Page 8 of Shattered Mates

A hand grabs my shoulder and a shock of what feels like lightning burns through my skin, illuminating my inside and stopping my heart.

Yes.

I fall over and roll onto my back. When my eyes open, there’s an angel standing above me. A halo of honey-colored hair falls around her perfect face with full lips and cerulean eyes that glow with the power of a hundred suns.

“River?” She chokes out the one word, and a stream of tears fall down her cheeks. “It’s really you.”

Her sobs follow her to the ground as she kneels next to me, her hands hovering above me, but not actually touching anywhere.

The peace I was trying so hard to grasp before is suddenly replaced by a thousand needles driving into my brain, attacking my thoughts and bringing on the assault I’ve grown used to anytime I’ve tried to recall my past.

A roar escapes from between my lips, and I roll away from the angel. Her touch might be the catalyst for reigniting the sorrow that lives within the recesses of my mind and slices away at my sanity, but with just one look at her, I know she doesn’t deserve to see me this way. She should just leave me here to wither away.

The onslaught of agony on my mind intensifies, and when the warmth of the woman brands my forearm, my body seizes.

My skin feels as if it’s on fire and charring through the thin layers until the flames consume my insides, charring me from the inside out.

The inferno touches every part of me, and I scream as my head still throbs as if someone is taking a hammer to my skull.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Over and over again until I can hardly breathe, yet I can’t stop fighting against the intrusion.

Firm yet gentle hands grip my face and keep me anchored to the world, but I can’t open my eyes. I can’t do anything other than attempt to end the madness within my own mind.

“River! Look at me, damn it!” the melodic voice yells over my shouting, holding me tighter even though I thrash around like a live wire.

“Just let me die,” I finally force out between gritted teeth.

“Never.” The conviction in the singular word strikes at the darkness in my mind. A flicker of something familiar, a glimmer of, dare I say, hope.

“Let me in, River,” she pleads, now sitting above me, the weight of her body attempting to keep me still. “Let me help you.”

There is an eagerness in her tone, but also a brokenness that I sense from this unknown woman, one that feels oddly familiar to my own.

Only I can’t focus on that for long because the attack on my mind hasn’t ceased and the fire that laps at my inside grows increasingly closer to my heart.

I finally stop fighting against the torture. A part of me no longer wants to die. I want to let this angel in and allow her kindness to whisk away the grief and loneliness I’ve succumbed to over the passing months, but I’m so tired. The pain and darkness have won, and I asked for this.

At least the last thing I see is her face and the warmth of her touch that still stands out amongst the flames destroying me from the inside out.

“I’m sorry,” I mutter, my breathing growing shallower.

She grips my shirt and lifts my back off the ground. “Don’t you fucking be sorry, River. Just open your damn eyes.”

There’s a desperation within her words that I missed before that deepens as she practically growls her next words. “I won’t lose my mate. Not like this.”

Mate? No, I’m not…

The final blow to my mind comes, shattering the darkness and blinding me with so many emotions that I stop breathing. I can’t hold the weight of the world that’s pressing in on me, not even with the hints of happiness that I now sense but don’t understand.

The rush of feelings is like a tsunami that sweeps through my body and wipes out the inferno that nearly killed me. Yet, I’m still not sure I’m meant to survive.

Not until my heart starts to beat rapidly and something new begins to form within its rapid tempo.

No, not new, but not mine, either.

A connection to my mate.

Is this angel somehow mine? How can that be? I don’t know how to believe that truth, yet the pulsing inside me grows stronger. When I reopen my eyes, I know.

---