Soul to Soul

Chapter Sixteen - The New Status-Quo.

An Hour Later...
Eve Chambers...

It's official – Andrei is one of my fated-mates. I guess there is a part of me that hoped that my attraction to him would have been the one that was genuinely mine and not some chemical response to something that was predetermined.

That is what it feels like – that what I am feeling is nothing more than an inevitable surge of emotion that I have no control over.

"Sweetheart, if there is one thing that I can give you expert advice on – it's that love works best when you feel a little out of control." My dad had told me that one day when I was about eight years old and I had decided that boys were stupid and that when I was old enough, I would find a boy I could be friends with first and foremost because in my little mind, I believed that a friend would never hurt me, they would take care of me and my heart because the very idea of giving my heart to another human being was terrifying to me. Forget the fact that I had taken what my dad said literally about giving my heart to someone.

As I grew older, and the bullying continued, I clung to the notion that love wasn't worth it. I never imagined that I would find someone who could make me feel safe enough to trust fully. Not until Noah anyway.

It still hurt that he had trampled all over my heart the way he had, but at least it was real, it was actions of free-will. Not something that I felt like I had now.

Maybe it sounds like I am whining about it because I know that the men I am supposedly fated to seem like genuine men. It is clear that they put their faith into this fated-bond thing. That much is obvious with how easily and eagerly they have jumped into this mating-coven idea.

Will I ever get used to it?

Once we explained everything to Andrei and he left to pack up his things, I retreated to my room, which was easily noticeable as the master-suite and fully made up for me. Closing the double doors and flipping down on the bed, I stared at the curve of the ceiling with what looked like black shimmering glitter embedded in the stone. It was a beautiful contrast with the sand-stone. Carvings were etched into the stone in a beautiful swirling pattern. The place should have been cold if you think about all the stone and the slate flooring, but it was magically warm and comforting. It felt good to have a room to myself and given that it was now almost three-am, I was too exhausted to investigate my new domain, it would have to wait for morning, or afternoon depending on when I wake up because thank Heaven it is Saturday and there are no classes on Saturday.

Surprisingly, sleep envelopes me fairly easily as I succumb to the exhaustion from the past few hours, and I fall into a dream that feels more real than the waking world.

~~~~~~~~~~

Waking with a gasp and a jolt, I feel disorientated for a few moments until I feel a presence inside my room. Alert and focused I instantly found the midnight dark eyes of my professor as he gently tried to subdue me, "you were having a nightmare-" he offered by way of a reason as to why he was in my bedroom.

"I-I-"

"What did you see?" He asked me, his voice soft and understanding.

Out of all the guys I seem to be fated to, Kevin is the one who confuses me and excites me the most. I know that I shouldn't have favourites and I won't say that he is my favourite, I wouldn't do that to my other men but there is something about Kevin that speaks to my very essence in a way that I haven't ever experienced before.

"It was dark, everything felt like it was coated in a shadow that bled the light and colour from everything, almost like it had sucked the colour and vibrancy out of everything-" I started to explain and he just nodded, encouraging me to continue, "I was outside I think, somewhere I have never been before. There were mountains on every side of me, the land was barren, again like there was no life to it, no touches of colour which should have been there on the hard ground or even the sky-" I continued as the dream clung to the edges of my consciousness, making me feel off kilter. "I could hear the beating of wings and it was getting closer and closer – I felt the unmistakable warning of being hunted. I started to run but there was nowhere to hide, the woods offered no coverage, there were no buildings anywhere. I didn't even see another person. I could feel the way the thing that was hunting me was toying with me – they wanted me scared and I played right into their hands-" I groaned, dropping my head into my hands.