Fading Hope

She's stretched out on a cold,
hard, and damp concrete floor.
Her breathing is labored, shallow.

Even in her deep sleep,
her acute senses can easily pick out
the noises that surround her.

The distant boom of lightening in the dark sky,
the opening and closing of the steel cage doors
and the faint smell of food,
being brought in.

Her stomach begins to rumble and churn,
yet, her thoughts aren't focused on any of these sounds.
She takes a deep, long and slow breath;
it glides leisurely through her flared nostrils.

She hates this bitter dark place with a passion.
Only when her mate was here was she able to feel warm and alive.
Only then did the core of her burst with energy
and her life was force to be reckoned with.

But he isn't here,
and hasn't been for a long time.
She can still sense him though,
from deep within – barely.

The sense of him seems to be fading.
Or maybe she is
evaporating without him here.

She doesn't have the need to eat or drink,
but she knows she must.

It is only by getting her strength back,
that she can force his memory to return to her
And to place that remembrance
back to the center of her conscience.

She slowly opens her eyes again to her surroundings,
hoping that this place is but a dream
and she will be with her mate.

Sadly though, this is not true.

She is still in this dreadful,
cold place without him.

She can't even begin to remember
how long ago that she last saw him.

She can recall being alone and helpless in her cage,
watching as the keepers put the shackles on him
and that damn muzzle
and placed him in a truck,
closed the doors
and took him away.

She paced within her cage for days,
stopping to listen for sounds of him,
for the smell of him.

They never came.

She must find a way back to him.
She must.

It has been way too long without him.
He is her only chance for survival.
She knows that she keeps him alive as he does her.

Her keepers don't know it yet.
But she has only been waiting
and biding her time until the timing is perfect.

They think she is weak and unstable.

They can't even begin to comprehend what she is capable of.