As usual, the nightmares crashed in.

In the first one, Lili was running. She loved to run. An excitable, giggly little Omega, she ran almost everywhere. But running across the Wastelands was dangerous. Along its blackened, cracked, and dry ground, the large cavities existing there had become big, jagged mouths, snapping at Lili’s feet as she ran past. One of them always caught her, breaking her little foot, and then it was only a matter of time until the others joined in. This time another four mouths each ripped off a piece of her and churned her in their mouths until all that was left was thick, oozing, stinking gore.

Before Naya could even scream, Lili was behind her, standing in the middle of the Wasteland, her copper-brown hair flying wildly about her head while she tried to say something to Naya. Her small face was contorted, her mouth moving quickly, urgently, but Naya couldn’t hear her. The cracked sky of the Wastelands was too loud.

Fissures opened up around Lili, lower than normal, and shot their usual blots of white fire to the ground. They cracked and boomed, drowning out any other sound. Lili became more animated, waving her arms frantically, pointing, yelling, and trying to tell Naya something.

Desperate to get to her, Naya ran toward her, a frightening sense of doom gripping her as the white bolts crashed down. But no matter how fast or how long she ran, she got no closer to Lili. The urgency increased and Naya knew she was running out of time, but nothing she did helped her reach her sister.

Lili threw her head back and roared at the sky, a booming roar that couldn’t normally come out of a little girl. It erupted from her with unstoppable force. Naya clamped her hands over her ears but she still heard it.

A thick bolt of white cracked through the air and straight into Lili’s open mouth. More bolts latched onto her and slowly tore her limbs away, one by one. Then they obliterated her torso and face, until only Lili’s bloody mouth was left, still furiously trying to warn Naya.

Naya jolted awake, chest heaving like she was still desperately running to Lili, sweat trickling down her temples. She sat up and wiped her face with one of the blankets in the cart, forcing her breathing to slow.

She didn’t expect the nightmares to stop just because she’d been taken and tortured—she hadn’t actually thought about them at all—being reminded about how gruesome and terrifying they were was a shock. Since she hadn’t been sleeping properly, they’d had no chance to creep back, but they clearly would not let her escape their torment.

“Explain what just happened.”

Naya started, shocked to find the beast standing by her cart, barely visible in the dark. She drew herself into a ball, trying to abate the shivering. “What?”

His eyes flitted over her but he said nothing else, clearly not feeling the need to explain himself.

“It was just a dream,” she muttered.

His gaze narrowed. “I told you what would happen if you lied to me.”

Naya tried to force away the lingering unease before answering. She couldn’t allow her nightmares to impact her situation. Taking a deep breath, she said, “I’m not lying. And I thought you only meant that about my empire.”

“I mean it about everything.” The hint of gravel in his voice somehow made the words feel more serious, and that made her shiver. “Will that be a problem, or are you prone to lying?”

Naya straightened, glaring at him. “I don’t lie. But I also don’t share my private life and thoughts with strangers. Or people intending to raid my home.”

“That will change today.”

Naya bit down the response she wanted to throw at him. Glancing around the camp, everything was quiet, just the crackle of the campfires as they continued to smolder low. The slight sheen of the magic domes whispered in and out of sight, but it was too dark to see anything else. She looked back at the beast, frowning. “Why are you awake? Were you watching me?”

“Do not ignore my question.”

“I answered your question. You just didn’t like the answer.”

The beast’s eyes narrowed. “It was a lie.”

Naya huffed out a breath. “It wasn’t a lie. I had a dream, a bad one. Don’t you have bad dreams?”

His soft growl made the hair at the back of her neck prickle. “No questions. You do not ask any questions. Not to me or any of my people.”

Naya made a face. “You said I’m a reluctant guest.”

“You are.”

“So you want to ask me silly questions in the middle of the night, but I can’t ask you a single thing back?”

He stepped forward, his face hardening. “I said, no questions. That was your fourth one. There are no exceptions to this rule. If you ask again, you’ll be punished. Do you understand this?”

Naya glared back at him. What the fuck was she doing talking to him anyway? Turning her back to him, she lay down in the cart.

The Alpha growled again, this time loud and rough. Goosebumps flared across Naya’s arms at the sound but she thoroughly ignored him. He was displeased. Good. Luckily, she couldn’t scent him from inside the dome, so the impact on her wasn’t strong.

It was quiet for a long while and Naya relaxed, her mind wandering to her brothers and her sister. Drocan, the second oldest, would be as furious as Papa. He’d be in the thick of helping with whatever investigation Papa was running and doing his own research into the other rulers. He was fiery just like Papa and he didn’t trust the other rulers. Azarn, her other brother, would be more upset but then become enraged once he realized the implications of her disappearance, and Idaya, her sister, would want to tear the whole forest down looking for her, in denial of any notion that Naya had been taken and insisting that she was probably still in the forest somewhere.

They all had Papa’s temper and Mama’s curiosity, and when they were younger they were a force of nature for their parents to try and control. Naya would use magic to sneak them all into restricted areas of the palace, play tricks on the Eiros twins, and hide them all when Papa was furious at something they’d done. If it wasn’t for Mama’s ability with magic, Naya would’ve gotten away with wreaking havoc, and her siblings were always right beside her. They were all so close, and even though they understood what she was going through after what happened in Saderthorne, she could barely look them in the eyes. Idaya always left her favorite fruits outside her quarters, and Azarn would leave history books with highlighted passages he loved and wanted to share with her. Drocan would simply force his way in to see her every now and then, just to give her a hug. They never gave up on her, and now they might all die before she could tell them how much she loved them.

When the drowsiness of sleep beckoned again, Naya abruptly sat up, forcing herself awake. She couldn’t go through any more nightmares tonight.

“Humph.”

Startled, Naya turned to see the beast still standing by the cart. Why was he still here?

“You avoid sleep because of bad dreams.”

Naya tensed at his words, but was more annoyed by the satisfied way he’d said it, as if it’d been a challenge to figure out.

“That’s why you’re always in the forest at night,” he concluded.

Naya examined him, her voice quiet. “How many times did you see me in the forest?”

A gruff sound came from his throat. In an instant, the fabric around her neck tightened, solid and hard, just like it had before around her ribs. Within moments, she couldn’t breathe.

“I said no questions.” Though his voice was calm, anger darkened his features. “This is no jest. You do not ask me anything.”

Naya clawed at her throat trying to speak, but though her mouth made the shapes, nothing could come out.

He said nothing more. He simply watched her, and she glared at him back, until she gripped the side of the cart and keeled over, clawing at her neck and gasping for air. Heat encased her head, and light prickled at the edges of her vision. And then everything went black.