Stray Echo

Nightmare

POV: Echo

The scent of cedar and vanilla makes me gag as he slaps me hard enough across the face that I black out. I turned to him and his Luna kicking me and furiously screaming at me about Beta John having to strip his own linen because I was too lazy to.

Blinking away the tears, I am now pinned to the wall, Alpha Brady kissing my neck. I squeeze my eyes shut, and suddenly I’m 15, curled into a tiny ball on the floor, whimpering in pain as he cuts a tally mark deep into my skin.

Now I am back on his bed as he shoves his tongue down my throat. Blink, and I was tumbling down the stairs after he kicked me down them for tripping on the foot that he had stuck out and dropping a cup. Now I can feel his hand in my hair, keeping my head under the freezing water as he fills my tub with me in it.

Then I’m in the basement. He’s lying on top of me, half naked and about to mark me. Just as I feel his fangs on my skin, it fades away and I can hear a woman screaming, pleading, for someone to stop and let her go.

I wake up screaming, lying against his chest while he caresses my arms and makes soothing noises. Jerking away from him and scrambling out of bed, I screamed at the top of my lungs.

“I’ll be a good Little Doll, please, please, just leave me alone! I’ll do anything you ask, just don’t touch me!”

I fall as I try to get out of bed and start scooting across the cold tiles on my butt, desperate to get away from him. Sobbing, my shoulders and back both hit something solid at the same time, and I realized I’d backed straight into a corner.

“No, no, no, no,” I bawled, as he slowly made his way across the room toward me. I can’t make out exactly what he is saying, but it sounds soothing and has an odd effect on me as he moves closer. He squats a couple of feet away from me and makes no move to come closer.

My brain and body can’t seem to decide if we are petrified of the man in front of us, or if he makes us feel safe. I can’t see his face, but it can only be one person, and if the last ten years of my life had taught me anything, it was that Alpha Brady was someone to be feared.

Suddenly, the door crashes open and the room floods with blinding light. I cover my eyes with my hands as a woman’s voice demands, “What is going on in here?” and I hear footsteps move from the door toward me.

Whimpering, I curl in on myself and prepare for whatever horrors await me now. He has never been interrupted before and he will surely punish me severely for being so loud and alerting someone. I hear someone shooing someone away and hear multiple squeaky shoes retreating down the hall past the door.

“Luna Echo,” I flinch away from the woman’s voice when she unexpectedly speaks from beside me. “Shh, you’re safe here. Do you remember where you are, Luna Echo?” I frown into my knees as I try to understand her words.

“I’m in the basement,” I say automatically.

“Echo,” a deep voice begins, and it sends zaps of electricity throughout my entire body. “You are not there anymore. You are in the Blood Moon pack now, safe and far away from him.”

I try to process what his words mean, but the physical effect the sound of his voice has on my body both distracts me and scares me a bit. ‘Echo, that’s our mate, that’s Atlas. You are safe here; we are in the hospital of a completely different pack. It was just a nightmare. He isn’t here. We are safe!’ Tala’s reassuring voice finally snaps me out of the personal hell I was trapped in. Blinking at the glaring lights, I slowly lift my head and look around me. I am most definitely not in Red Stone anymore.

Feeling disoriented by the sudden clash of reality meeting nightmare, I struggle to separate the two. I flinch when the man behind me gently touches my hand. The tingles it sends up my arm tell me it’s my mate, Atlas. He quickly pulls away.

The nightmare still has a strong hold on me, and I am having a hard time separating the Alpha in front of me from the Alpha in my nightmares. I feel terrible as I hear Tala whine in the back of my mind, and Zev whine from within Atlas.

“Luna,” the lady beside me says, and I recognize her immediately as Healer Cordelia. She looks at me, and holds out her arms, catching me when I launch myself into them.

“Luna, what happened?” She asks after a bit, looking into my eyes. I hiccup and wipe the last of the tears from my face. Forcefully shoving the resurfacing memories back where they belong with a shudder.

“I-I think it was a n-nightmare,” I stuttered, shivering as a couple of flashes of memory poured through my defenses. She looks at me kindly and I explain, “It was like flashes of memories. It felt like I was reliving some of the worst things he did…” My voice cracks as it fades, unable to continue.

A deep growl from behind makes me jump, squeaking, and bury my face into Cordelia’s shoulder in fright. I can hear muttered curses as Atlas struggles to remain in control of himself and Zev.

Cordelia looks between us and kisses the top of my head before detaching herself from me and standing up.

“Where are you going?” I asked, whimpering. She smiles down at me gently and gestures for me to go to my mate. I shook my head, staring up at her, wondering why she would abandon me.

“You need your mate, Echo, not me. And your mate needs you. He will not hurt you, and I think deep down you know that, even when your nightmares try to trick you.” She says, turning and walking out the door, closing it behind her.

I stared at the door in shock. Logically, I know Atlas has been nothing but kind to me, but I do not know what to do with that or what it means.

Sighing, I dragged myself to my feet, leaning against the cupboards behind me for support. I take my time to brace myself before looking at him. I know the events of tonight have hurt him deeply. I can feel his pain through our bond. Knowing this, I needed to be completely calm to face him.

When I finally turned to him, his handsome face was contorted into a look of pure devastation, his eyes flickering like a flame between his green and Zev’s black.

The moment I saw him, my hesitancy to face him seemed ridiculous, and I slowly hobbled my way over to him. I stumble just before I reach him, and he catches me, arms wrapping around me and tenderly pulling me into him.

I bury my face in his chest, breathing him in, letting the mate bond sparks and the scent of my mate chase the last of the brain fog and residual fear from my body. I can feel his breath against my neck as he uses my scent to calm himself as well.

His heaving chest slows, and his body slowly relaxes. “I’m so sorry, Atlas. I know you’re not him. I know you would never hurt me as he did. I was dreaming of all the things he did… and then I woke up in bed leaning against you and I thought it was him. I panicked and I-I-I’m so sorry, my love!” I whispered into his shirt, flooded with guilt.

“You have nothing to apologize for. You did nothing wrong! I am not upset with you, Little Warrior. I just hope I never do anything to cause you to look and scream at me like that for real.” His voice cracks, and he hugs me even closer to him.

We cling to each other for a while, using each other’s scents to calm our racing hearts. When he finally pulls back, he pauses before he asks, “Will you come back with me to our room?”

My entire body tingles when he says our room. I am uncertain I am ready to share a bed with him yet, but I couldn’t shake the similarity of this room to the basement I’d grown up in.

“I would very much like to go to our room, please.”

His entire face lights up, and he unexpectedly scoops me off the floor. I shriek and wrap my arms around his neck while he chuckles and starts carrying me to my new home.