Derek’s POV
“Erika?” I spoke gently.
She lay on the sofa motionless. No response.
So she fell asleep in a second! That was…
Why was she so tired and sleepy? And her breath was so light and I couldn’t feel it. That was weird. I checked her pulse with a frown. Her pulse was regular. I carried her in my arms and I tucked her in.
I lay beside her and watched her closely. Nothing was wrong except that she lay motionless. It seemed a little weird but I guessed it was not a problem. She was just too tired. I also had a busy day and I fell asleep quickly.
I didn’t know how much time had passed. Suddenly, I felt someone was hitting me on my arms. Someone was attacking me. As an Alpha, I was very vigilant. I woke up immediately and was about to counterattack. However, I stopped my movements when I discovered that it was Erika who attacked me.
She was flailing her arms and legs randomly with her eyes tightly shut and looked very painful. She seemed to be in a terrible nightmare. I turned on the light first. Then I pressed my body against her to stop her movements and shouted, “Erika, wake up. You are in a nightmare. I’m here. I’ll protect you.” I shook her shoulders gently, trying to wake her up.
She still flailed her arms and legs. It seemed that she was in a deep sleep and she couldn’t hear me at all.
I tried to mind-link her. However, it startled me that I couldn’t mind-link her. Did she block me out of her mind? I closed my eyes and tried to get into her mind. It alarmed me that I couldn’t even feel her presence.
What was wrong? I tried again.
While I was trying to mind-linked her again, I didn’t notice that she had clenched her left hand and summoned a volley of daggers. I tried to stop her but it was too late. She had sent her daggers flying in all directions. I got down to the ground immediately and dodged the daggers. As I got down to the ground, the room suddenly went dark and I heard a crack. My Goddess, what happened? I turned on the bedside lamp with my electricity and found that the room was a mess with daggers everywhere, from the carpet to the curtain and the sofa. I looked down at the ground and looked up at the ceiling and finally knew where the loud sound came from. Hit by a dagger, the chandelier fell to the ground and broke into pieces. No, even the painting on the wall wasn’t spared. It was drawn by a prominent painter who just died last year. I didn’t know that she could summon so many daggers in one go. Fine, maybe she was just flirting with me when she threw daggers at me in the past.
I pounded on her and pinned her hands against the bed so that she couldn’t throw daggers at me. Then I shook her body violently, trying to wake her up.
She struggled hard and twisted her body in pain. The veins on her neck popped out. It seemed that she was still trapped in the nightmare.
I gritted my teeth and slapped her hard on her face.
She stopped her movements. After a second, she opened her eyes slowly and looked at me blankly. Her eyes were glazed and her face was pale. She looked like … a ghost.
“Erika, are you all right?” I asked concerned.
Hearing my words, she looked at me and there was focus in her eyes. She stared at me for a while and finally recognized who I was. She nodded and fell into my arms.
“Did you have a nightmare?” I asked her tentatively. I patted her head to soothe her and found that her hair was a little wet. She sweated.
She nodded. Then her face changed and she looked at me in surprise. She might also realize that she was unable to mind-link me.
I tried again and I still couldn’t feel her presence. Instead, I felt a sense of loss, which I also felt when Erika escaped. But now, she was in my arms and I could touch her body and I just couldn’t feel her presence. What was exactly going on?
“You can’t mind-link me, right?” I asked her and my voice trembled.
She nodded wildly and looked at me bitterly. She looked up and saw the mess in the room. Her eyes widened. She turned to look at me in confusion. She took out the phone and texted, “Why are there so many daggers? What happened? Did I do it?”
I nodded slowly. I didn’t want to lie to her.
Her face changed upon hearing my words. She glanced around the room and looked both confused and guilty.
“It’s OK. You didn’t do it on purpose. You did it when you were asleep. We can have it cleaned tomorrow morning. By the way, did you have a nightmare?” I asked her gently.
She nodded and began to text again, “It was a terrible nightmare. I dreamt that I was fighting with rogues and I was defeated. I was locked up in a very small room and I starved to death.”
“I wasn’t in your dream, right?” I was a little disappointed. I had reassured her over and over again that I would protect her, but deep inside, she still thought of herself as a warrior who fought single-handedly.
“But… The weird thing is that I haven’t had nightmares ever since you saved me from Richard. It’s just weird. And I haven’t been so sleepy in my life. And now we couldn’t feel each other’s presence through mate bond. It’s my first day being the Luna and I ruined our bedroom…” she frowned and dropped the phone. She covered her head with her hands and grimaced. The painful look on her face broke my heart.
“Don’t think about it. I’ll find out who did it to you. You’re still my mate and my Luna no matter what happened,” I comforted her. I held her in my arms and patted her shoulder gently. After a while, she fell asleep again with the tear stains at the corners of her eyes. This time, everything seemed normal. She seemed sound asleep and was not in a nightmare this time. But she seemed very insecure as she held my arms tightly and didn’t let go.
I wanted to make a phone call to Steven and asked him about it, but Erika refused to let go of my arms. So I didn’t dare to move the slightest in case I might wake her up. I didn’t dare to sleep either for fear that she might go wild again. So I leaned against the headboard, looked at the mess in the room, and stayed awake for the whole night.