Page 61 of Mate Night Snack
For a moment, she lay still in the pre-dawn darkness, trying to figure out what had pulled her from sleep. The room felt different somehow, charged with an energy that made her skin tingle and her newly awakened seer abilities hum like tuning forks. Beside her, Emmett slept deeply for the first time in days, his breathing steady and peaceful, one arm still curled protectively around her waist.
Then she felt it. The gentle burn along her neck where he'd marked her during their lovemaking, warm and pulsing with something that definitely wasn't normal.
She slipped carefully from the bed, padding barefoot to the bathroom mirror.
The bite mark glowed.
Not brightly, not like a flashlight or anything dramatic. But there was definitely a soft, ethereal luminescence emanating from the small crescent-shaped mark just above her collarbone. It pulsed gently in rhythm with her heartbeat, silver-white light that seemed to come from somewhere beneath her skin.
"Well," she whispered to her reflection, "that's new."
As if responding to her voice, the glow intensified slightly, and suddenly the world around her shifted. Not physically, but perceptually, like someone had adjusted the contrast on reality itself. She could see layers now, dimensions of existence that had been invisible before. The bathroom mirror didn't just reflect her image; it showed the faint outline of the Veil shimmering behind her like heat waves.
Through the small window, the forest looked alive in ways she'd never noticed. Threads of light connected tree to tree, and she could sense the presence of every creature moving through the darkness. And something else, something that made her newfound senses recoil in instinctive revulsion.
Wolves. Moving with purpose through the undergrowth, their intentions dark as old blood.
The vision hit her without warning, yanking her consciousness away from the safety of the cabin and into the forest beyond.
She was running through trees that towered like cathedral pillars, their branches forming a canopy so thick it blocked out the stars. But she wasn't alone. Behind her, gaining ground with every stride, came the hunters. Four wolves with eyes like yellow flames and teeth that gleamed with anticipation.
Not her memory. Someone else's. A girl with copper hair who'd made this same desperate flight decades ago, heart pounding as she tried to reach sanctuary that remained forever out of reach.
The vision shifted, blurred, and suddenly she was standing in a different forest, watching different horrors unfold. Ashwin, younger but no less cruel, circling a terrified shifter who couldn't have been more than sixteen. The boy's pleas for mercy fell on deaf ears as the pack closed in, their leader's voice cold with calculated malice.
"Weakness is a disease," Ashwin said, his pale eyes reflecting nothing human. "And the only cure is elimination."
Another shift. Another memory pulled from the ether by her amplified abilities. A small town burning while pack members howled their triumph to an uncaring moon. Bodies left scattered like discarded toys. Children crying for parents who would never answer.
Katniss gasped and found herself back in the bathroom, hands gripping the sink so hard her knuckles had gone white. The mark on her neck pulsed brighter, as if feeding on the visions it helped her see.
"Katniss?" Emmett's voice, thick with sleep and concern, came from the bedroom. "You okay?"
She couldn't answer immediately. The images were still too vivid, too real. She could smell the smoke from that burning town, could taste the fear of every victim Ashwin's pack had claimed over the years. The line between vision and reality had blurred until she wasn't sure which world she was standing in.
"Katniss?" Footsteps across the cabin floor, growing closer.
"I'm fine," she managed, though her voice came out shaky. "Just... bathroom."
But she wasn't fine. The visions were getting stronger, more detailed, more invasive. And with them came something else: the ability to sense the pack's current location. They were close. Closer than anyone realized. Moving through the forest with the patience of predators who knew their prey had nowhere left to run.
Emmett appeared in the doorway, sleep-tousled hair falling into his stormy eyes, wearing nothing but the jeans he'd hastily pulled on. One look at her face and he was fully alert, crossing the small space in two strides.
"What happened?" His hands found her shoulders, warm and grounding. "You're pale as snow."
"The mark," she said, tilting her head to show him the glowing crescent. "It's... doing things."
His eyes widened as he took in the soft luminescence. "The mate bond. It's amplifying your abilities."
"By a lot." She leaned into his touch, drawing strength from his solid presence. "I just saw... God, Emmett, the things they've done. Ashwin's pack. All the people they've hurt over the years."
"Visions of the past?"
"And the present." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "They're out there. Right now. I can feel them moving through the forest like a sickness."
Emmett's jaw tightened, his protective instincts flaring so strongly she could feel them through their bond. "How many?"
"Four, I think. Maybe five." She closed her eyes, trying to focus on the dark presence she could sense at the edge of her awareness. "They're not rushing. They're taking their time, learning the territory."
