Forget Me Not (Forgotten Series Companion Chapters)

Where We Belong

Nikalus

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There are moments in your life that define your future, change it, challenge what you hold dear and are convicted in. Spare seconds that could change the course of your life forever. You never think it can happen until it does and you are left reeling with what had been and what now was.

Meeting Caeda had been my defining moment.

The seconds I looked at her as she swayed on her feet, exhausted, filled with self-loathing, anger, and pain. I realized that the female who challenged me, begged me to fight her, to remove her brother's taint from her veins, was to be the female I stood beside for the rest of my life. In that instant, where she grieved for the male her brother had stolen from her, my future had been shifted and changed to include no other female but her.

Even exhausted, crying, and hurt, she had been a beauty I had never expected to see in my lifetime. As I had pulled her close as she shuddered through her grief of a future lost, I knew that my life wouldn't be the same.

I had been right. My life had begun to revolve around her. I helped her grieve, helped her train, helped her move forward from where she had been. I did my duties as the Alpha of Mollitiam, of course I did, but every moment of my spare time had been consumed by her. I lived and breathed her, loved her.

How could I not?

She was sweet, kind, had a wicked sense of humor. She was beautiful and she moved with grace and a sensuality that left me breathless. The longer I had been around her, the more I had grown to admire and love her. It was impossible not to, she was... she was simply perfect.

She was the best representation of what being a mountain shifter was. She was fearless and beautiful, strong and unwilling to back down from what she believed in and she was within my reach. The bond held us together but we were forever orbiting each other, never drawing close enough to touch. I wanted to, goddess knew I did, but it was hard. She still grieved for Gabriel, still held him dear. I did not fault her for that. When you spent so long loving someone and having them torn from your grasp, destroyed you. That type of grief, that type of heartbreak, was difficult to get passed.

I understood it, accepted it. It hurt, goddess it did, but I accepted it because it was what she needed. However I knew she wouldn't get better with Brice's dominance running through her veins. It was why we trained. I trained her for nearly two years. Day in and day out. I pushed her to her limits, to where she would damn near beg me to stop, her eyes screaming the words at me but her mouth closed tightly, unwilling to let them escape. She was so strong.

I had taught her to not give up until she was forced. I tried my best to teach her that the only way to get rid of most of the dominance she had taken from Brice was to ensure I forced her into submission. I think it was harder on me for the lessons than her. I didn't want to hurt her and I knew I could, I knew I would have too. I respected her, so much, I didn't want to hurt her. Not just because her family would kill me. I just didn't want her in pain or hurt because of me. The bond twisted my gut and scraped across my bones at the mere thought of it.

I had to push through it. I forced myself to hit her hard, to leave bruises. I hated myself for each and every one. I tended to them after each session, my stomach in knots no matter how much she reassured me it was okay, that the training was helping her become stronger, more able to fight appropriately, to use the strength the mountains had given her at birth more effectively.

But all that training had come to an end. I was now standing on a razor's edge. I had to fight her, had to allow her to challenge me as an Alpha. In an arena that could mean life or death I had to force the woman I loved to submit in order to save her soul. I didn't know if I had that strength. Caeda did, I knew she did, but when it came to hurting her, my seemingly unending strength fled from my bones.