It was the snarl that sent the woman backpedaling. Her tail stopped its wagging and her body ceased its happy movements. Edrick would have never snarled at her. Their playful growls and longing groans silenced in one harsh rasp of his chords. Her breath was pulled from her lungs to be replaced with an empty pain. She closed her eyes against the feeling, trying to breath through it. Nothing. She was still left gasping.

Pleading chocolate eyes still gazed at him, trying to find the falsehood and pick out the lie. She knew it was Edrick. Deep within her sheknew he was her mate, her prince. But he wasn’t. The man that stood before her wore his face, carried his scent, and donned his pelt, but it was not who she had fallen in love with. Her heart sank further. The pleas turned to pain as she looked at him. Closing her eyes again, pressing her ears against her skull, she took a step back and tried to start anew, tried to ignore most of the words he spoke.

I’m sorry… She gasped. I thought… With a shake of her head she tried to force a smile and pretend she was who she once was. The illusion was false. Her tail did not wag, her eyes did not shine. The grin was broken and fractured, a lie on her lips. All that was true was her will to keep tears from falling. She calmed her body and lowered it to the ground, now just trying to ease his anxiety while ignoring her own. I am Taika… Once again her voice stopped. Who was she now? She had not wandered far from the forests until this day, a ‘gypsy’ was far from her soul. Her lover stood before her, with no memory of who she was, her Imprint was hunting a ghost… It was as if all she was had been ripped away from her. Save her children. But she dared not tell this familiar stranger of them. Taika of Moladion. Welcome stranger… Eldritch.