When the clock read eight fifty in the afternoon, I began pacing the room, glancing at the door after a few seconds. It felt like I had a football game going on in my stomach. I brought my fingers to my mouth. I didn’t bite my nails since I hated the feeling, but I was tempted to.What will Zaliver do as soon as he walks in? How can he mark me if he won’t actually mark me? Does that even make sense? As soon as the clock read eight fifty-nine, I stopped my pacing and looked at the door, waiting. When the eight turned into a nine right on the dot, the door swung open to show my tall and dark mate. I held my breath as he entered and closed the door with his electric blue eyes on me. We didn’t speak or move. He looked at me as I looked at him.Like always, he wore all black and his hair was pushed back. I could see his fingers went through it. He looked as beautiful as ever and even though I could sense darkness surrounding him, I still wasn’t afraid of him. His eyes scanned over me, maki

I watched from the couch as Zaliver went back and forth from the closet to the black suit case in the bed and sighed.“I can smell and sense your displeasure.” I didn’t say anything as I was not sure what to answer to that. I was bothered by a few things though. He put down whatever he was holding and turned to look at me with his brows pulled down.“You’re . . . upset on me leaving.” His voice was uncertain, and I couldn’t put my finger on.“I’ve never actually considered this.” I cocked my head, wanting to hear more.He lifted a hand and held his chin; a sign that he was pondering over something and let out a sudden chuckle.“You know, I’ve never really had to explain myself to anyone in the last three hundred years. I think I owe you an apology for not being considerate of your thoughts regarding my trip. I cannot cancel this one, but in the future, I promise to inform you of anything.” I looked at him, duped. Talk about hitting the nail on the head.“Apology accepted,” I said quic

Darkness.A constant beeping sound could be heard in the room, and I was pretty sure there was something in my arm.My body felt light and my head was a bit fuzzy, but the only thing that hurt the most was my upper stomach; a softer one though. You know that feeling when someone socked you and even after the hit, the pain would still sting and throb—yup, that’s what it felt like.I took in a deep breath through my nose, inhaling something that smelled like chemicals all over the place, including Zaliver’s scent. I felt fine wherever I was, knowing his presence would make me feel secured. The room was cold and I felt like I was on a small bed, but not the bed Zaliver or I slept in. Thinking of him made me recall something, but just as fast as it came, my thoughts were gone . . . Now, what was it?I tried to remember the last time I saw him, but all I could remember was hearing his voice. What was he saying? Something about . . . a gift? Why would he buy me a gift when it wasn’t my birt

I was running.I was running for my life.I was running for my freedom.I was running for my very own nature.I was running from the last person I’d thought I’d run from in my life.I was running from my mate.I was running from Zaliver.I couldn’t hear him because of the pounding in my ears. The sound of my heart was like a hummingbird’s wings. The twigs and dead leaves echoed in the silent forest.But I knew. I knew he was close by, and that made me push myself harder, my hair whipped around my face as I looked around for anything to gain leverage. I couldn’t run forever, and my body couldn’t handle it. But he could.Because he wasn’t like me. He wasn’t like any of us. I felt tears of fear and panic stream down my face, and my muscles ached for a break, but I couldn’t. I wouldn’t. My vision blurred because of the tears making it hard to see my direction. My emotions were all over the place with confusion, disbelief, fear, betrayal, anger, and hatred. Yes, hatred for my own mate. He

He looked down at me with a sad look on his face, but I ignored the pull that wanted me to hug him, comfort him.“While we aren’t the only couple of mates who haven’t marked each other, we are the only ones with special conditions.”“What do you mean?” What conditions? A crazy mate and a kidnapee?“All in do time Vivian,” he said. “Because of that we didn’t feel what was happening,we were spending almost all day and all night together so the bond was fine. But when I left to go on my trip, the growing distance made the bond strain and with no mark it had consequences. I apologize for that, I should have seen this. Since my body is different from yours, only you felt the pain. I went through a different reaction.”I listened carefully to his explanation, but the more he spoke the less sense isn’t made to me. Sure mates weren’t meant to be apart for long, but they could still be apart without pain. Zaliver hadn’t even been gone for a full day and I almost died because we had been apart.