Claimed by the Primals

Chapter Three

Ever since my mom died, I kept having this... dream. The same one almost every night. I'm staring into the black between the stars. There's something's there, I know there is, I just can't... but it sees me. The black embraces me. It brushes the tears from my cheeks and the pain disappears. A feeling of warmth and belonging settles deep into my heart. I look deeper into the black and try to make out the face looking back at me, and strain my ears to hear the words it spoke.

I mention this because, for the last ten years, the dream has never changed. Not once. Night after night, I'm forced to relive the biggest mistake of my life. The same pain, the same fear, and then the same moment of bliss followed by the same crushing guilt. It was always the same.

Until that night.

At first, it wasn't even that dream and a different nightmare went on as you would expect. The entirety of the previous night's traumatic events replayed in my unconscious mind, starting from the man turning into a bear. When it got to the part where the leader cracked my head into the wall, it transitioned into the dream I usually have.

Fire. Pain. Fear. Then the sky and the stars.

This time, though, it changed. In place of the darkness, it was the Anubis-like creature that pulled me from the wreckage. He carried me to safety and wiped my face clean. The gesture was sweet, and I felt like our hearts were momentarily entwined. I felt safe in his arms.

He lay me down on the street, careful of my injuries. Those glowing red eyes looked straight into my soul, and I could finally hear what he was saying.

It was a single word.

"Mate."

I woke up screaming in an unfamiliar bed in an unfamiliar room. While fighting with the blankets, footsteps thundered outside, and a second later the door burst open. There stood Kade in his full massive, golden glory. It did not make me feel any better. I grabbed the closest thing to me, a book on the bedside table, and flung it at him. I have God-awful aim, and the thing went wildly to the side. "Jayden," he said, raising his hands in a way that everyone did when they were trying to show they weren't trying to hurt you. Still didn't help. "Calm down, it's okay."

Yeah, I wasn't going to do that even if I didn't see the second man, a complete fucking stranger, follow him into the room.

I flew out of the bed, aiming for the only other door. That didn't work either. I hadn't noticed how swollen my feet were until I tried putting weight on them. I landed face-first on the carpet. Before either could reach me, I jumped up again, using the wall for support, and grabbed the lamp. Ripping the cord from the wall, I raised it over my shoulder like the world's worst baseball bat.

Kade stopped at the edge of the bed, and raised his hands again. The stranger hadn't moved from the door, so I focused on the bigger, taller threat. "What the fuck did you put in my drink?!" I snapped. "Where am I? What did you do to me?"

"We didn't do anything to you. Put the lamp down, we'll explain everything."

"Yeah, fat fucking chance! Tell me now!"

"You're bleeding again," said the stranger in a soft, melodic voice.

As he spoke, blood dripped from the cut on my forehead into my eye. Because I am a stupid civilian and not trained to ignore such things, I instinctively reacted by letting go of the lamp with one hand and rubbing my eye. Kade took full advantage of my distraction. He was in front of me in a flash and took a hold on the lamp. There was no way I would have been able to fight him for it, so I just let it go and slumped further into the wall.

There was more than just blood in my eye now, and the other one was starting to sting. Adrenaline is one hell of a drug, because now that it was wearing off, I was starting to feel just how much damage there was to my body. Fucking Christ, everything hurt.