Cry Me a River |✔️

Chapter 45- Don't Wake the Beast

^^What I wrote this chapter to^^

"Wake the beast and you may never wake again."  (I literally just made this up lol)

Chapter 45

River's POV

What was I to do?

My heart raced as my eyes caught sight of the nearest door and just as the idea hit me my eyes closed.

Don't run. No more running.

"Please don't run," came a soft voice over my shoulder as a gentle pair of lips landed on my shoulder. "Please, love."

I was afraid to turn. Afraid of what I would see. The flurry of emotions I had no doubt caused.

His soft breath brushed softly past my shoulder as his lips drew away. A breath I hadn't realized I was holding choked from my throat in a sharp gasp. My mind raced along with my beating heart as it searched for a solution as his fingers brushed against my waist, waiting patiently as I struggled to calm my pounding chest.

You knew he was down there. You knew he was in a cage of some sort.

I had known, but seeing it firsthand was more horrific than I could have ever imagined. I knew he was down there, but I had stuffed it in the back of my mind the moment he was dragged during our mating ceremony. I had locked it away. Far. Forgotten.

Perhaps, deep inside I had thought if I were to lock it away in my mind it wouldn't affect me. If I don't think of it, allow it to take any of my time, surely it couldn't be able to affect me. If only that was true.

Not only did I come into contact with the physical form of all that stood for bad but the door, what locked the beast away, had the very name of all that stood for good to me. It was contradictory, oddly eerie. Like an angel's face painted across a blood-stained saber.

Something was wrong, very wrong. It made me begin to question my mate. If all I had thought him as was wrong. If perhaps there was a dark side to him that I hadn't fully been exposed to yet. The idea caused a cold shiver run down my spine and caused the once gentle hand on my waist grow strangely cold against my now shivering form.

"Love," Alastair's voice pulled against my aching heart, "What did you see?"

"W-what do you mean?" I managed.

His fingers twirled around a single, blond curl as he leaned closer, "Something changed. You're tense. You weren't tense last night. What happened? What changed from the time you had fallen asleep till the time I carried you from the revolting place my men pulled you from?"

"I-I," You, "I s-saw...things...vile things that I can no longer unsee," I choked as my hand pulled to my face, attempting to contain the mess of tears flowing down my face.

"What did you see?" His voice caught sharply.

I shook my head, a choked sob escaping my throat as my hand tightened around my mouth.

The singular sound of my choked sobs filled the garden, the occasional sound of rustling leaves and flowers chiming in as Alastair sat silently behind me. The sudden feel of his fingers brushing across the side of my face pulled another sob from me as he pulled me into his lap, turning me so his eyes could meet mine.

"I'm so sorry," his voice was so soft, too soft against my shaking form as his solemn eyes met mine. "I had hoped a gentle soul like yours would never have to lay witness to anything less than beautiful again. Yet, in my own presence, you have time and time again," a muscle ticked in his cheek as his Adam's apple bobbed slightly. "I apologize, my love." A single finger brushed against my cheek in a swift, light manner as his eyes glazed, "I apologize for my incompetence."