Girl Meets Evil

Chapter Thirty

He was floating somewhere, beyond sensation or time ... surrounded in a kind of warm nothingness. He couldn't see or feel and he wasn't sure if that was because there was no light or his eyes remained closed. 

He tried to sigh contentedly but realized he couldn't do that either. A prick of panic trickled into the back of his awareness but it too wasn't big enough to matter. He felt both empty and full and yet somewhere in the middle. 

He was everything.

He was nothing. 

Hobi ... The whisper emanated from the nothingness that surrounded him. It hit his ear and suddenly he was aware that he had an ear. Then the vibrations traveled over the rest of his body, giving it form.

Hobi ... He knew that voice, loved that voice and so he followed it. Chased it across the expanse of dark nothingness for eternity. It would ring across his mind whenever he was feeling lost and it helped him find his way home. 

Hobi ...

"Taehyung?" He breathed, his voice hoarse and his throat dry. There was no response and Hoseok struggled to open his eyes. He knew what he was but not where. The smells were familiar but also different, deeper and ancient in a way he wasn't sure he liked. 

He stopped struggling after few seconds as other sensations invaded his awareness. He was warm, lying against the softness of a mattress, covered in light blankets against the comforting heat of an early summer morning. He could smell the flowers and the dirt, as well as the small animals that called it home. 

A part of him understood that he was back home but the slowly reemerging memories, his last memories didn't agree. He... Hobi struggled to force his mind to follow this train of thought, he knew that wherever it led wasn't pleasant but he also desperately wanted to remember. 

He had a mate.

Like being hit in the face with a truck, Hoseok's memory returned. Yoojin feeling Busan to escape the wolf alpha that nearly killed her, the weeks he spent getting to know her while struggling not to tell her about their connection. The one heart-wrenching day and a half where she fought their bond with all of her power and the moment of relief that washed over him when he felt her acceptance and eagerness for their bond. 

The wolf attacked his city, tried to tear the bonds he shared with his brother apart, made his mate flee his safety to keep those she loved from being harmed further. 

The battle with the wolf was still fuzzy, like it'd been a dream borne from his fear and insecurity that danced on the edge of his awareness. Hoseok remember feeling weak and disoriented, not quite all there but he fought hard, harder than he'd ever fought in his life. 

But he lost. 

His eyes were still closed as realization haunted him. He fought for his mate and he lost. The pain and separation of his death wasn't nearly as scary as the thought of what he left behind.

But he didn't feel dead. Could he feel dead? He'd never been before so Hoseok wasn't entirely certain. 

But ... His brain paused and tried to take stock. He could feel his body, it was light and uninjured but it still felt corporeal. He could smell the rain and the warmth from the sun, he could smell flowers and his family. 

His hand twitched and he felt fingers wrapped around his own, an anchor that made everything else disappear. They were small and delicate, warm and soft, squeezing the feeling from his own hand. Experimentally Hoseok tried to separate, to wiggle life back into his digits, but the other hand squeezed harder, refusing to release him.