All Chapters of That Which We Consume: Chapter 51 - Chapter 59

I was lying on Petros’s lap in the back seat; against my will of course. Petros had been ready to fight anyone who offered to ride in the back with me unless it was my brother. One of the women at Iericho’s place had lent me a dress and a pair of underwear. I respectfully declined the underwear offer. There was no way I was going to wear another woman’s underwear, even in an emergency. Iericho was driving while one other man from his sloth sat in the passenger side. We were on our way to Teris’s mountain chateau. Most of Iericho’s people were there and the rest were following us in their own cars. I knew the wolves would come to my rescue, but I was still worried about what kind of state Lio was in. If I felt this weak and drained, he must feel the same if not worse. For once I wanted Lio and I to live a peaceful life together. Going into this relationship I knew the risks very well. Regardless, Lio had made me happier than I had ever been in my life. “Why are we going to T

I was lying in bed in the spare room of Adel’s house. There were two windows open halfway to let the gentle summer breeze inside. Adel had given me a cool bath to keep my body temperature from rising too high, which helped me relax a bit more. There was a thirty-four inch LG TV on a wall mount ahead of me. The soap opera channel was on but I wasn’t really paying attention to it. I looked over to the right side of the room to see Adel and Githinji sitting on chairs that appear to have been brought up from the dining room table. They were conversing quietly amongst themselves but I noticed them glancing over at me every now and then. I had not even an ounce of energy left in me, I felt so drained and tired. My eyes started to slowly close as I lay there. Before I could let myself slip into a dream state, Adel came to me and shook me. I opened my eyes startled. “Adel? Why would you do that!? You scared me…” I asked, sounding agitated and frightened at the same time. “I’m sorry

I awakened the next morning feeling fully rested for once. Lio was lying on his stomach next to me sleeping soundly. His jet black curls were half way covering his face, the rest were fanned out on the pillow. I propped myself up on one elbow, my chin resting in the palm of my hand. With my other hand I started softly gliding my fingertips along his spine. The memories of last night started playing back in my head. The ritual was complete; I was his mate for life now. A lazy smile was fixed upon my lips as my fingers slid back up towards his shoulder blades and into his thick mass of black curls. There were many times I would lay in bed admiring him like this; if I were the first to wake up. This time was different, my thoughts and feelings were different. The current situation we were in didn’t fill me with as much anxiety as it did before. For once my uncertainty, worry, and doubts were not present to ruin my happiness. While I continued to watch Lio sleep peacefully, he began

After a full report from Githinji, everyone did their best to unwind. There wasn’t much anyone could do at the moment, especially me. Celeste and I were lying on a blanket in the backyard close to the tree line. It was night time now and the stars weren’t out tonight. I had never seen the night sky so clear and blue before. We were on our backs looking over at each other, talking. I had gotten Celeste up to speed on everything, but I could tell that she wouldn’t be cozy around the wolves anytime soon. Baltasar was sporting a pretty red handprint on the right side of his face, compliments of Celeste. “How do you deal with all of this Astraia? All by yourself?” She asked. I sighed before I answered. “To be honest I don’t know if I’m dealing at all. There are a lot of things that I have to accept about their world. Even now, I feel like going back to my parent’s house and forgetting about everything I know. Unfortunately, I can’t.” Celeste turned onto her side, facing me.

There was a highway coming up along with the fields and farms on either side. We’d been running faster than I realized. The wereleopards were still behind us and catching up fast. Some of the other wolves were ahead of us and only a few were at our sides. Every now and then we had met up with the Shifter Task Forces but they weren’t half as much trouble as the wereleopards were going to be. I raised my head enough to look over Naremi’s head and saw a large number of wereleopards heading towards us. It didn’t look like Naremi or Lio planned on stopping so I put my head back down and braced myself. I heard and felt Naremi growl beneath me as we got closer to the wereleopards. Naremi suddenly stopped, making me jerk forward a little. I raised my head again to see what had happened and found that we were surrounded. The leopards stalked towards us snarling. Lio stood in front of Naremi and I baring his fangs at them but they were unmoved. My heart was beating faster than I thought po