Chapter 3 The Storm and the Stranger

His eyes opened as it was dark and Bottomless that impossible shade between black and blue that holds all the secrets of the universe. For a moment, we simply stared at each other, the golden thread between us pulsing with something that felt like recognition, like coming home.

Then he coughed as water erupted from his lungs, He convulsed, rolling onto his side as the river water spilled from his lips, his body wracked with tremors. I moved without thinking, my hands finding his shoulders steadying him as he heaved.

"It's okay," I whispered though nothing was okay, nothing had been okay for hours. "You're okay just be eathe."

The sky as if responding to the chaos inside me split open. Rain crashed down in sheets turning the already wild river into a churning, furious beast. The water rose rapidly, licking at my ankles, then my knees. I had to move him now.

"Can you stand?" I shouted over the roar of the storm. He tried to respond but his voice was raw, broken. He shook his head his dark eyes hazy with confusion and pain. He was weak to walk, too heavy for me to carry in my human form but I wasn't just human anymore.

I shifted as I stood before him as a wolf. His eyes widened and it the first real expression I'd seen on his face.

I didn't know if he understood but when I lowered myself beside him, he somehow found the strength to drag his battered body onto my back, His hands fisted in my fur, his weight settling against me as I felt the golden thread between us pulse with warmth.

The storm raged around us but I didn't stop. The river was rising, the forest flooding and I needed shelter somewhere safe.

A cave. I found it by scent more than sight a narrow opening in a rocky outcrop, half-hidden by overgrown vines. It was small but dry, elevated above the floodwaters, as I ducked inside, the rain became a distant drum against stone.

I shifted back, my body trembling with exhaustion. The stranger slid from my back collapsing onto the cave floor with a grunt of pain. I couldn't see him clearly in the darkness but I could feel him.

I need to make him comfortable and warm. I worked quickly gathering dry twigs and leaves from the corners of the cave, arranging them into a makeshift bed. My hands shook from cold, from exhaustion, from the impossible reality of what was happening.

I helped him onto the bed, my hands gentle despite my trembling. He was barely conscious now his breathing shallow, his skin cold and clammy.

I looked down at myself, naked and covered in scratches and bruises, my hair a tangled mess of wet strands. I had nothing no clothes, no supplies, no food. Just my own body and the thread that bound me to this stranger.

"Stay with me," I whispered though I didn't know if he could hear me.

I found my robe the ceremonial one I had worn to the mateship, now torn and muddy as I wrapped it around myself, though it offered little warmth. Then I sat beside him my back against the cave wall, and tried to think. He would need food but the storm raged on, and I couldn't leave him.

I would protect him even if I didn't know his name, even if I didn't understand how this was possible, I would stay.

Minutes passed as I lost track of time, my eyes fixed on his face watching for any sign of waking. The rain continued to fall, a constant drumbeat against the cave entrance, as the storm began to ease.

he stirred, A low groan escaped his lips, and his eyes fluttered open for a moment, he seemed disoriented, his gaze unfocused, his body tense with confusion. Then his eyes found mine.

"Where..." His voice was rough, broken. "Where am I?"

I moved closer, my hands reaching for him instinctively. "You're safe now, You almost drowned as I found you." He blinked, processing my words, His gaze traveled over my torn robe, my scratched arms, my tangled hair and something flickered in his eyes.

"You saved me," he said. It wasn't a question.

I nodded, swallowing hard. "I couldn't just leave you."

He tried to sit up as I reached for him, my hand finding his shoulder to steady him. The moment my skin touched his, the golden thread between us blazed to life, brighter than before, I felt his body go rigid as he pulled back.

He yanked away from my touch as if I had burned him, he looked less like a drowning victim and more like a predator.

"Don't," he growled, his voice deeper now, rougher. "Don't touch me."

The words were a slap. I recoiled, my hand falling to my side. "I'm sorry. I was just trying to "

He opened his eyes again and they were darker now, the blue bleeding into black. His wolf. I could see it in his gaze, feel it in the energy radiating from him.

