Chapter 23 Bloom

The moment my head hit the pillow, sleep claimed me. I found myself in that familiar dream again. But this time, something was different. I wasn't just watching anymore. My body wasn't mine.

I was the wolf I'd seen so many times before, trapped inside another woman's mind. It was as if I'd been locked inside her skull, forced to wear her flesh and bones while feeling every ounce of her agony as if it belonged to me.

Then it came.

A sharp, lethal pain speared through my chest, ripping the breath from both of us. Her lungs refused to work. Her life was being torn away piece by piece. And I... I was nothing but the fierce, powerful wolf inside her mind, completely helpless.

I dug my claws into the walls of her consciousness, howling with everything I had, desperate to keep her alive, desperate to tear through the darkness swallowing her whole.

But I couldn't shift. Invisible chains held me in place. The crushing helplessness...

The woman's final struggle as she died in the claws of some unseen monster...

The icy terror flooding her veins...

It shredded my soul. I was trapped inside her mind in my wolf form, powerless to do anything. She was dying. And with her...

So was I.

"No!"

I jerked awake to the sound of my own scream tearing through the room.

I shot upright in bed, gasping for air as my chest heaved violently. For one terrifying second, the darkness pressing in around me felt almost alive. Cold sweat streamed down my temples while the woman's despair still clung to my throat like invisible fingers.

My hands wouldn't stop shaking.

It still felt as though I were trapped inside that unfamiliar mind, stranded in that endless dark forest. Before I could even process where I was, my bedroom door flew open with a deafening crash.

Cassian rushed inside. Pure panic blazed in his eyes. He wore nothing but a pair of black sweatpants, his bare chest rising and falling with frantic, uneven breaths. He must have sprinted from his room at the end of the hallway the instant he'd heard me scream.

He froze for half a heartbeat, scanning me from head to toe.

Then he crossed the room in seconds and dropped to one knee beside my bed. The moment his warm, powerful hands wrapped around my bare shoulders, a jolt shot through my body.

"Bloom." His voice had lost every trace of its usual edge, replaced by raw, unmistakable concern. "Breathe. Look at me. You're here."

His hands slowly slid from my shoulders to my trembling arms, rubbing gentle circles against my skin. The warmth of his palms eased the violent shaking little by little.

"It was just a dream," he murmured. "It's over. You're here. You're with me. You're safe."

"I'm okay," I whispered, fighting the pathetic tremble in my voice.

I drew in a deep breath, trying to slow the frantic pounding against my ribs. Meeting those icy blue eyes, I placed both hands against his bare chest and gently pushed him back. The heat radiating from his skin clouded my thoughts, but I refused to retreat.

"I... I'm fine. It was just a nightmare."

Cassian let out a slow breath, trying to calm himself, but his eyes never left me. Then, in the dim light of my room... Everything changed.

The fight in the hallway. Fiona's slap in the parking lot. For one brief moment, they disappeared. His gaze drifted downward. To the thin satin straps of my nightgown. To the way the delicate fabric clung to my body. I could feel the exact moment his eyes darkened.

The exact moment they began to burn. The air seemed to vanish from the room all over again. Only then did I realize how sheer the fabric really was. How obvious the outline of my bare body had become. How visibly my chest rose and fell with every ragged breath.

Heat flooded my face. Mortification hit me all at once. I snatched the comforter and yanked it up to my chest, hiding myself beneath it.

"I said I'm fine."

I forced as much steel into my voice as I could, retreating behind the walls I'd built in seconds.

"This doesn't concern you. You can go back to your room now."

With obvious effort, Cassian dragged his eyes away from my body and met my gaze again. The familiar hard, determined look returned to his face. But this time... Something softer hid beneath it. His jaw tightened. His pupils darkened until they were nearly black.

"How often do you have these?" he asked.

His possessive tone felt less like a question and more like a demand.

"Did you wake up like this back in your cabin too? Were you dealing with these nightmares alone every single night?"

"That's none of your business, Alpha."

I refused to look away. I wasn't giving up an inch of my pride.

"I can take care of myself. I always have."

Cassian slowly stood. But he didn't leave. Towering beside my bed in nothing but those sweatpants, he leaned toward me just enough for the scent of blueberries and juniper to surround me, filling every corner of the room.

"You don't have to be strong all the time."

His voice was barely above a whisper. Yet it carried enough weight to shake the entire room.

"You don't always have to be okay."

His eyes stayed locked on mine.

"Sometimes..." he said quietly, "sometimes you're allowed to be scared, Bloom."

His expression softened.

"Especially when I'm here."

His words settled somewhere deep inside me, stirring an ache I didn't want to acknowledge.

I looked away, pulling the blanket tighter around myself. The fact that he could still affect me -especially when I was this vulnerable- only irritated me more.

"I want to sleep."

My voice was firm, but it felt like the last fragile shield I had left.

"Please leave."

He stayed there in silence for several long moments. I could hear it in his uneven breathing. He didn't want to go. He had no intention of leaving me like this. His eyes swept over me one last time. He swallowed hard. Then he drew a deep breath. His entire body tensed.

A low, dangerous growl rumbled from his chest. My spine shivered. That familiar warmth bloomed low in my stomach before slowly spreading downward. I instinctively pressed my thighs together.

"The door stays open."

The words came out like an order. Without another glance, he strode from the room. Instead of closing the door completely, he left it slightly ajar before disappearing into the darkness of the hallway.

After he was gone, I pulled the blanket over my head and stared at the narrow strip of light spilling through the cracked doorway. The icy helplessness I'd felt watching that woman die still chilled me to the bone. But the hunger I'd seen in Cassian's eyes...

That burned just as fiercely. This hadn't been an ordinary nightmare. I knew it. Who was that woman? Why had I felt her death through her wolf?

And why had that wolf appeared in my previous dreams as if she were somehow... mine? Those questions chased one another through my mind. Yet beneath all of them, I remained painfully aware of Cassian's presence somewhere down the hallway.

No matter how high I built my walls, I was beginning to realize that inside this pack house... Keeping my secrets safe might be difficult. Keeping my heart safe... Would be even harder.