Rite of Submission - Rite 1

46: Everything You Know is Wrong

"Alex!" my mother raced towards the glass wall of the cell where I stood on the other side.

"What the fuck is going on!" I demanded of everyone standing around me, Sophie squeezed my hand.

Dr Martinez pushed her way through the gathered enforcers, and frowned at me apologetically. "Luna," she barely acknowledged Sophie, "I need you to try to do whatever it was you did the other day," she explained to me.

"I don't even know what I did," I complained as she tried to press my palm to the surface of the glass. Dmitri looked like he was struggling not to rip my father's head off his shoulders, literally. "Why are they in there? What is going on?" Hot tears rolled down my cheeks as I tried to remember the last time I was down here and push through the confusion, fear, rage and pain I felt crushing in on me.

"They're who poisoned you," Nathan growled. "They've apparently been doing it for years now."

I sank to my knees, feeling like he'd just sucker punched me. On the other side of the glass, my mother's eyes grew wide, "No! Alexandria, I can explain! It's not what you think!"

The rage bubbled up, consuming everything else and turning the world around me red. "Somnum," that strange otherworldly voice left my lips as I placed both palms against the glass. Everyone on either side, except Sophia and I, dropped to the ground, unconscious.

Sophia stared down at me, fear etched deep in her face, "How did you... What did you do to them?"

I stood up slowly, feeling like I might collapse. "Get me in that room," I begged her, sagging against the wall.

She looped her arm around my waist and helped me stand up, guiding me to a side door that led to a concrete hallway lined with iron doors. It took the both of us to pull the heavy door open, and by the time she'd helped me get to him, Dmitri was already starting to stir. "Can you send all of them away when they wake up?" I asked her, looking at the mass of bodies on the ground.

"You might need them all to hold him back if he can't control himself," she warned, her eyes still wide with fear.

So that's why they were here, had Dmitri summoned them all? Could Nathan have called them when he saw Dmitri losing control of himself? It didn't matter, I could feel that sense of dread tighten in my chest, and I just knew I didn't want them to see what was going to happen next. "He's not going to hurt me, Sophie, please," I pleaded, trying to hold back the tears and panic.

"Ok, but I'll just be out there," she promised, "and I'm asking Nate to stay just in case." I nodded, and helped close the door behind her as she left.

I knelt beside Dmitri, cradling his head in my lap, just as I had with his wolf in the dream. I leaned down, hoping he could hear me, "You are mine," I whispered, kissing his forehead, "and I am yours. Come back to me."

Sophie appeared on the other side of the glass, nudging Nathan awake and whispering something to him. I could see the alarm on his face as he looked around him. But he got up and started helping her to shake people awake and instructed them to wait down the hall. Occasionally, they'd glance at me with a worried expression.

His features had shifted back to mostly human, but when his eyes opened, the whites of his eyes were black. "You shouldn't be here, Princess," he groaned, but his hand gripped mine tightly.

"Tell me what is going on," I asked quietly, pushing the hair back off his face as he looked up at me. "Why are my parents here?" I looked up, they were both still unconscious, and the hall on the other side of the glass was close to empty, as Dr Martinez had started helping them rouse people awake.