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Christobel

Author: Elizra Down
last update Last Updated: 2024-03-05 23:53:38

It takes two days for Rafe to move more than three feet from my side and let someone other than the doctor and a single nurse near me. My recovery is taking a while, slower still because of the weakened mate bond, the severe blood loss, and how deep I gouged my neck. The pack doctor has said repeatedly that it is a miracle I survived. Miracle. I think I’ve read that word once or twice in my life. Never has it been used to describe any part of my existence.

Now, I’ve heard it probably three dozen times.

Miracle. Miracle. Miracle. Goddess’s Blessings.

“If your mate hadn’t been there, you wouldn’t have survived, Ms. Pride.”

“The Goddess is smiling down on you that you are still here with us.”

“Your bond must be incredibly strong. It seems Rafael willed you back to life.”

Every update on my health comes is peppered with these statements. And Rafe squeezes me tighter every time, nearly purring into my hair or shoulder. Wide awake, recovering in his arms, I don’t doubt the doctor’s words. I
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    Christobel’s caring face twists in a grimace of pain as she watches me from above, squeezing me tight in her embrace. It’s as if she feels my pain beyond rote sympathy.I’ve seen this expression before when I was a child.Of course, it wasn’t directed at me but at one of my classmates at the pack school. After a rough game during recess, a little girl fell to her knees and skinned them on the hot asphalt. Her mother, one of the teachers at the school, scooped her up and soothed her immediately.The little girl recovered quickly, but her mother was still shaken for some time, refusing to let her child go once the skinned knees were treated, and she was ready to resume playing. The pain on her face… as she wept with her hurt child, even harder than the little girl. A strange sight for me, the outcast without a mother. The tainted child whose own father treated her like scum on the bottom of his boot.I knew better than to expect a display of affection and care like that. But I always wo

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  • Forsaken Mate   Safety is an Illusion

    The air around us shifts, and Christobel’s soft voice takes on a pointed edge.“When you arrived in that state, I—” Christobel sits the bowl of soup on the side table and takes my hands into hers. “Rafael was inconsolable. It was the most gut-wrenching thing to see. My strong boy weakly crying out for help. And then he told me what happened to you.”Again, distress tents Christobel’s brows, and a pinched frown drags the corners of her lips down. She’s fighting the tears brimming, holding her composure by a thread. Mine slips at the sight of her heartbroken expression.“He told me about what your father did and said. How you spent your entire life hated in that place, treated like…” She squeezes my hands, bringing them to her lips and kissing gently on their backs. “I promise you, Makayla. You will never suffer like that again. Even if you double down on rejecting the mate bond and refuse to let Rafe into your heart, you will always be welcome in Io. We will accept you and treat you li

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