It came in blissful flashes. It was everything that we had been together. A stolen kiss in the back of a movie theater before everything has fallen apart. The way his hand felt so perfect in mine when we walked in a park together. And the feel of those same hands ripping my thighs, head pressed back into a pillow, eyes closed tightly. And the wicked grin he would have on his face when he lifted his head from between my thighs. I embraced every single second of it. There was a promise of more, so close I could almost taste it. I reached out.

Before it was ripped away.

"Ryder! What have you done?" Keiko shrieked, her tiny hands dwarfed by his large shoulders. Had she really managed to pull him off me? It didn't seem possible.

Ryder didn't break his stare from me for a long time and I was only absently aware of the blood trickling from one corner of his mouth. my blood. It must have been, but I couldn't comprehend why, didn't understand what had happened. I just knew that it had been the most intense thing I had felt in a long time and that I had never wanted it to end.

"Keiko, I need you to get your hands off of me," Ryder said calmly.

The revulsion and shock that was on Keiko's face quickly transformed into something closer to fear. There was a second of hesitation, then her hands dropped from his shoulders and steel stiffened her spine. Backing away, but not backing down.

Ryder turned on her then, glancing only briefly at the set of knives in the kitchen. I remembered those knives. I remembered looking at them and wishing that I could drive them into someone's chest. But I hadn't had the courage back then. Though I don't think it was a lack of courage that made Ryder roll up his sleeves instead.

"Get up, Ajax."

The king reclined backwards, still keeping his hands on his stomach. While Keiko grasped the situation, Ajax was blissfully unaware and uncaring. "You don't give me orders, Ryder."

"You brought my mate here. You took my wolf-drained mate and brought her to a werewolf haven after I did what I could to keep her away from our kind. So you are going to get up and you are going to walk out your front door. You and I are going to shift. Then I'm going to fucking kill you."

Ajax let out a little laugh. "You cannot kill me. I am the king. By nature, I'm stronger than you. You have no chance."

"If I can't kill you, then I will die trying. Besides, you look like you're on death's door anyway. Get up and we can do this outside like men. I don't want your mate to watch you get your throat ripped out." It was all delivered in such a formal, matter-of-fact tone.

"Ryder, please, you don't understand," Keiko said, reaching out so she could run a soothing hand down Ryder's arm.

He leapt back as if she was about to strike him.

"I don't understand?" he snarled. "I fucking understand, Keiko! My mate gets wolf drain because of me and when I leave to protect her, the people that I thought were my friends decide that she is the perfect candidate to run fucking tests on."

"It had to be someone, Ryder," Keiko whispered.

"It didn't have to be her!" His hands swept through his dark hair, pulling hard for the briefest second. "I have been losing my mind over what I have done to her. I have spent weeks in isolation, hating what I am, hating that I destroyed her, hoping and fucking praying that she someone how gets better. And you had her here the whole time! You've been making her worse! You've been killing her slowly! And I wouldn't have even fucking known if she hadn't gone into heat."

"We have a responsibility to the werewolf community before we have responsibility to our friends," Ajax stated from his spot on the couch. "This is nothing new. And if you're so upset about all of this, I want you to take a step back and think that you, a werewolf, just marked your mate. Without her consent. While she still very much has wolf drain."

One second Ryder looked like he was about to rip Ajax's head clean off his shoulders. The next, he was whirling around to stare at me, mouth open, eyes wide. And they focused right on my neck. right where he had bitten. The center of all those emotions, of all the feelings that had finally cracked through. But he didn't know that. He couldn't know what that bite had made me feel. And what was worse, when he face crumpled and he looked like he wanted the world to swallow him up whole, I couldn't tell him.

"I didn't..."

"You did," Ajax stated flatly.

"But, it doesn't make sense."

"Doesn't it? Your mate is in heat. You blow down my front door. You mark her without asking her permission first."

"Jesus, Ajax!" Keiko shouted.

