Enigma

Chapter 38

Lillian wanted to strip her skin off.

She was hot, itchy and queasy from all the different scents. It was like nothing she had ever experienced. But she had given birth to twins, so this was bearable.

Until the growling at the back of her mind started.

"What do you mean?" Elle asked, sitting with her sword on her lap.

"It's your wolf," Noah said, his eyes smiling. Lillian couldn't help but smile back.

A wolf. She would have a wolf.

She must be dreaming.

Lillian shook her head. The presence was growing stronger by the second. She didn't know what to expect. But as the day waned on, the wolf in her mind started taking shape and growing more present.

Lillian had thought it would be like sharing herself with another entity. But it wasn't.

It was as if a part of her, one that had always been there but which was buried deep within under all the layers of her human consciousness, burst into the surface and came to life.

It was still murky, its presence dreamlike and vague, but it grew stronger with every breath she took.

And then the heat began.

She had thought she couldn't grow any warmer. She was wrong. A furnace flared to life in her chest, spreading through her veins and setting her skin on fire.

Lillian gasped, tugging violently on her top. "It's hot."

Her eyes watered and her mouth dried. The edges of her vision blurred. A haze took over her mind. Noah helped her take off her top, and it barely registered in her fog riddled brain. She didn't care about modesty. All she wanted to do was strip away the layers of clothing abrading her sensitive skin.

Colors blended in her eyes, sounds muddled. She blinked, and her mind blanked.

Cool hands framed her face.

The sensation was a welcome reprieve from the sticky hotness. Lillian focused on it. The earthy scent, at once familiar and new, filtered through her nose to her brain. She opened her eyes. The light had changed. Impossible. How long had she been under? It didn't feel that long. Was she dreaming?

A persistent whisper that got louder. A familiar voice in which she could now hear layers she hadn't before.

"Lillian?"

The world came into focus, and Noah's beautiful face filled her eyes. Every single line, every single hair, every single lash on his face, the three scars along his cheek, every detail was suddenly crystal clear. Her heart hurt from how beautiful he was.

Touching her fingers to his cheeks, Lillian breathed out, her surroundings coming back in a rush of deafening sounds and clogging scents. She winced.

"Focus on me," Noah said. "Just me."

Breathing through her mouth, Lillian did as told. She was laying on her back on the blanket, every fiber of it soft and pressing on her bare back. The sky was the color of dusk, the clouds floating overhead shaped like waves.

"I see everything," she whispered, her eyes on Noah. Focusing on him helped. The heat became bearable. The growling presence in her mind at peace with Noah drowning all her senses.

A fresh breeze blew. It felt heavenly against her hot skin. Noah pressed his lips gently to hers. And her eyelids lowered in blissful oblivion.

There was no peace the next time she woke.