Being the Alpha's Mate

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

Emma’s POV

　

　

I wake all at once, my body jolting as my tight muscles uncoil. My breath comes in panting breaths as the memories of what Ellie said come back to me.

Die? I’m going to die?

I start to shake, my body jerking as suppressed emotions come over me. I can’t die. I can’t leave Mom and Dad, Tommy or Derek. Derek… Is he going to be the one to kill me?

I pull my legs up to my chest and position my head between my knees. I start taking long, deep breaths, trying to slow my heart rate. I do not need to freak out right now. I need to stay calm, I tell myself, chanting that over and over again. I will be fine, I also say, I won’t die.

Tears start to prick my eyes because I know it’s not true. Ellie wouldn’t lie to me and Derek… he looked so broken when he came running into the room. He wouldn’t allow his mother to lie and say that I would soon die- would he?

“Here, drink this.” A glass of water is held out to me and I quickly grab it.

“Thanks.” I mumble, my lips already on the glass as I take long drinks of the refreshing liquid.

“Not so fast.” Derek chastises, turning the glass up and away from me. “Let it settle. You’ve been asleep for awhile, your body needs to adjust.”

I lick my lips, capturing the last droplets of water.

“How long have I been out?”

Derek studies me with knowing eyes as stands beside our bed.

“Three days.” He says after a minute, his answer falling hard in the quite room.

“Three days?” I sputter. I was out for three days? How?

Derek must have seen the astounded look on my face because he smiled softly, his eyes crinkling with concern.

“You were so shocked. I carried you up here,” He waves his arm, indicting our bedroom. “You were calm for a moment or two, but then you started fighting. You were hitting and punching anything that came within reach. For a while there your wolf nearly came out.”

Despite Derek’s concern, I could hear the pride in his voice about my wolf. My wolf rarely shows herself. She enjoys being in the background, observing instead of interacting. It work for us, but when she does show, that means something big happened.

“Did I pass out or did you guys put me out?” It’s pretty uncommon to forcefully put a shifter under. Both the human and the wolf fight the drugs so hard that it takes three and four times the normal limit to put them to sleep. The wolves can take the drugs, but you never know how the human will react. Their body could take the drugs wrong or overdose even with their wolf diluting it.

“We had to put you under. You wouldn’t calm down, no matter what we did. I didn’t want you to get hurt.” Derek says with a frown as tilts my chin up to him.

“How are you feeling?” I feel his warm hand on my forehead and my eyes drift closed. How can such a maternal thing make me feel so good?

“Good, I guess.” I sigh, situating myself on the pillows. “A little achy, but otherwise good.”

Derek’s eyes are pained, his smile soft and full of guilt.

“What’s the matter?” I ask. “What’s going on?”

Derek sighs. He moves to sit on my bed, his muscular thigh touching my folded legs.

“I guess I should explain.”

“Explain what?” Despite my intentions, I start to get mad. What has he been withholding from me? First I find out that I’ve been drugged into sleep for three days and now this? What is it he needs to inform me about?

Derek rubs a hand across his jaw. I see a few days worth of stubble grazing his jaw line and cheeks. The hair on his face accents his toned skin, and despite my desire to stay mad, I can’t help but soften a little. He does look sexy.

“I had a dream a few days ago. A dream that you asked my Mom about.” Derek begins and it starts to come back to me. I remember Derek having a nightmare, him screaming my name as he thrashed on the bed. I remember asking his mother about the dream the next day. I remember her being scared. I didn’t know why she was scared. I thought a dream was just a dream… right?

“She said that whoever you dream about dies.” It takes me a few moments to make myself say it. I desperately want him to say no, that it was all a big misunderstanding. That I won’t die just because he dreamed about me. Every mate dreams about the other. Why would it be so different with Derek?

“It started when I was little. Probably five or six,” Derek murmurs, avoiding answering my question, yet giving me the truth without mentioning it at all. “I was little. I was awaiting the day that I would be a wolf, so I would run in the woods, chasing squirrels, rabbits… anything I could find. I remember there was a squirrel that kept evading me, so I set a trap. It took a few days, but I caught him.”

Derek smiles as he remembers the pleasant memory. I can’t help but smile too, an image of Derek as a kid popping into my head.

“You might remember him,” Derek states. “I showed him to you. I was so proud.” He shakes his head and rubs the back of his neck. “That night I dreamed of how I caught him, what I would do with him the next day. It wasn’t anything bad. I wanted to feed him, hold him for awhile then set him free.” Derek’s voice deepens as he continues. “The next morning I ran to the cage where I had him. He was dead. He was as cold as stone I tried to save him. I did the chest compressions you do on people…” I nod in understanding. “I tried to save him. Nothing helped.”

Derek stands up and paces across the room. He slams his fist into the wall. Drywall crumbs around his fist, bits of white dust falling to the ground.

“I found out later that he choked on the nuts I left in his cage.” Derek turns back to face me, his eyes blazing. “Nuts. He was a fucking squirrel and he choked on nuts.”

Our gazes meet, his wolf eyes meeting mine.

“I can’t let you die.” Derek groans, his wolf fading to the background. “I can’t let you die, Baby. I can’t let you die because I’m in fucking love with you.”

Derek falls to his knees and crosses the short distance until we’re touching. He wraps his arms around my middle, tugging me until I’m facing the side of the bed. Derek lays his head on my lap and I feel my heart break. I might die by being with this man, but right now, I can’t think of anywhere else I’d rather be.

I rub my hands across his back in a comforting motion, trying to make him feel better. He growls at me and I freeze, my hand stopping on his back. I expect his wolf to try and attack, but instead, Derek moves under my hand, urging me to rub his back again.

“What are we going to do?” I ask after awhile.

“I don’t know, Baby.” Derek mumbles, lifting his head from my lap.

“Have you ever dreamed of someone and not had them die?” There has to be something. There is no way that everyone you dream of dies.

“No.” Derek shakes his head, his eyes flickering.

“Then we’ll have to find something. We can get you help- doctors, prescriptions”

Derek cuts me off with a rough, “No. I’ve tried that a hundred times over, that shit doesn’t work.”

“We’ll find something that works. I’m not giving up on you.” I say, siding off the bed and onto his lap. My legs end up on either side of him, our bodies touching in intimate places.

Derek growls playfully, previous worries forgotten.