love bites

Chapter 13

Copyright 2023 Joanna Bock All Rights Reserved

Chapter 13

-Jace-

Jace woke to Shayla’s screaming.

She did this every night now, and every night he would hold her while she cried, held her while she refused to share.

He didn’t ask anymore. But tonight was different tonight he would ask again, tonight he would steal her pain and he wouldn’t take no for an answer.

She was his girl now, even if they had never actually said the words.

“Baby, talk to me.” He pleaded when he could see she was going to deny him the truth in her terror. He held her close but he wasn’t giving in.

“Let me help you Shayla I can’t lie here and let you do this alone anymore, I need to help you, don’t you understand that?”

She sobbed against his chest but still she said nothing.

Jace sighed. He wouldn’t push her to the point of harassment and she knew it.

“What does it say?” she moaned.

Jace frowned.

“What does what say baby?” He asked her as he softly rubbed her back.

Jace froze he knew what she was asking, it hit him suddenly as he felt the connection to the words as the uneven skin on her back trailed under the tips of his fingers.

He hissed sucking in a sharp breath as the pain stabbed into his chest.

“It says, mine to ruin.”

“Oh.” She whispered clinging to him a little tighter.

“Who did this to you Shayla?” Jace hoped he didn’t sound as cold as the anger he felt. He felt frustrated, he wanted him to pay.

“I don’t know who he was.”

He is still very much an ‘is’ baby, but he will become a ‘was’ Jace thought as the venom seeped out into his mind.

“He bumped__ I bumped into him in the street. It was when I ran away from you. He brought me coffee. I never told him my name Jace. I never told him and he knew it. He kept telling me I was lucky and he would claim me when the time was right. He told me you wouldn’t mark me and he told me he had a message.”

“Why is this the first time I am hearing this Shayla.”

She flinched at his side and Jace could feel her heart race in fear.

He had scared her with his anger, Jace realised.

He felt shame creeping in as he kissed her forehead.

“Baby please, understand I feel helpless to help you here.” He paused and quietened.

“I need to know who did this and what you know. I had my suspicions when I couldn’t find you but it wasn’t him, and I can’t, I don’t know what to do. Shit baby I need to feel I can protect you, and all I feel is__ I feel like I am failing you,” he finished slowly and calmly.

Shayla told him about how she had slowly begun to gain snippets of memories though her dreams. She told him how she had thought at first that was all they were. Until she begun to match her injuries up to the terror of what was a reality she didn’t want.