Don't be fooled by the opening chapters, this one is going to be very angsty. If that's not your thing, put down the device and walk away.
As is always the case, I don't own anything and make no money from it.
Prologue
"Breathe. Breathe." She doesn't know who said it. She does not recognise the voice and she can't seem to focus on anything around her.
It's hard to breathe, she is bathed in pain. It feels like she is being torn apart from the inside. Surely there should not be this much pain. Surely this is not normal.
There are voices and movements all around her but she cannot concentrate on any of them. All her attention seems to be pulled inwards. Towards the pain.
"She should be entering a trance, she appears to have achieved only a partial state. Where is her mate, it will be easier for her if he is here?
The pain tears through her again. She does not hear the answer. Where is he. Why is he not here. She lost him, she can't remember how. She tries to reach out to him with her mind, but the pain draws her away from her thoughts.
Perhaps he will not come. She feels a wave of despair at the thought. Tears form in her eyes and roll down her face. No one comforts her, it is not their way.
The pain rips through her again. She cannot help but scream.
"Her condition is advancing too rapidly. She will be in danger if she cannot complete the trance. We may have to medicate her."
More discussions and movements she cannot focus on. Nobody touches her or speaks to her. She is alone with her agony.
She feels the cool press of a hypospray at her neck and hears the hiss of its release. She tries to reach out to him again, before she is pulled under by the drug.
The spiralling pain resumes again. Why won't it stop?
The haze surrounding her starts to darken as the drug woks on her system. She begins to panic, gasping for breath.
She is slipping into unconsciousness, but fighting it all the way. Suddenly she can sense him near.
"I'm here, baby. It's okay, I'm here." Then she remembers, this where she has always found him, in her sleep. She allows the unnatural slumber to take her to him, the pain starts to fade away.
It feels so real she can't help but whisper his name.
"Trip?"
It feels so real she could almost believe he is really here with her.
"That's right, I'm here." He is always with her here, in her dreams.
It feels so real that in her last moments of awareness she can even feel his touch as he speaks to her.
She feels his lips brush her forehead "I'm here, it's okay, I'm here. Just relax, baby, that's right, just breathe...
XXX