CHAPTER 123

CHAPTER 123


CHAPTER 123

BEN’S POV

I couldn’t sleep. Even after all that had happened through the night, I couldn’t get a wink of sleep. Instead, I watched her like a creep. I watched as she took shallow breaths and her brows furrowed as she slept. I reached out to smooth the crease between her brows. She was beautiful.

How was I even able to stay away from her for so long? I must have been crazy. She was the best thing that had ever happened to me, and now that she was close, I was never letting go. I would stick to her like glue until she was tired of me, and even then I would still hold on tight.

She snuggled into me and shuffled into a more comfortable position before relaxing again. I didn’t know how long I stayed there looking at her or when I fell asleep, but by the time I woke up something felt terribly off.

The castle was oddly still, almost as if they were in mourning. Seconds later, an urgent knock sounded from the door, waking Evelyn from her sleep. “Five more minutes”, she mumbled groggily, trying to snuggle deeper into the covers. Not wanting to wake her, I stayed still to see if the person at the door would go away, but the knocking only got more intense. I had a feeling that whoever it was at the door was not going to go anytime soon.

I reluctantly let go of Evelyn and got out of bed to open the door, but as soon as I did, I felt my entire body heat up from top to bottom because the person who was on the other side of the door was none other than my future mother-in-law.

We stood there looking at each other for a while. What could I possibly do? Slam the door in her face? I don’t think that was the first impression I wanted my mother-in-law to have of me.

As I was still thinking of a solution, I felt a pair of arms wrap around me from behind as Evelyn groggily said, “Who’s keeping you out of bed for so long? We need to get back now, tell them to come back later.” I never knew it was possible for a human being to feel this amount of embarrassment and still be alive. All I wanted in this very moment was for the ground to take me, but unfortunately for me, it didn’t.

She tried pulling me into the room, but I planted my feet into the ground so she couldn’t move an inch. Then she finally opened her eyes to see who it was that had ‘kept me out of bed’. She remained silent for a moment and stared at her mother just like I had been doing earlier before mumbling, “What are you doing here mum?”

The change in the queen’s expression was immediate. The surprise on her face quickly morphed into a grim expression, and I knew that whatever it was she would say was definitely not going to be good news, but I never would have thought those would be her next words.

ERIC’S POV

I was losing my mind. It had been a week. A week since I had heard her voice, seen her smile, or even held her in my arms, and it was killing me. Why were these bloody hunters so hard to find?

My gaze shifted to the door as Edward came in, looking the worst I had ever seen him in years, but that was the least of my problems. “Have you gotten a clue? Even a hint on where they could have taken her?” I asked, already knowing the answer to my question before he even said a word.

As if it wasn’t enough Damon howled in agony in my head. I tried to focus on my breathing as I clenched my chest, trying to work through the intense pain I was feeling. I didn’t even notice Edward moving until the door shut with a click behind him.

My mind went through a long list of things that they could have done to my mate, and not even one of them was even remotely pleasant. Desperate for a whiff of fresh air, I opened the floor-to-ceiling window and let myself take in the beautiful scenery for a moment, then I closed my eyes and fell.

I relished the feeling of the wind rushing through my hair as I fell. I felt Damon take over my senses slowly, and I didn’t have it in me to put up a fight, not even a little. I was tired, and I had been for a while now.

Not long after our felt my paws dig into the soft earth beneath them and preened in satisfaction. Shaking out his fur, Damon loped through the forest. I could feel the barely suppressed loneliness that he was doing a poor job hiding. We missed her… we needed her, but what could I possibly do? It seemed like the only thing we could do was wait, and even though it killed me, I knew that if hunters did not want to be found, they would not be found.

We had tried everything. Tracking their scents, their forest tracks, and even their history, but we came up empty every time. Each time we set out, I had a little bit of hope, but every single time we failed, the despair I felt…

I tried to clear my head as I ventured deeper into the woods, but minutes later, I found myself in the place where it had all begun. The place I had met her for the very first time and fallen in love with those breathtaking hazel orbs. I circled the area a few more times before settling down to drown myself in the memories of the woman I planned to spend forever with.