Chapter 26: A Brief Reunion
Mink's P.O.V:
Laughter.
I could hear it from here. Coming closer...so close now.
He was right behind me, chasing after me through the golden hued mountain meadows into the twilight. I kept my pace light, running at a slower pace, because I wanted him to catch me, to sweep me off my feet.
His dark brown hair was swept back by the breeze and kissed by the golden hues of the setting sun. His topaz eyes were filled with laughter as he chased after me. His face was forever etched into my mind, my heart and my soul. He looked like a prince from a faraway land who had left behind the confinements of his castle and come to chase after his little nomad princess. I couldn’t believe I’d been so lucky to have found him, in a land that had once been the cause of my nightmares, but now that land was a pleasant memory. A memory where a lone wolf found her other half.
“Stop! You know you can't catch me! You'll tire yourself out." I turned and yelled at him. In truth, I was running only a bit slower than usual. He wasn't that far behind. Had good legs, my mate.
"If I would have believed that when I first met you," he paused for breath. "Then we wouldn't be here right now."
True. I'd been hard on him. I hadn’t wanted to trust another man in my entire lifetime after enduring the hardships of my own pack. Never again. But he'd changed that. He'd made me believe that everyone wasn't the same, that there was a man out there for me who would love me and cherish me in ways no one had ever done before.
"Mikalya! Look out!" He called out a warning, still chasing me. But I could feel him lag and I didn’t want to give up now.
"I'm not falling for that trick!" But I should have looked. Because the next thing I knew, I was tumbling down a tiny slope, tangled in the skirt I wore, tiny flowers and blades of grass getting stuck to my hair as I landed in the middle of the meadow. “Ow!"
"See. I told you to watch out." He said smugly, running down the slope to come to stand beside me when I stopped rolling in a sea of grass and wild flowers. He was completely out of breath and panting with his hands on his knees.
"So should you." I sat up, brushing the tiny yellow and pink petals off my short hair. "You shouldn't be running around like that. You could get injured."
"Firangi (foreigner) I've been running after wolves for a long time now. And even age can't slow me down." He pulled out some more grass from my hair and my dress.
"Abhay!" I punched his arm lighting while he pretend to be injured and fell back on the ground. "First, you're 29. Growing old is a long, long time away. And second, wolves have really sharp claws and teeth."
"Nah!" He dismissed the thought. "Wolves won't harm me. I have their Goddess as my mate."
That would never get old. I don't know why but he had called me a Wolf Goddess the second he laid eyes on my wolf. And to top it off, Abhay had been able to see my wolf ever since the first time he’d seen me. I’d been human then, he shouldn’t have been able to sense me at all since he was human and yet he somehow had sensed me.
I lay back down on the grass and breathed a sigh of relief. "This is nice. Quite. Peaceful."
Abhay laid down next to me, running his hands through my hair....down my cheeks. A gentle smile on his face. “Yes, it is.”
"I wish we can stay like this forever." I said, closing my eyes.
"But you can't."
There was something in his voice that had me frowning. "Why?"
"Because I'm dead."
I snapped my eyes open...and gasped.
Gone were the meadows drenched in twilight, gone were the sun and the beautiful wild flowers. And gone was Abhay.
Instead of lying on a field in Shiwalik, I was standing on the sands of the Gulf of Kutch, on the borders of Mouri, the dreaded village where I was born. It was night time; the place was cold and barren. The only source of light, the stars high above and I could see the embers of the flame from where I stood. Will this night never stop haunting me?
"This place isn't haunting you."
"Abhay?" I whipped around towards the source of the sound. Found only white sand dipped in the blue-black hue of the night in every direction. "Abhay!" I called out again. He was here. I could feel him. "Why am I here? Abhay!"
He knew this place was the dawn of my nightmares. He knew how much I hated this night. The night that I had to kill an entire pack consisting of innocent women and then face the most feared Alpha of India at the time. Then why am I here?
"To let go of the past." This time when I turned around, he was there; wearing a white shirt and pants, the same clothes that he’d worn that day in the meadow. Still the same Abhay, gorgeous, calm, with a gentle smile on his face. Never lost that smile, my Abhay. Even on his death bed.
"But...I already have." I lied. He knew it too.
"No. Not this place." He shook his head. "You have to let go of me, in order to move on. Even our daughter knows that."
"K-knows what?" I stuttered out.
He pointed towards the sand a few inches away from my feet, and I watched astounded as the sand rippled like water and then cleared to show me a reflection. Only in this reflection, I saw myself, lying on my bed, wounded from that wolves bite on my shoulders, with Rhys sitting on a stool by the bed, one of my hands in his....with Aya standing next to him, her hands on his shoulder. "Aya..."
"You have to return to them. You don't belong here." The image disappeared and I felt Abhay's hand touch my shoulder.
"And what about you?" I asked, tears pricking at my eyes. "What will happen to you? Will I ever see you again?"
"Probably not." His smile was sad. "But it's time you let me go. A new future awaits you."
"Will you be able to see me with someone else?" I asked, letting the tears fall. Closed my eyes to clear my view.
"How can you be so sure I'm not chasing an angel's skirt already?"
My eyes snapped open. This time, all I could see was black. Abhay was gone and so was everything else. I was floating in an ocean of blackness and I was the only one illuminated. Abhay was truly gone, forever, wasn't he?
And that's when I remembered, these weren't visions, they were all memories. All these conversations, I've already had them before, with Abhay, when he was still alive. My subconscious mind just gave me what I needed, wanted to see. And all I had wanted was to see Abhay one last time.
He'll always be with me. In my heart, in my memories. It won’t be easy to let him go but it’s already been seventeen years. If Abhay was to come back, he would have by now, wouldn’t he? I had searched for him whenever I could. I’d searched for him even years after he was gone, but to no avail. Maybe this was what I needed. Maybe finding Rhys, finding another mate was the sign I needed to finally let go of the past and move on...really move on.
It was time to move forward. It was time to start a new life.
It was time to wake up.