All Chapters of Awakening - Rejected Mate: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

I lay on the makeshift fur bed I made myself last night, resting on my stomach lazily with a good size of the pelt over the top of me, hands crossed under my chin as I watch the early morning birds peck at the scraps I left on my cooking stone. Dancing around and merrily, eating what little I left behind. The fire has long smoldered out and everything around me is dewy with early morning moisture. Everything still, and peaceful, in the morning glow of a newly rising sun, and oddly still. I made it through another night, and I’m still here, waking with a better mood with every day this pans out.I didn’t find a cave or shelter last night, so curled up in the bear pelt, that took me a full four days to scrape and clean and dry out in the sun on the hottest rocks I could find. I’m no expert in tanning, or preserving pelts, but it works enough, even if it’s a bit stiff and smelly, and it’s worth lugging with me every day, despite the added bulk and wei

Who knows? I don’t think I ever will. I don’t think I will ever find the ability to forgive him for it either, even if it was all in the fate’s crazy masterplan. Maybe I’m trying to find a reason to justify all of this because I was always taught that the fates are never wrong. They always have a purpose for everything they do, even if we can’t see it. Even leaving lonely little girls as unseen shadows in homes for unwanteds, and then showing her a light of hope before crushing it in her face and throwing it far away.I don’t dwell for long. I know if I do, the bitterness, the sadness, and anger, it starts to consume me and destroy my mood. I have to move and find somewhere to settle tonight, before the dark moves in, and I want some hours of daylight to properly set up my bed, find leaves and dried grass to pad it first. It’s become a ritual daily to help keep me sane. One thing I’m finding is instrumental to my mental well

When I get up there, I manage to find a flat enough spot that with one of my pelts rolled out I snuggle into a dip between two parallel boughs and can properly lay down, without having to anchor myself to anything. I hang my backpack on a broken stump on the trunk and lay out on top of my makeshift bed, stretching and wriggling to see how comfy I can get, satisfied that this isn’t too bad as long as it doesn’t get windy or rain tonight. I don’t want to unroll pelts that could slide off if I roll in my sleep and draw attention to lurking wildlife. I won’t have a fire to keep some of the natural creatures at bay up here, so I have to make do with cold meat, a bumpy bed, and the rustling and swaying of the trees to lull me into slumber. Not that I think it’ll be an issue, as now I’m up here, my eyes are heavy and my brain cloudy with fatigue. It’s been a long day.I sit and watch the building through the foliage for a while, sat at my safe

The whizzing whistle of air that skids past my left ear and physically inflicts a searing pain with the high pitch velocity it passes me with, makes me jump sideways and crash into bushes as I run at speed. I almost swallow my own tongue and my stomach lurches, about jumps out of my body with the scare. It gives me a near heart attack, and I scramble in stinging, scratching bushes to fight my way back out. I get caught up in thorn heavy vines and trip back over my own muddled legs.The fall makes me tumble and roll into hedge way, knocking my shoulder on rocks and stops my scrambling for a second. I take a moment to look back at the surging sunlit bright area I left behind, gasping as I see the pouring of black dressed men coming from some ground level hatch near the main door, like a concealed lid lifted from the gravel, and four maybe five bodies appear on the ground above. There are already two outside the gates and both are facing this way, looking intensely into the wood w

“Where am I?” I blurt out boldly, not really caring about polite and friendly given my current predicament, and the fact this asshole has me lassoed to a bed, while Willy Wonka style bobbing nearby. My spine is agony at the point of that damn dart, and it feels like I’m black and blue all over. Only just beginning to feel my fingers and toes and despite starting to regain some alert, I feel like I’m not quite here fully yet, and this still has an aura of dreamlike to it.“Oh, of course… silly me. How rude and utterly awful. Let me introduce myself first. I’m Doctor George William Robert Adams, I’m the resident chief scientific officer at this facility, and you my dear are our guest. Sadly, we did have to take some measures for both our safety and yours, given that like my acquaintances, you seem to possess a certain wonderful gift, but it’s a temporary arrangement until we become better acquainted. I hope you won’t ho