Adhira:

Pain.

I felt a strong impulse to scream out in agony. The loss... The connection... To lose the only world that I had known all my life felt as if the strings of my heart were pulled out painfully and set on fire. It hurt even to exist.

I hadn't even begun to feel sore yet. The pain was hot and searing through my veins. I was writhing on the ground, awake and curled up all alone. Unable to fall back asleep on the reality, I felt the madness.

Vengeance and anger took over my mind. I wanted to hurt someone or something. I twisted and placed my hand on the ground to lift myself. It was hard to know what kept my pieces together when I was so close to breaking apart like shards of glass. Too much heat can damage a container.

One step after another, the gravel crunching under my slippers. Soon, I could feel that smooth tower's stone under my feet.

"HEY!" I yelled, my voice echoing across the deserted hills. It seemed as if I were the only one left... At this point, I couldn't care less.

"Come at me, you wretched panther!" My threat echoed across the hills. Almost instantly, I felt her domineering presence behind me. My heart raced at the overwhelming emotions that churned inside me.

My eyes found her and I uttered, "I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill you for taking away everything from me." Those were irrational words that I threw at her with neither a weapon in my hand nor the vigor to take her on. But I just didn't care about the outcome.

Something in her eyes lit up. Was she taking my pathetic self as a challenge? I tried so hard to protect the ones I loved. I tried so hard but all of it was in vain? What was the point of this?

She closed the distance between us with a smirk, "And what are you going to do I wonder?" I was trembling beneath the shield of my visible rage. I was scared shitless and my breathing labored. She drew an extended claw across my cheek as I froze to not make any sudden movements. That claw could split my cheek open.

She dropped her hands and stepped away, "Alright, I'll give you a chance to attack. An open chance to kill me. I'll not even stop you. Go ahead, I'll wait." She leaned against the stone with her arms on her sides casually watching me.

I took a moment to figure out what would be a killing move. I had no blade, no claws but I do have some blunt teeth. So, I recklessly took that opportunity to throw myself at her and sink my teeth into the side of her neck. I bit down to feel the metallic taste of blood fill my mouth. I felt disgusted and pulled away instantly which turned out to be a mistake. The wound on her neck quickly closed up and I was left wondering how humans always thought they were at the top of the food chain.

I glanced at her eyes which held a notorious gaze and realized that my chance was over. So much for survival in the wild. She grabbed my arm and harshly pushed me chest-first against the stone support. I gasped as the air from my lungs was knocked out.

"You've got really blunt teeth. Do you want to know what a marking truly feels like? Some species do it. Would you like for me to do it?" She asked me holding my arm against my back to keep me locked. My mind was hazy and I just needed a nap to process my grief. "What's your answer?" She asked me.

"What?" I asked her as my nose crinkled as I tried not to cry.

"Do you want me to mark you?" She asked me as she nestled her nose against the side of my throat.

I gulped as I wondered if she was really giving me a choice or if she is just playing a game with me. My voice trembled, "Please kill me."

"You want to leave so quickly? But, we have several hours to go. We can do anything that we want to," she sounded almost cynical.

"In which species does it happen? The marking?" I asked her to keep the conversation going. I didn't even know what it was that I tried to prolong.

"Wolves," she said as I felt something sharp nip at the sensitive skin on the side of my throat causing fear to spread across my body. My lip trembled and I didn't trust my voice. I shut my eyes tightly as a tear traveled down my cheek.

"I heard it's exciting. Why don't we try it..., Adhira?" She was playing with me and for once, I didn't know what to expect. My name sounded different from her lips... the kind of different that made my toes curl.

"Won't you talk?" she coaxed and got silence in return. She flipped me around and wrapped her fingers securely around my neck, "Talk." She ordered me. I've never seen her behave like this before. What was up with her?

She slipped her knee between my legs and snared me intimately. Her lips almost skimmed mine as she said, "Why won't you talk?"

I suddenly felt it difficult to breathe from the overwhelming emotions. My vision blurred, my legs grew weak and I felt unstable as if the world's spinning. I shut my eyes and succumbed to it.

┍━━━━━━━━━━♥♠♣♦━━━━━━━━━━┑

Nyx:

I released her neck and she slumped against me. I guessed that she fainted from fear. I sighed, there went my entertainment for the next few hours.

