My Fated Mate Can Have Her-Chapter 192: The Fall
Violet
I moved through the aftermath of the chaos with my heart pounding against my ribs.
This part of the forest was a ruin. Small trees had been snapped in half, their splintered trunks jutting up like broken bones. Deep gouges scarred the earth where the creatures had trampled through, and the air was thick with the smell of blood and crushed vegetation.
Our things were scattered everywhere.
I spotted Rowan’s bag first, half-buried under a pile of torn leaves and dirt. The strap was broken, but when I pulled it free, most of the contents were still inside. My own bag was a few paces away, its side torn open but still holding together.
I gathered what I could, shoving items back into the damaged bags with trembling hands. A lot of our things, especially the food was crushed or leaking, but I took what was salvageable and I didn’t have time to be careful.
The bond pulled at me, faint and flickering. It was still there, but something was wrong. The connection felt thin and strained and my worry only increased as time passed.
The bags followed me as I ran.
It didn’t take long for the sound to reach me before I saw it. It was a deep, thundering roar that grew louder with every step I took.
I burst through a line of trees and stumbled to a halt.
A rushing river poured down a cliff and when I moved along the bank to the edge, my stomach dropped.
Below me, a massive, thundering waterfall plunged into a wide churning river. The water crashed against rocks at the bottom, sending up clouds of white spray that caught the fading light. The drop was steep, terrifyingly steep, and the mist that rose from the impact almost looked like jagged teeth waiting to tear apart anything that fell.
Mist rose from the impact, and the roar of it was so loud I could feel it vibrating in my chest.
The bond pulled downward.
’No...’
He couldn’t have survived that fall.
No one could survive that fall.
I had to get down.
I scanned the cliff face desperately, looking for a path, a way down, anything. My mind was spiralling, thoughts crashing into each other like the water below. He was still alive. I could feel it. The bond was faint, but it was there.
But that fall...
I found a narrow ledge cutting diagonally down the cliff face. It was barely wide enough for my feet, slick with spray from the waterfall, and one wrong step would send me tumbling into the depths below.
Uncertain of how safe it was, I moved away from the edge and paced frantically around, searching for another path down that wouldn’t kill me. But it was taking such a long time that I found my way back to the cliff’s edge and decided to take that route.
It was dangerous but possible.
And I didn’t want to waste any more time.
I pressed my back against the cliff and started moving, my fingers digging into every crack and crevice I could find. The spray from the waterfall soaked through my clothes, and the roar of water was so loud I couldn’t hear my own ragged breathing.
Water soaked through my clothes, my footing slipped twice and both times I caught myself, my heart lurching into my throat.
Still, I kept going with the desperate hope that he was alright.
The bond pulled me forward, growing slightly stronger with every foot I descended.
He was down there. He was alive. I just had to reach him.
When the slope finally levelled out, I was able to slide down for most of the path, and then climb down the last stretch onto a narrow bank of rocks and gravel at the river’s edge.
Water sprayed in my face and ears, and the water dragged me with a strong force even when I had only managed to land at the edge.
A few drags and pulls later, despite not releasing my hold on the bags, I dug my feet into the wet sand and held my ground, spitting and coughing as I pushed my way out to the dry land.
I wiped at my face and frantically looked around.
I stilled.
There was a lot of blood, how could I not have seen it from so high up?
The river bank was littered with bodies. Wolves, at least four of them, along with eight of those animals, lay broken and still across the rocks. Their throats had all been ripped out, but their bodies were twisted at wrong angles, limbs bent in ways that spoke of violent deaths. Blood stained the stones beneath them, mixing with the water that lapped at the shore.
And there, slumped against a boulder at the water’s edge, was Rowan.
He was in his human form, his clothes torn and soaked with blood. So much blood that for a horrible moment, I thought it was too late.
’No. No. No.’
I was scrambling across the rocks toward him when his chest moved with shallow, laboured breaths. Relief hit me so hard my knees nearly buckled and the bags dropped carelessly as I eventually fell to my knees beside him.
My trembling hands hovered over his body, not knowing where to touch, and afraid of hurting him further.
"Rowan," I gasped. "Rowan, can you hear me? Rowan?"
His eyes opened slowly. They were glassy, unfocused, but when they found my face, something in them softened.
"You’re alright," he breathed. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮
But just as he said those words, my heart nearly stopped at the way his massive frame shuddered as if it was taking him so much effort to even speak.
"Don’t say anything, please," I whispered. "You’re the one covered in blood."
What was I supposed to do now?
’What do I do?’
’What do I do?!’
’WHAT DO I DO?!’
He tried to smile but it came out more like a grimace. "Most of it isn’t mine," he whispered back, wheezing.
"We need to move. What happened to you? Can you walk? Are you in pain?!" I asked in a rush, already grabbing his arm and getting ready to pull it over my shoulders when he groaned in pain, his head rolling forward with a tight grimace on his face.
