Page 42 of Claim Me
Damian stood in front of me with a grim expression on his face. “You could have ruled by my side. You could have made this easier on everyone.”
I couldn’t reply. It was like my tongue was stuck to the roof of my mouth. I watched him pace back and forth in front of me. He wore a band t-shirt I didn’t recognize and black jeans. His hair was a little bit longer than it had been before. He resembled someone but I couldn’t put my finger on it. It was right on the tip of my tongue but as soon as my thoughts seemed to get close to the answer, the answers danced away again.
“Why do you care about the Crimson Pack so much?” This time I could talk but I didn’t know what to say. It was all a dream. It didn’t matter.
“Why do you?” My voice sounded far away and murky like I was underwater.
Damian raised his brows. “I care because the Crimson Pack took everything from me. Wolves don’t deserve a place in the world.”
“But you wanted to be one,” Once again my voice sounded off.
Damian’s eyes flashed. “That was stolen from me. I could have been like you. I could have loved you and cherished you but you chose him over me. Why?”
“Is that what all of this is about? You wanted me?” I had known that in some ways but he didn’t make sense. At first, he had wanted me to get back at Rafe. Now he wanted me because he wanted to love me. I couldn’t grasp what was happening.
“Everything has been stolen from me, Jade. My birthright, my mother, my name, and nowyou.”
He marched toward me and my body wouldn’t move a muscle. He leaned over me and his minty breath fanned over my face. “I didn’t care if you wanted him or if you were his fated mate. If I had been given my birthright, you would have been my mate.”
He ran his hand over my cheek and I internally cringed. My body wouldn’t move no matter how much I wanted to. No, needed to.
“I wouldn’t be your anything.”
His hand flashed across my face and pain blossomed along the side of my cheek. My body wouldn’t move even to process the abuse he was inflicting on me. “You would be whatever I told you to be.”
“That is why you will live and die alone. Your birthright wasn’t stolen from you. You could have had whatever you wanted in this life but you chose vengeance and evil instead. You could have done good for this world.” My words cut off with a gasp as the air was stolen from my lungs. Damian held his fist into the air as it got harder for me to breathe. My hands wouldn’t move to go to my neck where my oxygen had been cut off. Nothing would obey me. Once again, I was trapped in another kind of prison.
Black spots dotted my vision as my head swam. My eyes blinked but my vision was already going out. He was going to kill me. My time had come. Would Nalia know? She wasn’t in this dream with me. Her wolfish presence had been kept away from it. He must have known we were stronger together. All of the things I hadn’t gotten to do flashed through my head.
I hadn’t told Rafe how I was feeling about him. Sure, I had let him kiss me. I had flirted but I had never kissed him first. I didn’t tell him that I was ready to pledge or that I would be soon. I didn’t tell Tracey how much I valued her friendship and how she saved me. I didn’t tell Lucas just how much I cared for him. My parents hadn’t seen me in a few days and I hadn’t called. They would think I just vanished and how heartbroken would they be. The emotional pain in my heart was more than the pain he was inflicting on my body.
After a few seconds, something seemed to rip through me. A scream louder than anything I had ever heard ripped through my chest, like a banshee. But instead of staring at Damian’s face, I was back in my bed, staring at the ceiling. My chest rose and fell rapidly as I ran my hands down my body to make sure I was all still here. The door to my bedroom burst open and the lights above me temporarily blinded me. I winced against the abrasive surprise. My neck ached but I wondered if it was from the scream. Had I screamed out in my dream? It had felt so real. A tear slid down my cheek and fell on my pillow as Tracey and Lucas marched into the room. Tracey wore a pink negligee that barely covered her ass and Lucas was in his flannel sleep set.
“What happened?” Lucas held his fists up as he surveyed the room.
Tracey’s face was full of horror. “Are you okay?”
I tried to wave them off. “It was just a nightmare.”
Tracey shook her head. “No, it wasn’t. The magic is burning my nose. What happened?”
Lucas sat on the edge of the bed and his fingers reached out to the neckline on my pajama set. The collar was a little high but I let him brush it away. He jerked in surprise. “You’re alive. That’s all that matters.”
Before I could say anything, Lucas had me shoved into his arms and was breathing in the scent of my hair. His hands rubbed up and down my back in a soothing pattern all while Tracey cursed and waved her hands around.
“What is she doing?” I managed to ask against Lucas’s chest.
“She’s destroying webs of magic. While you were at the border with Rafe, he must have been weaving in your room.” Lucas let me pull away slightly and looked into my face. His fingers traced something on my cheek and his eyes glowed with murderous rage.
There was no time for me to say anything again as I was pulled from Lucas’s embrace and settled into another. It was the scent that got to me first. Pine and whiskey. I sunk into the scent of it. A growl rumbled through my mate’s chest. “What happened?”
Tracey’s voice trembled with her anger. “Damian was here.”
Silence stretched around the room before I was yanked up into Rafe’s arms and whisked right out of my home. Trees blurred in my vision as the moon hung high and heavy in the sky. It took only seconds for him to bring me through the door to his house and up the stairs to his room. He tucked me onto the bed carefully before he rushed to the other side of the space. It felt like hundreds of feet separated us but it was only a few.
My mate struggled with his breathing as he watched me. His eyes glowed bright yellow and I could smell his wolf fighting for control of the situation. Fur rippled along his arms. He gritted his teeth as he fought the change trying to take him over.
“You will be safe here, nothing will harm you. Alpha homes have more wards than others.” His hands curled into fists as fur sprouted down his fingers. “Please don’t leave. Gabriel is sleeping downstairs if you need anything.”
And before I could ask him to stay, fur continued to grow up his arms. He ran from the room with a speed only my wolf senses could track. A howl rang through the woods outside and I wondered if he was trying to protect me from Damian or himself.
