Beauty, the Beasts and Other

Chapter 49

I've often thought about what death would be like.

Taking my own life was a thought that fluttered around my mind more times than I would like to admit.

Not that I'm ashamed of my struggle and it wasn't like I needed to be put under constant watch either.

You know that thing we always say we're gonna do but never get around to it? That thought that keeps popping up like a relentless cockroach.

Yeah, death was like that for me.

A passive thought that I never acted on.

A what if that was simultaneously buried deep in my mindscape and at its forefront.

I never imagined one of my many fantasies of what it would be like would ever be accurate though.

I was numb.

No pain.

No sorrow.

No happiness.

I felt as though I was floating on the surface of an ocean. My head was positioned straight ahead, I couldn't turn it. My eyes felt like they were open, slowly blinking but I saw nothing. Just darkness.

It's a good thing I was never one to fear what couldn't be seen.

I was simply drifting.

***

Drayven tilted his head to the side as he regarded the female before him with an analytical gaze.

A fight would have broken out if he had left her with her mates. It probably still will, but he pulled her away to deter the vile snow leopard and hawk tribes from their original intentions.

He was sure her mates would come retrieve her soon. They were all strong and capable, after all; he knew that much not only from their physical strength but from how they had tended to her since their arrival on his mountain.

Of course, he could have let her be and let the situation play out. He had no doubt that the group of six could decimate the clan of cretins currently running around his lands like they were on top of the world.

If the cubs worked together and watched each other's back, maybe they could put a significant dent in the tribes as well. They were a strong and healthy bunch.

Their state was indicative of the type of matriarch they had. A female that valued strength and took care of her family, he thought. Naturally, any family would do everything in their power to help their female if something happened to her.

But the desperation one showed when not wanting to simply be a rootless beast without the chance to form another connection looked vastly different when genuine love and concern for the person were factored in.