Chapter 16 #2
Torin’s transformation was inevitable. He shifted into his vampire in mere seconds.
I sat up and folded my knees, hugging my legs.
“Hayden is also my mate,” I admitted and watched the vampire’s reaction.
Torin growled low and threatening as if warning me not to continue.
But I would.
“He’s met me in my dream realm, and before you woke me up, he was there.”
I left out the part where Hayden wanted to kiss me. I wouldn’t have let him, especially not after the intimate moment Torin and I had, even if that moment meant more to me than the Alpha.
“Did he hurt you?” Torin asked, and I gaped at him.
This was what he wanted to know?
I shook my head. “Of course not. He’s my mate.”
Torin moved faster than my human eyes could follow. He stood and stepped backward, his back hitting the inside door.
He looked like he needed to destroy something.
“He will hurt you. He’s not your mate. But I am,” Torin shouted and then growled.
“How would you explain that he can access my dream realm?” How would you explain Hayden’s mate touch? I immediately pressed my lips together to stop those words from escaping.
Torin ran his hand through his silver hair. No talons in sight, but I still couldn’t let my guard down.
“I’m going to find out what he’s done, but I can’t trust him to be around you, Anna. He’s not your fated mate…” He pressed his fists against his lips.
I was sure Hayden would claim the same thing if asked.
“How do you know?”
Torin was in denial. I also didn’t like having two mates, but at least I acknowledged it.
“I’ve known that you’re my fated mate…for a long time,” he said.
Something in my stomach twisted painfully. I couldn’t stay still any longer. I moved to the edge of the bed, still sitting, and took a deep breath.
The depth of secrets Torin hid was infinite, and I couldn’t take it anymore.
“When did you find out?” I asked.
Silence.
“Tell me, Torin,” I shouted at him.
Silence.
“Withholding information only hurts me,” I said.
My heart pounded hard against my chest. I stood and walked until I stood toe-to-toe with the vampire Alpha. My mind clouded with questions and anger, and when I tilted my head up to look at Torin, I only wanted to show him how much he was hurting me with his hot and cold act.
“How can we be mates, Torin, when you always shut me out when tough conversations arise? You say you care about me, but you’re emotionally closed off.
You put up that wall between us, walking out the door, not answering my questions.
If you can’t even do that as my mate, how would you mark me, claim me as yours? ”
I took a deep breath to ready myself for my final blow. My heartache only propelled me forward. “Mating is for life. And now I wonder if I want to be claimed by you.”
I immediately regretted my words and the tone of my voice. I wished I had inherited Mom’s kindness, but I didn’t. The hurt Torin caused me only made me resentful.
Something passed behind his crimson eyes, and once he narrowed them at me, my world tilted, and I was carried to the bed. He tossed me like a sack of rocks onto the mattress, and then Torin lay on top of me, pinning me, keeping me trapped.
His fangs protruded, touching his bottom lip.
That couldn’t be good for me. But what did I expect when I’d provoked the Alpha?
“You’re mine, Anna.” He lowered his head to my ear and growled.
A chill ran through me, making me quiver in his arms.
“Since you challenged the vampire in me, he wants to mark you now.”
Wasn’t that what I wanted?
His fangs touched the skin at the crook of my neck, and blood rushed to my head. Torin was too far gone. The vampire had taken over his rational side. I had an angry beast mate crushing me with his weight.
I had to act quickly. I wanted him to mark me, but not like this. Not when both of us were angry.
“Is this what you really want, Torin? To dominate me? To get your way with force?”
Torin’s body tensed, and the pressure of his fangs against my skin lessened, his mouth still below my ear. His hot breath warmed the spot, but a cold chill ran down my spine.
“I’m not afraid of your bite, but I’m afraid of the consequences it’ll bring for you.
Later, you’ll regret it, like you regret it after every time you’re close to me.
Then you’ll break a little more. I don’t want this to happen to you.
I don’t want to be the reason your vampire feels more tortured. ”
Torin took a sharp breath and exhaled loudly, his breath leaving tingling sensations on the surface of my neck. He pulled away from me, stood, and left the room.
I twisted my body and punched my pillow. Then I lay on my stomach, hugging the same pillow. I had to be an idiot to challenge his vampire side and for wanting to fix a broken man. He had to fix himself, and if he couldn’t do that… Well, I couldn’t be here.
Anxiety stabbed through my chest as I thought about what Torin would do next. If he were to confront Hayden publicly—or worse, fight him—rumors would spread in the kingdom about the princess with the two mates. Since it was unheard of to have two mates, chaos would break out among the werewolves.
The King would get involved and…
I sucked in a sharp breath.
Sunlight began peeking in the sky, so I closed my eyes and let my mind and body rest. I must have dozed off because the bright light from the window blinded me when I reopened my eyes. I blinked a few times and decided to get on with my life.
