Chapter 178: Let’s... Just...
( ... continued)
And then...the mist lifted without warning.
One second it was there veiling everything in its shadow and then the next, it was gone, pulled back as if by invisible hands. Yanked away actually...
Autumn blinked against the sudden clarity,the sudden change in light condition...her heart pounding in her ears, her breath still catching from the encounter.
The wolf was gone.
Gone as if it had never been there at all.
Leaving behind no trace or smell except for that lingering tingling over her navel... Autumn placed her hand over that place... she felt movements once more... her heart flooded with an unknown emotion... it swelled... got bigger... She placed one hand over her heart and then turned around... sharp...spinning back toward the direction she thought the wolf had come from...or vanished for that matter.
Her eyes were wild, her voice caught somewhere in her throat.
Was it all a dream?
A hallucination?
What was wrong with her brain? Why was it cooking all those illusions...
But her body said otherwise.
Her skin still carried his warmth, her lips still trembled with the weight of all the words he whispered in her mind. And her stomach... her stomach still felt the ghost of a nose pressed against it... still vibrated with the remnants of his touch!!!
She kept looking left and right and then all around... just to catch a little glimpse... just to breathe him in once more... she was impatient... her heart was fluttering with that lingering effect...
And then the next step she took was a misstep...her foot caught in a root or maybe in memory...and she stumbled.
Fell.
Right into the waiting arms of someone solid...someone warm.
Strong arms that wrapped around her like they had the rights to do so...like they always belonged there.
Autumn gasped softly, her hands instinctively gripping cloth...his sweaty shirt...and then finally she looked up...
Straight into Kieran’s face.
His eyes... golden... oddly similar to the wolf’s but not the same...
His breath on the other hand was heavy, as if he had been running.
His jaw was clenched tight as if he was holding something back.
But it was the look in his eyes that held her the most...it was like looking into storm clouds that had forgotten how to rain.
Autumn didn’t move.
Didn’t want to honestly.
Her body stilled in his embrace, her heart racing for all the wrong reasons...
Or maybe the right ones.Nothing was making sense anymore.
She closed her eyes for a second, breathing him in. Something in her...some silly, hopeful part...almost expected him to smell the same...like the wolf.
But he smelled like that forest. Like wind...and danger...and longing.
But he didn’t smell like how she wanted him to smell.
And yet, somehow... it still felt safe. Still felt right.
She stayed pressed to him for a moment longer, letting herself be held.
Letting him hold her.
His hands didn’t tremble, but they gripped her like she might disappear again. Like she was the only thing real left in a world he couldn’t make sense of either.
And reality was...outside the mist...without its magic lifting the curse binding Kieran...giving him the access to his mate bond...lifting the spell cast on him...even if it was momentary...he could no longer feel her heart... Or feel the fluttering thoughts of their unborn children. Or feel the warmth of their mate bond... drink the sweetness of its nectar... ground himself...
Or hear the song of her soul that used to echo in his chest like a second heartbeat.
Now there was only silence.
And the ache that came with it.
Still, he held her.
He would take what he could get.
Autumn finally pulled away...slowly, like peeling herself from warmth...and tucked her hair behind her ears, cheeks flushed.
She didn’t quite meet his gaze when she spoke. "Well... I guess I am finally caught."
She looked around then, trying to mask the shakiness in her voice. "So, where are the rest of them?"
She was met with total silence.
Only the rustling of wind through the thinning trees gave her a response.
She looked back at him. "Oh... right. You can’t talk.I am sorry..."
Her lips curled awkwardly, and she scratched the back of her head.
He gave her a soft, unreadable look.
Autumn sighed and turned her gaze towards the horizon. "Since I can see no one...I am. Going to assume...I mean it does seem like we are both lost, huh?"
She hesitated... then reached out and took his hand.
Just like that.
No fanfare. No overthinking.She just took it and he didn’t resist at all.
Her fingers slid between his, and Kieran felt something in his chest snap back into place. Like she had just picked up a part of him that had been broken for far too long and placed it back where it belonged.
She smiled at him gently.
"So..." Her voice was soft. "Shall we start walking? Look for the others?...or...just explore the place till they find us? Say what? " She gave him a mischievous grin, along with the bonus of a wink.
But she didn’t move.
Not yet.
Neither did he.
They stood there...hands still entwined...staring at each other in that hush between breaths, in that delicate space where one more second too long could mean too much.
Her fingers curled slightly, as if testing his grip. His thumb brushed the side of her hand without thinking
Kieran just stared at her.
There was sunlight now.
In his life and also filtering in through the trees.
It made her hair shimmer like fire and stardust.
And it felt like they looked a shade lighter... somehow.
She was so close that Kieran was having difficulty thinking properly.
She was so heartbreakingly ’his’ and ’not his’ at the same time... He wanted to pull her back into his arms.
Wanted to press his forehead to hers and say the things he couldn’t voice anymore.
Wanted to whisper her name and kiss her so slowly it would undo time.
Instead... he just nodded.
And tightened his fingers around hers.
Afraid that if he let go, she might vanish with the mist again.