Eleven years ago…
Cassidy’s POV
My mother told me that my seventh birthday will be memorable. I did not expect it to happen while being stuck on a river.
‘God, I’m doomed.’
I can’t move my right foot. It’s situated between two rocks, not to mention the huge branch from a tree stretching behind me. I don’t want to die just because of my carelessness and me chasing a hermit crab.
“Help!” I shouted in utter desperation. Although I can see the Blyth Mountains from here, I don’t think anyone can see me drowning here in the cold from the view of our Bentley Castle.
“Help! Help!”
It’s useless actually. Any minute now, the current will speed up and I’ll be carried away by the river and into my early demise. It probably will take two or three days, maybe a week, before my family can find me in my watery grave.
‘Shut up, Cassidy! Stop thinking about death on your birthday!’
But I cannot. I’m panicking. Utterly panicking.
“Help!” I’m now struggling to draw breath from my lungs. The water was getting higher and higher, and my left foot refused to move—or was it the river who refused to let me go?
“Help, please!” I’m now crying, that’s all I can do now really.
Poor Cassidy Salem Bentley, the seven years old who died because of chasing a hermit crab into the cold river and has gotten her foot stuck.
If I’m not going to die by the current then the cold will wrap its harshness around me instead. I love the cold; I love winter. But this time…I’ll probably stay away from anything cold once I get out of this river.
‘If I get out of this river…’
“Help—”
Something moved behind me. A rustling of leaves echoed near me.
Then there was a loud splashing of water. I looked around, hoping to see anyone. ‘Please don’t let it be a bear, or a wolf. Please. Please.’
I haven’t yet eaten. I’ll definitely taste unpleasant.
I was about to inhale, the water now reaching my neck and my tiny foot still stuck in between the rocks when a pair of strong hands grabbed me from behind.
But the hands were gently, inviting. Lifting me from the water and hauling me from the river.
I rolled in the grass, squeezing my hair from the water and inhaling a lot of air. Fresh air.
Finally, I am breathing normally again.
I lifted my eyes, only to see the back of who looks like to be a man. A mature man, probably the age when my father and mother were yet to have me.
“Thank you,” I whispered. I thought he didn’t hear my words of gratitude but a second later, he pivoted towards me
The man, this man, is so handsome.
‘I never seen someone as handsome as him…’
His face might be mistaken as dark, his physique brute. But his eyes, those eyes…I can drown in them. I can stare at them for eternity.
He’s the kind of man I want to marry—need to marry.
‘ Wait til you hear about this, Father,’ I mused.
“You shouldn’t be playing in the river alone, girl.”
I might burst into tears now, but his voice…God, it’s so soothing. I can listen to him read me bedtime stories if only my Mamita would allow him to take her place.
“What’s your name?” was all I managed to ask.
“Doesn’t matter.” His mouth pursed into a thin line. But it was only a blink, only a blink, that I saw him smile. At me.
Just for a second, this mysterious man—the knight in shining wet denim—smiled at the seven-year-old girl like me.
I’m a girl and he’s a man. And somehow, even with my young age, I blushed. I bit my lower lip.
I heard him mutter something under his breath when I heard someone calling my name.
“Cassidy!”
“Cassidy, where are you?”
My mother and Mamita have finally found me.
I smiled at the man, him who was so handsome with mocha skin and lips so alluring—
“Cassidy!”
I immediately turned to where my mom was running towards me.
It’s only a split second and the man was no longer by the river.
Yet I can still smell him. His scent is still in the air, filling my tiny nose. His scent is anything but sweet. Intoxicating.
“Cassidy, explain to us where you’ve been?” my mother demanded, arms crossed across her chest.
“And why are you so wet?”
My eyes darted to the river before returning my attention to her. I only smiled at them, but my eyes lingered to where the man was, wishing that somehow, I told him my name—
And he told his.
***
It was a day after my seventh birthday.
My foot is still aching. The trauma that I had on the river prevented me from taking a bath in the bath tub this morning.
But I still can’t get over that man who saved me yesterday.
His scent. His face. His voice.
I want to meet him again. I don’t know if it’s a fool’s hope. I want to someday meet him and thank him for saving me from the river during the day I turned seven.
And I hope one day, just as he did, I’ll save his life too.
***
Eleven Years Later
Zarion, the Alpha of Volatile Hounds Pack, was the love of my life. My husband. My Mate.
The one who saved me in the river eleven years ago.
His lips descended on mine. The kiss that sealed out fate.
We are here now, by the river when we first met. Naked and full of passion.
When the kiss finally ended, I rested my forehead on his bare chest. He stroke my breasts just as I stroke his groin.
My birthday wish when I was seven became true. I saved his life just as he saved me from drowning in that river.
There was only us. There will only be us.
From now, until then.