~ALARIC'S POV
The silence was my first awareness which felt like a heavy blanket was being wrapped around me, and was no different from the darkness I had lived in for centuries.
Then came the softer things.
The faint, almost imperceptible snores of a person beside me and a steady heartbeat pulsing near my side, that sounded rhythmic like a metronome counting time I could not see.
My blind eyes did not know what hour it was, lost as I was in the endless black expanse of my world. But the longer I lay awake, the more one truth settled heavily in my chest.
The scent beside me was familiar.
Far too familiar.
My lips parted, whispering her name like a curse, "Dove."
My head felt hollow as I tried to piece together what had led to this moment. Almost immediately, a sharp pain recked through my skull, and recollection of what had happened between us the night before began to replay in my head bits by bits.
The heat.
The hunger.
The loss of restraint.
