STARLIGHT PROMISE:"Bound to the Lycan"

Chapter 24

AMORA'S POV;
                             The room felt colder now, like the walls were closing in around me. Every breath I took felt shallow, uneven, as if the air itself had thickened with the weight of my thoughts. My chest heaved, the panic sitting heavy in my lungs. I had been through so much in my life, but this? This was something entirely different. Something I couldn't put into words, something I couldn't even process.

The moment I woke up from fainting, the shock of it all had hit me again. It was as if I was reliving the horror, the fear, the confusion. Everything in me had screamed to run, but his words, those cold, terrifying words, were still echoing in my mind. "You'll regret it if you run."

And I had.

I didn't even know what time it was. The thick, heavy curtains kept the light out, trapping me in a twilight of uncertainty. Was it day or night? Had hours passed since he'd left me here, or mere minutes? My sense of time was warped, stretched out by the suffocating silence. The only sound was my breathing, ragged and uneven, the pulse in my ears growing louder with each second.

I had always been alone, always felt that deep, aching solitude, but this...this was different. I wasn't just alone. I was trapped. There was no escape, no outlet for the terror building inside me. My world had shrunk to the size of this room, the opulence of the space mocking me, reminding me that no matter how beautiful the prison, it was still a prison.

My legs trembled as I tried to move, the stiff muscles protesting after being curled up for so long. I needed to get up, to do something—anything to distract myself from the weight of his punishment, from the growing realization that I was more than just bound to him. I was ensnared in something I didn't understand, something dark and twisted, and no matter how hard I tried to push those thoughts away, they crept back in.

I let my legs dangle over the edge of the bed, my bare feet touching the cold floor. The sensation sent a shiver through me, but I didn't care. I had to focus on something physical, something tangible to keep from drowning in the storm of emotions swirling in my mind. My toes curled against the chill of the marble, grounding me, reminding me that I was still here, still breathing, even though it felt like my world was falling apart.

Slowly, I stood, every movement feeling slow, deliberate, as if I was testing my ability to move again after being frozen in fear for so long. My legs felt weak, shaky, but I forced myself to walk, pacing back and forth across the room in a slow, restless rhythm. Each step felt like a small rebellion, a tiny act of defiance against the overwhelming helplessness that threatened to crush me.

But no matter how much I moved, no matter how many times I crossed the room, the walls seemed to close in tighter around me. My thoughts raced faster, louder, drowning out the silence with their unrelenting questions, their fears. How had my life spiraled so far out of control? How had I gone from being a girl desperate for freedom, for a life beyond my father's cruelty, to this—a prisoner in a world I didn't understand, bound to a man who I don't know?.

I tried to push the memory of the wolf out of my mind, but it was impossible. It was burned into my thoughts, haunting me every time I blinked. The sight of it——had shattered the last pieces of my fragile reality. I couldn't reconcile the two—the man and the beast. They were one and the same, yet so terrifyingly different. And the way he looked at me, I didn't know how to process it.

The fear had consumed me in that moment. My body had betrayed me, collapsing under the weight of the shock, the sheer terror of seeing something so monstrous up close. But now, as I paced, I realized there had been something else in that moment too. Something I hadn't fully understood at the time.

He hadn't hurt me. He could have. He was angry—furious, even—but he hadn't laid a hand on me. Instead, his punishment was this—leaving me alone with my thoughts, letting the fear fester inside me like a poison. It was cruel in its own way, but it wasn't physical.

I stopped pacing, my feet rooted to the floor as a new thought wormed its way into my mind. Why hadn't he hurt me? I had seen his anger, felt the weight of his rage when he'd found me after I ran. He had every reason to lash out, to make me pay for my defiance. But he hadn't.

Why?

The question hung in the air, unanswered, taunting me with its implications. Did it mean he cared? Or was it something else, something darker? I didn't know. I couldn't know. He was a mystery, a puzzle I couldn't even begin to understand, and that terrified me more than anything else.

I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to hold onto some semblance of warmth, some sense of control in a world that was rapidly spiraling out of my grasp. My body still ached, not from physical pain, but from the emotional toll of it all. I was exhausted, drained, but my mind wouldn't let me rest. It kept pulling me back to that moment, to the memory of tge wolf, to the way his eyes had glowed with an intensity that scared me.

But beneath the fear, there was something else. A flicker of curiosity. A pull I didn't understand, but couldn't deny. It made no sense, but in the midst of my terror, there was a small part of me that wanted to know more. To understand him. To know why he had chosen me, why he had brought me into his world, and why—despite everything—I felt this strange connection to him.

I shook my head, trying to dispel the thoughts, but they clung to me like a shadow, following me wherever I went. There was no escaping them, just as there was no escaping him. He had made that clear. "You're mine now."

The words felt like a brand, seared into my mind, marking me as his in a way I couldn't fight against. And that was what scared me the most. Not the punishment, not the anger, not even the wolf. It was the fact that deep down, a part of me knew he was right. I was his now, whether I liked it or not. And there was nothing I could do to change that.

My hands tightened around my arms, my nails digging into my skin as I tried to anchor myself in the reality of the situation. I had always prided myself on being strong, on surviving no matter what life threw at me. But this? This was different. This was a battle I didn't know how to fight.

I had no idea what the rules were in this world, no idea how to navigate the complexities of him. And worse, I didn't even know if I could trust him. He said I was his, but what did that mean? Did it mean he would protect me, or did it mean I was just another piece in some twisted game I didn't understand?

I didn't want to think about it anymore, but the thoughts wouldn't stop. They kept swirling in my mind, dragging me deeper into the fear, into the uncertainty. Every breath I took felt heavier, harder, as if the air itself was conspiring against me.

I sank back onto the bed, curling up on my side as exhaustion finally began to catch up with me. My mind was still racing, but my body was too tired to keep up. The tension drained out of me in slow waves, leaving me feeling hollow, numb. I closed my eyes, hoping for sleep, for some brief respite from the storm inside me.

But even as I drifted off, his presence lingered, a shadow over my thoughts, reminding me that no matter how far I ran, no matter how hard I fought, I could never truly escape him.

And maybe, just maybe, I didn't want to.