Page 67 of Rejected By the Alpha King

With a shrug, I turned back around, closed my eyes, and conjured the dream again.

“I have you,” Jax whispered. “I will protect you and cherish you. Side-by-side, Anna.

Together.”

It was a shitty dream. One that was never going to happen, and usually, I tried to ignore it, but this time, I immersed myself in it completely.

And then I began to fall.

“Join us. Join us, witch, or everything you love will burn.”

“No,” Irene said sharply and broke contact. I jumped and opened my eyes. She was pale and trembling. “My apologies. That was a vision from my past, and it has nothing to do with you. Please, try again. For me.”

She took my hands, and I blew out my breath and closed my eyes. It took a little bit longer to relax, but when it did, I surfaced somewhere else.

“You have to be quiet,” I whispered. “I know you’re in pain, but you have to be quiet, because if you don’t, he’ll hear you. If he hears you, he’ll remember you. Please.”

A small dark room. There was a rough rug beneath my bare feet. It was made of rope, wound around and around again to protect my skin from the splinters of the wood, but sometimes, I thought the rough fiber of the rope was even worse.

It didn’t matter. The rug was necessary. Camouflaged tool so I could one day make my mistake.

The whimper sounded again, and I crawled away from it to the small window. I was being punished. I’d spilled hot coffee on his guest. A mistake. Scared little hands that trembled too much, but it didn’t matter. I was back in the room.

I knew what happened here.

Outside, I saw two figures. My father and his guest. A terrifying man.

“He’s in place,” the man said stiffly, “but the others are suspicious.”

“I don’t give a flying fuck,” Dirk snapped. I couldn’t see his face, but I recognized his voice. “It doesn’t change the plan.”

“It does. This plan is contingent on everything going exactly right. We wait.”

Dirk growled. “How long? A month? Two?”

“Three or four. Years,” the man said. “You need to be careful. Your little hobbies need to stop.”

“What hobbies?”

“I know what you are doing, Dirk. I can smell the blood from here. We have found the void. There’s no need to keep searching. Keep your head down and wait.”

“Fine,” Dirk said sullenly.

“Your patience will be rewarded. I promise.” The man walked away, and Dirk turned to the small window. “How is she doing, Anna? Does she want to play some more?”

I turned to the poor woman, barely clinging to life. Of course she didn’t want to play.

They never did.

“Kill me,” the woman whispered. “Please. I can’t take any more.”

“I want to play, Anna. He thinks I’m going to stop just because he said to? I obey no one; I am the one obeyed,” my father growled. The fury in his voice made me shudder, and I crawled back to the woman and placed a hand over her nose and mouth.

Tears poured down my cheeks as I stole what little life she had left.

He would be angry when he found out. He would be so angry.

“What the fuck,” Jax roared. He pulled me from the memory, and I tried to scramble free, but Irene grabbed my hands and squeezed. “What the hell was that?”

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