Kicking my legs, I tried to fight against him, I didn’t care where I hit, as long as I landedsomething.I could free myself long enough to run, at least, that’s what I hoped.
“You know you’re mine, right?” He rasped, breath hot on the shell of my ear. His grip tightened, fingers digging in hard enough to make my eyes water. “I marked you Violet, no matter how far you run, Iwillfucking find you, and when I do?”
My chest burned. My lungs wouldn’t work. I clawed at his arm, nails desperately scraping at skin.
“And when I do?” he continued softly, almost lovingly. “You’ll be lucky ifallI do is kill you.”
Something in me splintered and the room closed in, air vanishing and I knew. There was nowhere for me to run. There never was. It just made things worse, I just—
“Vi!”
I jolted awake with a strangled gasp, body jerking forward as if I’d been shoved. A blanket slid off my chest, pooling around my waist, and the sudden exposure sent a fresh spike of panic through me.
I was naked.
I didn’t want to be naked.
When I was naked, people would touch me without my permission. I liked sex, I liked being in control of my sex, but I didn’t want to be touched. If I stayed naked—
My hands flew to myself, clumsy and frantic, heart hammering so hard it hurt. The air felt too thick, like it wouldn’t go all the way into my lungs no matter how hard I tried. I sucked in a breath that turned into a sob instead.
“Hey—hey, you’re okay.” The voice came again, and I realized it was Skye.
He was right there, sitting up beside me, but between the dark and my lack of glasses, I couldn’t make out his expression. But, through the pack bond, I felt his fear.
No, no, no.
Bunny, I signed before patting around the nest.
I needed my bunny, and I needed to go back tomynest, the one with fairy lights, and where I could wear my nightgowns, and where I slept in my glasses without fear of them being rolled on and crushed.
But, something in my chest ached to be surrounded by my mates. Not like this though.
The wanting scared me more than the nightmare.
I pressed my forehead into my knees and hugged the blanket tighter around myself, feeling stupid and fragile and wrong all at once.
Fuck.
Maybe I was broken, or at least defective.
“Vi—are you okay?” Skye whispered. “You were thrashing in your sleep.”
Drawing in a sniffly breath, I forced myself to sit up properly, I then placed a fist over my heart before moving it in a clockwise circle.
Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.I repeated the sign over and over and over again.
“Why are you sorry?” Skye asked before pausing. “Wait a minute.”
He placed his hand on the edge of the nest before patting around. I heard a clink as he hit my glasses before picking them up and slipping them onto my nose.
I blinked twice before readjusting them, seeing as he completely missed one of my ears.
With my vision restored, I could see Benji sleeping behind Skye, and now that the panic had mostly ebbed out of me, I could smell Serena’s hazelnut musk behind me.
I was in the pack nest, I was safe, but my heart never got the message, leaving it to race as if I were being hunted for sport.
“Better?” Skye asked.
