Chapter Nineteen

Sunday 13th September 1998

Draco

Draco, stop it, what the fuck are you doing, go back, go back!

I can't Alex, I can't.

You have to, please, he'll take it as rejection, he's our mate, please, please, I need him, please.

That is Harry Potter! We're enemies, he hates me!

It hurts you. Fuck, it hurts me, to know that my mate, my dominant, hates me. Everything in me wants me to turn around, make it right. But I can't be rejected, I can't. And the only way to avoid that is to fly away.

Please... you say, but it's resigned. You know I'm right. Even so, you're broken. You've been breaking for a while, but now you've snapped. I can't feel you anymore. Maybe that's for the best. You deserve so much better than me.

I keep going, faster than I've ever flown before. I don't know where I'm going, I don't even know where I am with the tears that are obscuring my vision. I just want to get away.

I realise that the muscles in my wings are aching, burning, when I falter in the sky. I almost fall, but force my wings to keep flapping. It hurts, but not as much as rejection will.

I know I can't fly for much longer, so I start letting myself drift lower, trying to find a gap in the trees. When I do, all I can bring myself to do is collapse, wrapping my wings tight around me and finally let the tears overcome me.

Now that I don't have air rushing past me or muscles protesting, all I'm left with is the pain of deserting my mate. And fuck, fuck, it hurts. More than anything, more than the cruciatus, more than my inheritance.

"Hello, little Veela." I snap my head up at the voice, and I'm greeted with the sight of a huge lion, the biggest I've ever seen. And then a realise, that's not a lion, we don't have lions in England, even in the forbidden forest, and even if we did, they wouldn't have a second head- a goat's head- and a dragon's tail. No, that's not a lion. That's a chimaera.

I try to back away, before realising my back is against a tree. The chimaera laughs, as far as lions can.

"Little Veela, so submissive, and all alone in the big bad forest. You shouldn't be here, little Veela, there might be things that want to rip your pretty little head off for lunch." I watch its claws dig into the soil, and imagine them tearing through the skin of my throat. I gulp.

A howl sounds from somewhere far away, and I remember the kind of things in this forest, things I had forgotten in my misery. Werewolves, centaurs, and, apparently, chimaeras.

The one in front of me must see the fear in my eyes, or maybe in how my body tenses and shakes, as it chuckles lowly again.

"Don't you have a big scary dominant to protect you?" It's taunting me, it can scent that I don't. Probably trying to get under my skin. I try not to let it, but it works. I whimper, seeing flashes of my last mate dream where he- Potter- held me close and whispered comforts in my ear. "Oh? You don't have a mate? How sad. Well, I suppose that means there's nothing to save you when I take you back to my lair to gobble you up, pluck you like a chicken. I wonder if you taste like one too? I hope you don't mind, I like to play with my food."

The chimaera grabs one of my wings in its teeth- which hurts like, well, like razor-sharp fangs stabbing my wings- and tugs me onto its back, all in one movement. My scream makes the chimera chuckle.

"There's no point in screaming, little Veela. There's no one here to hear you."

I think that's what breaks me. How alone I am. I don't even have you anymore, Alex. No one will ever know what will happen to me, and, maybe worse, no one will care. Blaise is probably the only one who will even realise I'm missing, and even then he'll be better off without me. He'll finally be able to worry about his own life and submissive rather than one that latched into him like a parasite because he was too fucking scared to find a dom of his own. And then: I'm going to die without a mate.

And then I'm crying, and the chimaera is chuckling, and I'm alone alone alone.

The chimaera's den is hidden in the roots of a huge oak tree. When we get to the entrance, it throws me off its back. I land with a thump on the ground, pain ricocheting through my back, air thrown from my lungs.

The chimaera starts slowly making its way towards me, and on reflex I start shuffling backwards until I hit one of the roots. I wince as I do, making the chimaera grin widely, showing off its teeth, the ones that will be impaled through the skin of my neck as it rips my head off.

"Don't look so scared, Little Veela. I'm not going to eat you... yet." A whimper flies out of my mouth before I can stop it. "Oh hush, you pathetic thing. How a thing like you could ever endear yourself to a dominant is beyond me..." Ironic. After all, I can't 'endear myself to a dominant'. That thought sends a fresh sob forcing its way through my lips. The chimaera growls, then goes back to grinning. "Now, now. I thought I just told you to hush. Seems I'm going have to punish you."

In a flash, faster than I thought possible, it has me pinned, its claws digging into my wings and shins. It ever-so-slowly runs a single claw across my chest, tearing a hole in my shirt and ripping the skin, drawing blood from the wound and a scream from my mouth. It hurts.

It chuckles, delighted by my scream, and in one quick movement slashes a paw of claws across my face. I can feel the blood dripping down my cheek, and squeeze my eyes shut so none gets in.

This means I don't see when it bares its teeth, so feeling sharp fangs pierce my shoulder comes as a shock, and I scream another sob.

"Stop, please, please!"

"Begging already? Oh, Little Veela, we're not even-"

But it's cut off by a growl, louder than any I've ever heard before, one that sends waves of shivers throughout my whole aching body. Neither the chimaera nor I have time to react before the chimaera is thrown off me, landing with a thump and a crack on the forest floor a few metres away.

I quickly scramble to sit up and back so far against the tree in surprised it doesn't swallow me. My body burns where the chimaera scratched and bit me, and I can barely stop myself from screaming at every movement. I slap a hand over my mouth, trying to muffle my sobs. Forget me, please forget me.

Sounds of growls and whimpers and hisses reach my ears, and, to my surprise, it sounds like the chimaera's losing. What could possibly be stronger than a chimaera? How will I deal with something that wants to hurt me that is stronger than a chimaera? Because of course it wants to hurt me, eat me, feed me to its young. Why else would it save me from the chimaera, if not to claim me for itself?

With the hand not muffling my sobs, I try to wipe the blood from my eyes, and slowly blink them open.

Fighting the chimaera, and without doubt winning, is the biggest wolf I have ever seen. And then, all of a sudden you come rushing back into my head, and it's like I can breathe again.

Mate.

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