With Eyes to See | ✔

|04|

A week for Leora usually passed without much thought or notice on her part. However, this particular week things felt very different.

From mere hours after Adams departure, she felt a familiar ache of emptiness. One that had been ever present for a long time though she wasn't sure why. Somehow with Adam, that emptiness was filled but it was only in his absence that she realised it.

What she thought would've been one of the hardest decisions ever turned out to be deceptively easy.

She realised that she wasn't as intricately woven into the community as she had first thought; she didn't have any friends, except for Freddie and after his confession she felt awkward whenever he was around. Her time at the dojo was mostly spent alone, and though she would have to leave behind her sensei, she had grown out of her care a long time ago. Even her time that she volunteered wasn't necessarily crucial to the community- she was the only blind person in the small town, it seemed as though her sessions were more for her than anyone else.

After realising all of that, she knew that whilst leaving Willsden Brooke would be difficult, living without Adam would be impossible. She couldn't live with that emptiness in her knowing that it could've been filled.

The days seem to drag by, almost impossibly slow. She found herself wishing that time would speed up, just so that she could reunite with the alluring man she had been with days earlier.

Even during her most favourite activities, she found herself wondering about her so-called soul mate. What was he doing at that moment? Was he thinking about her? Did he want to see her as much as she did him?

She tried desperately to focus on the things in front of her but no matter how hard she tried, thoughts of him would creep in on the fringes of her mind until he consumed her every thought. If he hadn't told her about their bond as mates she might have thought that she was going insane.

Just thinking about him was enough to cause her heart to pound relentlessly, a fluttering pressure building in her chest. It was a pleasurable torture for her to wonder about this mysterious man who was tied to her, but she did it all the same.

It was undeniably clear that she had already made her decision and used the rest of the week to prepare for the much anticipated meeting.

Little did she know that her mate was thinking about her. He was going out of his mind, wondering why he had ever come up with a ridiculous notion of an ultimatum in the first place.

Now that he had actually met her, being without his soul was absolute torture. He could feel the way his entire being: mind, body and soul called out to her with every waking moment. He knew that he had promised to walk away if that was her desire, but he didn't think he ever could. Especially not after he knew what it was like to have her.

He could hardly focus, his mind filled with her: the way her mousy brown hair fell in waves down her back, her freckled cheeks, those cloudy grey eyes and his favourite- the sound of her melodious voice. He spent ages torturing himself with questions he couldn't answer: Was she thinking about him? Had she made her decision yet?

He could imagine their future together; in a two story house, filled with their pups running around. He would cook for her, love her and treat her like a queen- because she deserved all that and more. Then he would remember the ultimatum- that there was a possibility that she could turn him away, and the torture would begin anew.

His beast surged within him, threatening to burst from his prison of skin. The desire, unrelenting urge, to find his mate and mark her, take her and make her his. Control was both physically and mentally painful but he knew it had to be done. How would his mate ever be able to trust him if he couldn't keep his word for only a week?