Page 114 of The Alpha's Protective Mate

“In the middle of the fucking night?” Robert gapes at me. “Is it made of gold or something? And what dream? What are you rambling on about?”

I take a few steps back, reality suddenly crashing down around me. As I rub my eyes, it hits me that I walked all the way from the house to here, this place in the woods, the one Robert brought me to on our date, the one I’ve been seeing in my dream lately.

“I wasn’t sleepwalking,” I mutter. “I was awake, but I was not here. There was this strange pressure in my head. I had to come here. Had to find the cave.”

“What cave, Charlotte?” Robert’s voice lowers as he grabs my hand to stop me from trying to pull my hair out.

“In my dream, it’s always the same, the same path, this waterfall. That rock opens a cave. I have to get to the cave.”

Robert’s hands cup my face now. “Sweetheart, why?”

He doesn’t tell me I’m being ridiculous. He doesn’t call me a lunatic.

“I don’t know.” I shake my head, meeting his gaze. “I just have to. It’s in my head. It’s driving me mad, Robert.”

His face is tense, and then he lets out a shaky breath. “Alright. If you need to do this, whatever this is, let’s do it. But you’re not getting in that water. It’s too cold, and I don’t want you getting sick. Also, here.” He takes off his shoes and puts them on me. “Stop damaging your feet. There are a thousand stones and sticks and critters in these woods.”

My heart grows full as he looks up at me from where he’s crouched.

“I know they’re big, but you’re going to have to make do, okay?”

I nod mutely.

“Okay,” he says, getting to his feet. “Let’s do this. Which rock is it?”

“The one in the middle.” I point it out. “I can go myself.”

The buzzing in my head has started up again, but Robert is already treading into the water. It’s deeper than it looks, I realize, the water reaching his chest. And as he gets closer to the rock, the water begins to submerge him even more.

“Robert!”

“I’m fine!” he calls out over the sound of the rushing water. “I can swim.”

And that’s exactly what he does. I watch him swim to the large rock in the center, and when he reaches it, he turns to look at me as if to ask, “What now?”

“There’s a—” In the dream, I reach into a crevice. “Is there a space there?”

“A what?” Robert gives me a blank look.

“A space, like a crevice, somewhere you can hide something. You’re looking for a key.”

I expect him to turn around and tell me I’m batshit crazy, but he doesn’t. My blood is thrumming with an excitement that should be mine, but it isn’t.

“A key,” Robert echoes, circling the rock. He does a thorough check, and then his eyes widen. For a moment, he disappears out of sight, and when he reemerges, he’s holding something in his hand.

As he wades back toward me, I hurry forward, fighting against the rising need in my head. “Let’s get you home. You’ll get sick. It’s too cold—”

“What does the key open?”

I look in the direction of the waterfall before forcibly shaking my head to dispel this desperate feeling inside me. The key, the cave, the door. Whatever possessed me to come out here at this time of night is once again trying to gain control. When it came to me, it was hard to fight back. But because it’s Robert who’s standing before me, soaking wet, his eyes wide as he stares down at the key in his hand, it’s easy to turn my back.

Not yet.

Robert comes first.

“We’ll come back later,” I insist, but he shakes his head.

“We’re already here. So, where’s the lock for this key?”

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