~Sucre~
23 Hours Later
In my hazy consciousness, I hear a voice speaking to me. The voice is familiar, but I cannot recall who it belongs to.
My eyelids are too heavy, my mind almost a complete blur, unable to think. My whole being seems to be sinking into an endless darkness, a bone-chilling cold seeping into my marrow.
Resisting this sinking force is incredibly difficult. Giving in would instantly make everything feel lighter.
"Sucre."
Someone is calling out to me again.
I can no longer remember that gentle woman's voice or appearance, but whenever I dream of her, I know she is the one.
Why does she keep coming into my dreams? Did she not abandon me?
I don't want to answer her, but my gaze involuntarily looks ahead. I see the woman looking at me with a gentle smile and suddenly realize I have become a child.
I still don't speak, just staring at the woman's face, so clear in the dream but only a blurry outline in my waking memory.
I miss her, but she left too early, so early that I cannot even remember her appearance clearly.
The man practicing boxing in the courtyard disappears, replaced by a coffin sent back from the battlefield.
The woman, now dressed in mourning clothes, prostrates herself before the coffin, weeping bitterly. A room full of maids and old women cannot restrain her.
She picks my child form up and sits him on her knee. Her gentle voice becomes very distant, "In the future, Sucre must become a great hero like his father. But you must live a very long life, unlike him."
My child form nods.
"Be good, go outside to eat. I made them very spicy, just the way you like it." She wipes the tears in her eyes and her mouth quivers as she speaks. "You do not deserve a mother, Sucre."
Once again struggling to wake from my own nightmare, I find myself drenched in cold sweat.
A numbing medicinal taste permeates my mouth. Opening my eyes, I see a patched bed curtain, with a figure standing backlit by the bedside.
I glance sideways and see Wildbluebell looking at me with a mix of shock and bewilderment, holding a medicine bowl in her hands.
She mumbles in her mind, unable to speak, "The medicine must taste awful…"
"…"
My breathing, which has been more rapid than usual after the nightmare, suddenly calms in her scent. The unpleasant emotions lingering from the dream are miraculously suppressed by her words.
Frowning, I give the woman sitting by the bedside a peculiar look before struggling to sit up. I extend my pale, thin hand towards her. "Give it to me."
Even in my sickly state, her face is still remarkably beautiful.
She hesitates for a moment before realizing I want the medicine bowl she is holding.
She glances at the bandages on my hand and kindly touches them, "Your hand has two deep cuts from a sword, and the tiger's mouth is torn. The healer says you shouldn't strain it right now."
I take the bowl from her hands. Feeding myself hardly counts as a strenuous activity.
I down the foul-smelling medicine in one gulp and return the bowl to her.
She rummages in her sleeve pocket and pulls out a piece of candy. "Have some candy to get rid of the bitter taste."
My expression immediately darkens. I close my eyes and shake my head. "No need."
But in the next moment, my jaw is grasped with a clever force, making my mouth open, and the candy is popped in.
"You!" I glare at her angrily.
Wildbluebell sits back with a smile. "Isn't it sweet? There's nothing shameful about disliking bitterness. You seem to have already been so injured even before you came to that trial ground. Thank you for saving me. I'd be dead without your help." She thinks, looks at me, and then around her for a pen and paper.
"There's no need. I can read your mind," I sign, but a tumble of confused thoughts and feelings assails her.
"What are you doing with your hands? I don't understand them, but I can weirdly hear only your voice," she writes on the paper.
"You can? Definitely weird. Don't you know how to use sign language? I can hear your thoughts, so don't bother writing."
Her hands clutch her chest as if reading her thoughts is an invasion of privacy. She later relaxes. "No one taught me sign language. It was banned in the pack. What's your name?"
So she has no means to communicate?
"Sucre. Sucre Winchester "
"Meaning sugar? " She chuckles.
Perhaps it is the warm sunlight filtering through the window behind her, but her smile seems exceptionally bright and warm.
At least, it is much warmer than her face for the past few days.
The sweetness of the candy melting on my tongue drives away the lingering bitterness.
Now, as I look at my mate again, noticing her slender shoulders and the glimpse of bandages visible beneath her sleeve, my chest feels clogged with damp cotton, suffocating and moist.
She has been injured herself, and I managed to get to my cabin before exhaustion took me out.
"How did you... Why did you save me and how did you know I was there? The judgment was said to be passed secretly with only the councils and pack leaders and elders present. Civilians weren't allowed."
I have stalked you for days when I caught your calming scent?
"Stalking a lady, Sucre? Seriously?" Caine growls. "Don't make her hate us with those words. She will feel you wanted something from her and she's already emotionally betrayed; don't make it worse."
"She's your mate, why not talk to her yourself then? Asshole," I mutter. Sadly, it is a loud mutter and again she stares at me with more confusing thoughts, wondering if I have gone mad.
I fall silent, turning my head away and pressing my lips tightly together.
"Why would he save me? Does he find me attractive? Is he working for my father? Is he finding it hard to find a mate, and a condemned girl would never say no after she's been saved? Is he an omega without a wolf? I mean, he couldn't heal as well, or is he human?"
I honestly wish I could stuff cotton in my ears to stop hearing those arguments in her head.
"I will get clean water. This one is gone already, you've been burning up all night," she says and carries the bowl out with the towel.
The candy in my mouth has long dissolved completely, leaving only a faint sweetness on my tongue.
Only then do I look out the window. I have finished the candy, but the person who gave it to me has not yet returned.
I manage to get to my feet and scout the cabin, but her scent has faded.
Fate gave her to me when I needed her most, and God help me—and this pack—if I can't find her. My brutality is legendary, and I will unleash it without measure to bring her back.
I fight to sit up against the wall, my claws carving tracks into the floor. I struggle to calm my ragged breaths, desperate to catch her trail once more. I waited so long... and now, she's gone.
My eyes burn and I shudder violently at the loss. My anguished roar makes the entire city tremble.