AN; I hope you enjoy this update! I've been making the chapters shorter FCC to get them out quicker. Please comment and vote! I love to see and interact with my readers. Anyways I'm so grateful for my 283 reads and 58 votes. I'm almost to my voting goal! Enjoy! Thanks for reading -Sam(:
———————————————————-
I smiled in disbelief. "I thought the whole point of bringing me here was to convince me to meet you in the space in-between our bonds, so we could stay away from each other."

For the first time, I actually wished I knew what he was feeling right now. I hadn't been feeling any emotions, except my own since we entered this memory.

"Help stay away for now, not forever. That would be impossible."

"Not if you find another mate," I folded my arms around my chest. The thought of him with another girl made me uncomfortable, but it was the best I could hope for.

"I don't think I will. I have met others that could have been my mate, but this pull I feel towards you is something I have never felt before. Aurelia, I'm not sure if you understand since you are a...."

"Since I'm a Lunera," I finished the sentence for him. "No you're right I don't understand. I do understand what I need to do to survive, and that is staying away from you. Goodbye, Grayson."

I turned and stormed through the sliding glass door. The red door was within my sight. But I hadn't taken two steps into the room when I was being yanked back out onto the balcony by the small of my arm.

When I turned to face him, Grayson's eyes were a bright yellow.

"Let me go, Grayson," I said calmly, even though I wanted to yank my arm away from him, and make a run for the door. But it would be a mistake to trigger his wolf.

He released me and moved to stand between me and exit.

"I told you, staying away from each other is not an option," he said calmly.

"So if I said yes, and became your mate then what? Do you watch me die, or would you prefer if you kill me yourself?"

"Stop saying that!" Grayson growled. "I would protect you from the Alpha!"

"You can't protect me, you can't even protect yourself from the Alpha! Or did you forget that I just saw your dad whipping you within an inch of your life?"

The hurt on Grayson's face was instant and I felt my heart sink.

"Grayson..."

Grayson stepped away from the sliding glass door "You're right Aurelia, maybe I can't protect you."

"Grayson," I repeated and moved to stand in front of him. He looked away from me. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that but this is the way it needs to be," I reached up and touched the side of his face and he looked down at me.

The moment our eyes locked, the same jolt of energy I felt when we first met, coursed through my body.

Before I processed what was happening, Grayson grabbed my face and pulled my mouth to his. I stumbled back and we both fell against the railing of the balcony.

All other thoughts disappeared as his body pressed up against me and his lips moved against my mouth. His hands slid from my face to my thighs and he pulled me closer.  I breathed in his scent deeply, he smelled so good. Under the salt and sunscreen, he smelled like a winter pine forest.

His mouth left mine and I protested until his lips found my collar bone. His teeth playfully nipped at my skin and left a trail of fire all the way up to my shoulder, right to the spot he would mark me.

"Ti ho trovato!"

Grayson and I both jumped, and I snapped out of whatever spell I had been under. I pushed Grayson away. The sun had slipped away from us, and the sky was a blanket of twinkling stars.

"Shit," Grayson muttered. He grabbed my middle and yanked us both back. In the next instant, a winged shape rose into the air and perched itself on the railing I had just been leaning against.

The griffin stared at us menacingly with its ember orange eyes. Its lion-like tail flicked back and forth, while a low hiss escaped its beak.

With a loud screech, it leaped at us. Grayson and I flung ourselves in opposite directions of the balcony, to avoid the mass of feathers and fur.  I went right while he went left.

The griffin chose left, and pounced at Grayson, and Grayson landed a hard kick to his side before. The griffin let out an angry growl and took a swipe at him with his claw. Grayson jumped out of the way but wasn't fast enough and the second swipe scraped his arm.

Still the skill he was showing made me wondered how I had been able to knock him out.

With Grayson preoccupied with the griffin,  I slipped back into the room and hurried towards the red door. I placed one hand on the knob and spared one final look behind me. Grayson's attention was focused on his enemy.

Could I really just leave without trying to help him? Yeah, I could. The worst that could happen was the memory shattering. The worst that could happen to me in here just did. I had lost control of myself  after just one kiss.

"Sorry."

He spared a glance at me.

"You could leave me to fight a thousand griffins by myself, and I wouldn't care. Because now I know for sure that I'm not the only one that feels this pull. See you soon, Aurelia."

With his words echoing in my head, I wrapped my hand around the knob and pulled.

"Aurelia?" Beatrice's voice filled my ears. I opened my eyes. "Are you okay?" she peered over the side of her bed at me.

I sat up slowly from the wooden blanks, my eyes danced around the room. "Yeah..."

Beatrice laid back down in her bed. "No you aren't, Caesar is worried about you."

"Caesar needs to mind his own business I spat."

Without another word, I got up and returned to my bed. I stripped out of the blue dress and found the oversized shirt I had at the end of the bed. I slipped it over my head. I collapsed backward on the mattress and closed my eyes, knowing very well sleep would not come to me for the rest of the night.

While I laid there in the dark,  I couldn't stop myself from thinking of Grayson.  Even the sun didn't banish him with his arrival.  I got up, and the weight of a night without sleep hit me like a bolder.

Still, I dragged myself out of bed to wash my face in the bathroom sink, before returning to the room where Beatrice was starting to wake up.

I walked over to the dresser and removed a red flannel and a pair of jeans and my boots. I retrieved a thick pair of wool socks, that would help me fit into my work boots that were about two sizes too big for me. I secured my hair into a low ponytail and returned to the bathroom to evaluate my reflection, I looked dreadful.

I began to descend the stairs. I was at the top of the final flight of stairs when the sound of soft sobbing filled my ears.

I paused and took a couple of deep breaths to prepare myself, and then continued my descent.

I found Marmee, one of the only two adults that lived in the house, in one of the many chairs positioned around the fireplace. She had her arm wrapped around the little girl from the night before. Her little body quivered while she sobbed.

I smiled. I was happy to see she was awake now. "Morning," I said.

The girl looked back at me with tear-filled eyes and let out a little sniffle.

I descended the rest of the stairs and grabbed the brown oversized coat I used to do work outside, from among the countless other coats hanging from hooks lining the wall beside the stairs.

Where are you heading off to?" Marmee asked me and then leaned down closer to the girls. "This is Aurelia, she's the one that found you last night and brought you back here ."

"It's my turn to check the box, remember?"

"Doubt there will find anything," she nodded towards the little girl beside her. "But it is always a good idea to check. Just in case."

I walked towards the front door and stepped through it into the cold, crisp air. I yawned and my breath fogged in the air.

The sun sparkled off the snow and crunched beneath my boots, while I made my way down the drive and towards a cluster of pine trees that concealed the dark blue box behind their thick branches. The top layer of the box was covered with an inch of snow, which I quickly brushed off.

———————————
themagicwordfortheupdateon5element *unicorns*
———-

I opened the box and stared down at its content in shock. The girl from the night before, the girl I had just seen back at The Barn moments early, stared up at me.

"Who... are you?" she asked in a small scared voice.