River
Apiercing scream wrenched me out of my sleep.
“What the fuck!”
I jolted to my feet, the bedsheet tumbling to the floor while I sucked in sharp breaths. I tried my hardest to keep up with the whiplash of leaping out of bed at lightning speed.
My brain wasn’t catching up quick enough. I darted to the balcony in my room, half expecting someone to have been murdered in the courtyard.
The grounds were silent; the only movement was the two guards down by the front gate.
I stood out there in the balmy breeze, waiting for another sound, but nothing came.
Retreating to my room, I glanced down at the clock on the bedside table. Just after midnight… What the hell had I heard?
Or was it all in my head... Another damn dream? I sighed loudly because I thought I’d put those behind me.
I rubbed my eyes, seriously starting to believe I was losing my shit. That wouldn’t be the first time I woke startled, sweating, and my heart pounding like a fucking drum was counting down to my sacrifice.
I grabbed my boxers off the floor from where I’d dropped them, pulled them on, and padded out to my hallway, curious if anyone else had gotten up.
Nothing stirred, and darkness consumed the mansion. I frowned, convinced the sound was in my head.
Then again, my brothers were at the far end of the hall and both slept like fucking bears. Nothing woke them up.
And I figured since I was up, I might as well get a drink from the kitchen. Barely a few steps out of my room and the scream came again.
It sounded strangled, like they were gurgling.
That sure as hell wasn’t in my head. It came from the other end of the hallway… where Syn slept.
My gut tightened, and I threw myself in that direction. I spent the time picturing someone in her room, attacking her. We had enough men without mates in our pack, each one of them desperate for unmated females. So what if one of them… I’d skin them alive.
At the thought, my wolf stirred just below the surface, ready to pounce out while my mind roared.
I barely knew the girl, but I wasn’t blind; I understood why my brothers were tripping over themselves for her attention. She was breathtaking, but I was a realist and knew that anything good didn’t last long.
Yet, look at me… I ran like a lunatic to her rescue. I shoved at the door handle. Right, locked.
Fuck. I rammed a shoulder hard into the door, and the splinter of wood snapped, the door flinging open from my force. It swung out wide and smacked into the wall as I charged into the darkened room.
I growled, scouring for the intruder.
Syn gasped, and the shuffling sound on her bed had me charging toward her.
But I came up short on finding an intruder. No one had broken into her room.
She was sitting up, clutching the blanket to her chest, a panicked look in those spectacular green eyes.
“River!” her voice quaked. “W-what’s going on?”
My head pounded, trying to make sense of what I’d heard since it sure as fuck wasn’t marrying up with the image in her room.
“You screamed. Someone was hurting you.”
She stared at me perplexed, having no idea what I was talking about. “No one’s in the room but you. I…I woke up with a scream in my throat,” she finally admitted. “Maybe that’s what you heard. I didn’t mean to wake you.”
My mind blanked as I ran her words through my head. “What were you dreaming about that made you scream down the whole mansion?” I did my rounds through her room, double-checking the bathroom, the wardrobe, and even under her bed. All clean.
“Sometimes I dream of bad things,” she murmured. “But it couldn’t have been that loud since I don’t see anyone else literally tearing the door down to reach me. Oh, right, you’ve already done that.” A teasing tone played on her words. Was she patronizing me?
When I returned to the side of her bed, the moonlight from the window lit that beautiful little face and distracted me from my thoughts. Pursed lips, large eyes, and cheeks so flushed from being surprised by me. It made me wonder if she’d blush that hard when she was being fucked.
Even the darkness in the room couldn’t conceal my appreciation for someone as spectacular as her. A sweet, feminine smell filled the space, and I caught sight of her bra hanging off the back of a chair near other clothing. Of course, she wore nothing under her pajamas, and it had my cock stirring.
I ground my jaw, reining in my wolf. He groaned within me, delighting in her scent.
She drew in a steady breath and stared at me sharply.
“Tell me about the bad things?” I asked. “Did someone hurt you?”
She blinked at me. “Why do you care?”
Okay, her standoffish reaction wasn’t a surprise. And I did just break down her door, probably scaring her half to death. I sat on the edge of her bed, drawing in a knee, trying to look as unimposing as possible. I probably shouldn’t care, but part of me did. I yearned to learn what plagued her dreams.
“I’m not a stranger to nightmares,” I told her.