My wolf whimpers inside, feeling every bit of it.
It’s blinding and immediate and real in a way that my father and the lagoon were not.
The pain is no longer this engulfing ethereal sense.
It’s more localized. It’s coming into sharp focus.
My shoulder.
My side.
My chest.
My back.
All of it screaming at once as I lurch toward consciousness like a man fighting his way to the surface of deep water. My body seizes. Something in my side tears. I think I make a sound, although I can't be sure.
I feel a soft hand on my chest, pushing me back down.
It’s not a hostile hand. It’s a soothing one. A safe one.
“Don’t move,” that soft, feminine voice whispers again. Only now I’m not hearing it in a hallucination. I’m hearing it with my ears.
Light bleeds through my eyelids. Warm and orange and flickering. A lantern somewhere close.
I try to force my eyes open, but I only manage to see through a slit, and only for a second at that.
She’s blurry, but I see her.
The woman with the comforting voice.
A feeling of peace takes over, fighting through the pain.
I can make out her shape, but everything else is blurry.
The bottom of her face is moving. She’s saying something. The words reach me muffled and distant, like my head is underwater.
I try to answer.
My mouth doesn't cooperate.
I try to reach for her.
My arm is too heavy to lift.
“You’re okay,” she says. “No one will hurt you here.”
My vision clears for a heartbeat, but it’s all I need.
All I need to know is that she’s my mate.
Which means I must be dead.
I must be in Ulissa. It’s the only explanation. My mate would not be here otherwise.
Life or death, I don’t care, as long as I’m with her.
The darkness comes roaring back, pulling me down with a vengeance.
