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Gulius hummed in contemplation. “I have no way of knowing how someone so young will react. Her mind is still developing.
“I can assure you, however, that it will not cause her any permanent damage. She may be uncomfortable though. Especially when she already has a head injury.”
“But it will still work, right?” Ace bit out. “I need it to work. I will not lose my mate.”
My eyes scrambled over Ace’s face, my heart dropping when he refused to meet my gaze. “Ace, whatever this is, whatever you’re thinking of doing, please don’t. You’re not going to lose me—”
“I can’t stop them from taking you from me unless this happens,” Ace cut me off in a clipped tone.
I tried to pull away from him—just so I could face him and try to talk some sense into him—but Ace tightened his hold so I couldn’t move.
“Let me go,” I ordered. “Ace, please—” I fought against his hold to no avail.
“The full process takes about twenty minutes,” Gulius said. “She won’t remember a thing afterward.”
Ace nodded, then easily adjusted so we were both sitting near the edge of the bed with me between his legs, still leaning against his chest.
I faced the standing Gulius with wide, terrified eyes. “Ace, I’m scared.”
I didn’t think Ace could get any stiffer, but he turned into complete stone when he heard me say those words. A pained whimper came from somewhere behind his rib cage.
“You don’t have to be,” he replied. “I’m not going to let anything bad happen.” His mouth was against the back of my head. “I’m so sorry, Doe. This is going to fix everything, I promise.”
“Shall I begin?” Gulius asked.
Ace nodded, and Gulius put one knee on the edge of the mattress, causing me to dip toward him. He raised his hands.
“No!” I screamed, jerking my head back when he attempted to put them on either side of my face. My skull throbbed.
Gulius sighed in annoyance. “Please hold her still,” he reprimanded.
Ace slid his arms under my armpits and moved his hands up to grip both sides of my face, keeping me from moving my head. He pinned my kicking legs under his.
“Shh, Doe, it’s okay. I promise everything is going to be okay. You have to hold still.
Please.”
I had never heard Ace sound more desperate in all my life. It only fueled my panic.
“No, please don’t,” I begged. Tears pooled in my eyes as I gripped Ace’s arms, digging my nails into his skin, trying to pull them away from me so I could escape.
Nothing worked. He was too strong.
“Please, Ace…”
Ace made a whining noise. “You’re going to hurt yourself, Doe. Please, just hold still.
Please.”
Gulius placed his hands back on my head. I cried out when he brushed over the raised bruise on my forehead.
Ace jerked me away from Gulius with a loud growl. “Be careful of her stitches!”
Gulius held up his hands. “Apologies.” He readjusted his hold, cautious of where he was touching me this time, and gazed down at me.
I gasped in horror. His eyes were pure white. His irises were barely visible. It was as if a blizzard was dancing in his gaze, impending and deadly.
Not human. Not human. Not human, my brain repeated over and over.
“Brace yourself, little omega,” he told me. His lips turned up in a malicious grin. “It will all be over soon.”
“I’m so sorry, Doe,” Ace whispered one last time.
Gulius pressed down on my skull. And the room filled with my screams.
***
I woke up gasping for air, thrashing my arms and legs as I fought the imaginary people around me.
It took me several panic-filled moments to realize where I was: in Ace’s room, totally safe. No terrifying white-eyed man in sight.
My body shook as I sat up. I placed a hand over my racing heart. “It was just a dream,” I whispered to myself. “It was all just a dream.”
But it felt so vivid. Normally, when I awoke from a dream, I struggled to remember it. This time, though, it was fresh in my mind. Like it had actually happened.
I almost wondered if it did happen.
We were fifteen in my dream—around the same time I was in that terrible car accident that sent me through the windshield of my dad’s truck.
The event had been so traumatic that I couldn’t remember any of it, only waking up in a hospital a few hours later in horrible pain.
I supposed I could have seen Ace beforehand. Maybe the dream was my brain’s way of trying to remember?
I reached up and touched the scar spanning my forehead and disappearing into my hairline. No. It was just a dream. It had to be.
I looked to my side. Ace wasn’t in bed with me. I flicked on the bedside table lamp and searched the room. I was all by myself.
My chest still felt tight from the panic. After that bizarre nightmare, I wanted nothing more than to hear Ace reassure me that everything was okay. To comfort me and tell me my brain made it all up.
Because it didn’t feel made up. It felt very real.
I pulled myself out of bed and stood on shaky legs.
Maybe he went to the bathroom? Or to get a glass of water?
Wherever he was, I decided I wasn’t going to wait for him to come back. It was two a.m.
It wasn’t like him to disappear in the middle of the night, especially after we just had sex for the first time.
Somewhere inside me, I knew something was up. And I was going to figure out what it was.
I pulled one of Ace’s shirts over my naked body and wrapped a blanket tightly around my shoulders before carefully padding out of his bedroom.
The hallway was eerily quiet and vacant. It was too dark to see anything.
For whatever reason, my heart was beating incredibly fast. What is it about a silent house at night that is so creepy?
It didn’t help that this house wasn’t mine. The thought of Ace’s creepy father lurking in the shadows filled me with dread, plus there were plenty of nooks and crannies I hadn’t explored.
I imagined the disturbing skeleton man from my nightmare standing around every corner, waiting to kill me. He would have limitless places to hide in this huge mansion.
I tiptoed down the hall, looking into each dark room I passed, until I eventually made my way down the staircase to the main level. I was relieved to find a light on, illuminating the foyer.
Voices were coming from the direction of the kitchen at the other end of the house.
The tension in my shoulders drained away when I recognized one of those voices as Ace’s.
I approached the entrance to the kitchen, being sure to stick to the shadows so I could try to pick out who it was that he was talking to at such an hour. Lord forbid, his father was back in town.