Chapter 56
Viola felt herself drowning in a very deep, bottomless water, the water burning her lungs and head. She knew she was in another nightmare, but just like all the others, she couldn’t wake up from this one. This was why she hated sleeping. She hated being alone.
She gasped and moaned, trying desperately to wake up, but she couldn’t. The more she opened her mouth, the more water forced its way into her lungs.
When she began to drown completely, with the world fading around her, she was suddenly pulled out of the water by a force and thrust into another, even worse place, the orphanage.
Viola’s entire body tensed as she looked around at the colorless walls of the broken-down orphanage, then down at the clothes she wore on her small, seven-year-old body, clothes that were far too fancy for a shattered place like this. Her heart throbbed in panic, already knowing what awaited her here, in this part of the nightmare.
This was the moment of her life she hated and regretted the most. The moment she would give even her life to change, to relive, just to make things happen differently.
She hated reliving these moments in her sleep, this exact moment, where she was stepping into a fancy car belonging to the Lindens, dressed in attire meant for Ivy, and looking back only to see her twin sister watching her from a window, blue eyes filled with tears.
’Serena she saw her sister’s lips form the word. ’Come back p>
But she stepped into the car, never looking back again. Never allowing herself to turn, never allowing herself to look back at that little girl standing by the window, tears pooling in her eyes.
Viola’s fingers balled into tight fists as the nightmare shifted again, and she found herself in the Moonwillow Pack, enjoying life, until she was suddenly back on the cold floor where Evan had rejected her.
She relived the moments she was being tutored and beaten in the dungeons, moments where people told her she deserved it, that she was paying for all her sins and cruel ways, and deep down Viola agreed she deserved it, she deserved it all and even more. Only, she hated being haunted by those moments repeatedly, hated being dragged back into them again and again.
Moments that tore into her soul and carved out every reason to be happy. She saw everyone turning their backs on her, mocking her, spitting cruel words at her, and the more cruel the words became, the more they pushed her away from herself, until she was falling deeper and deeper into an empty darkness.
When she began to fall into a deep abyss of darkness, just like every time she had this nightmare, she suddenly felt a gentle caress against her brows that stopped her. If she fell into that empty darkness, she would wake up feeling more empty and dead.
The touch was so soft, so different from all the hands that had beaten her, shoved her, and dragged her. She felt her body stop falling into the darkness, leaning instead into that soft, gentle touch against her brows and forehead.
Her heartbeat impossibly calmed, and she began to see a faint light emerging from somewhere deep within her darkness, filling her with a fragile sense of hope.
When the light suddenly began to grow faint and drift away, Viola did the only thing she could, she reached out and grabbed it fearfully, terrified it would vanish and leave her alone in the consuming darkness, afraid of what would happen if she fell into the abyss below.
“Don’t leave me… I need you,” she whispered to the light, holding onto it with trembling hands. “Please. Stay with me.” She sobbed, anguish wracking her small body.
While Viola struggled with her nightmares, she had no idea she was clutching Sebastian’s shirt sleeve with such desperation.
He had come to check on her before he would leave the healing house, but then saw her whimpering in her sleep, her brows deeply creased in distress.
Sebastian acted without thinking and began to soothe the deep crease on her forehead formed by the anguish she was experiencing in her sleep.
He couldn’t help but wonder what always troubled her this way. This was the second time he had seen her like this. But then, she must have endured a deep horror within the Moonwillow Hollow system. Four years of relentless torture would break anyone, even the strongest of souls, and he frowned in displeasure at the way it haunted her sleep. Would she ever overcome it?
He doubted it. He had lived through something similar twenty years ago and still had never fully overcome it.
When he finally tried to withdraw his hand after her frown had loosened its intensity, she suddenly reached out and grabbed his sleeve, whimpering softly.
“Don’t leave me… I need you,” she whispered. “Please. Stay with me.” Tears spilled from the corners of her eyes as anguish wracked her small body.
Sebastian’s inside clenched at the sight.
He knew that whatever she was experiencing in her sleep likely had nothing to do with him, but being her mate, and possessing all the instincts that came with it, instincts even sharper than normal, his heart leapt in his chest. As a mate, the one thing one always reacted to, the one thing the body responded to instinctively, was being needed by your mate.
The mate bond was formed in a way where the male didn’t only feel possessive over his female, but where the strong urge to protect and provide was deep and unyielding. And though Sebastian was used to fighting his instincts, and winning, over all the scattered mates the Moon Goddess had placed in his path, there was something about this little one here that was different, even though she didn’t fit the kind of mate his prophecy had given and marked for him.
He tried to pull his hand back, but she held onto his sleeve tightly. Sebastian’s expression softened just a little.
This was the third time she had grabbed onto his clothing, and it seemed he would have to tear this one off as well if she didn’t let go. How could such a little woman have so much strength? he wondered in curiosity.
“Little twig with the strength of a tree,” he mused, looking at her fingers gripping his sleeve.
Sebastian perched his hip at the side of the bed, gazing down at her face as it turned peaceful again, all because she was holding onto him.
The mate side of him was deeply satisfied that she found peace in his presence.
The rest of him was not.
He wasn’t the kind of person who brought peace to people. He destroyed. He killed. He could kill her.