Aami woke up from her sleep with a startled gasp. However, no sound escaped her lips... When she looked around, she was still in her room.
"Was what I saw just a dream?"
she wondered. But it didn't feel like a dream. Even now, she could sense that presence, as if she were still held within that same circle...
When the warmth of his touch and his breath still lingered on her body...
"Who was that???" she asked herself.
As Aami ran her fingers through her messy hair, trying to make sense of the dream... those eyes, which she had been trying to keep alive in her mind... they were familiar...
In her memory, the eyes of the wolf she saw as a child became clear. The wolf she saw the other day... and the eyes of the person she saw in her dream... that sweet yet firm voice, which sometimes sounded like a growl... his touch, the vastness of it, the state it brought her to...
"Could he be a werewolf too?.. Like Amelia said..."
Aami panted...
"And he called me 'mate'... so, does that mean I am a werewolf's mate???"
She shook her head in disbelief.
"Don't think about unnecessary things..."
She told herself that thinking about Amelia was the only reason she had such a dream.
Aami let out a long, heavy breath. Then she got up and went to the bathroom. Even in this cold, she was drenched in sweat.
Standing near the washspace, she looked in the mirror; her face was completely flushed. Looking closely at her messy hair once more, her eyes narrowed... on her neck, where a hand had touched her, there was a mark... as if teeth had grazed it... a faint mark in a circle...
Aami was startled. She closed and opened her eyes and looked in the mirror again, but now, there was nothing there.
"If it's just my imagination..."
Even as she thought that, Aami began to feel as though something mysterious was circling her.
Everything had started with Amelia. It had to end with her. If it were to end, she needed to know what was actually happening. For that, she had to find her. That had now become her immediate need.
Aami came out of the bathroom and sat huddled on the swing in the balcony, looking out. There was only the forest, the darkness, and the silent atmosphere.
"Where should it all begin...?"
Amelia filled her thoughts once more... It was as if her initial words were becoming both the beginning and the reason for the end.
"Doctor, "life is a great enigma that we perhaps cannot ever fully comprehend. A life filled with happiness... standing by one's partner as a support and a shadow, loving and trusting each other... but when we realize that person isn't our true 'half,' we dismiss it all as natural. There is no rule that everyone in this world who marries must be soulmates. Perhaps two people live in two different places, never to meet... maybe they wouldn't even recognize each other if they stood face-to-face."
"But what if they recognized each other? What if the heartbeat accelerated with every second and every moment?"
Amelia's words felt like a memoir to Aami today. Amidst everything, she recalled two specific things from Amelia's words:
"Edinburg Castle"
"Hidden there in secrecy was Edon. Beyond the mountains, in the middle of the sea, lies a world... a world beyond human imagination... a world that belongs to those like him..."
"That world... what would it be like there??"
Aami tried to sleep while pondering these unanswered questions. Eventually, sleep claimed her. At that moment, the mark left by those teeth on the left side of her neck glowed like golden light, pulsing deep within her.
________________________________________
A castle reminiscent of the one in the middle of the forest... standing on its highest balcony, a man gazed into the distance. With his palms pressed firmly against the stone carvings of the railing, he stood with an air of gravity.
His pupils, a blend of green and blue, shimmered even in that darkness. His physical stature spoke of immense muscular strength... and his golden skin was covered in thick hair.
He had a tattoo of a warrior holding a sword. But it wasn't a human... it was a werewolf. Tattoos covered him from his shoulder to his palm. Even at the start of each finger, there were symbol tattoos.
His reddish-brown hair fell below his neck. He had a trimmed beard and red lips. His eyebrows were thick and joined in the middle. He was a man of intense mystery and deep eyes. From the balcony where he stood, the mountain ranges near the sea were clearly visible to him.
He kept his gaze fixed there. Suddenly, he closed his eyes. A scent filled his mind... a "Seductive Smell"...
a fragrance that intoxicated his body and mind alike, pushing his emotions to their peak. The changes happening to his body when he thought about it were beyond description.
Slowly, a vision cleared in his mind, matching Aami's dream perfectly. A young girl appeared before his eyes. Her eyes were wide... filled with a vastness... an ultimate love. Her innocent face... her flushed red lips... her body was one that anyone would fall in love with at first sight. He felt the warmth of her body and the sweetness of her kiss as if she were held within his arms.
With a sense of restlessness, he turned his head sharply. Once again, his eyes searched the mountain ranges with a look of detached longing....