I walked slowly through the house, reacquainting myself with each fixture and crevice. The pantries smelled like sugary cereals. The kitchen table had a nick along the left side where Cam dropped his knife. My fingers trailed over the movie cases in the entertainment center. I could read all the titles in seconds.
The steps weren’t as steep anymore.
The frosted glass door that entered to our bedroom had lost its luster, and I could see everything on the other side. Our bed was disheveled. The white comforter was bunched up on my side of the mattress, feathered out, and licking the rug under the bed.
I crawled from Theo’s side of the bed to mine and moved languidly until the blankets covered me from my toes to my nose. The fabric smelled different.
This felt like a stranger’s house.
This felt like a stranger’s body.
I didn’t understand how to move my arms. My legs felt lighter, or maybe it was that I was stronger, and it didn’t cause as much strain to move them. My fingernails felt too long. My teeth felt foreign.
Nothing about this felt right.
I wanted to go back. I clenched my eyes tightly, hoping that in some alternate universe, I could be back to my old self. But there was nothing. When I opened my eyes again, I blinked away the frustrated tears and pulled the blankets closer.
The fabric felt softer.
I just wanted everything to go back to the way it was. But it couldn’t. I wasn’t human anymore.
I threw the covers off and ran to the bathroom where I turned on the water to the shower. I stepped in, shedding my clothes as they dampened around my skin. Tears blended with the water as they streamed down my face.
I cried out, knowing no one could hear me. Loudly, and without refrain. I cried to get the pain out from my chest.
My mark tingled on my neck, and I knew Theo could tell I was upset. I couldn’t care about him right now, though. I couldn’t fathom the pain he felt because my pain had filled up my entire threshold. There was nothing left for him at that moment.
I knew I was harsh when I yelled at him to leave the hospital room, and I meant to be. I was not worried about being demure and soothing when I screamed, I was worried about my own well-being. I was angry with him, a fit of anger I had never felt before, not even with Reed Porter.
Theo was my mate. He was supposed to protect me and love me and respect me above all else. This wasn’t respect. This wasn’t love. This might’ve been protection, but it was masked under the veil of selfishness. He was being selfish.
I had never made him promise me anything other than this. I hadn’t asked for anything more. This was the only demand I ever made, and he ignored it when he placed his venom in my body.
I heard footsteps outside, and I could sense it was the guards switching their posts. Theo had increased the number of guards at our house and around the perimeter now that he wasn’t in the house to protect me.
By the time I got out of the shower, my toes and fingers were pruned, and my hair had lost any sense of curl. I stepped raggedly over the edge of the shower, leaving my clothes on the tile floor.
I laid on top of the bed, letting all the water soak into the fabrics.
I didn’t remember falling asleep, but I was woken hours later by Gemma entering the house. She called my name, and I could do little else but pull the blanket to cover my bare body. Gemma softly walked up the stairs and knocked on the door.
“M-Margo?” She whispered, cracking the door open. I didn’t respond. “M-Margo, are you ok-kay?”
She walked to the other side of the bed, gently sitting on the edge near my knees. She looked over my blank face, and her eyes grew sad. “How are you feeling? D-Do you have any p-pain?” When she didn’t hear an answer, she grabbed the covers surround my face. Her fingers pulled strands of wet hair from my cheeks and set them behind my head.
“Come on,” she said, standing up. She held her hands out like she was waiting to help me. I didn’t move. She took a deep breath and threw the covers back. I scrambled to pull something around my naked body, but she took my hands and hauled me off the bed. My hands lamely covered my flesh as she walked into our closet.
I was handed comfortable clothes, ones with Theo’s scent on them. I pulled the pants on but glared at the sweatshirt. She sighed and handed me a shirt of my own.She made us sandwiches in the kitchen, and we sat on the same side of the counter, eating them silently.
Then, she started coming by the house every morning, and this became our routine. She would pull me out of bed or off the couch and make sure I ate.
I tried to cook something on the stove but found the smells were too overwhelming. I tried to read in the times I was alone, but the ink impurities on the pages were the only things my eyes caught. I walked around the house aimlessly, watching the guards outside the windows, and wondering how they could function so easily.
My muscles ached inside me, needing to be stretched out multiple times a day. It became difficult to sleep with the muscle aches, and I stayed up most nights, sleeping for a few hours during the day when I could. The cramps would hit me at all times of the day.
I was standing at the sink when my legs wavered so
