Talia's POV



I knew I was struggling and grabbing the dirt frantically. It looks like the view I have when my eyes are closed, but they are wide open. Everywhere is pitch black. Like in Kael's house on those lonely nights when I'm alone with my thoughts and pieces of my memory.

'Somebody! Please help. Help me!" I could hear myself scream out loud, but whatever realm I was in was totally empty and void.

My legs felt too weak to hold my body up and in no time I came crashing down to the floor.


'Anybody?" My voice was already going. It's not like it made any difference, but with the loss of my voice, I felt more scared and helpless. I stopped trying to force words out of my throat as it only left me parched and sore.

The ground begins to feel very wobbly and unsteady beneath my feet, like there are mountain sized gallops that keep going up and down, surging me forward and taking me back at the same time. I'm trying to run forward, but it feels like I'm reversing.


I feel nausea but am too weak to even vomit anything.

What the hell is going on? It can't just be in my mind.

The pitch black atmosphere metamorphosed into dark blue, permitting me to see very little details.

'I love you." I hear someone say. It looks like I'm in a couples bedroom. My eyes are strained from trying to make out images from the dark, but I think it's me I was looking at. At least the me before I borrowed Isla's body.

The sharp jawline of the man looks familiar. His face is dimly lit, unlike mine, and in conjunction with that voice that almost gave me butterflies, I think I know who it is. It's Vance, my mate, my Alpha…

I watched as he lifted me up gently and placed me in the bed. Ridding my skinny little body of the silk nightwear, he traces different patterns from my hardened nipples to my mouth, after which he kisses me and begins to take his finger down.

'I could do this for hours." I heard him say. I also heard myself giggle weakly while trying to contain the painful pleasure of having his index and middle finger stretched apart inside me.

I hear myself gasp in pain and pleasure as grabs my breasts with his other idle hand, contentedly watching me moan my head off. I look so vulnerable, and to be truthful, so goddamn sexy.

A high pitched moan breaks my thoughts and I see Vance has turned me over, my behind directly opposite him and his hand on the back of my neck.

'Call me daddy." He said, puffing his sex exhale in my face.

'Daddy!" I obeyed like a silly poppy, letting him have his way with me, any way he wanted it.

That was his drug. He rode me like an errant horse, I wished I pitied myself but it still made the butterflies in my belly swarm downwards. Am I crazy?

'Hey." He said finally. Caressing my sore body. He sounds tired and exhausted, but fulfilled too.

Beyond the blood rushing down the side of my face and the mucus streamimg down my nostrils, I feel the tears welled up in my eyes fall down my cheeks, wetting the top of my dress, the one Kael borrowed me, most likely something that belonged to Isla.

'Talia." I heard a proud but very unfamiliar female voice call, but I don't answer. 'You were given a second chance at this to prove your worth. I know who you are and what you can do. The world is your stepping stone now. Do whatever you want with it." She continued.

'Who…who are you?" I managed to croak.

There's just empty silence. No one, no voice, no sight!

Like one's eyes being open, or a veil being pulled up, the cloud over my eyes lifts and I'm back to where I was sobbing, about a few stones throw away from Kael's cottage.

Then I saw him…

Kael dashing madly towards me. He was running so widely he tore through the bushes and shrubs with such ease.

'What's wrong?" He looks genuinely worried and scared for me. And I could understand. I must really look like a mess. And it does not help that I am still stunned and speechless from what had just happened.

'Come." He lifts me up, ridding my clothes of the dirt and dead leaves. Next, he slings my one arm over his shoulder and helps me up to my feet.

He moves me along the path towards his house and I, unresisting

, follow his lead.

I know he's very curious about what happened. Worse still, I hope he wasn't around when I was screaming and grabbing the dirt for help.

We both are mute and focused on making it to the cottage. I feel pain in only so many parts of my body. My head hurts, then there is the tear by the side of my face, I could also feel done already healing wounds that had been reopened.

'Why did you do this to yourself?" Kael asked. I get the fact that he is hurt on my behalf, but it does not really pacify the growing anger in me.

Unfortunately for me, I can't protest. I can't shut him up. I can't tell him to stop reaching wrong conclusions and making wrong assumptions and being such a…

Then I see his already glistening eyes, and I see the fear in them. He said all he said because he's scared. Gruff on the surface, delicate at heart.

I feel like a victor for breaking Kael's walks up till this extent. For making him feel vulnerable again after his episodes with Isla.

At that moment, he looked like a scared little boy.

We reached the cottage in no time and he put me down on a chair.

He goes to grab some clothes to mop my body with. They bring back all the bad memories of when we first met.