Chapter 622 - THE START OF SOMETHING

Kace closed his eyes, relishing the electrifying tingles that emanated from their touch. The spark was still there, though it was very faint and could hardly be felt. 

"Kace," Serefina tried to come closer, the beast had been hugging his dead mate for almost an hour now. 

But, within seconds, Kace growled ferociously, he was guarding and protecting his mate from anyone who dared to come close. He snarled dangerously through his extended canines. 

His body had half shifted again, but he couldn't pull through to the last form of his beast. He was too tired to do so, too wounded to muster enough strength to do that, yet he still looked very feral even in his half-shifted form like right now. 

Serefina stopped coming closer. Kace wasn't in his right mind now. No one would be in their right mind after losing their mate. 

In the far distance, Leon and Abby stood still, while looking at things that just unfolded, didn't even dare to say a word. They had never seen Kace like this. The man that they had known for more than decades was someone who wouldn't kill his enemy without batting an eye, if he had another option. But there they were, not too far from them was the evidence of his brutality. It was weird, but to see him like this was more bizarre. 

Meanwhile, Lydia was too afraid to see her old friend, Serefina. She wouldn't come out from this disaster in one piece. After all, she was the one who brought Hope here. The witch was standing behind the siblings with a troubled expression, too afraid to even breathe. 

Hope's unconscious body laid there, not moving, with no signs of life at all as the beast hugged her body. Letting the blood from her chest, tainted his already messy clothes. He suffered horrendous pain and this was the one kind of pain that destroyed every piece of his soul, stripped him off from reality.

Suddenly he was brought to that time in the past. The scenes flashed before Kace's eyes, the one when he killed those poor creatures' mate long ago, the sound of their voice wailing in pain rang in his ears.

How those creatures watched helplessly at their dying mate right before their eyes without anything they could do. 

He felt it now.

His mate. His hope. The one person that perfectly crafted for him was gone, and all Kace could do was watch her as she slipped away into the nothingness. 

Concurrently, Kace could feel their bond becoming weaker.

His love, his salvation, his hope…

The beast in Kace's head was frantic, he was clawing, whimpering and howling, but maybe… it was he. It was him in his desperate state. On the brink of craziness. 

And gradually, once magical tingles were now nothing more than a soft dull prickle. He was losing her for real.

But then, Kace heard that… the most angelic voice that he adored the most, the only voice that he was willing to give up everything just to hear it again. 

'Kace, don't give up on me…'

Kace raised his head as his eyes fell on his mate, but Hope still didn't move. Not even her lips. 

However, when Kace looked at his surroundings, he was alone. There were no Serefina, no the centaurs, not even the hunter or the siblings.

He was with Hope alone. 

'Kace, don't give up on me…'

Her voice again, whispering on the wind to his ears.

But Hope didn't move. She was still. Motionless and dead. 

"Hope?" Kace's voice was like a rickety door, hurting the one who heard it, as if he had not used it in a long time. 

'I can feel your sadness…'

"Hope where are you?" Kace hugged Hope's body even tighter, but his eyes scanned his surroundings frantically. 

It was her voice, Kace was certain that it was her voice. However, where did her voice come from? 

Kace was not in the same forest as before, and in his muddleheaded state, he was certain with this. 

And then, there… Kace watched her, as transparent as a white smoke, Hope's figure was crouching down beside her very own body, staring at Kace sadly. 

Kace stared at her with wide eyes as his hoarse voice pleaded, "don't leave me…"

A pure translucent tear fell on her cheek, when she leaned over and kissed Kace's lips. It felt like there was a breeze that caressed his lips softly and prompted Kace to close his eyes.

'Mark me…'

With that being said, the softness of her lips was gone, yet the feeling lingered a bit longer. 

And when Kace opened his eyes, he was back to the same forest with Serefina and the other creatures around him, concern etched on their faces.

Lowering his head down, Kace's blue eyes met with his mate's face. 

Mark me.

Her words echoed in his head, in spite of his calm expression now. There were raging questions inside his head. 

What did that supposed to mean? Mark her? Did Hope just say he had to mark her? But, what if it's just an illusion?

Her spirit…

"Kace…?" Serefina called his name again, as she took one step closer gingerly. "What are you doing?"

They were gasping in horror when Kace's canines extended. 

Serefina froze when Kace tilted Hope's head gently and licked to clean her sweet spot from her blood. 

Kace's blood rushed in his system as his heart hammered inside his ribcage painfully. And when he inhaled sharply, his canines clamped down hard on Hope's neck, his sharp fangs pierced through her skin, adding more blood in the process. 

"No!" Serefina was about to rush towards the lycan, who was currently marking his dead mate, yet Chiron's arms held her back steadily. 

"Let him finish it," Chiron said in a deep tone, his eyes fixed on the scene before him. 

"But," Serefina was about to retort back when Chiron cut her sentences. 

"Whether his action will give a different result, the girl passed away nonetheless." Chiron stated. "He is her mate,"

Nothing happened in the first ten second. But then, Hope's body twitched between Kace's locked jaws, with his veins nearly drained of blood, what was left escaped and splattered with every jolt and jerk.