I checked if I caused any wounds to her during the gentle mishandling. She seemed clean and I almost appreciated my expertise. Her head rested on my shoulder as I sat down with her on my lap. As she dozed, I memorized her softly built body. My beast seemed to pay attention as well. We also wondered how she could defenselessly lay in her mortal foe's arms.

But she soon awoke in a couple of hours. She pushed at me and tried to scramble away. Grabbing her hips, I held her in place. She knows that it ain't worth the effort and yet struggled against my hold.

I smirked, "So, where were we?"

She gulped and stuttered, "N-Nowhere. You were actually going to f-finish up for the day."

"Hmmm, was I now?" I mocked her. My voice dropped a few octaves, "But I thought we were just getting started?"

She almost whined, "No... we weren't."

"But you got to challenge me and I didn't even get my turn," I fake-pouted at her horrified expression.

"You could just kill me," her voice shook.

"But that won't be any fun, would it?" I whispered.

My canines elongated and I sunk them onto the side of her neck. She screamed from the pain and it had my blood pumping stronger. My canines tingled and my pheromones rose as if to urge me to take her.

She panted and trembled as I released my fangs. The punctures on her neck instantly stopped bleeding but her cheeks were dripping with tears.

Jaguars or Panthers don't mate by marking each other. It was a wolf's tradition and does not bond jaguar partners but I always had an underlying desire to experience it. The process of marking does instill pleasure in both partners. But in Adhira's case, I was the only one who felt the pleasure. On the contrary, she trembled like a mouse.

Since when did I start caring about her pain? I only did this to know what it felt like. It wasn't like I'd ever find someone to share my life with. I'd only ever had Carlos around but he's smitten by that rotten human.

The girl was sobbing, in pain or grief, or both, I couldn't comprehend. I grabbed her by her arms and she flinched. I asked feeling slightly conflicted, "Are you in pain?"

"Why do you want to know?" she asked me.

My forehead crinkled and decided to stop myself. I must not care at all, "I think that's enough time I wasted with you. Are you ready to go?"

She sniffed, "I want to take a nap, please... I beg of you. Just for a while? I don't want to wake up and run again."

┍━━━━━━━━━━♥♠♣♦━━━━━━━━━━┑

I sat at the dinner table and just couldn't get her off my mind. I couldn't eat or drink. My beast seemed to be upset as well. I just couldn't understand why he would be upset over a mere human.

"Temp. Hey, temp, you okay?" He called to me.

I looked at him with my resting scowl, "Yes."

"I've figured some information. We need to discuss," he whispered.

So, I left my plate untouched and proceeded to sit in Carlos's Study for some time to think. I placed my head in my hands, the girl had been causing my mind to go tumultuous.

"What's up in your mind?" Carlos interrogated me with twinkling eyes.

"That's a question that you must answer," I told him.

"You like her," he said with a grin.

I swiftly grabbed his empty ink nib and shot it right at him. The culprit managed to escape and the nib was now embedded into the wooden wall.

"I don't. She's a nuisance. A weak one at that," I told him.

"How do you know who I was talking about?" He smirked and I narrowed my eyes at him.

I sighed, "Tell me about your progress."

He cleared his throat, "So... the ones who happened to be attracted to the humans are the unmated ones. A lot of shifters ended up marking or mating, whichever to break out of the loop."

I rose an eyebrow, "What if their real mates turn up before them?"

Carlos sighed, "Tempest, all shifters are clearly gathered around this region. We had to come together to wipe out humans, remember?"

I shook my head, "Just because we're combined, doesn't mean every Pride got to meet each other."

"Actually..., they did. You were away on the quest during the time. So, you did miss out on a lot of things," He told me, referring to my quest to find my parents.

"So, you didn't find your mates..." I asked him wanting to bury the pain of that journey.

He shrugged, "Yes."

"All of this seems to be woven by some bigger force in order to make it all work," I concluded.

He nodded, "Yes. And right now, our pride's waiting for your approval and the Queen's to bond with their humans."

I stared at him, "They'll weaken our bloodline."

"And so will the other species weaken making us all stand at the same level. We may never know how genetics would change though," he told me. "Shifter genes work differently."

"Alright, but inform the Queen," I told him.

I made my way outside to sit on the special spot to gaze at the stone tower and ponder about the girl.

┍━━━━━━━━━━♥♠♣♦━━━━━━━━━━┑