Denied by Destiny: Trapped in the Shadows of the Mate Bond

-Josie-

I can't help but lean into his touch, my body moulding into his hold...those tingles at his touch feel even stronger somehow. He was warm and for some reason I was cold. So cold.

There was no doubt who was holding me, his potent scent was calling out to me...leather and sandalwood. I'd happily stay like this forever, within his hold and still in a dreamy state of mind.

"Josie?" A female's voice calls my name and for a brief moment my mind calculates what exactly must be going on.

If I was in the arms of Knox, and my Mum was witnessing...no that can't be right. We were secretive...this can't be real.

I have to be dreaming.

I hear Mum gasp as my eyes open and I manage to focus around me, my vision sharper than usual. My entire family are standing over me and I know instantly something had to be wrong, because their eyes were teary, their faces were death-like...pale as ghosts. "What's going on?" I hoarsely say, grabbing at my throat as pain explodes in the area. It was sore, it hurt to talk..to even swallow.

"We thought we lost you.." Mum leans in, her arms cupping at my face before she starts to smother me with kisses on my cheeks.

"What do you mean?" I search their eyes, the severity of my situation evident for even the most sceptic of characters.

"You don't remember? You were shot by silver bullets..." Knox softly speaks next to me as he places a lingering kiss upon my lips. Tingles dance upon my mouth, his kiss igniting a spark of mini explosions.

I can feel my face reddening at his public display of affection...in front of my brothers, in front of my parents.

"Erm...I think so...humans, they were humans." I frown out from his out of character motion, my brain trying to make sense of the little information I had.

"That's right. You saved the pack Josie, you raised the alarm." Dad proudly declares as he makes no attempt to remove Knox by my side.

"I..." I start to respond that the memory was hazy but slowly coming back to me...but my words stop as a new sensation washes over me...some kind of uncontrollable heat.

I shift in discomfort, my movement alarming Knox next to me as my hands move to cling at my head...a huge blinding migraine hitting me.

"I'm going to vomit." I announce, Knox reaching for a small bin only for the nausea to pass as soon as it came. With my eyes closed I slowly lay back down on the bed, only to reopen my eyes. A dizzy spell now overwhelming me.

"Huh Josie, your eyes..." Jace gasps, and I only notice how different he looks.

I remember now, he had been missing, he had left. I hardly recognise him at first, he looks so...different. If I didn't have that triplet connection with him I would question if he was an imposter...tattoos climbed up his neck like a vine and were even branded across his knuckles.

"Jace?" I question whether it is really him.

"Oh goddess! Look at your eyes." Mum squeals, her hands moving to cover her mouth. Her reaction sending panic through me.

"What is it, what is wrong?" I look at Knox in horror at her response, thinking that my eyes must have been damaged. But rather than look at me with pity, he looks at me with raw adoration.

"They're beautiful, you are beautiful. Look..." He pulls his phone out of his pocket, placing the camera on selfie mode.

I zoom in on my pupils... my eyes that had always been a grey colour, like Dad's but not as menancing...they now had a red ring around the pupil, just like Mum does but hers is blue to her green eyes.

"What does this mean?" I sit up more, excitement rising within me until I feel her...feel her push through the void.

Gasps surround me, as she must push through to peek out through my vision...the sensation foreign and making me reach for Knox in concern.

"She's just looking, she's just being inquisitive...give her a moment." Knox's lips are back by my ear...his reassuring voice helping to soothe me, his hands gripping onto me securely.

What does this mean...does this mean I finally have a wolf. That she has been there all this time...she just needed to be awoken somehow.noveldrama

"In dying you must have awoken her." Auntie Alora comments, her words confusing me.

"Dying...did I die?" I look to Knox whose jaw tenses...his reaction just as surreal to me as his kiss in public had been.