Nature is not a place to visit 14

Chapter 14
*“And from this slumber you shall wake, when true love’s kiss, the spell shall break.”*
*Sleeping Beauty*
It all happened so fast.
One moment, Luke and I were standing in front of the tomb, looking at my undamaged hand.
The next moment, there was a flash of blue light so bright that it blinded me. Something hard and large smacked into me, sending me hurtling at least five feet away and into one of the columns.
I crashed into the column with a *thump!*
It took me a second to regain my bearings, but once I did, I registered three things: the large object that had smacked
into me was a piece of the stone tomb, and it was still on top of me, crushing me with a weight I’d never felt before.
My entire torso had gone numb, but I had a feeling that I’d broken at least a couple of ribs.
The second thing I realized was that the entire temple was consumed by blue light. It looked like it was emanating from
where the tomb is – or *was* – but it was so bright it was blinding.
“Luke! Where are you?” I fell into a coughing fit as soon as I tried to get the words out, which didn’t help. I could barely
breathe with the rock on top of me. My ears were ringing so I could hardly hear my own voice, but I had to try.
There was no answer.
“Luke!” I tried again.
Had I been able to actually feel my chest or stomach, I’m sure my heart would’ve been going a million miles per hour.
*God, I can’t see or hear anything with this rock on top of me. I need to get out of here.*
Even just the thought of what I was about to do made me wince. I might’ve been numb now but I was sure this was
about to hurt. I pressed my hands into the side of the stone tomb that had fallen on top of me.
And then I lifted.
It took just about every amount of supernatural strength I possessed, but I managed to roll it off me. The rock fell to the
ground beside me, kicking up another round of dust that left me coughing as I tried to recover from being smashed.
As soon as the weight was gone, my torso and stomach exploded in sharp, searing pain. Yeah, I’d definitely broken a few
ribs.
*Come on, Ollie. You’ve got to find Luke.*
I wasn’t quite able to stand yet, but somehow, I pulled myself to my knees and examined my surroundings. The explosion
had kicked up thousands of years of dust and debris, and it’d created a film of heavy dust around the room. I couldn’t
see more than two feet in front of me.
“Luke!” I called.
No answer.
The pain in my torso was agonizing each time I tried to suck in air, but I didn’t have time to wait for the injury to heal. I
needed to find Luke and make sure he was okay.
*Get up, Ollie. Get up.*
Using my hands for support, I managed to put one full foot on the ground.
I tried to take a deep breath, but the pain that ricocheted through my chest and abdomen nearly made me go dizzy.
*No, no, get up. Come on.*
I could’ve sworn it wasn’t just my own encouragement in my head, but my wolf’s too – she was urging me to get up, to
get back on my feet.
I put my second foot on the ground.
I still couldn’t see well enough to see more than a few feet in front of me, but I began taking slow steps toward where
the tomb had exploded. Fortunately, I could feel some of the pain in my chest lessening, which meant that my
supernatural healing was finally kicking in. Just a bit slower than I needed it to.
“Luke!” My ears were still ringing like crazy, and part of me wondered if Luke was answering, I just couldn’t hear it.
It took me nearly a minute – and several accidental stumbles over debris – just to walk a few feet, but then I saw
something that made my breath catch in my throat.
It was Luke lying unconscious under a piece of the tomb that was even larger than the one I’d been stuck under.
“Luke!” I said. For a moment, I forgot all about the pain in my chest as I practically collapsed next to him, trying to pull
the debris off of him.
With the broken ribs, it took several tries but finally, I managed to partially lift the rock and let it roll away.
But even with the weight gone, Luke was still unconscious. Even in all the dust, I could see that he must’ve hit his head.
Blood pooled from the back of his head.
I lifted up his head to see the damage, but his hair was matted to the back of his head with blood. There was no way I’d
be able to get a good look at the injury with all the dust and debris around. I needed gauze, bandages, and alcohol – the
kind of supplies that I wasn’t going to find in a thousand-year-old temple.
“Please be alive,” I whispered. Had my ears not been ringing, I might’ve been able to hear his heartbeat. The blood
coming from his head was making me nervous. Even with supernatural healing, a bad head injury could still take us out if
it was severe enough.
“Come on, Luke,” I muttered, “Please be alive. You –”
Hey there! Just a friendly reminder that if you’re not reading this book on n𝘰𝚟el5s.com, you might be missing out on the
complete story. Head over there to dive into the next chapter—it’s all free!
