Her long eyelashes fluttered like the weightless wings of a butterfly, but her vision was still hazy and blurry, she could not see anything around her.

The mere realization that she was still alive was good news in her head. A short, trembling sigh escaped her lips, but was immediately cut off by a burning pain in the abdominal area and she began to gasp, greedily gulping air.

- You need to calm down, breathe deeply and slowly. - a warm hand touched her head.

She opened her mouth to say something, but only a hoarse, inarticulate something came out of it. Her whole mouth was dry from thirst and she just wanted to ask for a sip of water.

Fortunately, the one who was nearby understood her and immediately gave her a small sip, slightly lifting her head. The taste of the water was strange and seemed so familiar, but Thea couldn’t think about it now, because she had fallen into a deep sleep again.

This lasted for several days, she regained consciousness for just a couple of minutes, took a sip of water and fell asleep again while her body slowly recovered and healed. So the body struggled with the pain that the girl was going through.

All this time, Nicole and Adeline could not step a step close to Thea, all because her doctor was too strict, so to speak, to let outsiders in.

Adeline’s health was no longer a concern thanks to the wonderful water from the lake. Only the lingering scars remained as a reminder, to which she applied herbal lotions to make these scars less noticeable.

That day, she woke up by herself, feeling better. A guy named Urum, who was sitting next to her, helped her out of the water and brought her spare clothes, which were significantly larger than the size Adeline was wearing.

They sat around the campfire for a while and talked about some simple mundane topics, but both men who were on guard were quite reserved and distrustful of her.

At some point, they both heard something and went to check, leaving her alone to bask by the fire, but this continued until Adeline sensed something was wrong. It was too strange that the men did not return for so long and then she followed, taking her bag, although embers of fear smoldered in her soul.

She was not cured enough yet and it was very painful for her to step on her foot, despite the fact that the blood had clotted and no longer flowed in streams.

Coming out on a flat terrain, she noticed the very male guards who were forced to fight with two bliars. There wasn’t even a thought of running away in her head. She had to help them because she saw that the forces were unequal and the bliars were clearly superior to them in strength.

A little later, they were joined by other werewolves who restrained and repelled the onslaught of uninvited guests and everything began to work out. It became easier and it was possible to distract and assess the situation. It was then that she noticed Thea lying in the snow.

Her whole body and all the snow under her were covered with blood, a lot of blood, and Thea herself lay motionless.

- Thea! Noooo! - Adeline screamed and rushed to where her friend was lying.

Having finished with the rest of the enemies, the werewolves turned around at the girl’s loud scream. They all saw what happened in that place, but were busy with their bliars to help her in time.

Thea’s body convulsed and immediately went completely limp.

At the moment when Marcus ran up to the unconscious girl, Adeline had already tried to treat her with some tinctures, but it was useless because her wound was too severe and she had lost too much blood.

There was no more time to wait for all these witchy herbs to take effect, and then it was decided to urgently carry her to the lake.

The healing water worked, stopping the blood and starting to tighten the wound, but at some point the regeneration stopped and there was no complete healing. This caused Marcus to frown heavily and be puzzled. There was still an open wound in the center of the girl’s abdomen, which already looked better, but still caused concern.

- It’s dangerous to stay here, we have to pick her up in the condition she is in. – he stated.

- But will she survive the journey? - Irma was worried.

Irma’s opinion of Thea has now, if not changed dramatically, then at least significantly softened, after what she heard from Marcus and the others.

She really was too biased towards her initially and could not have imagined that this homely-looking princess would turn out to be so fearless and brave. She was grateful to her that despite the danger, she went to protect her people and her husband, but she could not tell the unconscious girl about it.

- I have some idea about her wound, but only she will be able to clarify this situation when she wakes up. She’ll have to explain herself. - He replied, and soon the whole group was on the road again, but now Thea was lying on Marcus’s back, and Irma was the one who was holding her.

Marcus was impressed by the young witch, because she just crossed out the whole system, using magic in the northern lands, where it was simply impossible.

***

- She’ll be fine. - Klaus said, patting Adeline on the back.

Their meeting, which was supposed to take place on a more cheerful note, was overshadowed by Thea’s condition. Both Klaus and Adeline blamed themselves for this, especially since it was Klaus who had to be the one who pledged to protect her.

- It pisses me off that I’m not allowed to visit her. – she said through her teeth, clenching her fists tightly.

- He can hear you. You need to temper your ardor for your own good. – he said, although he fully supported her.

- Then you’ll just protect me. - She smiled slyly, throwing off her gloomy mood and wrapped her arms around Klaus’ neck.

Her fingers tangled in his hair, and her lips gently touched his cheek.

- Is it worth saying how much I missed you? - her voice was low so that only he could hear.

With one hand, Klaus squeezed her slender waist, pulling her into his arms, and the other was on her neck, pushing her hair aside and exposing the mark he had left.

It was a complete surprise for him to see Adeline in Norland. It was a bit shocking and discouraging.

Due to the fact that his mark on her neck was placed in a one-way order, he did not have the opportunity to exchange mental dialogues with her, and also he could not feel her at a long distance, he could not experience her feelings. This was a distinguishing feature from werewolf couples.

Adeline could not leave her mark on him, although purely out of curiosity she tried several times to bite him hard until he bled, but this was just another skin injury and had nothing to do with the mark. It upset her more than Klaus could have imagined. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

He marked her as his mate because he felt it so acutely, he needed it as if it was a need in the air. He was not privy to all the subtleties of this ritual, and therefore simply succumbed to his instincts and bit her at the moment of maximum arousal.

Therefore, Marcus’s revelations that Adeline could have died if he had been a simple werewolf became for him like a bucket of ice water poured on his head.

He acted too rashly, but even after all, Adeline remained on his side. His strong, brave girl did not see this as a problem, because her love and affection was stronger than anything that could kill her.

That’s why she was proud to wear his mark, and Klaus was happy to update it again and again.

His eyes shone with gratitude and devotion when he saw this small mark on her fair skin and of course he swore to protect her, even if it was an immortal vampire himself. Although the remnants of his mind told him not to fan the embers.

They were sitting on the couch in Marcus’ guest house when he suddenly appeared out of nowhere in front of him. Shameless, unexpected and unwanted. He did it every time, as if he wanted to interfere with their privacy.

- Can’t you use the doors like normal people? - Adeline was indignant.

If it wasn’t for the fact that she was Thea’s friend, he wouldn’t have stood on ceremony with her audacity from time to time. But Raphael had to restrain his temper, boil inside himself, but restrain himself.

- I’m sorry for interrupting the moment when you were going to spread your legs. - he chuckled, snorting.

Adeline’s jaws immediately clenched, and her brain was actively giving her imaginary pictures of how she would like to kill him now, this arrogant and crazy idiot.

His entire presence here made everyone feel constrained and unsatisfactory, but the vampire did everything from time to time to declare his presence to others. Annoying.