"It's true, sweetheart. That's exactly what he did."

Ryder scraped a hand over his face, skin pale, mouth opening, but unable to find the words. "George?" he whispered after a moment.

I wished so desperately that I could have smiled at him or even just nodded my head because that's all it would take from him to know it was alright. I had given my permission, even if he hadn't known it. I had allowed the moon goddess to bind us together in this way. But I could do nothing beyond staring at him blankly.

"Fuck, oh God, Georgia," Ryder whispered, coming to me again, this time settling on his knees. Warm hands clasped mine and it was like I could taste his panic. "Georgia, I'm so sorry. I – I never thought... I never would have... I'm sorry, Georgia. I'm so sorry."

And there, standing behind the couch Ajax was sitting on, a small sparkle caught my eye. Opening, broadening until it formed a rippling frame. The frame of the mirror that I had seen in the cabin with the clouds on the floor and stars etched into the ceiling. The mirror flickered and shimmered, but there she was. her black eyes settled on me, her mouth pressed into a hard line. The constellations on her cheeks seemed dimmer now. A hand reached up as she pressed against the pane of glass on her side. She shook her head slowly, then disappeared.

Ajax was stiff on the couch. "Did you guys feel that?" he asked to no one in particular.

"Feel what?" Keiko wondered.

The king slumped back down. "Nothing. It was nothing. Must be the last of this shit getting out my system."

Connected indeed.

Ryder was oblivious to all of this though. His body was weak as he shifted around, sitting down with his back against arm of the chair, facing away from me. his head tipped downwards, landing softly on one of my thighs as if he didn't have the strength to hold himself upright. A hand circled around my ankle as he left out a heavy sigh.

"I didn't mean to," Ryder whispered. "I would never."

"You did," Keiko pressed, but unlike her mate, she was able to convey some sympathy.

"But I don't understand. I know what I did. I know that I marked her. but it doesn't seem possible. She's gone into heat around me before and we had no issues. Sure, it was hard. It didn't compare to this time. and on top of that, heats are to push mating, which doesn't make sense because we've already mated."

"A heat can happen any time two mates fight their bond," Keiko corrected. She carefully arranged herself on the couch beside her partner, moving slowly as to not jostle him. "And that makes sense because you two have been separated for some time now. Where did you go anyway?"

"North," Ryder said absently. "I've never heard of a heat stopping right after marking though, unless the mark is rejected." He immediately went stiff again, whirling around. Silver eyes narrowed on the side of my throat. "The mark is there and it is healing, which is normally a sign of acceptance, right?"

Keiko nodded once. "I think so."

"I've also never heard about a werewolf going into heat when they were...like this," Ryder continued. "I mean, we've never really heard of this before, but I don't think I've ever heard of a werewolf going into heat when their partner was hospital bound or non-verbal. It's like the moon goddess disregarded her usual procedures."

"Do all powerful beings have procedures?" Ajax wondered. "Or do they just operate on their own accord?"

"I just want to know why she brought me back here. If I'm hurting her, I don't want to be around her, even if she is my mate."

Keiko sighed, folding her slender legs beneath her. "Maybe she just wants you to be together."

"Even at the risk of making her worse?"

"No one knows why the moon goddess does what she does, we can only make our own decisions off of it. and she has brought you here, back to the mate that you were running from. So, what are you going to do, Ryder?"

There was a shaky breath against my knee. The hand around my ankle tightened ever so slightly. And it felt good. It felt right. Having those other men hoist me around the house, zip up jackets, move me through exercises, it had all made me want to rip off my own skin when I wasn't in a state of numbness. And when I drifted away from reality, I chased him. I chased the mercury rush, the laughter that could lift the heaviest of clouds.

"Being away from her was beyond anything I could imagine. I knew it was for the best and still, it was painful. I just – I just wanted to be with her."

~~~Question of the Day~~~

What is your current car?