Page 29 of Alpha's Hated Mate

She looks over at Chad, who stands up and says, “I’ll get her a glass of water.”

He leaves, and it’s just the three of us. Aydan is watching us from his place near the door. He looks concerned, but he also looks cautious. “Are you really all right?” he asks. “Yarra said that you were in trouble.”

“I’m fine. I was just sleepwalking again.”

“No,” Yarra said, shaking her head. “Not this time.” The look on her face is scaring me. She’s as pale as paper and a little sweaty to boot. “I think something had a hold of you.”

Her words send an icy chill through me. Aydan says, “What do you mean?”

She looks back at him, and before she can say anything else, Chad walks in with the glass of water. I take it gratefully. My mouth feels like I’ve been eating cotton.

“We were just sitting here, going over my homework,” Yarra says. “When she came knocking at the door. Only . . . only . . .” She looks back at me, biting her lip with worry. “You weren’tyou. Your eyes were all white. Your fangs were out. You . . . you threatened me.”

I didn’t hear her right. I couldn’t have.Threatened her?“Wh-what?”

“You came in here and . . .” She’s speaking in a low, halted tone, the trauma still clear on her face. “You called me a filthy hybrid. You said I was unworthy of being the Luna of the Tsukino pack—”

“You weren’t yourself,” Chad jumps in. He doesn’t say anything else, but we’re all thinking the same thing.Damn it.

“So this isn’t normal,” Aydan says. He’s got a nearly panicked look in his eye as he looks at them for some explanation.

Chad and Yarra exchange glances in a silent discussion.

“Hello?” Aydan pressed. “What the hell is happening to her?”

“Scarlets are . . . “ Chad clears his throat “ . . . more susceptible to mind control magic.”

“Hold on a second.” Aydan’s chuckling nervously. “Mind control magic? Are you for real?”

I’m watching Aydan’s face as he absorbs that information. His brow is deeply furrowed, as if he doesn’t believe a word of it.

“It’s happened before,” Yarra says. “That’s why the woods are off limits. A Scarlet tried to hurt me and other members of the faculty by using another Scarlet to do his bidding.”

“Scarlets don’t do magic,” Aydan says.

“Yeah,” Yarra replies with a sad tone. “And yet it still happened.”

“If this is mind control again, we need to figure out who’s behind this.” Chad’s standing next to the bed with his arms crossed, the deep resonance of his voice taking on an Alpha’s commanding tone. “Whoever this is has threatened my Luna and, therefore, my pack. I can’t take this lightly.”

I reach over and take Yarra’s hand. She squeezes it, silently letting me know that she understands that I wasn’t in control.

“Fine,” Aydan says. “So where do we start? Enemies, maybe? Who hates your pack enough to try something like this?”

“One thing you’ll find out once you’re ruling your pack properly is that Alphas can have a staggering number of enemies. Old grudges from Alphas past are not uncommon for any of us.”

My head is starting to ache from the vision. I rub between my eyes to give myself some relief as they bat ideas back and forth. All this and I still don’t even know what those visions mean in the first place. Yarra’s hand rests on my shoulder.

“You okay?”

“Just a little headache,” I say softly. “Fucking visions are intense sometimes.”

She blinks her sapphire eyes. “The same one?”

“Not exactly the same. This time Natasha wasn’t pregnant anymore. She was running with the baby in her arms into the forest . . . like she was being chased by a monster.”

“Yarra said that you think your visions are about Natasha of Hino,” Chad says. “Why would you be having visions of her?”

“I have no idea. What do you know about her?”

---