Chapter 30
By the time Viola finished cleaning herself up, she was utterly exhausted because she had done everything with one hand. She wore the pajamas and felt too tired to remove her hair from the towel and blowdry and comb it like she had intended to.
She found herself going to the king-size bed and falling onto it from exhaustion.
She curled up and tried to sleep, but despite her tiredness, she couldn’t fall asleep. The bed was just too big. So she pulled off the blanket and blindly laid it on the floor, and almost immediately after she lay down on it, she was plunged into slumber, only this slumber was filled with one of her worst nightmares from her past.
’Take them away!’ an urgent voice rang out in the air, filling her with fear. ’Kill them if you have to, but don’t let them be apart p>
’You left me a familiar voice whispered. Her twin looked at her with pain. ’You were evil. You were the reason our real parents put us in the orphanage p>
’I am sorry Viola said as she reached out for her sister, who seemed close and yet so far away at the same time, just like every time in her nightmares.
’You will never be happy, Serena. You remember what the note says… one of them is cursed to ruin the world with her bitterness, and she has to be anchored by the other. That’s why our parents left us. It’s you. You are the cursed one, Serena. I protected you, but you showed me your true colors,’ Ivy said, tears streaming down her blue eyes, making Viola desperately want to wake up from this nightmare she knew wasn’t real, yet her mind refused to believe it, and the scenes kept shifting.
’I am in pain, Serena! You are killing me!’ Ivy suddenly cried out, and Viola saw her sister lying in a pool of blood before her, a gaping hole in her chest. The knife plunged into her sister’s heart was clutched in Viola’s own hand.
Viola’s entire world narrowed to that moment, and despite knowing she was dreaming, it looked so real that she began to scream and cry, thrashing and murmuring, “I didn’t mean to hurt you! I didn’t mean to hurt you p>
Viola began to feel herself sinking into what seemed like an abyss of darkness when she suddenly felt something pull her out of it into a warm embrace. She clutched onto that warmth and began to cry in her sleep, her fingers gripping the coarse fabric beneath them.
“No… I didn’t mean to hurt you. I didn’t mean it p>
“Hush, cariño,” he murmured, his hand gliding over her back in a gentle, soothing caress.
Sebastian’s brows furrowed together as he looked down at the small body in his arms, her fingers gripping his shirt like a lifeline as she cried and trembled, her tears soaking into his chest. Though she was finally calm, her faintly arched brows, several shades darker than her frizzy, damp hair, furrowed occasionally as her dreams grew troubled. The lashes that lay in thick arcs on her cheeks were also dark and naturally curly.
Her lips were parted as she slept, particularly revealing straight, white teeth.
One would wonder what in the world he was doing in her room and how he had ended up here, holding her in his embrace on the floor.
He had given Zoe a new phone to deliver to the girl when bringing her here, but his sister hadn’t brought it along and had left it in his office due to her excitement to meet Viola Linden. Of course, Sebastian could have left it until tomorrow and sent someone to bring it, but he had been restless like hell since this morning, and he knew that feeling was because of this girl, who he hadn’t seen for two months now.
It’s been two months and yet the bond with her was not fading.
He had come this way with the intention of dropping off the phone and warning her against having him in her thoughts as she was disturbing him, but then he had found himself intoxicated by her scent, enough to lead him into her bedroom. Or, to be more precise, his wolf had controlled his movement straight to the bedroom.
How stupid of her to use her name as the passcode to the penthouse door. He had easily found his way inside.
She had been thrashing and whispering words in her sleep, apologizing to someone. Why on earth was she even sleeping on the floor when there was a bed?
She was having a nightmare, and without even realizing what he was doing, Sebastian lay down on the blanket on the floor, holding her in his arms like a small child. She immediately clutched onto him.
“I am sorry… forgive me she whispered again, her body trembling, and Sebastian’s hand tightened around her skinny ribs, which felt like they would break if he held her too tightly.
“Shh. Go to sleep,” he found himself whispering to her, unable to help but wonder what she was dreaming about and who she was apologizing to with such desperation.
’Who the hell is causing our mate to have nightmares? Let’s kill them and use their flesh for breakfast in the morning!’ his wolf groaned.
’She’s not our mate,’ Sebastian replied.
Even as he said that, he still held her to his chest and buried his nose between her neck and shoulder, inhaling her essence. It sent a sparkling, electric-like current through his body and blood, heat surging inside him like liquid flame before settling in his loins, making him groan in both frustration and restraint.
For two months, he hadn’t taken any woman to bed because none of them were as appealing, or smelled like heaven, like this little thing in his arms.
The feeling of being close to your mate, the feeling he despised, always ended up being his undoing. No matter who the person was, it couldn’t be helped. The arousal was always strong, and so was the sense of rightness when that person was in his arms.
How much he hated it, and yet how much his body still responded and wanted it, especially when she moved and settled herself on top of him, her head resting on his chest, her skinny legs straddling his, her thighs brushing over his hardening manhood that had grown so painfully erect for her it ached to find a place inside her and finally reach release.
“Damn you. I don’t want you in my life. You don’t fit in it, nor do you belong here. You don’t have anything the right one is supposed to have. I will either kill you too, or the world will,” he groaned into her neck, his mouth moving over her flesh.
She moaned softly in her sleep and turned her head, but she didn’t wake. The nightmare had faded, and her body was relaxed. He ran his mouth and nose along the cool skin of her neck down to her shoulder, nibbling and licking, wishing he could control his own body’s reaction to her, and how desperately he wanted her.
’You creep. You’re only supposed to soothe her, not take advantage. What will you say if she wakes up to you licking her neck?’ his wolf asked.
Sebastian immediately put a stop to what he was doing, laid his head back on the floor, and stared at the dim ceiling for a long, silent moment, trying to get a hold of his damn body again. When he finally did, he moved aside and placed her back on the floor.
He would have put her on the bed, but the last thing he needed was her knowing he had come here. He didn’t want her to hold any hope that she would be treated differently because his bond with her was a little stronger than with the other mates he had met so far, when she was the weakest of them all, and one far away from the one he was meant to search for.
He would pretend to himself that he hadn’t just creeped into her room to hold her, Sebastian thought as he looked down at her peacefully sleeping face, her lashes still wet with tears. Her cheeks were still sunken, marred with dark bruises, and her right eye still bore a deep bruise around it. Her lips were pale, drained of color.
There was absolutely nothing appealing about her appearance right now, yet Seb found himself staring until she turned her head in her sleep. He snapped back to his senses and moved away.
“I hope you change your mind when you see what you are up against tomorrow, little girl. Being my Luna is a death sentence p>
Saying that, Sebastian rose to his feet, but as he began to turn to leave, his eyes fell on something lying on the floor beside the blanket. Without thinking, he bent down and took it, tucking it into his pocket before turning away and leaving her behind, promising himself this would be the last time he would ever bring himself to her again.
’Did you just steal from her p>
’Shut up p>