Chapter 47

The darkness was soothing. There was nothing there. No pain. No feelings of any kind. Just nothing. There was a peacefulness that I had never experienced before. Everything seemed to be okay, but there was a voice that started calling for me. It was soft, deep, and sweet with a hint of worry. It was like he was coaxing me back to the light, which I wasn’t sure I wanted to go, but something was pulling me there. Maybe fate was real.

I blinked my eyes slowly. The room was a greyish color which told me the sun must be close to setting or just rising, and I turned my head to see Rhys sitting next to me, my hand in his.

His eyes met mine slowly, and he breathed a sigh of relief, which made me smile slightly.

“Hi beautiful,” He whispered, his voice husky with emotion. “I’m so glad you're awake. I was so worried. How are you feeling? Are you in pain?”

I shook my head no and gave him a thumbs up with my other hand. I felt tired for just waking up, but the peaceful feeling from the nothingness seemed to have followed me to the real world, and I couldn’t possibly complain about that.

I touched my neck, wondering if the mark stuck, if it was real or if I had imagined it. I grabbed the chalkboard that was sitting next to the bed and started to sit up.

“Whoa, easy there, my love,” Rhys’s arm wrapped around my waist and helped me into a sitting position. “You only just woke up.”

I rolled my eyes. He was being dramatic, and I wasn’t used to that.

“Tell me what happ-” I didn’t know how to spell happened, but I hoped he understood what I was meant.

“You don’t remember?” He frowned,

I started scribbling on my board again, stopping him from mindlinking Sawyer to come take a look at me.

“I want to hear it from you.” I told him.

He smiled softly, sitting directly in front of me now, and brushed some loose strands of hair out of my face.

“You asked me to mark you, and I did, but then you passed out, and have been passed out for the last 36 hours. I was so worried. But it was shorter than last time, and no fever, or anything of that nature, and my mark now is imprinted on your neck, and you’re awake. And here.” He paused for a moment before asking again, “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Perfect.” I answered on my chalkboard.

He smiled a real smile, and his hand cupped my face gently.

“I’m sorry I did that.” He apologized. “We should have found another way to remove the mark.”

I wanted to say it was okay. I was a willing participant, and wanted it, badly, but I had no idea how to spell participant.

“You don’t have to write it,” Rhys touches the hand with the chalk in it. “I know you were a willing participant, but that doesn’t mean I wanted to do that to you, Grace.”

What the heck? I hadn’t said anything out loud, had I? How did he know what I was going to write?

“It’s the mate bond,” Rhys answered, my again unspoken questions. “I can feel and hear your thoughts, and you should be able to hear and feel mine. It might not be super strong yet because you don’t have your Lycan, but I think you should still be able to.

And he was right. I hadn’t noticed at first, but I could feel his ecstasy, he was barely containing it.

He jumped off the bed before grabbing me and swinging me around, and I squealed in delight. I had never seen Rhys this happy ever, and to personally feel it from him was even better.

“I always knew you were my mate,” He said as he put me down, but didn’t release me. “From that first day, Gracie where you slipped into that room, thinking you were alone. So broken and alone. I was drawn to you. I knew I needed to get you away from there. I knew you belonged with me. I just didn’t quite know how or why. I just knew you were mine.” I wrapped my arms around his waist, initiating contact and for him to pull me closer for the first time.

“I have waited so long for this, Grace. So long for you. No one else ever felt right. No one else even compares to you.” He continued, looking down at me with a sense of awe. “And when I sunk my teeth into you and released my wolf’s venom into you, my goddess, I had never felt anything like that before. It was the most exquisite moment of my life. I almost couldn’t stop myself.”

I smiled at the way he was talking. No one had ever said such magnificent things to me. It was like I was his whole world.

His eyes flickered to my lips, and mine flickered to his, giving him my approval. He leaned in, just peaking my forehead, which was not what I was expecting. Then he kissed my left eye and then my right, and I looked up at him curiously, wondering what exactly he was doing, anticipation building in my core as he then kissed my cheek, soft and slow before moving to the other side before finally meeting my lips with his.

It was just a kiss, but I felt like I was on cloud 9 as he pulled away for moment.

“Have you ever fantasized about us before, Grace?” He teased, and I flashed back to the training center the other day, my face heating at the memory.

“Because let me tell you,” He said each word as he peppered me with kisses, “I have fantasized about this moment for a long time. And now it’s here.”

Feeling brave, I lifted his chin and pulled him back to my face. I needed his lips on mine. I needed to taste him the way he kept tasting me.

His hands pulled at the hem of my dress, and I lifted my arms so he could pull it over my head, his body moving in sync with mine. As soon as my dress hit the floor, I grabbed the hem of his shirt and pulled it over his head. I needed us to be closer, and he seemed to know it as he yanked his jeans and underwear off, standing there in front of me in all his glory. And for the first time, I felt like I could stare at his body, and it wouldn’t be weird. And I would take my sweet time exploring every single inch of it...