started causing real damage, despite her efforts to calm him. She was not sure she would even be able to reach her mate inside that beast for much longer.

“Pyro, I’m coming for you my mate. Please slow down and let me catch up with you,” Ellie tries through the mind link now, mid-shift as she goes after her mate. “Dom? Pyro? Please my sweet mate? Can you give me just a little indication of where you are now? It would really save me some time if I don’t have to track you down.” Harley let’s out a deep and sorrowful howl, hoping to get some response from the feral beast that is her mate, but also as a warning for everyone who may be nearby that her mate was on yet another rampage.

Finally Harley spots him, he has the other wolf cornered. The wolf was on the ground bleeding heavily, whimpering in fear as the rage filled beast advances towards him, knowing he is about to die. Suddenly a purple blur slams into the side of Pyro, catching him off guard. After a second he recovers his balance, but instead of going after the whimpering wolf, he turns his focus on Harley.

“Go, get help!” Ellie mind-links the wounded wolf, unable to spend any more time without her full focus on her mate. “Hey baby, it’s me, can you hear me?” Ellie tries her mate through the mind link, but there’s nothing on the other side, like the link between them doesn’t exist. f**k! She thinks to herself, unsure of what to do now, as she and her mate are locked in a standoff, circling around each other. “Harley? What do I do?” Ellie asks her wolf, hoping she has some kind of idea to get them all out safely. “Oh honey I’m sorry, I don’t know, and I need you quiet, I can’t focus while you’re distracting me this way.” Harley scolds Ellie, just as the lycan makes a move. He lunges for her, taking full advantage of her obvious distraction. He lands a heavy blow against Harley’s chest, sending her flying backwards through a tree, leaving her unconscious and bloody amid the rubble.

Seeing his mate crumple to the ground in front of him, shifting back to human form, Dominic suddenly regains control over himself and shifts back into his human form, running to his mate in horror.

“Ellie! Ellie baby are you still with me?” Dominic cries as he scoops her body up into his arms, blood streaming from the extensive injuries enveloping her body, holding her head in his lap and smoothing her hair behind her ears, her once vibrant purple curls now stained and matted together with a deep crimson. “Oh baby please, please be okay please, I’m so sorry baby. I’m so sorry. Please be okay.” He continues to beg, hoping the wolf he attacked earlier actually comes back with help soon.

Each second that passes feels like a lifetime as her lifeless body lies unmoving in my embrace. Panic begins to set in as the seconds become minutes and she still has not taken a single breath. Her heartbeat so faint and slow it’s almost as if I’m imagining it. The pain in my chest intensifies by the second and I can not deny the gravity of the situation any longer. She’s dying. She is dying in my arms and instead of carrying her to the hospital, all I could do was cry.

Scooping up Ellie’s tiny, limp body and holding her effortlessly against my chest as I run at a full sprint towards the hospital, calling for help through the pack link, desperate for anyone to answer it.

I release the breath I didn’t realize I had been holding as the hospital begins to come into view, sharply inhaling as the scene before me begins unfolding, my brain struggling to comprehend what I am seeing. It’s as if everything around me is moving at lightning speed and I am stuck in slow motion.

Before I could wrap my head around the miracle unfolding before me, Ellie is taken from my grasp, placed on a gurney with a nasul cannula feeding her oxygen, a nurse beside her on the stretcher performing CPR and a team of nurses running around performing various tasks I don’t understand, all while she is being wheeled at full speed the remaining distance to the pack hospital. The double doors leading to the ICU swing open automatically as the team approaches the end of the hallway. The majority of the nurses have disbanded at this point, as the ICU team integrates into the perfectly synchronized chaos unfolding before me. Before I fully process the events of the last few seconds, the doors are slamming shut in my face. The click of the lock indicating I have been forcefully separated from my mate rings through my ears. The sound even more deafening than the loud crashing of the wooden doors against each other as they barred my path.

Standing in a stunned silence, everything in front of me blurs together. A nurse begins tugging at my shoulder to get my attention, my mind unable to understand why my mate was ripped away from me. My body begins to move on autopilot, allowing her to guide me to a secluded waiting area. I drop like a stone into the first chair I see, almost hitting the floor instead. The nurse is still trying to get me to pay attention to her but I can’t force myself to care what she has to say. I stare blankly at her lips as she continues her never ending cascade of unintelligible nonsense. Each word falling on deaf ears. Desperately pleading internally with the Moon Goddess to put an end to this madness and return me to Ellie’s side, some of the words the nurse said begin to register. Weak pulse, emergency surgery, slim chance of survival. My heart stops beating in my chest, i am suddenly freezing. Each breath feels as if I am inhaling ice water. My chest burns. WEAK PULSE. Everything around me is fading into darkness. SLIM CHANCE. Gasping desperately for air as I sink deeper into the freezing water. EMERGENCY SURGERY. My chest is burning from the lack of oxygen as the harsh cold fills my lungs completely. SLIM CHANCE OF SURVIVAL. That final line echoing through my head as I completely lose consciousness, sinking into the freezing depths of my subconscious.

SLIM CHANCE OF SURVIVAL