Amelia
Sucking in a breath, I forced my body to get into position more than aware of the dozen or so eyes on me as I led the class through the stretches they needed to do.
Hot yoga, whoever had invented was both a genius and a total psychopath. But I was thankful for it. It was in these classes that I took that I found some resemblance of peace. Maybe it was the yoga in general and the whole zen mindset but I had a sneaky suspicion it was the heat. It was the only time I ever seemed to be warm, being mated to a fire-breather had changed my internal temperature.
Just one of the many things it had changed.
Of course, pushing my body to its very limits helped dull the absolute agony I felt every second of every day helped, for a brief time. I had assumed a little distance would have helped dimish the ache in my chest but every single day was hell.
I missed him.
Missed him so damn much.
The pain was only getting worse, the longer I was away from him but I couldn’t go back. I couldn’t be the woman he needed to be. After what he and the council had taken from me I would not be their puppet.
Taking up the yoga class, my new career was my way of dealing with the pain, of dampening it with some pain of my own. It helped me forget at least for a little while what I had Lost. Not just my previous life, my friends and family but also my career.
Not to mention the man I should never have loved but somehow did and that sweet little boy who had so desperately wanted me to be his mum.
Rhydian.
Just thinking of his face made tears prickle behind my closed eyelids. It didn’t matter where I was. I had failed him, failed to always be there for him when I had given him my word.
I just hoped he was ok. That they both were. Though I knew Dewi wasn’t. deep down at least.
“Ok, hold for the space of five” I raised myself to an upright position as sweat trickled down my spine, my turquoise work out top stuck to my back with sweat. It was hot sure, but nothing I couldn’t handle it was something totally different that was causing the sweat to bead on my forehead.
Pain.
Not like the dull agonising ache I was used to in the months since I had literally flown away from Dewi, tight in the talons of another dragon, leaving him injured and bleeding on the floor.
No this was sharp like my internal organs were being ripped from my body with a blunt rusty butter knife. I couldn’t help it, I doubled over. Clutching at my chest as the air left my lungs in a whoosh. Stars swam behind my eyes as I struggled to keep conscious.
And still, the pain kept coming, wave after wave of it radiating from chest.
“Ami”
I barely registered as someone called my name, a note of panic in their voice.
“I'm ok” I held up a hand in warning, my voice barely a croak as I struggled to control my own body which spasmed as if I was being electrocuted
Dewi.
My mind screamed his name, and it tumbled from my lips as I fell to my knees, my vision swam but not because of the contact from my legs with he hard word floor but because the pain just kept getting worse and worse.
Could you die from pain?
Because I was pretty sure I was.
Or at least he was my mate, my love.
Dewi Llewelyn.
The man I had fallen for even though I hated every atom of his being was being tortured. I was sure of it.
I curled up on the floor in the swelteringly hot room and shivered. I was so cold. My teeth chattered, clashing together with enough force I was surprised I didn’t break my molars.
“Ami, what can we do to help?”
“I've phone an ambulance” Worried faces surrounded me as I lay on the floor, my breathing ragged, my arms tight about myself as I curled myself into a foetal position.
What the hell were they doing to him?
I sobbed out loud, his name on my lips. “Dewi” It came out a strangled scream.
“Who is Dewi?”
I heard the voice as if it was coming from far away, my vision blurred and then tunnelled into a point and I knew I was going to lose the battle to stay conscious.
“Check her phone.” Someone said a high pitched voice I couldn’t for the life of me place. “Maybe it’s her boyfriend”
My hands clutched at the two rings I always wore from the delicate gold chain around my neck.
My engagement and wedding band.
I shook my head. “No” I tried to raise myself up to sitting and failed. Arms caught me before I hit the floor a second time. I may have enhanced healing thanks to my link to the welsh dragon but that didn’t mean bruises didn’t hurt.
Of course, the pain might kill me and then I wouldn’t have to worry about bruises at all.
I was pretty sure someone was killing my mate.
Would I survive his death?
If it meant pain like this I wasn’t even sure I wanted to.
“My phone” I held out a hand and someone moved to grab it from my bag, everything slowed to a snails pass as I struggled not to give up to the pain.
At this point I welcomed death.
I just needed the pain to stop.
“Wren” My voice was barely a whisper. He was the only one who could explain to me what was happening. My contact with the resistance..
A dragon who surprisingly had become a good friend.
“Phone Wren”
And then it all went back.