382 THE OLD TREE

Zuri closed her eyes and then rested her forehead against his, as she felt the cold wind caress her skin. She didn’t want to lose him.

They had gone through so much.

But, what should they do now? She felt like she met a dead end.

Leaving him was not an option, it would never be an option.

“I know you.”

A masculine voice came from behind Zuri all of a sudden, which made her screech in surprise, because as far as she knew, it was only the tree behind her and there was nothing else, thus it scared her.

Especially when she turned around and found a face on the bark of the tree, which she was sure was not there a moment ago.

“Who are you!?” Zur almost screamed. She couldn’t walk away because Chaos was still unconscious right now. She couldn’t leave him alone. “What do you want?!”

The face on the tree frowned slightly. “I remember you, little nymph, both of you are finally here again after such a long time.”

.....

Zuri narrowed her eyes and then looked at her surroundings, only then did she remember the story the moon goddess told her earlier. “You are that tree.”

The face on the tree chuckled lightly and its branches rattled. “I don’t think you remember me, but I guess you know me from the story the moon goddess told you.”

Zuri said nothing about that, but she didn’t deny it as well.

“I am glad to see you both here again. I thought I would never see any of you again.” The branches lowered down to cover Zuri and Chaos, it acted like a curtain that surrounded them. “Why don’t you take a rest little girl? You need it too.”

Zuri scrunched her nose when she heard that. She didn’t want to fall asleep near a strange tree that could talk, though it seemed nice.

“What are you?” she asked him suspiciously, which was very clear to hear and the old tree chuckled a little bit. “How can a tree talk? I have never seen a creature like you.”

“I am a tree of life,” he said in his old voice. “If you have never seen me in this lifetime, probably because you have not seen enough, my dear. This realm is so vast, you need to go far, but even so, some people simply are not able to see the answer that they are looking for.”

Zuri didn’t look happy at all when she heard that. “You are talking in riddles.”

“Maybe because I am old.”

“Or maybe because you just want to confuse me.”

historical

“Every soul gets confused by themselves, there is no need for me to confuse them.”

“You are talking in riddles again...”

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Chaos felt something fall on his face followed by a flash of bright light every now and then, but he was too exhausted to open his eyes to find out what it was, thus he let sleep take over his consciousness.

The wind that caressed his skin made it easier for him to slip into the darkness once again, seeking peace in the embrace of the nothingness.

He was not sure how long he had been sleeping, but the second time he regained his consciousness, he heard a familiar voice, ringing in the distance.

Her voice was very endearing and gave a sense of peace to his mind, though he was not sure what she was talking about. He just loved hearing her speak without knowing what the context was.

“Why is he not awake yet?” Zuri looked at Chaos with concern in her eyes. “It’s almost a day and he is not awake yet.” She leaned her body and checked if his heart was beating fine. “He is not dead.” She could feel his warm breath and his beating heart.

“He just needs some time to recover,” the face on the tree said, as he stared at Zuri. “You don’t need to worry, little nymph.”

“I am not a nymph, I am a shifter,” Zuri had corrected him multiple times now, but this old tree simply didn’t listen to her. “By the way, where is this?” She had been walking around, but she couldn’t find anyone around here, not even a single soul.

“Somewhere. An island that was far away from your place.” The face on the tree then faded, as it returned to its normal shape.

“What kind of answer is that?” Zuri frowned. She took a step back and then looked at the tree, it was so big. A very big tree...

Last night she didn’t pay much attention, but now, she could see clearly how big of a tree this was and yes, it was very ancient...

After that, Chaos couldn’t hear anything anymore, he fell into a deep slumber again, because her voice managed to lull him to sleep.

The third time he woke up was when he felt someone snuggling with him, yet it didn’t put him on alert. He felt familiar with her body, which meant he knew exactly who it was. Her scent was intoxicating, she smelled like the right drug for him.

And when she snuggled closer to him, he wrapped his arms around her to make her stop moving. She soon found a comfortable position in his arms and they fell asleep like that.

Finally, Zuri couldn’t fight her sleepiness and surrendered, but not before she made sure the old tree wouldn’t do anything weird to her or Chaos.

There were a lot of things happening to Chaos and herself, thus she didn’t think she would want to face another weird thing in their current situation.

‘I will burn you down, if you try something weird.’

Those were the exact words that Zuri said before she decided to sleep because she really needed to get some rest.

The old tree didn’t take offense and only laughed at her attempt to threaten him.

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*Read my new book: KISSED BY THE DARK ALPHA*

Alpha Micah Donovan’s second chance mate.