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“I’m not here to hurt you!” I scream in her face, letting my command rush over her. She freezes in place and whimpers under the pressure of it before staring past me at the ceiling, her eyes turn glassy, and she hiccups a shaky breath.
“Temperance?” I whisper, but it’s like she switched off. She mutters to herself, speaking so softly I can’t understand what she is saying. Leaning down, I try to hear what she is muttering, yet her lips are barely twitching when she whimpers as I lean closer, the sound crushing my very soul and splintering it into a million pieces.
When I find she is reciting some mantra, I listen harder, but it’s Malachi that picks it up before me. “He can have my body, but not my mind. He can have my body, but my mind’s confined.”
My heart beats faster at her words as I pull away, looking down at her horrified when I notice the way she is splayed on the floor.
Her legs that were kicking have dropped to the floor, looking down she has given up. Yet her entire body shakes beneath me like a leaf as she hiccups between muttering to herself, her eyes unblinking, and unfocused when I climb off her. My hands shake, knowing that she sees me as the monster they were to her.
“No, no, no!” I shake my head, backing away from her and I look for something to cover her body, something, anything! I peel my wrinkled shirt I had on yesterday off. Hearing the door shut, I see Casen walk out of the house. Temperance is completely immobile as I yank my shirt over her head, her body completely limp, I can hear she is there but her eyes are vacant, somewhere else hiding away with her mind.
Gathering her up, I pull her into my lap and stand up, then walk outside. Casen is standing looking at the house, yet while I was down in the basement he must have found something before she woke up because he has a book in his hand. I don’t ask knowing if he took it, it has the information we came here for.
Casen’s eyes are bright red and puffy as he stares at the packhouse. “I shouldn’t have stopped you, they deserved worse,” he whispers as I clutch her body against mine. Temperance’s muttering can no longer be heard, her words carried away with the breeze when I fall on my ass on the ash and scorched earth.
“See Temperance, you never have to go back?” I whisper to her, but she does not respond, her lips moving ever so slightly and I grit my teeth.
“He can have my body but not my mind. He can have my body but my mind’s confined.” Her little song reaches my ears.
“I don’t want your body, Temperance, just you,” I tell her, pressing my lips to her head.
“And I’ll prove it,” I whisper to her before I burn the place that held her captive for years to the ground while rocking her back and forth in my arms. I hope she sees, she understands she will never be back here, she’ll never be in the dark again. I won’t allow it.
ChapterFifteen
Temperance
“I don’t want your body, Temperance, just you,” he whispers, pressing his lips to my head; the action pulls me back to my surroundings, and into the present. Tingles rush up my arms, everywhere his skin touches mine. Zoning back into my surroundings, I feel warmth, too warm, and it doesn’t take me long to see why. My family home is burning, flames lick at the walls eating away at the place.
“And I’ll prove it,” he whispers to me. I remain frozen, fear slivering through my limbs and paralyzing me in his grip as he rocks back and forth.
“Nova?” I whisper. I get no response. I try calling out for Shadow but she too doesn’t answer, making me wonder why I can’t hear them. Did he do something to them? Did he take them from me? He continues to rock back and forth, and I stare at the flames. The windows shatter, huge black billows of smoke flood the air, the smell of death and burned flesh makes my nose wrinkle. Wondering where it is coming from, I turn my head and come face to face with the man holding me. My heart rate quickens when his golden eyes peer back at me. His hand moves and I flinch.
He swallows, his hand stopping just off my face. “I won’t hurt you, I’d never hurt you,” he whispers, cupping my face with his hand. Tingles dance across my skin, where his palm lay, and he exhales a shaky breath, pressing his forehead against mine while I remain frozen, still afraid of his intentions.
“I got you, you’re safe with me. I promise, Temperance. I’ll show you, I’ll show you what it is to feel safe.”
I think over his words. Then mull over everything Nova has spoken of mates, yet he doesn’t make my skin crawl, quite the opposite, it comes alive under his touch. Satish’s men always claimed to be her mate too before they did the vile things they did to us. But I don’t remember this feeling, the feeling of the sparks, delightfully buzzing across my skin. When he pulls back my eyes move over his shoulder to see the other man. In his hands he clutches a book, one I haven't seen since I was a child, only now it is so much thicker. As thick as the huge dictionaries Daddy used to have on the shelves in his office.
He stares at me for a few seconds, noticing my gaze on the book in his hand. He peers down at it, briefly taking a step closer, and I lean back only for the man who claims I’m his mate to clutch me tighter.
“He won’t hurt you. Casen won’t hurt you,” he whispers, and the man holding the book looks at him.
“She wants the book, give it to her, she recognizes it,” he tells him, but the man shakes his head.
“Eziah, she shouldn’t.” It’s all I have left of them.
My mate, or supposed mate looks at him. Casen curses and shakes his head. “I don’t think it’s what she thinks it is,” he tells him but hesitantly steps forward, hand outstretched. He holds the old scrapbook out to me. My hand shakes as I move to grab it, waiting for him to pull it away and laugh, or mock me, something that Satish’s men would do to Nova.
I snatch it, clutching it close when I feel fingers move down my spine, making me gasp and look at the man with golden eyes. Only then do I realize I am quite literally in his lap. I try to hop off him but he holds me tighter.
“Don’t run, Temperance. I know you’re scared. I promise we aren’t like those men,” he says softly. Some part of me wants to believe him, but I know otherwise, everyone wants something from you, and when they don’t get it they take it. Men are bad, I know because I have encountered far too many and not one besides Daddy was good.
Sitting frozen, I set the scrapbook in my lap, when movement catches my eye, the man behind him walks off, and my eyes track the movement as he walks back toward the forest edge.
“I’ll meet you at the car, Eziah,” he calls, and I look at my supposed mate. Yet thinking those words, I feel their depth, feel the pleasant tingling sensation dancing from his touch. I wonder if Nova was wrong, maybe he really does mean us no harm. He nods, turning his attention back to me, but I turn my gaze back down at the scrapbook. This is mine, it used to be mine, but as I open the first page, I realize it no longer is.
What used to be filled with pictures of my father and mom, was now ruined. The pictures remained, but my mothers face was now scratched off, a gasp leaves my lips seeing what Satish did to it, the original photos crossed out while more had been added.
