Taming A Predator

Chapter 40

Xander's POV:

My throat burned, my empty stomach lurching and expelling nothing but bile into this poor potted plant.

Everything inside my body writhed and twisted in protest, in anger, in its relentless fight to overtake me.

Just when I thought that I'd finally established a hold on it for the night.

Just when I thought that I could manage going back to her and pretending that everything was fine.

The hold wasn't a tight one, but I felt like it was going to be the best I was able to manage.

Which is why I lost it so quickly.

Walking into the room full of things that would have tugged at that part of me even if I wasn't currently trying to suppress it.

The scent of her sadness, her arousal, and the inexplicable guest.

It was too much... It was all too much, and I knew that I was going to lose it right there and then if I didn't flee.

I didn't want her to see that... To see me like this.

I didn't know which of the problems I would have handled first had that part of me gotten the control It was still battling me for, and I didn't want to find out.

My breaths came sporadically, now only able to take quick breaths with minimal punishment.

I nearly crumbled as my stomach lurched again, but there was nothing left in me to vomit, instead leaving me with painful, heaving breathing patterns.

My eyes squeezed shut, tears brimming at the corners at the sudden feverishness throughout my body, sending a trembling through my limbs.

I had no energy left but I kept trying anyway.

Kneeling on the tile floor of the garden, and tried everything I possibly could to just calm down the constant battering going on within me.

Claws dragging marks down the clay pot while every muscle in my body burned from the exhaustion of physically holding this off.

Not even the vampiric healing could help this. Not when that ability stemmed from the part of me that was causing all of this in the first place.

My next swallow burned, scraping down my throat.

I didn't know what to do.

There wasn't any possible solution to this I could both think of, and effectively pull off in this state.

My body was exhausted, and I actually felt solace in that more than anything.

I couldn't do anything if I collapse.

I just had to... keep going until it gets to that point.

The tears fell down my cheek, teeth gritting through the new uncomfortable heat my skin had.

My eyes opened just a crack, turning towards the outside portion of the garden.

I fought to get my feet back under me, each minuscule movement coming with a price.

I paid each one, stumbling and staggering until I could toss open the door.

The thrashing wind this night had was a welcome feeling against my sweat-coated body, offering the first bit of real relief I've had all day.

Tossing my hair and clothes every which way, drying away the tears just for fresh ones to take their place.

I couldn't stand there and enjoy it for more than two seconds before my knees threatened to go out from under me, sending me flailing to my right against the railing, forcing as much weight as I could against it to keep myself upright.