I swung my feet out of bed and stood, feeling as if a heavy weight pressed on my shoulders. Dragging myself to the bathroom, I turned on the hot shower. If I could only wash off the storm raging inside me.
Undressed, I stepped into the spray and let the warm water scorch my skin. The steam enveloped me, providing a moment of relief from my inner turmoil.
The glass door fogged up, and on autopilot, my hand flew up, my finger tracing a flower. A memory of London pierced through the haze of exhaustion. In my office, I had planned to blow a hot breath over the cover of my book.
I hastily turned off the shower. Dripping water everywhere, I dressed in a blur with frantic movements.
By the Gods, I had completely forgotten with the recent events.
I stomped out of my bedroom and into Torin’s.
He wasn’t there as expected, so I headed for his safe room.
I pushed on the mirror decoy wall in his closet, and it slid away for me.
Inside, I lifted the glass lid and picked up the book, tripping the alarm of the motion sensor.
I sat on the floor in the safe room, waiting for the Alpha. I knew he’d come. I extended my legs, crossing them. The book lay on my lap. I didn’t have to wait for long before Torin walked inside.
“What are you doing?” he asked as he stopped in front of me.
“Opening my book.”
He reached for the glass lid. Torin placed his index finger next to it, probably to turn off the sensor. I’d guess it sent messages to his phone. Torin sat next to me on the floor.
“I’m sorry,” he said and looked at me.
“Me too. There’s no point to our arguing.”
“Agreed. But I’d like us to confront Hayden. We need to talk to him, Anna.”
As long as it was only talking and not tearing off limbs.
“I asked Hayden how he could access my dream realm, and he said he found it easily because he knew my favorite fairy tale. So the rabbit hole was an easy representation of the access point for him to figure out.”
Torin let out a heavy sigh. “Fine. But he could still jump in it, which means he’s somehow bonded to you, Princess.
” He glanced at me. “I know you don’t like the idea, but we’ll need to go back to the kingdom to confront Hayden and talk to your dad.
” He put his hands up when I opened my mouth to respond.
“There are many reasons for going back home.”
He didn’t even ask me or give me the option not to go. Didn’t he want me to be his Luna anymore?
Torin awkwardly bent to the side with his massive body and kissed my cheek. That was his way of telling me he was done talking about this.
I sighed and ordered my heart to slow down.
Nothing had changed.
I brushed my fingertips over the daisy wheel carved into the back cover.
Identical to my birthmark. And the witch pentagram with the four elements in my dream realm.
And the woman’s voice the first time I accessed my dream realm.
It couldn’t be anyone else’s but a witch’s.
Only she had the spell to access a supernatural’s dream realm.
But I wasn’t a supernatural. And I sure wasn’t a witch. But then how did I become a human born to werewolf parents?
“A witch book,” I whispered, my finger twitching on the symbol as I kept following the circle with my fingertips. “I want to open it.”
Desperation was like a lasso tightening around my heart, painfully clenching it. I’d do anything to figure out who I was.
I shook my head and looked at Torin. “The book must be valuable. Since magical practices were persecuted with total eradication, witches kept secret books. Secrecy was crucial because possessing a magical text was grounds for arrest and conviction for witchcraft. And when they burned the witches, books were burned with them. I want to know what’s inside the book, Torin. ”
He let out a heavy sigh. “So many people are looking for a magic book and coming after you. What if the witch who left this book gets pissed off when the book emerges from the shadows and more people know about it? No more secrecy. The witch will come after you, Anna.”
“It’s still worth it. I just have to…” I remembered my failed attempt at blowing a hot breath over the cover in my office in the London library.
I brought the book to my lips, and after inhaling deeply, I exhaled loudly. Little lines, the same ones we saw when the title of the book was revealed, moved like little worms left without water.
Torin’s body stiffened next to mine. “You see the scribbles, Anna?”
Three bright-yellow lines moved around erratically.
“Last time I had to touch them to see the title.” I brushed my finger over them, and warm energy zapped my fingers.
At the touch, the lines rearranged into coherent text, and I gasped. I could read the words.
“What is it, Princess?” Torin’s gaze aimed at the book cover, his body alert.
“You can’t read it?” I asked, and he shook his head.
So whoever had left The Book of Banished Souls in the secret attic for me knew that I could decipher the text.
“What does it say?” Torin asked in a deeper voice, signaling his vampire was close to protecting me.
I cleared my throat and began reading out loud. “I could save or kill you, but if your enemy gets a hold of me, you are dead for sure.”
Torin took a sharp breath. “What does the riddle mean?” He paused. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t like it.”
Was the riddle about the book? If my enemy got a hold of it, they could use it against me?
Who was the person who’d left me the book but put so many roadblocks to opening it, making sure I was the only one who could do so?
Now I had to figure out the answer to the riddle, and it would be better to do so before Torin met with the King and confronted Hayden.