Chapter 336. Falling I

Chapter 336: 336. Falling I

Maisie

A finger tapped lightly on my nose. "Get up, May. We have to go."

I groaned, turning away. My cheek met a pillow. Pillow? I’d slept off on the desk. Hadn’t been too long ago. I’d stayed up all night translating the darned book, after which I’d gone running from the dorm rooms to the infirmary to fetch a pill or two for a hangover.

Nurse Bea had been cranky, ready to snap at me for waking her, but she’d taken one look at me and sighed, before handing me extending me an entire packet of what looked like crushed vitamins. "Stronger than the usual. Formulated for Lycans. Mix it in a glass of water. Careful about the amount, though. It could leave him... a little excited. It should be fine," she yawned and shut the door in my face.

But I must’ve messed up the dose, seeing as he wasn’t grouchy like a normal person with a hangover would be. Instead, he was dropping like kisses over my eyes and nose, humming an annoying tune.

"Go away," I growled, drawing the sheets over my head.

I was drifting off sweetly again, when the covers were yanked off my body. Startled, my eyes fell open and a face was hovering one inch from mine, twisted into a wide, diabolical and utterly unhinged grin with fangs stretching to--

I let out a terrified shriek, my heart hammering wildly against my ribs.

Soren bursted out laughing, drawing away back from me as I yelled, "What is wrong with you?!" He laughed harder, doubling over, and I shook with agitation. Hell, I had nearly jumped out of my skin. "Goddess, you are such a child."

"Come on," he chuckled, his manic grin softening into something playful as he took my hand and yanked me up off the bed. "It’s time to run."

"Run?" I echoed, still completely disoriented, stumbling forward against his hard naked chest as I wiped the sleep from my eyes. "Why? From what?"

He lifted me up into his arms without warning, trouncing over to the windows. He held an arm out to unlock it and the latch came off.

The wind was colder and harsher stories above ground whipped harshly at my hair. Soren glanced over at me, violet eyes brimming with excitement. "Ready?"

I noticed the empty glass on the table. Oh no.

"Ready? For what?!" I asked, agitated.

"Shift," he crooned, and tossed me out the window.

The world dropped out from beneath me in a violent rush of air. I made the mistake of looking down and I shrieked, a blood-curdling scream ripping from my throat as gravity grabbed hold of me. "SOREN!"

There was nothing beneath my feet but space and an unforgiving stone yard where I was going to crack my skull.

Panic seized my chest with icy claws, dragging me backward through time.

Suddenly, I wasn’t falling from a dormitory window. I was back on that jagged cliff. I was paralyzed, completely helpless, feeling the agonizing burn of poison ash in my veins.

I’m falling. I’m falling again.

I screamed in terror, reliving every agonizing second of the day I fell. Only, there was no Lyon. It was only me. And I was going to die miserably, broken to pieces.

My limbs felt leaden. Useless. Couldn’t move. Couldn’t save myself. So damned useless.

I heard the sound of a tinkle. Someone was laughing at me.

It was Tessa. She was laughing at me all over again. "No one’s coming to save you, bitch. You’re going to die. You’ll never see them again. I’ll take your place. You’re nothing but a--"

"I’m going to kill you! I’m going to rip you to pieces!" I screamed, tears of pure terror streaming across my face as the wind whipped my hair into a frenzy. My fists clenched as rage swelled in my stomach--

Wait.

My eyes flew wide open against the stinging wind. I looked down at my hands. I wasn’t paralyzed. I wasn’t bound or poisoned. There was ash in my veins, but it didn’t hurt me. It couldn’t hurt me. It could never hurt me again.

I stared at the approaching ground, the image of the jagged rocks at the end of the cliff shifting wavered, trying to pull me back into the lapse of terror.

But I wasn’t helpless. I wasn’t dying. I survived.

A fierce, blazing heat erupted from my chest, shattering the phantom paralysis like glass. I survived.

My bones burned and snapped and I cried out as my limbs lengthened and thickened. My clothes ripped. The pain hit, but it was nothing compared to the pleasure of getting out of my too tight skin.

It wasn’t just her. I didn’t know what it was, but some knot in my mind unraveled, freeing me from a shackle I hadn’t even realized existed.

My Lycan’s thoughts merged with mine and I felt her joy at being free. Her laughter escaped me in the form of a howl, and somewhere on the fringes of campus, two more returned to me.

Mine, we both thought simultaneously, excitement racing down my spine.

But another howl joined behind me as I hit th ground on four brown paws, the previously blonde streaks stained with ash. I whipped around to find a pure black Lycan more than twice my size watching me with alert violet eyes and--

Goddess. He was large.

Standing there in his shifted form, Soren was a towering nightmare of muscle, thick silky midnight fur, and power. He looked both savage, untamed, and yet, majestic. Immense in a way that boggled my mind, fear and awe entwining into primal... attraction.

Anyone else, anyone with sense would take a step back. Or ten. And run like hell. Not that they’d ever get away. I knew from experience that his size did nothing to affect his speed. He could just as easily tear out my throat in less than a blink.

My ear flattened against my skull, a deep, rumbling purr vibrating in my chest as my Lycan took one step forward to roll over underneath his muzzle, at his feet.

It was as much an act of submission as it was of fondness, as his eyes ran over us, with pride and yet, unattested ownership.

And I almost gave in to it. If it weren’t for One. Particular. Detail.

He. Threw. Me.

Knowing full well how I had died the first time, knowing the terror of falling, knowing the nightmares I had, he threw me out the window.

The betrayal hit me hard, pouring through my veins with rage hot as a furnace, and I snarled, lunging for him, aiming to rip his face off.

I was going to kill him.

"How could you do that to me?!" I screamed at him, though it came from my throat as a vicious bark.

With infuriating ease, he simply side-stepped, letting my momentum carry me right past him. I hit the sand, but I whirled around instantly and lunged at him again.

I snapped my jaws together just an inch from his throat, but he stepped around me again and licked my face.

It only infuriated me more. I snapped at his shoulder. But he was too fast, vanishing from behind me, and a pained yip escaped me when my behind smarted.

He bit my ass!

I snarled, twisting for him, but he was gone, bounding into the tree lines with a chuff that sounded close to laughter. He thought this was funny? He thought making me relive a situation where I died was fun stuff?

I tore after him, paws pounding against the dirt as I vanished beneath the thick canopy of the trees as quickly as he had.

It was nearing dawn, the skies brightening lightly. The birds chirped excitedly, like they were just as invested in watching me kick him in the nuts.

But Soren was fast. Too fast. He wove between the trees without looking back, vanishing and reappearing like this was a game of tag. And just when I thought I was gaining enough to see the back of him, he looked over his shoulder with an amused glint in his eyes, and vanished again.

It was a game to him.

Angry enough that the roaring in my head silenced every thought, I ran harder, faster. The forest blurred. Branches whipped past. My lungs burned and I welcomed it, every furious heartbeat driving me closer until I could see the powerful roll of his shoulders once again.

I launched myself at him.

I hit him from the side, his flank taking the force of the hit and he grunted harshly, his shock obviously as we tumbling, rolling down the steep ground, hitting the roots, dirt and crushed bracken.

I snarled as we rolled, raking my claws down his side. He growled at me, his hold slipping, and then I was on top of him, trying to rip off his nose. He threw me off him when my claws dug deeper into his side.

And then he was on top of me, roaring an order at me. I thought he was trying to tell me to stop, but I was too mad to listen.

He hadn’t stopped when I had been terrified. Scared. And he thought it had been fun!