When I woke up, I found myself in the same position before I fell asleep. I sighed in relief. It wasn’t a dream. It really happened. I mated with Ryan last night. Knowing that he will always be by my side was soothing. I will not be alone anymore. For nothing in the world, I will exchange this moment with anything else.

I glanced up and stared at my mate’s sleeping face. Even with his hair all over the place and his lips slightly parted apart, he was still so attractive. Strangely, the fact that he was from the Ignis Kingdom didn’t bother me anymore. He was so nice. Why were we supposed to hate each other in the first place? What was even weirder remained the fact that no one seemed to notice Ryan’s presence in the Kingdom. His wings were so different.

Wanting to feel his hair running through my fingers, I gradually reached out hoping that he won’t wake up. It was so silky. I didn’t know why, but I thought it would be a lot rougher. When Ryan started to stir around, I rapidly retracted my hand. Soon after, his eyes opened, but they were still unfocused. Once he was completely awakened, he gave me a toothy smile. Unable to resist, I shyly smiled back. I was definitely happy that it wasn’t a dream.

"Good morning," he greeted, his voice still hoarse from sleep.

"Good morning," I repeated while smiling, but before we could say anything else, someone loudly coughed to gather our attention.

After Ryan lazily retracted his wings that were enveloping my entire body, I glanced up to meet Sebastian’s eyes. My friend was frowning at us disapprovingly since we were still from last night exercise. Not knowing how to react, I gave him an apologetic smile while waving my hand at him.

“I’m not even going to ask,” he shook his head while sighing. “We leave in ten minutes, so get ready,” he ordered before walking out of the cave.

So, he did notice. Obviously, he would. I wasn’t exactly quiet last night. Despite everything, I am regretting it now. I may not have cared about it last night, but I do now. This was so embarrassing. I was certain that I was blushing from embarrassment. I leaned my head down on my mate’s chest before groaning. When I heard him chuckle slightly. It was really subtle. If I wasn’t this close to him, I may not have discerned it.

After a few minutes of comfortable silence, Ryan retracts his wings completely behind his body. I shivered at the cold air hitting my body before rapidly grabbing at my discarded pieces of clothing on the ground. Completely covered, I yawned and stretched my arms above my head. Suddenly, I was pulled back, and a yelp of surprise escaped my lips. I had my eyes closed until I felt soft lips putting small kisses on my collarbone. I opened my eyes and saw Ryan smirking at me. I quickly looked down hoping that he didn’t see me blush. He was so handsome.

“What's wrong, my angel?” he whispered in a sultry voice as I gaped at him. "You may want to shut your mouth or maybe I shall fill it with something?" he proposed while raising an eyebrow as his eyes glinted with mischievously.

I tried to answer, but I was so surprised by his statement that I could only stare at him. Suddenly, I hear Sebastian shouting at us to hurry up. Breaking out of my trance, Ryan let my waist go before getting dressed. Even if I saw everything last night, I still turned around, so my back was facing him. Clapping my face a few times, I rush outside of the cave. I needed a distraction from Ryan’s naked body. Outside, I noticed that Sebastian was cooking some kind of meat.

"I thought we were leaving soon?" I confusedly asked my friend.

“We won’t be able to travel very far with an empty stomach,” he stated before changing the position of the meat to get an even sear all around it. “Could you go to the lake once more? I used all our water to clean the meat.”

"Yeah, of course," I said before picking up the gourd from the ground.

"I'm coming with you," my mate said as he extended his wings a little.

I jumped out of surprise when I heard his voice right behind me. I didn’t detect him coming at all. I nodded at him as an answer. Ryan securely wrapped his arms around my waist before powerfully flapping them. In a matter of seconds, we were surrounded by fluffy white clouds. It would be marvellous to possess my own pair of wings, but travelling in my mate’s arms wasn’t so bad either.

After we had landed, I observed my mate retract his red wings behind his back. “Thank you, Ryan!" I said while smiling. "I'll be quick!" I shouted as I ran toward the lake.

Humming, I opened the gourds and started to replenish them one by one with water. When I finally finished my task, I walked back to the place where we landed, but I couldn’t see Ryan anywhere. I called for my mate a few times, but I got no answer. Did he fly back to the camp? If he did, it would be nice to say a word before leaving. I pouted as I started to walk my way back. This was so mean. I can’t believe he just left me there without saying anything. Suddenly, I hear a branch crack somewhere behind me. I tensed up and abruptly stopped walking.

"Ryan, is that you?" I hopefully asked as I started to get nervous.

When I didn’t get an answer, I decided that it was safer to walk back to the camp quickly. I don’t want to encounter a wild animal here. I didn’t even take my bow with me. But before I can get far away something sleek with shiny colours jumped in front of me. I could recognize these colours anywhere. A mid-sized four-legged animal with blue and black fur. A majestic pair of horns with some silver designs were shining under the sun. Without a doubt, this was a Shadow Howler!

I needed to escape. I have to get out of here. But how? Shadow Howlers were very fast on their legs. I couldn’t possibly outrun it. Usually, I would just fly away, but I can’t. I needed a miracle to get out of this. Why couldn’t my wings just pop out? All the stories about humans being attacked came back to my mind. I was going to die.

At a slow pace, I took a step back while observing the animal. When he didn’t move, I took another step. I kept moving slowly, never doing any fast movement. However, when I got a few meters between us, the Shadow Howler started to growl. Scared, I stopped mid-step. I was already sweating a lot while breathing heavily. I really hoped that Sebastian or Ryan would notice that I was taking too long to come back.

Suddenly, the fox looking animal started to move toward me. He was growling, and saliva was dripping from his mouth. I swallowed hard. I was ready to run. In a blink of an eye, I found myself being pushed back as he was on top of me while baring his teeth. Frightened, I screamed and called for help. In no time, he aimed for my neck. Somehow, I succeeded to push his muzzle to the left as his sharp teeth sank into the ground. Before he can recover and attack me again, I tried to force it away from me. God, was he heavy! When my arms alone weren’t enough, I kicked him on the sides. The Shadow Howler flinched and tried to aim for my neck one more time. So, I punched the side of his neck while kicking him once again. After a few hits, I finally got him off of me.

Without thinking about it twice, I ran away. I ran as fast as I could. I didn’t even dare to look back. I could clearly hear its footsteps. When I finally saw a trail of smoke above the trees, a sense of relief filled my being. I was almost there!

"SEBASTIAN! RYAN! HELP!!!" I shouted as loud as I could while running.

Once the camp was in view, a new rush of energy helped me cross the few hundred meters. I could see Sebastian flying toward at me with a sword in his hands, but Ryan wasn’t with him. Confused, I decelerated, but that was when the pain hit me. I looked down and the Shadow Howler had my ankle in his mouth. I screamed in pain as my body crumbled down on the ground. It started to chew on my leg and each time his teeth sank deeper into my flesh.

"RYAN, HELP!!!" I shouted more desperate than ever as a big pool of blood accumulated under me.

I was losing so much blood that I was starting to get light headed. Everything began to spin and blur. The pain in my leg started to fade too. My body was so heavy. I didn’t possess enough strength in my other leg to fight the animal anymore.

Ryan, please save me…

Don’t go away…

Don’t leave me…

You promised…

Didn’t you?