“I’ll come to you.” Dino walked out of the bedroom, the door shutting behind him.
“I feel like I’ve just been slapped, flipped off, and kicked in the balls and all the guy did was kiss me.” Sidney’s voice trembled.
“Give him time. He’s right. That was a lot to take in.” Torem held on to his mate, wondering if Dino would accept what had happened and what they were to each other, or if the man was going to decide this was too much and walk away.
Torem released Sidney and dropped to his knees as his head exploded in pain. He gripped his temples as images shattered through his mind.
He was no longer standing in his bedroom with Sidney but in the backyard of the mansion, staring down at a man that Jackson said tried to kill him.
“I beg you. I didn’t try to kill your Alpha. He’s lying.”
“You’re calling me a liar?” Jackson snarled. “Kill him, Torem.” Jackson turned his head and glared at him. Torem could see the madness in his Alpha’s eyes. He couldn’t do it. This wasn’t who he was. His hand trembled as he raised it to run through his hair. There had to be a way out of this place.
Torem cried out as Jackson backhanded him. He was caught off guard, or he would have never uttered a sound. Jackson extended his claws and laid it at the man’s throat. He slowly turned back to Torem, insanity clear in his eyes.
“This is what will happen to you if you disobey a direct order again.” He pressed the tip of his claw into the man’s throat. The man cried out and begged Torem with his eyes to save him.
The Alpha snapped his fingers, and a few of his radical followers forced Torem to the ground. His jaw clenched and his stomach twisted as they cut off all of his hair. A painful knee dug into his back as Torem braced his hands on the hard earth and tried to dislodge the shifters, but there were too many.
“Kill for me, or be killed, your choice.” Jackson snapped his fingers again, and Bald Eagle was forced to the Alpha’s side. “Better yet.” Jackson looked around at all the soldiers, his eyes landing on every one of them. “Disobey a direct order again and Eagle will pay the price.”
Jackson removed his claw from the man’s throat and laid it against Eagle’s flesh. “Now, do as I have commanded.”
The knee lifted from Torem’s back, and he stood. His eyes glanced up from the man on his knees to Eagle’s. What the fuck should he do? The soldiers were outnumbered three to one. Torem would go down fighting, but Eagle’s throat would be torn out before he had a chance to make a move.
Torem stared into Eagle’s terrified gaze and extended his claws, swiping his arm out as he heard the gurgling sounds of death from a man he had never even met before.
* * * *
Sidney watched the horror play across Torem’s face. What was happening to him? His mate was on his hands and knees, as if someone was holding him down. Torem cried out, and Sidney freaked out.
He ran across the hall and banged on Chey’s bedroom door. “Chey, get your ass out here now.”
“What’s wrong?” Chey came into the hallway and looked around. “Have you been drinking those Red Bulls again?”
Sidney didn’t have time for this. He grabbed Chey’s arm and pulled him into Torem’s bedroom. “He just collapsed and started doing that.” Sidney pointed to Torem who was standing now, his claws extended.
“He touched me, hugged me tight. The healing has begun.”
“That doesn’t look like healing to me,” Sidney argued.
“He has to relive his past in order to heal from it. Whatever he has gone through, he’s reliving it.”
“Oh, that’s just great. Did you tell him the side effects of your drug?” Sidney wanted to grab tight to Torem and hold him while he relived whatever torture he was going through, but the claws made him stay back.
“I was so lost in being reunited with Torem, I forgot. He hugged me in the store.” Chey pulled Sidney back when Torem’s head snapped around, his eyes boring into them. “Uh, I think we should get Zeus.”
“Good idea.” Sidney hauled ass out of the room and down the hall, Torem close on their heels. “You could have warned him, me, anybody. How the hell do you forget something like that?”
“Just find Zeus. He’s probably the only one who can help Torem now,” Chey yelled as they flew down the stairs. “Normally I guide a person through the process, but Torem is too far gone for that.”
“Fuck,” Sidney groaned when he saw Dino talking with Zeus by the front door. Now his mate would never want to be with them once he saw the state Torem was in.