Page 76 of Bind Me

His deflated expression is a blade to my heart, and my cold, inevitable rejection starts to crush me.

“I thought we talked about this,” he says, gliding through the water toward me.

“Yes, but I’m not feeling myself, and you’re… why do you have to make me care so much for you?”

“Be with me,” Kaden says softly, his voice filled with sincerity, eyes searching mine as if willing me to say yes.

Instead, panic surges inside me, stronger and more overwhelming than before. My heart feels as if it’s being squeezed in a vise. I push him away, shaking my head.

“Please, just leave me…” My voice cracks with desperation, the plea sounding more like a whimper. But as I turn to swim away, he reaches for me again, his hand firm on the back of my neck.

“Sasha, stop hiding from your true self. Embrace who you are, that you’re meant to be with me.” His voice transforms into a strong command, guttural and deep, resonating through to my bones.

The sound of his voice is a force that vibrates through my very being, rippling through my muscles and my nerves, reaching places I didn’t even know existed. It’s like being caught in a powerful current, and I’m suddenly drowning in the intensity of it all.

Something strange begins happening. My body turns to putty, no longer responding to me but to him. My legs and arms feel heavy, disconnected, as if I’m floating outside myself. I’ve lost control, and the struggle is so hard it hurts.

“Breathe,” Kaden says, his voice softer now, trying to cut through the storm raging inside me.

But I’m not fully in the room. I’m trapped in my head, and my body is convulsing, racked with pain that’s both physical and emotional. It feels like my very essence is being torn apart and reconfigured, and I don’t know if I’ll survive the process. I’m scared out of my mind, a flare of something different pulsing through me, something foreign and terrifying.

I’m shuddering, the pain shooting through my body as if my bones are breaking, my heart racing as I cry out. It’s an agony I’ve never experienced, and it’s relentless, unyielding.

“Kaden!” I scream, a call for help. I’m not even sure I want him to answer.

He’s got me in his arms and shoots us upward. We break the surface, and he lifts me out of the water.

He cradles me with a tenderness that feels like a lifeline and rushes me to a long seat at the pool’s edge. He holds me steady, his grip firm yet gentle. But I can barely see anything through the fog of fear and pain. The world around me is spinning, and I’m lost in my own mind.

What’s happening to me?

Kaden is saying something, but I can’t hear him when he suddenly jerks away from me.

Almost instantly, a jolt of energy pulses through me, changing my senses into sharp focus. It’s like I’ve snapped my fingers, and I’m no longer in my body. My sight is clearer, crisper, the world around me more vivid than ever. I see the water with an odd clarity, every ripple and wave magnified, glistening with a surreal brightness. I can smell Kaden so strongly, his masculine and pine scent mingling with his saltwater smell, and it’s as though I can even inhale his blood.

What is wrong with me?

I push off the seat, landing on the floor, my breaths coming in ragged gasps.

Wait, why do I feel weird?

A great howl breaks past my throat, primal and fierce, a sound I’ve never heard before but recognize instinctively as my own. It’s a noise that comes from deep within, born of fear and something more—a transformation that I don’t understand.

Glancing down, I notice I’m on all four paws!

Paws!

Oh, fuck!

Kaden’s eyes widen with shock, and he’s rubbing his chin.

“I didn’t see this coming.”

He moves toward me, but the fear in his eyes mirrors my own. I’m terrified of what I might become. Before I can make sense of it, my instincts take over. I bolt across the room, unsure where I’m going but driven by a force I can’t control, propelled by dread and an overwhelming urge to escape.

“Sasha, just take a deep breath. You’re going to be okay,” Kaden calls out.

My heart’s about to burst out of my chest. Everything’s a blur—the world rushing past me as I clumsily stumble right into a room I soon realize is a bathroom, not the way out. How in the world does anyone walk on four legs? I bump into the wall, struggling to move straight.

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