Chapter 296: Let Me Sleep
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*****
ELIA - Human World
It was pitch black. No light at all. But she could smell the cave, smell her mate and her heart surged.
"Reth?" she cried.
There was a rustling behind her, as if the furs had moved. "Elia?" his voice was hoarse and weak, as if she'd woken him. "Elia?!"
"Reth!" She rolled over and found that warm, steel strength of his chest under her hands. She sobbed and clung to him. "Reth, you're here?"
"No, you're here. Elia how—"
But she'd found his face and pulled him in, kissing him, whimpering against his lips, and he took her mouth desperately, pulling her into his chest, groaning the mating call, long and deep until it vibrated in her chest where she was pressed against him.
He wore no clothing and she clung to him, wrapped her leg over his waist, her fingers clawing into his back, fisting his hair, pulling him, needing to feel him, until his muscles gave under her grip and he flinched. But he didn't let go.
He panted her name, his fingers in her hair, and stroking down her back, asking her how, protesting that it wasn't safe, but she couldn't answer. She was terrified, and ecstatic, and unable to think beyond holding onto him and never letting go.
"Elia, love—"
"I can't do this, Reth," she gasped between kisses. "I can't be apart from you. It's too hard. I've started shifting and I couldn't get back for a while…? I don't understand anything when you're not in it."
His breath was hot on her jaw. She tipped her head back with a tiny cry, and he growled, kissing his way, open mouthed, down her neck, to her throat.
"Love… my love," he gasped. "How—?"
"Please, Reth. I need you," she whimpered and pulled him until he rolled over her, his hips between her thighs and she arched, "Please!"
With a frantic gasp, Reth found her. "Are you sure—love how are you here?"
"I don't know, but Reth, please. Please!"
With a ear-shattering roar he entered her, his entire body shuddering. She cried his name, tears tracking down her cheeks, but she couldn't think, couldn't care. She only grabbed, her hands slapping on his back with her desperation as he curled one arm over her head, pulled her hip up to meet him with the other, and they both clung, united and gasping.
"I love you, Reth!" Elia panted. "I love you so much."
"Elia—" his voice broke and his body shuddered, but she kept pulling him in, arching against him, frantic, as something began to unravel and she could feel herself being lost.
"No! Reth!" she kissed him and their tongues tangled. "Don't leave me. Don't leave me!"
A sob broke in his throat and he curled into her, thrusting again and again, but holding her so tightly, their bodies never parted.
"I love you, Reth."
"I love you—" he gasped.
Elia buried her fingers in his hair and held her breath as that sparkling wave rushed over her and her entire body shook, "Light, Reth! Help me! I don't want to leave you!"
"I'm here, Love, I'm here!" But his voice was beginning to tunnel.
Desperate, Elia grabbed at his hips and pulled with him as he roared and climaxed, his face buried in her neck. "Elia, Love—"
She sobbed as the warmth of him began to fade and her chest was no longer deliciously flattened by his weight. As the sense of him, all of him, on her skin, inside her, faded.
"NO!"
But when she reached for him to pull him back, to demand that he not leave again, she was grabbing air.
No.
His scent began to fade and turn cold and she cried gulping sobs, flailing, trying to find him again.
Please, no.
Then she sucked in and suddenly she blinked and she could see again. Except that tears blurred her vision, there was dim light in the room—barely gray haze under the curtains, highlights on the furniture, and shadows in dark corners.
Elia sat bolt upright, her chest heaving, tears rolling down her cheeks. "NO!"
She was back it the bedroom at the Guardian house, sitting on the floor, her back to the wall. Her skin still pebbled with Reth's electric touch. Her body still throbbed from her release.
But he wasn't here.
He'd never been here.
It was a dream.
She? was back. She was herself. She didn't know how it had happened, but he'd brought her back.
But he wasn't here. He wasn't here.
Limbs shaking and sobs breaking in her throat, she got slowly to her feet and stumbled over to the bed, throwing herself on it and looking for those pillows. The weight of them, putting one at her back, and one at her front, cuddling it, heedless of the tears that soaked it in patches.
She kept shaking her head and murmuring, no, through her tears.
It wasn't fair. She couldn't do this alone. She couldn't.
She needed to sleep again. To find him in the dream again.
She had to.
But all she could do was cry.
*****
It had to be at least an hour later when she finally stopped crying. She hadn't been able to find sleep again, and as she calmed, she wondered what she would do now.
She could remember being behind the beast. Remember struggling to tame it. Being unable to find herself again.
How had that led her to Reth?
If she could know for sure it would always be that way, she would have done whatever she could to shift again, right then. But she grimaced. She knew the dream had nothing to do with the beast. And she knew it wasn't safe for her to be the beast.
She needed to be grateful that she'd come back. Somehow.
She needed to take care of herself and Elreth.
But all she wanted to do was sleep.
A strange, groaning huff rose from her throat, and she let it, recognizing in it the timbre of Reth's mating call.
She thought of his beautiful face, his carved body, the warm gentleness of his hands, the sheer strength of him, and the call tore out of her again—higher than Reth's, different. But the same. And she knew... She knew.
And when someone knocked on the door and asked for her, she answered. Eventually. But she didn't look up. And she didn't speak to them.
She couldn't. She couldn't even move.
She needed to sleep. She needed to find Reth again.
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