Page 34 of Stolen By The Beast
Although I knew Juniper enjoyed my company, I still struggled with the insecurity of her fully accepting me. I was a beast, whereas she was like an unstable fawn still learning the world around her.
Where she was young, I was ancient.
Where she was soft, I was savage.
Where she was human, I was monstrous.
Could the two of us bonding really ever truly be?
It didn’t matter. I had made up my mind. In the beginning, I’d shunned Juniper’s existence in my world, but I wasn’t going to push her away anymore. She herself insisted she wanted to stay, and from the smell of her, she viewed me as a mate.
But to make her one was something else altogether.
It required a gift, as she called it, a tangible symbol of my commitment. This gift would mark the beginning of our new journey together, as well as my vow of eternal protection. I would never leave her side and would forever provide for her.
Glancing down at my saroque, I acknowledged the relic of my solitary existence. It was a gift for my Chosen long ago, but that was a past I was choosing to leave behind. It was nothing but a memory of the pain and the loss I had suffered.
And so much had changed in the short time I’d been with Juniper.
I felt lighter—brighter—as if her very existence eased the black abyss eating at my insides.
With this in mind, I unsheathed my claws, and I severed my saroque. The decisive swipe cut through the bone instantly, and I braced myself for the pain. My breath quickened, and the forest seemed to hold its breath in anticipation.
The pain was sharp, but it was nothing compared to the depth of emotion that surged within me. Every sensory detail was heightened by the gravity of my decision. The metallic scent of my own blood filled the air, an acrid reminder of the sacrifice I made for my newly Chosen.
Licking my claws clean of the crimson liquid, the sharp tang lingered on my tongue. The taste was as bittersweet as the emotions welling within me and abated some of the physical sensations that seared throughout my body.
For a moment, the forest blurred around me as I clutched my severed saroque in my claw. My heart pounded loudly in my ears as I kneeled down. With trembling fingers, I began to dig into the soft earth, creating a pit.
Each scoop of soil felt like a step toward a new beginning—away from the darkness that had defined me. As if knowing this, the blackness within stirred, a shifting, nebulous force that had always been a part of me.
It was as if it echoed my own doubts and fears.
It reminded me of the challenges that lay ahead, but mating bonds were rarely easy. It was two halves becoming a whole, and that took patience and compromise—even more so, considering how unalike Juniper and I were.
But this was what the black abyss wanted, as did I, and I would do anything necessary to keep Juniper’s lips smiling. My own mouth curved upward at the thought as I placed my saroque at the bottom of the hole I had dug.
Then, I pushed the dirt over the stark white bone, burying it deep within the earth from which I had once been born. I bowed my head in final remembrance for my first Chosen—and all my brethren—before leaning back on my haunches.
I was ready to let my past go and embrace my future.
With this final resolve, I turned my attention to the empty space where my saroque had once been. Turning my attention inward, I implored the darkness within to grow me a new one—a blank one—as a gift for the female it coveted.
The night held its breath, and in the stillness, I waited for the response from the abyss as I focused all my energy on where my saroque had once been.
A sensation unlike any other I’d ever felt tingled at the junction of my legs. It carried with it the faint whisper of life, which gradually grew into a pulsating warmth that coursed through my pelvis.
As I gazed at the space where my saroque had once been, I witnessed the impossible. A delicate bud emerged from my slit, bathed in the soft, ethereal light of the night sky.
It unfurled slowly, like a fragile blossom in the moonlight, and I watched in awe as it began to take shape, growing longer, thicker, firmer…
And was completely blank.
There was a faint, rhythmic hum around me and then silence, as if the very forest held its breath. It bore witness to my extraordinary transformation along with the night.
The earth trembled beneath my hooves, celebrating this moment of rebirth with me, and the air filled with the metallic scent of blood—the price I paid for this regrowth.
With each passing moment, my saroque stretched upward, its form becoming more defined. It was a symbol of the new path I had chosen.
