Chapter 7

Chapter 7

I screamed as he dragged me even more firmly into his chest since he had failed to notice my broken arm. He grunted loudly, and I whimpered in response. Did he believe that I was avoiding his touch? My working hand fell softly across his cheek in a sloppy motion. I stroked my fingertips against his face, feeling the stubble and the acuity of his jawline.

"My arm is broken; it's still healing." I was able to clench my teeth and observe as his glistening eyes peered down at my body and the arm that was pressed up against his chest. Due to the way I kept breaking it, it was covered with bruises. As I was confined to the unpleasantness of one of his cells, I questioned whether he was aware of what I had done to myself.

As he readjusted my body, I shuddered and felt his jaw tighten beneath my hand. My hand dragged groggily from his face and rested against his chest.

The excitement of finally seeing my mate was starting to wear off. I was fatigued as I rested my head on his shoulder and worked on my breathing as his heartbeat was irate.

My face was pressed into the crook of his neck as soon as he began to move, and my fist clenched into his shirt. His throat let out a contented groan, and my cheeks started to flush. I was already succumbing to the mate link before I even saw this man's face. After seeing the condition I was in, it was amazing he still wanted me.

As we were dragged from the darkness of the cells, I felt people moving around me. My companion stormed through the area with a furious determination, as the rooms now had windows.

"Outside." He scurried through a set of glass doors and stopped on a green lawn as soon as I croaked.

Despite his protests, I forced myself out of his grasp, complaining as I threw off my jacket and kicked off my shoes. I wanted to feel the wind and the dirt to realize that I was not confined to the hellhole that my mind would never be able to let go of.

I sank to the ground and felt the grass tickle my skin. I felt a brief sense of relief before my stomach began to churn.

"I think I'm going to be sick." Although I felt his eyes all over me, I was unable to force myself to look at him in the sunlight.

I made an effort to wriggle away from his overpowering aroma, but he simply followed.

I questioned whether I appeared to him as a demon emerging from the depths of hell and slithering up onto his packlands. I questioned whether he was dissatisfied with his chosen mate. Even if he wasn't dissatisfied right away, I knew he would eventually be.

I walked over to a tree and rested my head on its trunk in the hopes that it would calm my stomach. However, the sickness persisted, and I leaned down and retched shamelessly at my companion's feet.

I could taste the bile, the acid, and his tyrannical presence. All it took for me to snap back into this situation's reality was for me to puke in front of my partner. I was just relieved that my stomach was empty and that all I had managed to vomit was the morning coffee, which I knew drinking was not a good idea.

He kneeled by my side and gently stroked my back as my heart rate started to slow down. I could feel everything about him. I leaned in his direction and felt humiliated. I had vowed for years that I would never find my soulmate, but now here I was, pliable in his hands.

I moaned, wanting to collapse against the plush grass.

Was he going to leave me alone if I closed my eyes?

The hand holding the water glass was all I could focus on when it was shoved in front of me. Not long ago, he had held me in that hand, and he had been by my side the whole time. How did he even manage to acquire the glass?

"Drink." I obeyed his command without saying a word as he raised the glass to my lips. When it was all gone, his hands finally pulled away from me as I gobbled it up with hunger.

I grabbed for the tree at my side, dragging myself up from the ground, feeling sober by the absence of his touch. As I centered myself, the sharp bark rubbed across the skin of my palms.

I knew he was still close by, but I lacked the guts to look up.

"Look at me." I leaned against the tree as soon as I heard him speak. It was a baritone voice, deep and full of impatient disappointment, and as I heard it, the regret of having let him down only grew inside my chest. It wasn't a good feeling, and there was only one way to get rid of it.

I just needed a moment to gather my thoughts before I had to accept him as my mate just by gazing at him.

He growled at the motion as I pulled my arm to my chest, which was still hurting.

He drew my arm toward him as he drew nearer, his hand encircling my wrist.

He should have made me feel worse, but instead of making me feel worse, the sparks he lit with his touch seemed to pull the misery away from me.

His fingers rubbed over the bloody bruises as my gaze quickly swept over his face. As he stroked me, I was certain he could hear my heart racing, but he made no attempt to reveal it. I looked up at the way he was looking down at me, pushing the thought of his touch further from my thoughts. My attention shifted to the hue of his eyes. With the small distance that was left between us, I could plainly see the gold flecks that surrounded his iris as they took on a much lighter tone in the sunlight.

I anticipated becoming numb in the knees when he looked at me.

When one of his fingers came too close to my flesh and I softly complained, his attention was drawn to me, and fuck, was it electric? Many others had told me about their mate-meeting experience, but none of them could have prepared me for this.

He was watching me with his mouth parted, his eyes hot and heavy with importance, and I felt myself sinking deeper into the tree behind me.

It was nearly too much for me to have him gaze at me that way.

My eyes traveled the length of the remainder of his body before I felt the urge to explode. He had a light brown complexion, and his chin and jaw were covered with thick stubble. His black lips caught my attention first, followed by the arch of his throat. Before I could even grasp what was occurring, a hum of appreciation rushed past my lips as my eyes remained fixed dumbly on the huge expanse of his chest.

I felt embarrassed when my eyes darted back to meet his, but he didn't appear to mind at all.

As his fingertips brushed over the apples of my cheeks, he loosened his hold on my arm.

"What I would give is to know what is going on in your head." His thoughtful comments caused my cheeks to flush more, but their true meaning was much different.

He left his mark on me, even though we had just recently met.