"You're my mate." He said it flatly, as if the words were a curse. "The Moon Goddess has a cruel sense of humor."

Before I could respond, he moved.

He surged upward, his hand closing around my wrist pulling me toward him with a strength that shouldn't have been possible for a man who had nearly drowned as I gasped as our bodies collided.

His eyes were wild now, his wolf fully surfaced. I could see it in the way his pupils dilated, the way his breathing turned ragged, the way his grip tightened on my wrist.

The bond was overwhelming, a tidal wave of desire. My wolf was clawing at the inside of my chest desperate to be close to him, to claim him and to surrender to him.

"I don't even know your name," I whispered as He leaned closer his lips brushing against my ear. "Draven."

Draven.

The name sent a shiver down my spine. It was a king's name. A name that promised danger and desire in equal measure.

"I don't understand what's happening," I confessed, my voice shaking. "I was just rejected. I was just "

"Rejected?" His voice sharpened, his grip on my wrist tightening almost painfully. "Who rejected you?"

"It doesn't matter. He doesn't matter." I shook my head trying to clear the fog of confusion. "You don't understand. I already had a mate. Kaelen. He rejected me tonight and then I found you suddenly there's this bond, and I can't-"

"Hush." His thumb traced circles on the inside of my wrist, a surprisingly gentle gesture from such a fierce looking man. "You're spiraling. I can smell your fear. Your confusion."

"I'm not afraid of you," I said as it was true despite the wildness in his eyes, the strength in his grip, the danger radiating from him I wasn't afraid. The bond wouldn't allow it.

"You should be." His voice was soft, almost sad. "I'm not a good man, Winora. I've done terrible things. I've killed. I've betrayed and I've been betrayed." The last words were laced with bitterness with old pain. "I'm not worthy of a mate."

"Neither am I," I said,  the words came out harsher than I intended. "I'm broken. I couldn't shift for three years. I'm the shame of my pack, the disappointment of my father, the...."'His lips crashed against mine.

The kiss was brutal, fierce, all consuming. it was a claiming, a demand, a declaration as his hands tangled in my hair, pulling me closer, I responded in kind, my fingers digging into his shoulders, my body pressing against his with a desperation that shocked me.

The bond between us, Two broken souls, fated to find each other at the worst possible moment.

The storm outside began anew, rain crashing against the cave entrance, thunder rolling across the sky but I barely noticed. All I could feel was his lips on mine, his hands on my body, his heartbeat syncing with mine.

"Draven," I gasped as he pulled back, his forehead resting against mine.

"Say it again." His voice was raw, desperate.

"Draven." He groaned, a sound of pure need, and then his lips were on mine again, hungrier this time. We fumbled in the darkness, hands finding skin, clothe what little there was falling away. The cold of the cave disappeared, replaced by heat and the overwhelming need to be closer.

I had given myself to Kaelen in my heart long ago but tonight I gave myself to Draven in body and soul and it felt right and inevitable.

He moved over me, his body covering mine,  I arched into him, my nails raking down his back. The golden thread between us pulsed with every moan. We were one, in that moment two halves of a whole that had been separated for too long.

The rain poured, the thunder roared, and the storm inside us raged until there was nothing left but shattered walls and spent passion.

I lay in his arms, my head against his chest listening to his heartbeat. It was steady now, strong, a rhythm I could get lost in.

"Whatever happens after tonight..." He paused, his hand finding mine in the darkness, our fingers interlacing. "I will find you again. I swear it."

I closed my eyes letting the weight of his promise settle over me like a blanket. "How can you be sure?"

"Because you're mine." His lips pressed against my forehead. "And I don't lose what's mine."

The storm continued to rage but inside the cave, there was peace, temporary but peace nonetheless as I drifted into sleep, I had no way of knowing that when I woke, he would be gone.

I had no idea that for the next ten years, I would carry the memory of him in my body and the child we had created in my womb but that's a story for another time.