In a Heartbeat (MxM)

Chapter 35

A/N: So I know it's hella late, but it's a longer chapter, and I had to do some major plot planning so hopefully it'll soon make up for it lol. Things will be definitely getting more and more interesting hopefully, so I hope you enjoy! I'm starting to look forward to Vince chapters more because he's finally getting to a place where I feel like he's a little more reasonable than before, and it'll be easier to explain some of his weird and questionable antics. As always, thanks for the reads, comments, and votes, I really look forward to reading all the comments I receive, and I may not always respond to them (mainly because I'm afraid I'll end up spoiling things lol), I still appreciate them from the bottom of my heart. 

Chapter 35

Vince's POV

The water setting was just shy of scalding, but nothing I did could erase the cold sensation on my chest where Simon had touched. My chest felt like it had been dunked in an icy lake and left in the snow for days, the cold seeping in and crawling to the other parts of my body. I had never experienced something like this, not even with Sarah. Maybe this was a result from taking a smaller dose of suppressant, but even when I had skipped it for a week, I didn't feel this cold. There had to be something wrong with the medicine, I mean what else could it be?

Unless it was what Simon mentioned earlier about our wolves. If the bond was truly there between them, then that would explain why Simon could feel him and I couldn't feel his. Maybe that's why I had felt so cold.

Even if the scalding water left a blistering wound, I wasn't sure if anything would make me feel any warmer. And as I continued to stare at the same stone tile I had been looking at this whole time, I wondered if Simon had ever felt this. He was never on suppressants, so did that mean he was freezing like this all the time, or, was this just some withdrawal symptoms from lowering the dose?

It was just like the pain from the week I skipped the meds. I had chalked it up to withdrawals, but what if it was actually from the bond itself? If that was the case-

That's what he felt for sixteen years. Sarah's words rang in my ears. Given the devastating look he had on his face, it was quite possible too.

But there was a brief moment his expression had shifted. It had happened so quickly that I could've blinked and missed it. The corners of his eyes and lips lifted, maybe just a few millimeters, and he had let out a shaky breath as if relieved. His eyes had glimmered, more alive then he probably ever had. And then he had told me that he could feel my wolf, that although barely, he was still there. He had been relieved then, almost ecstatic at the fact that he wasn't dead, but his melancholic expression quickly returned after realizing just how weak and close to death he was.

It also probably didn't help that I had treated it as no big deal, despite how serious everyone was telling me it was. It's not that I truly didn't think it was a big deal, I know it is. But I didn't want to think about it, I didn't want to acknowledge it because it would only make it just more real.

I don't know how long I stood in the shower, but when I finally stepped out, the steam in the shower had fogged up the whole bathroom, so much that I could hardly see the door handle. I dried my hair haphazardly before throwing on some shorts and a t-shirt.

Fumbling for the door, it came with no shock that Simon was dozing off, in what looked to be an incredibly odd and slightly uncomfortable position. His knees were drawn up, his head nearly a ninety-degree angle leaning on the back of the couch. His face was relaxed, maybe more so now then that brief moment he had when he felt my wolf.

His neck would definitely be hurting tomorrow if he stayed like that. I wasn't sure how he wasn't already feeling the tightness in his legs and neck from that position in the first place. Even when Sarah sat with her foot tucked under her other leg, she'd complain about the tingles she'd get within a few minutes. Surely Simon could not be comfortable like that.