The Mates of Monsters

Chapter 43

Nicodra and Aurora leave at once.

"Helena," David calls, prompting her from the kitchen. "I need to you look after Brigette."

Helena, having heard everything, nods with a paleness to her face. I move around the table as David leaves the dining room. "You will stop this right now, David. I swear to the Goddess I will-I will hold you down myself if I have to."

He takes his phone and holds it to his ear. Everything moves so quickly, that I'm worried I might faint. "Tarlo, come to the house now. Bring Lyde," he says, and that's all it takes.

"Can you just stop for one second," I urge and grab onto him. David looks to me finally, and I ask, "Why? Why do you have to do this? Because you don't. Drag him from the land and be done with it."

David studies my fearful expression. "The Union will accept the agreement. This is the circumstance changing. He has gone too far, Brigette, and I have to handle this."

"Risking your life is not handling it."

"Sometimes things must be done the old way," he says and takes my hand from him.

I follow him as he makes his way to the office, a place I see for the first time as he turns the handle of both doors and swings them wide open. There's no time to gaze over every shelf, every book, the furniture-none of it exists to me. David moves behind the desk and summons a piece of paper. He starts writing as I say, "It's not worth it. Please. Please, let's just forget all of it and go upstairs. Y-You can hold me and we can go to sleep and pretend none of this happened."

David clenches his fist holding the pen and peers up at my distress.

"Don't do this, David," I plead. "You can't leave me. We haven't made love, or had children, or grown old. Don't leave me; I won't be able to take it. I can't live without you; I refuse to be here without you."

Tarlo comes through the doorway with a young woman. Time is deceiving me. David looks to them and begins explaining the situation. I curse under my breath and slip from the room, hurrying back down the hall in search of Helena. I find her in the dining room, clearing the spotless plates with a shaking grasp.

"We have to stop him," I blurt, worried I'm losing my mind. "He's going to fight Nicodra, and we can't let him. So what do we do? Tell me what to do."

Helena is speechless, apologetically wordless.

"Why is no one doing anything? Goddess, I feel like I'm trapped in a nightmare. Why won't someone do something?"

"Please, Brigette. Sit down. Catch your breath," she encourages, drawing out a chair.

I groan in panic, in frustration. Not knowing what else to do, I turn to the hallway, but David, Tarlo, and the woman have left the office and now stand in the foyer, talking with hard eyes and crisp words. My blood turns to fire and my skin burns with rage. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up.

It's not real.

"You asshole!" I shout at them. "You promised me!"

David hesitates for a moment, but Tarlo forces his attention back on the two of them, at their task at hand.

"So what," I near, "you can risk your life but I'm forbidden to put myself in harm's way? I knew I shouldn't have told you. I should have listened to Aurora and done it myself."

David hands Tarlo the paper-the agreement. He turns to brace me. "Brigette, go to Helena and stay with her."

"Am I your puppy? You're going to order me around and tell me where to go now?"

David looks to the woman. "Lyde, stay here. Look after Brigette, and do not let anyone in or out until I come back."

"I should have left," I fire-my last line of defense. "That first night, I should have tried. I could be across the world by now, far, far away from you."

David brings his arms around me-as he does-and I crumble. I shatter and endure my body as it turns to ash. He holds my head against his shoulder and I begin to cry. "You don't have to be scared," he says quietly at my ear. "I'm not going anywhere, I promise you."

I feel like a dog being put to sleep. Never could I have imagined such sadness, such dread.

"We could have gone upstairs," I choke.

"We will. Give me an hour, and we will go upstairs. I will hold you, and we will go to bed. I just need an hour."

My eyes dot with black speckles. The bond revolts tirelessly. "Please," I mumble. "Please, David."

"David," Tarlo says from behind, telling him it's time.

"No no no no," I murmur as tears blur my vision. "Don't. Please. David, don't go."

He grabs me, holds my head in his hands and looks me dead in my glassy eyes. "I'm coming back to you," he says so surely. "I promise I will come back to you."

"Please," I beg one last time as the tears break free. David lets go and he and Tarlo leave through the door. Lyde catches me as I stumble back, lowering me to the floor before I smack against it. A cry of pure powerlessness leaps from deep within my chest. Every nightmare that's haunted my dreams for the past month creeps up on me and wrecks havoc. The lingering terror I constantly feel bursts from the depths of my being and takes full reign.

"Luna, please," Lyde tries to reason, "David knows what he is doing. He wouldn't participate if he knew he couldn't win."

Bile threatens to spill from my mouth as I heave forward onto my hands and knees. Helena comes to me and the two women lift me to my feet. Tears pour from my eyes and stream from my cheeks to my throat to my chest. "David!" I sob, knowing that my dreams must have a reason behind them; a warning I've been ignoring for weeks. "Please!" My voice cracks as my lungs give in.

It's not real.

Helena and Lyde sit me at the breakfast table in the kitchen, and Helena gets me water. "Drink, Brigette. Try to breathe. David will come back to you."

"I've killed him," I mutter, tasting my tears on my lips. "I screwed over Nicodra and now David is going to die. I-I killed him."

"You did not," Helena tries to convince me. "You did no such thing. This is a choice David has made."

Wake up. Wake up.

Another sob racks through my chest, and I push up from the table, knowing I'm losing control. I push away from them and hurry to the doors like a nauseous person to the toilet, yet, instead of vomiting, I yank open the doors and stumble through, shifting and tearing my clothes before my feet can feel grass. Lyde calls after me, but my wolf is running into the trees before another thought can form in my head.