Chapter 12

Talias POV

What is this?! 

Where am I? 

Everything looks strange to me. I hear Kara yawn in my head, it feels like I was, then I wasn't, now I am, but it's so different. 

It's so dark and I can barely make out where I am. 

Confusion seized my senses as I explored the limits of my new limbs and the keenness of my newfound senses.

Kara's senses seem so sharp now. Thank you, Luna. 

Memories are flickering in my mind. I have faint flashes where I see myself getting married. What the hell could that be? 

 "Hey Kara," I said to her through our mindlink, "how are you?"

 "Hey you!" She sounds very excited, too excited. "it's been a minute, hasn't it?" 

 "With how I feel, I think it's more than just a minute." 

Kara's throaty life reinvigorates me. Everything seems new, even my happiness. 

As I navigated the dense thicket, instincts guided her towards the distant sounds of howls and barks. 

My feet seem different, my leap too. 

 "Hey Kara," I called her again, "Do you know what happened?"

"Who cares?" she says, laughing. "I'm back and better and that is all that matters."

 "Well, I do." I replied to her. 

 "Good luck figuring it out." She replies without consideration. 

She's happy, so happy for the first time in as long as I can remember, which isn't long. Sikes. 

It would help to have my memory. 

Just then, I feel a plotting ache run through my head. 

It makes my feet unsteady and finally has me tumbling head first in my tracks. 

I feel the warmth of my blood in my mouth and on my face. 

 ' I, Vance Grey, Alpha and leader of The Moonstone Pack,accept you, Talia Anderson, as my fated mate and Luna, to love and cherish, in wolf and man form, throughout both our lives.'

 "Did you see that? Kara!!" We're in the middle of nowhere, and suddenly I don't hear her in my head anymore. I'm scared as fuck. 

 "Hey, I'm here." she says after a little over a minute, just when I had almost started panicking. "I was talking to you."

 "Me?" I'm surprised. I called her and did not get a response until now, neither did I hear her talk. 

 "Yes. I was asking if you heard and saw what just happened." Kara sounds flustered, I am too. 

 "I saw Vance." Saying the name out loud makes it sound overly familiar, and the bell rings louder. 

 "I saw Alex!" Kara's scream doesn't help my already throbbing head. 

 "Who's Alex?" I ask her. 

 "Who's Vance?" She asks at that same exact moment. 

We are both quiet in our musings, wondering what just happened. 

I try to pick myself off the forest floor. 

My vision is blurred by the already drying crusts of blood that I guess is streaming from a split on my forehead. 

Kara and I both have a million unanswered questions from what just happened , but what we do know is that there is no answer deep here in the woods. 

One foot after the other, I keep closing the distance between civility and I. 

The path we are on seems unending. I have no proper estimate, but we have been walking for quite a while. 

And then…

Just when Kara begins to hear possible voices… 

For the second time, the pain splits my head. 

It's so much I bite my lower lips in agony. 

 'I love you more than anything else.'

The voice sounds very familiar now. 

I fall on the floor, amidst thorns and thistles and other unfriendly shrubs. The pain is agonizing. 

I lay still for a while, begging Luna to please help me make it out alive. Alive? Alive! 

Fuck! I'm so confused. Tears are streaming down my battered face, I don't even know what exactly I'm crying for. 

I was happy just a while ago. 

Why do I have to go through all these? Who's trying to pass a message and could not do so less painfully?

The chances of Kara and I making it out of this forest grows slimmer by the second. My breath is labored, and I feel blood drop out of my nostrils. 

 "Hey," Kara calls out to me. Lying face down, my face to the dirt and fallen leaves, I think I want to give up. "We are almost there, don't give up now."

Kara sounds stronger than I think she should. Aren't we both hurt? What happened to me affecting her? 

 "How do you feel, Kara?" 

 "The flashes hurt, but beyond that, I'm okay." Dear Lord, Luna, whoever… What is going on?! 

Between Karas nagging me, and actually needing me to get out of this forest, I pick up what is left of me and begin dragging my wearing body through the woods. 

 "I hear voices." Kara says, making me a hundred percent self conscious. 

 "What do they sound like?" I ask her through our mindlink. I'm panting and exhausted, as much as I want help, I don't want to be seen like this, I look so terrifying I would probably scare myself away. 

 "It's more than one…" Kara's voice trails off in concentration. "It's like a group of people."

I'm burned out and really do not care where or how my steps fall, but I have to be cautious. If Kara could hear people, they couldn't be so far. 

I'm now a lone wolf, I don't know how it feels to be one, so definitely, I never was. I strike that off the list of things that could prompt my memory. 

I'm deeply engrossed in finding out where the voices might be coming from, or where the nearest human settlement might be. 

Suddenly, but worse than previous ones, a searing pain shoots through my head, as if a thousand needles had made a temporary home in my skull. 

The intensity of the sensation was so overwhelming that I clutched my already bloody head, my eyes widening in deep distress.

Time seemed to slow as the pain intensified, radiating through every vein in my body and leaving me disoriented. 

In a desperate attempt to knock it off and find relief, I stumbled backward, my legs betraying my sense of balance. 

The forest spins, and a wave of nausea crashes over me. Gasping for air, I collapsed face down onto the unfriendly floor.

The agony persisted, leaving me helpless and vulnerable.

 I see faint pictures of people, but I'm unable to make out their faces. The world around me blurred. 

 With each heartbeat, my pain echoes, making me wish it to stop. 

 "Isla." I hear, but I'm too weak to look at who was speaking .