boats out on the water, even the land behind her was barren. No motels or stores. No restaurants and no stands selling towels and bottled water. She was completely alone.
Surely she wouldn?t be by herself if this was heaven. If so, she?d escaped one prison, where at least she had company, only to be cast into another of eternal solitude.
She thought she heard someone call her name and spun in a circle. The sound was faint. Maybe she?d imagined it. She sighed, her shoulders slumping with disappointment. She was alone.
She walked along the beach, wiggling her toes in the sand. Her physical pain had left her, but a new pain had formed within her. She?d tried to feel Dirk, but she couldn?t get anything. Not even the slightest glimmer. This was different from when he was sleeping. When he slept, she was still able to feel him. It was usually faint, but she could still tell that he was there on the other side of the bond. This wasn?t like that. Now, she felt as if there was no connection at all. The thought that she was dead reoccurred and she acknowledged that that may be the reason that the bond had disappeared. If she died, the bond would be broken.
Her heart ached at the thought of losing her last link to Dirk. Then, she imagined what he?d be feeling. She shuddered at the thought of Dirk?s wolf taking over. He?d surely go on a murdering spree. She knew with certainty he wouldn?t let anyone stand in his way. No, everyone in his path would be in danger.
At least he?d have a mission. Something to focus on. What was there for her to do here? Maybe this wasn?t heaven, but instead, some form of purgatory.
She thought she heard someone call her name again, but she ignored it, hoping that she wouldn?t hear it again. The mind could be a cruel thing sometimes.
She heard it again and noted that the voice sounded like Dirk. Was it her mind playing tricks on her, or maybe her heart was willing her to keep faith that Dirk was not gone from her?
A tear slid down her cheek as she hoped that this wasn?t the end, that she hadn?t seen Dirk for the last time or that their first kiss would be their only. There were so many things in life that she had left to discover and she wanted to share the adventure with Dirk. Would she ever get the chance?
She dropped to her knees in the sand with her face in her hands, finally letting the emotion out. Everything she?d experienced contributed to the flow of the tears and the raw emotion behind the streaming tears was comparable to a raging river. Her family, her friends and her pack had abandoned her. She?d awoken in the hospital completely alone. All she?d wanted was to find answers. To find her pack and to find her mate. She?d found Dirk and had been accepted into his pack. She had finally begun to feel whole again. She?d started with nothing but had already been gifted more than enough to make her happy. A wonderful mate and a home. Now she?d lost everything. The other answers she?d sought had turned into a prison of unknowns. First in that basement full of people she didn?t know, and now here, where she was utterly alone to figure out the answers for herself.
Sobs wracked her body and she howled, the mournful sound becoming lost as it drifted over the open ocean.
She heard her name again. This time more clearly and it sounded much closer. She looked up and saw Dirk running across the beach towards her. At first she thought he was a mirage, some sort of figment of her imagination, but she decided that whether he was real or not, she needed to get to him. Being with him, touching him, wrapping herself in his arms was the only thing that she needed at the moment. Dirk was the remedy to cure all that ailed her, including her broken heart.
She leaped to her feet and sprinted toward him, kicking sand up behind her as she ran. She never took her eyes off him, afraid that if she did, he would be gone.
Everything around her seemed to move in slow motion as they moved toward each other. It was if the world had slowed down and everything else in it faded away, lacking any importance. Nothing mattered but her and