Suddenly, Luke’s eyes shot open as he began coughing violently.
An intense bout of relief shot through me, and I sighed so hard that my ribs ached again.
“Oh, God,” he finally said after several moments of coughing, “I think I swallowed, like, a thousand years of dust.” Cue
another coughing fit as he talked.
I was still cradling the back of his head in my hands, trying to keep my hand pressed to the area where he seemed to be
bleeding. “Are you feeling okay?” I asked frantically, “What hurts?”
Luke squinted. “Uh…it’s hard to feel much of anything. Or see anything.”
“Nothing hurts? Like at all?”
“No, nothing hurts,” he said. He paused before adding, “Actually, I don’t feel anything. It’s like everything numb.”
I tried not to let the worry show on my face as I assessed him. There was no other debris or rocks crushing him and I
couldn’t see bleeding coming from anywhere else.
“Maybe you hit your back when that debris crushed you,” I murmured, “I can’t properly examine you in here. Hell, I
shouldn’t be the one examining you. You’re hurt – we need an actual healer.”
“I just need a few minutes to heal, that’s it,” he said, “And then I’ll be able to get up and walk out of here.”
“So, you think we should spend more time in the crumbling temple?” I asked. “Pretty sure this place already tried to turn
us into dust once. Not sure we’ll survive a second attempt.”
Deep down, I knew that the tomb explosion hadn’t been natural, hadn’t just been some ancient temple finally turning
into ruins. However, getting Luke to safety where he could heal was my biggest priority right now. Later on, when this was
all over, I’d speculate on the rest.
“Ollie,” Luke said, and there was something close to fear in his voice, “What’s that?”
I followed Luke’s gaze and my breath hitched.
Some of the dust and debris had faded away, and we could make out our surroundings more clearly now.
I saw where the top of the tomb had exploded, but it was the massive blue light emanating from the ruins of the tomb
that left my jaw slack.
I hadn’t seen it before, but the blue light had literally shot through the ceiling, caving part of the roof in. That’s where most of the debris and dust had come from. It was hard to tell from here, but it looked like the blue light had shot clear
into the sky.
“I have no idea,” I breathed, still crouched over Luke.
As I stared at the blue light coming from the tomb, I felt it again – the pull – and this is where things get a little fuzzy.
With my wolf whimpering and whining in my head and the pull tugging me forward, I stood up and began walking
toward the tomb. It’s as if I was in a trance.
Everything else faded away – the rest of the temple, the debris crunching under my feet, the ache in my ribs, even Luke
calling my name.
All I knew was that I needed to reach that tomb.
It only took me a minute to close the distance, and as I got closer, the blue light no longer blinded me. Its warm glow
embraced me, and for the first time ever, I got a glimpse of what – or who – was inside the tomb.
I gasped.
It was the body of a man.
An actual man – not some decomposing skeleton or a bag of bones.
No, this man looked as if he’d only been asleep for hours. He was perfectly preserved, not even touched by any of the
debris or stone that had fallen from the roof.
Still in a trance, I drank in the sight of him like a woman dying of thirst. I couldn’t see his eyes because they were closed,
but even so, I was pretty sure he was the most beautiful man I’d ever seen in my life.
Beautiful really was the only word for it. He wasn’t just handsome or attractive. He was beautiful in a way that not a lot of men were beautiful. Striking.
He had rich brown hair coated with dust from the debris, a strong Roman nose, and olive skin. He was shirtless too, lean
and more toned than any of the pack warriors I’d ever seen.
There was nothing but him.
*I want to see his eyes.*
My wolf had begun howling something in my brain, but I was still too dazed to register what she was saying.
I didn’t think as I reached down and touched the side of his face. His skin was soft and warm to the touch as if he hadn’t
been lying in this cold tomb for who-knows-how-long.
And then, as if some cosmic force had heard my wish, his eyes opened.
He blinked slowly as he opened them, and I realized they were more beautiful than I could’ve imagined. His eyes were
heterochromatic – one a golden brown, and the other bright blue.
“Beautiful,” I breathed.
The sound of my voice must’ve caught his attention because his eyes immediately shot to me and we made eye contact.
My breath hitched.
Clear as day, my wolf’s howl rang through my brain.
*Mate.*