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“Rune, baby,” he groaned behind me, his hand on my shoulder. “Did something happen?”
I kept hearing the thumping sound in my head, of him striking that man. My knees shook, and I felt lightheaded, but his fingers squeezed my shoulder.
“I…” I swallowed the thickness in my throat. “Were you just in your basement? I saw something down there.” I squeezed my fists harder, and a shudder washed over me as I finally turned to face Alistair.
Brows pinched, he stared at me with confusion. “I was in the study, answering emails. What did you see in the basement?”
My breaths drowned out my racing heartbeat. “You were hurting someone with a baseball bat,” I whimpered, the words seeming to hurt me as they fell from my mouth. “I can’t explain it, but I was certain of what I saw.”
“Oh, I think you’re having another episode from your captivity. I almost never go into the basement. There’s nothing down there but boxes and dust.” He brushed a loose strand from my face and tucked it behind my ear.
“I’m certain it was you.” I recoiled from his touch, feeling stranger than normal around him.
He took a step after me, a fierce determination behind his gaze as he grabbed hold of my arm.
“You’re scaring me,” I whispered.
“You should never be scared of me, my moon. Come, let me show you everything is fine. I give you my word, there’s nothing down there.” With his hand round my elbow, he guided me back towards the house.
My palms felt slick, and I glanced down as I unfurled a clenched hand. Four moon-shaped marks bled from where I’d managed to dig my nails deeply into my palm, blood trickling over the edges of my hand and dripping into the soil at my feet.
Alistair hurried me inside, not seeming to notice the blood. I wiped it off my hand on the back of my jeans.
Dread filled me as he rushed me down the basement steps. Was he going to torture me like he’d punished that poor man?
He swung left and before we took another step, I noticed the area was tidy. Normal looking. There were boxes stacked around…but there was no man hanging from the ceiling by chains, no garbage bags, no blood. Even the air smelled from fresh citrus, rather than the coppery smell of blood.
“But…” I whispered, stepping forward in a daze. “How is this possible? I was so certain of what I’d seen.”
Alistair stood behind me, his strong arms wrapped around the front of my shoulders, and he pressed his chest against my back. “I don’t see anything down here, do you?”
I couldn’t breath, couldn’t think. Was I losing my mind and this was one of the signs?
“Come, let’s get you upstairs, and I’ll make you a cup of chamomile. That’ll calm you down. How does that sound?”
I didn’t answer because only dark thoughts filled me. Images of the man being tortured, of me going slowly insane.
“I’ll meet you in the kitchen,” I said softly. “Just need to visit the bathroom.”
“Of course, my moon. You know that you mean the world to me, and I’ll look after you, protect you. You’ll be with me forever and never have to worry about anything else. It will be just you and me.”
I shuddered at his words. It was a particularly cruel twist of fate from the Moon Goddess that I feared and had distaste for my fated mate. That wasn’t how it was supposed to be. I’d been told that when I was with him, I wouldn’t be able to keep away. I’d crave him…beg for more. And yet I felt none of those things with Alistair.
Unsure what was wrong with me, I stumbled into the bathroom alone and leaned over the sink. Hurriedly, I washed the blood from my hands, and then I splashed my face. Wiping my it with the towel, I glanced at myself in the mirror. At how pale I appeared, at the shadows under my blood-shot eyes. I looked like I’d spent the night drinking.
Was I sick? Maybe with a brain tumor? That might explain my hallucinations and visions. Although I didn’t know if wolf shifters could even have a brain tumor.
It was only when I dropped the towel in the sink and looked back up that I noticed a blushing mark on my neck. I tilted my head to the side, staring at a bruise, or was that a bite mark? “What is that?” I murmured to myself. “How did I get that?”
Evidently, I had spoken right as Alistair stepped into the open doorway. “Let me have a look at that.”
Standing beside him, he ran soft fingers along the length of my neck, the skin tender over the spot. “That was the mark I gave you, little moon when I bit you to bond us together as fated mates. You don’t remember?” He raised an eyebrow, appearing sorrowful.
I was shaking my head. “How can I not recall something so important?”
Turning me on my feet to face him, he smiled at me, his hands on my hips. “It’s perfectly okay, it will come back to you. Just give it time because I won’t give up on us, on you remembering you belong to me.”
His lips were suddenly on mine, and I let him kiss me, but I couldn’t stop the disgust pulsing through my veins.
