A few weeks had passed since I first woke up here in the camp of the Wild Ones and found my sister and my soul mate...which I am still trying to wrap my head around. As I sit here watching as the inhabitants of the camp rush around as if everything is perfectly okay while I try to grasp my entire life up until this point. My parents were murdered, I was held against my will and tortured for years, I almost died more times then I can count, I don't know how to be free anymore, I was saved, I finally saw my sister again, I've been accepted by just about every single person, the guys are like the brothers I have never had. Except for Andy...I don't know how I ever survived without him...and that fact I think scares and confuses me the most.

I have gone through a good part of my life thinking that there was nobody who was going to save me, to being saved and finding my soul mate all within a short period of time. My mind just can't comprehend what is happening. I watch as Andy walks along the street, his arms crossed across his chest, his hair blowing just slightly in the soft breeze as he kicks his worn black leather boots against the sand, one of the older inhabitants discussing something with him.

Over the weeks since he explained our bond I've slowly been able to experience what it means to have a soul mate. I can faintly feel his determination through our bond, my body feels warm, but it has nothing to do with the sun shining down on me. No this warmth starts from inside, in the pit of my chest and blooms outwards from the inside of me, from my heart until my entire body is warm and glowing. I can see the beautiful royal purple aura that circles his tall lean body, although I have learned to accept it and not even pay attention to it when just looking at him.

Don't get me wrong, Andy is an absolutely gorgeous man, with the best personality I could have ever wished for, I don't deserve him honestly. Whoever picked our soul mates was playing a very cruel joke on Andy when they did. I'm nothing special...he is perfect in every way. He would lay his life on the line for any single person in this camp...and that terrifies me. Not the laying my life down, I don't mind that...it's the fact that I don't know how I would get past it...and I haven't known him long enough to be that affected if something was to happen to him....I guess that is another thing that the bond is to blame for.

As if sensing my eyes on him, which he probably did, Andy lifts his head up and looks over to where I sit on the bench outside of the small hospital, which is run by Jinxx. Seeing me sitting there he smiled, his entire face lighting up causing me to smile and blush, looking down at my knees. Every time he looks at me its like his entire world has brightened, as if I am some bright light in a dark room...admittedly I feel the same when I see him...but at least he has done something to deserve that..you know like saving my life and the lives of the hundreds of other survivors living in this camp. I just allowed myself to be tortured and that's it.

“How are you feeling Carrington?” I hear his deep voice say as his shadow creeps over my skin causing me to look up into those stunning blue eyes before he carefully takes a seat beside me.

“I feel a lot better then I did,” I explain as I run my hand through my hair, leaning my head back against the faded siding. “What are you up to today?” I ask as I look over at him, not needing to talk but wanting to.

“Just the normal stuff, discussing rescue plans, sabatoge plans, training plans, building plans, checking on an extremely beautiful woman, yeah nothing all that exciting,” he jokes causing me to laugh. “On a more serious note, how did you sleep last night?”

“Same as I have been,” I shrug tiredly. Since I have been awake I have been staying in the hospital as I suffer from terrible nightmares and night terrors that leave me having a full panic attack and cause me to wake up screaming. “I feel like a fool,” I confess causing Andy to shake his head.

“You are no fool Carrington. You are the bravest woman I have ever met in my entire life, this will get better. I was thinking that maybe we could try something to help?”

“You have to suggest that to the doctor you know....he knows best. At least that is what he keeps telling me.” I joke as Andy laughs and stands up, silently holding his hand out to help me to my feet.

“Then lets go inside so that I can suggest my plan to the doctor then miss smart ass.” He says, still firmly holding my hand as he leads us into the cool hospital which is an old house with different rooms set up as various medical rooms.

“Hey Andy,” Jinxx says as he steps out from the kitchen, wiping his hands on a towel.

“Hey, I have a suggestion about Carrington's sleepless nights...” he starts immediately causing Jinxx to nod.

“Okay, lets head down to her room and discuss it?” he asks causing Andy and I to nod as we follow him down the hallway to my temporary bedroom. Walking in I immediately go to my bed and sit down, reclining against the pillows as Andy sits by my feet and Jinxx sits in the chair beside my bed. “So what is your plan?”

“I was thinking, since we are soul mates if perhaps the reason why her dreams are so out of control and why she cannot regulate her abilities to block out those dreams like other mates are able to is because we are not together at the time...could that me a possible reason?”

“Absolutely,” Jinxx says with a shrug as I watch the interaction. “I don't know why I never clued into that! None of the other mates in this entire camp have ever taken this length of time to heal, including Joshua and he had to regrow a complete limb! None of them ever complain of night terrors or the nightmares that completely stop their heart and their breathing like Carrington's is starting to do...”

“Your heart is stopping?!” Andy asks, staring at me as I gape at Jinxx in pure surprise. “Her heart and her breathing is stopping ?!”

“That's only started to happen within the last couple of days,” Jinxx explains. “I wasn't sure if it was just something that was going to happen a couple of times or if it is something more similar....”

“Jesus,” I whisper as I push myself down further into the pillows. “How can we try to stop this?”

“Well...” Jinxx says. “Mates can still have nightmares but they are not usually as severe and their mate has the ability to join their dream, they're able to help them through it or help them wake up from the dream. Honestly in most cases if one mate is having a nightmare then the other is being forced to slip into the dream and stop the dreams but I am wondering if maybe, just in this circumstance that it would be more beneficial if you are just present throughout the dream to help her get through it and face her demons. If you pull her out of them every time that it starts getting bad neither of you will sleep and she will always have them.”

“So how do we do that?” I ask softly, looking between the two tiredly as I feel the fatigue of the last few weeks seep into my body, allowing my body to completely relax for the first time since Andy stopped sleeping in the hospital a few rooms away.

“I think the best way to try it and at least see if it will work would be to have Andy sleeping in here with you...if you're okay with that?” Jinxx suggests as I yawn. “You can nap a little bit now but Andy will be in the room then tonight when you go to sleep you would sleep with him beside you...is that okay?”

“Sure,” I say, looking at Andy as he leans towards me and gently pushes my hair out of my face as Jinxx nods and leaves to room silently, seemingly taking our main silence as agreement as I lay down more fully on the bed after Andy stands up

“Have a nap Carrington, I won't leave,” Andy promises as he gets onto the bed beside me and pulls me tightly against his chest, pressing his lips against my forehead as he pulls the covers up over us as I quickly drift off into a peaceful nap, his steady heartbeat thumping against my ear

Notes

Sorry about how long its been since I've updated. I was able to get a new job YAY and it was amazing and I loved it and they loved me HOWEVER on January 30, 2014 due to massive company wide downsizing I was laid off and have been beyond stressed ever since. I have applied at over 50 places and nothing so I'm currently unemployed, completely stressed out student full of hatred. I am barely sleeping and I just generally hate anything and everything. So, in saying that, I also apologize for a shitty short update that I'm not happy with at all but at least it gives me somewhere to go with it!

Hope you enjoy it as much as you can enjoy a filler chapter.

-KV <3