chapter 68

Ari's POV

I knew I was asleep this time, drifting through memories and a fever that would probably kill me. Gemma was gone. I had never felt so alone.

When I opened my eyes I was in the basement again. Would Mason come down stairs? Would he be dead this time too?

Then I heard the door unlock, and no one came in. Cleaning. Konor and my mother then. I shuddered. I didn't want to move, dressed in that ragged brown dress that was too sizes too small. I wanted to cry, watching myself walk up the stairs, barefoot and doomed.

I got to the top of the stairs. Everything was brighter in the rest of the house.

Konor had let me out.

Again? Did I have to relive this again? If I was lucky, it would be the time I bit my mother when she thrust her tongue in my mouth.

As I walked past him, I could feel his eyes watching me from everywhere and right beside me. It was like he was looming over me. It was the dream I knew.

After the last one, I really didn't want it to be him, but my mind didn't seem to care.

I went to the kitchen. There were no cleaning supplies, but my mother was sitting there. Nake.

I felt him come up behind me. He grabbed me and dragged me upstairs. My mother followed, toying with her nipples. I didn't remember this time. I must have rertreated before anything happened when it happened.

The familiar scent of lavender fabric softener and dust motes dancing in a sunbeam flooded my senses. I was back in their bedroom. He threw me onto the bed and my mother crawled over me, settling her weight on my face, smothering me with her pussy. I heard her and my father, kissing.

"Please your mother properly."

I did nothing. I didn't moveor acknowledge the command. I didn't move or flinch when he pushed my dress up and thrust into me hard. I couldn't escape the way he pused into me, filling me and enjoying how much it hurt.

I couldn't escape the scent of her or the feeling of her grinding down onto my face.

"Lick me!" she said, swatting my stomach.

I didn't move.

I couldn't breathe.

Then, the scent of her fadedd. The feeling of her smothering me and pushing me into the bed, the way he fucked me faded away.

I was back in Gemma's realm. Hope filled me. I swung around, searching for her.

"Gemma?" I called out, my voice tinged with a hopeful tremor. "Are you there?"

Silence met my question. My voice echoed in the mountains. The snow covered everything. Nothing was alive. Then, her realm faded and I was back in the house, in a room I didn't remember. I reached for the doorknob, a sudden premonition of dread twisting in my gut. Pushing the door open, I stepped out into the hallway.

The house, eerily quiet, seemed to stretch before me in an endless labyrinth. Panic, a cold serpent, coiled around my heart, squeezing the air from my lungs. I had only been aloowed to walk around the house freely once.

I heard Mason's friends laughing. I heard other people laughing.

The party.

It was the night of the party. If there was a time I didn't want to remember, it was that night. I stumbled down the hallway, desperately searching for any sign of an exit. Take me back to Gemma's empty realm. But every door I pushed open revealed the living room where they were all gathered, naked, stroking their cocks and waiting for me.

The scent of whiskey filled the air. I ran and ran. Tears welled up in my eyes, blurring my vision. This wasn't right. Where was Von?

I opened another door and recognized the room as one in the castle. Von loomed over me. He wasn't naked, but the look on his face wasn't right.

Still, I rushed into his arms. "Von!"

He vanished before I could touch him, dropping me to the ground. I sobbed and sat up. I heard Mason and his guests behind me. I looked up and came face to face with my reflection in a large ornate mirror. But it wasn't my reflection staring back. The girl in the mirror was sucking someone's cock, naked. Her eyes were mine. Her body was mine, but she was surrounded by men, laughing and using her. Someone poured liquor into her mouth, forcing her to drink it.

"No!"

I turned away. I didn't want to remember that night.

"Say you're a whore," someone said, thrusting into me. Into her. I wasn't sure where the line was.

"I'm a whore," I said, breathless, slurring my words. "I want more."

I covered my ears, but I couldn't escape the sound of it. The memories were vivid. They had gotten me so drunk and used me for hours. I had slept for days after that.

Had that been the night I'd gotten pregnant?

I sobbed.

"So that's who you are." I gasped and turned around, seein g Von behind me, looking at me.

Suddenly, I was that girl in the mirror, naked, stuffed full of cock.

I wanted to reach out to him, but my mouth was full. They held me still. Von turned away, disappointed.

"I was wrong. Someone so disgusting couldn't be my mate."

I choked, trying to free myself, but the man thrust harder into my mouth, into me. All of them. The world swirled until Von vanished.

I heard the door slam and I broke free of it, running after him. "Von!"

He was gone and the door wouldn't open. I turned seeing myself, riding a man with the most blissful expression.

"That's not me."

The reflection tilted her head, a gesture that mimicked the predatory grace of a lioness. "Don't you recognize yourself, Ari?" She purred, its voice a chilling echo of my own. "This is who you are. This is who you've always been."

Terror, primal and suffocating, washed over me. I stumbled backward, the hallway floor tilting beneath my feet.

"No," I croaked, shaking my head in denial. "That isn't me. I didn't want any of it! I don't! I don't!"

But the figure in the mirror simply smiled, her eyes gleaming with a cold hunger. Then, she moaned, throwing her head back, bouncing on the man's cock.

"Give me more," she said. "Give me all of it."

The shame of hearing my voice saying it, knowing that I'd said it then, drunk and high on whatever they'd given me chilled. Me I sank down as the horrifying truth dawned on me. The thing they'd trained me to become was already a part of me. And as the dream dissolved around me, leaving me sobbing as the pain came creeping back, I wished anything but to have to go back to that. I wished for anything but that.

A rough hand clamped onto my shoulder, yanking me awake. The rhythmic rocking of the boat was a distant memory replaced by the harsh scrape of boots on cobblestones. Disoriented and still feverish, I blinked against the harsh sunlight, the world swirling before my eyes.

My stomach plummeted.

The nightmare of my past would be nothing compare to what was coming.

"Pick up your feet," a gruff voice rasped in my ear. "The alpha has been dying to meet you."

They dragged me towards a towering structure of dark, weathered stone. The salty air stung my nostrils. I had never even seen the ocean or a body of water until now. I realized with a sinking heart that this would likely be the last time I would see it too.

As we reached the imposing oak doors, they swung open with a groan, revealing a vast, dimly lit hall. Figures, cloaked in shadow, shifted at the edges of my vision. A low murmur of voices, laced with a strange reverence, filled the air. Suddenly, the hall fell silent. All eyes turned towards the back of the room, where a figure emerged from the shadows.

The Alpha.

He was everything I had feared and more. Tall and broad-shouldered, with a thick mane of silver hair cascading down his back, he exuded a raw, primal power that sent shivers down my spine. But it was his eyes that sent a jolt of terror through me. Bloodshot and wild, they glinted with a manic intensity, like a predator locked onto its prey.

The mages bowed low, their voices a reverent chorus.

"Alpha," they intoned. "We brought you the demi child."

He didn't reply at first. He simply stared at me, his gaze burning into my soul. I tried to hold it but under that crazed scrutiny, my bravado crumbled. This man would kill me. I was sure of it.