Page 47 of Lion Conquers All
He heard her moving around. A door opened and closed. A toilet flushed. Water ran. Once he finally heard the springs in her bed squeak a little, he breathed easier.
She was in bed. She was silent. The crying had stopped. Her heartbeat had steadied.
He took a deep breath and let his head rest against the door. He let his eyes drift closed. He dreamed of a time where his mate had no locks on her doors and no locks on her heart.
The dream was brokenby a scream that brought his beast straight to the surface.
Aarav jumped up from the floor and growled. What was attacking? The storm was howling outside. He could hear the wind and feel the cold. Had someone come into the house? Maybe something hit her bedroom window?
He calmed his body and listened. No extra heartbeats. No scent of intruders.
Another scream cut through his heart. That broken haunted sound was like a blade carving off slices of his soul.
“Connie?” He slammed his fist on her bedroom door. “Connie.” He shouted her name louder. “Connie, wake up.”
She was dreaming.
It was a nightmare.
It was the most logical explanation, and he couldn’t get to her. He couldn’t help. He couldn’t stop her pain. She was less than fifteen feet away and he was helpless.
Another scream.
And another.
She was thrashing in the sheets. He could smell her fear and her sweat and her panic.
“Connie.” He shouted again, pounding on the door. “Connie, let me in. Please.”
Get to her.His beast was losing his mind right along with him.Now.
He shifted right there in her hallway and clawed at the door. His claws scraped the paint from the steel door, but it still didn’t give.
He roared his frustration and sliced at the wall instead. His long talons went right through the sheetrock like it was made of paper. He did it again and again, the sound of her pain and fright driving him into a frenzy. He couldn’t hear anything else. See anything else except the goal in front of him. He would not be denied. He would get to her if he had to tear her damn house to the ground to do it.
Sheetrock crumbled around him. Two by fours snapped and splintered and minutes later he was crawling through a hole in the wall and pulling her from the sweaty tangle of sheets and blankets on the bed.
His beast was pissed that he’d shifted back, but he’d needed to feel her against him. Have his arms around her. She was thrashing and still screaming and fighting him like he was the enemy.
She still wouldn’t wake up.
“Connie.” He hugged her to his chest and purred. It didn’t help. She couldn’t hear him through her panic. She was drenched with sweat and vacillating between screaming and sobbing.
Mine. Give her to me.His beast roared in his head, fighting for control.She needs me.
Her shirt had ridden up in the back and his hand touched her back. He’d never seen her in anything that showed skin. Long pants. Long sleeves. Shirt tucked in with a belt holding everything in place. And now he knew why. And he was as angry as his beast about the truth.
Raised lines criss-crossed her back.
She bucked in his arms. An arm flailed loose and smacked him in the face. Then her fingers curled and she clawed at his neck. The bite of her nails in his flesh were nothing compared to the burn of empathy coursing through his veins.
Fury built in him with each scar he traced.
They were everywhere.
Let me have her.His beast was so close. Claws were biting through the tips of his fingers.
Aarav laid down on the ground, his arms wrapped around his mate, and he released his control. His beast jumped forward, shifting his body, and spreading out over nearly every square inch of floor space on the side of the room.
