Love Bites Ch. 06

~Andreyah~

I awoke in a cold sweat gasping for air. It was the same terrible dream I'd been having since I'd met that creep, Josh. Well it wasn't the exact same dream, it was more of the same terrible ending; Andrey losing Aleca to that no good piece of shit. At first I just thought it was my reaction to the vampire and the fight but now I realized and feared it might be more. I got up and appraised myself in the mirror and looked for any hint of my lioness. I'd learned to cope with the empty feeling but that didn't mean that I'd learned to accept it. Alec told me every day to just be patient and wait until she was ready to come out, but he wasn't there during my first shift. Just thinking about that day sent shivers down my spine and just like that an unwanted, haunting memory was upon me.

-------------------

Author's note: pay close attention to the flashback ;)

-------------------

Flashback: 12 years ago

"Hurry up Twin, Mom's taking us to the mall today." Andrey said his curls bouncing with him as he jumped up and down.

"I'm coming Twin, just wait a minute." I said groggily as I put my shoes on. He had woken me up earlier that morning, barely containing his excitement. We rarely got any alone time with our mother and we valued every precious moment we spent with her. Little did Mom and Twin know, I had had the worst nightmare the night before but the only thing I could remember were feelings of loneliness and confusion. I also remembered a wonderful feeling climbing up my spine as a beautiful man with blue-gray eyes rescued me. I didn't know it then but that was when I first felt the mating pull.

"Ok, my little cubs, lets go before the mall gets too crowded." Mother said as she ushered us into the car. "Wait." she said as she counted us "One, two, where's number three?"

"She's sick and wants to stay home with Daddy." Andrey and I said at the same time. Those were the days when our twin telepathy never failed us.

We got to the mall just as a crowd was starting to form. Mother was franticly looking for a gift for father's birthday while Twin and I talked and giggled and soaked up the quality time we had with our mother. We ate lunch around noon and mother let Twin and I pick out new toys at Toys-R-Us. It was the perfect beginning for a wondrous day, or so I thought. To this day, I can't remember how I got separated from mother and Twin but all I know is that I felt that same horrible feeling that I had felt in my dream and I was franticly looking for either my mother, Twin or those blue-gray eyes from my dream to save and protect me. What a naïve hope that was. It wasn't my mom, my twin, or my blue eyed savior that found me. A kind looking man came up to me and said softly "Hey sweetie, are you okay?" and my instincts were screaming at me to turn around run but I was captivated by his blue eyes, mistakenly thinking that he was the knight from my dream.

"No," I cried "I can't find my mommy or my brother and I'm scared."

"Please don't cry little sweetling." He said as he dropped to one knee to be my height. At that moment I noticed that his blue eyes glowed like those of the man in my dream and all of my doubts flew out the window.

"Do you know how to get your house?" He asked. I shook my head yes and stuck my thumb in my mouth.

"Okay then, come on, I'll take you home." He said holding out his hand. Grabbing his hand was the worst mistake of my life.

The things he did to me were horrific and when I, or rather my lioness, couldn't take it anymore I shifted for the first time and slaughtered him while he was still inside of me. After that I blacked out and awoke in a bed tied down while still in my lioness form. She panicked struggling against the ropes that I was bound with. We thrashed around till we blacked out again. The next time I awoke it was to the sounds of a sorrow filled sobbing. My lioness smelled Twin and ignored the beautiful woman turning to him. They tried everything in their power to get me to shift but nothing worked. The pride doctor told them that my ordeal was so traumatic that lioness was in full fledged protection mode and that she wouldn't let me shift back to human form until I was ready. That's last thing I remember about being in lioness form. My next memory is after I awoke again but I was in my own bed and I was in human form.

I never talked about what happened to me even though it was quite obvious that I was sexually abused. My parents tried everything to get me to tell them what had happened but I wouldn't open my mouth. The only person I ever told what happened to was my twin, who would best understand my pain. When I asked him why my hair was now shorter he said that when I awoke in my room, it wasn't my first time waking up in human form. He told me that I woke up screaming that my captor was going to use my hair to hold me down and that I had to cut it. He said that I ran out of the room into to bathroom and that I tried to cut it with our kid-safe scissors. They had to put me in an induced sleep so I wouldn't hurt myself. Later, he would tell me that I was missing for a week and when I asked why I didn't remember anything from my time of captivity he said that he heard the doctor say that I was repressing my memories to protect myself.

The sound of my mate's voice shook me out of my memory. "Babe, what are you thinking about that has your thoughts in such turmoil?" Alecsander asked from on my bed.

"Ummm, nothing; what are you doing here?" I asked to redirect the attention from me

"I'm hurt, babe." He said pretending to sound like his feelings were hurt "Did you forget that I was coming over for dinner tonight?"

"Of course not, silly." I said, joining him on the bed and laying my head on his shoulder. "I was just so deep in my thoughts that I didn't notice how late it was."

"I can't wait to get inside of your pretty little head." He said capturing my lips, "what's troubling your mind today, mi amor?"

"Nothing much, babe, just another dream and well, it's more of a nightmare." I said

"Tell me about it." He said

"Well there's not much to tell I don't remember anything but the ending and it's different every time." I cried

"Shhh my love, just tell me what happened in your dream." He whispered in my ear.

His face turned to a mask of horror as I told him everything I could remember that happened in every dream I had for the past week.

"We have to go see Andrey immediately." He said as he dragged me across the hall into Andrey's room.

~Andrey~

You would think that having Aleca finally accepting me would give me peace of mind, right? Ha! Yeah right! If you think that then you really have the wrong lion. My life is forever complicated. My sister would choose now, the day of our 18th birthday, the day when I can finally claim Aleca, to dwell on the incident that led to her losing her lioness. I know that she doesn't know that I'm her empath. Hell, I don't even know what that means.

"What a way to wake up." I say just as the annoying buzz of my phone awoke me from my thoughts. That annoyance turned into joy when I realized whose ring tone it was Bruno Mars' "Just the Way You Are" was playing and I answered the phone with a smile on my face.

"Hey sexy." I said

"Good morning sleepy head. I love the way you sound in the morning." a sexily cheery voice said.

"I bet you do." I chuckled "But moving on to something more serious, why'd you call?" I asked.

"Oh, I called to talk to your sister but neither her or Sander are picking up their phones. I will never understand the need for these silly contraptions if no one ever picks them up. I mean they were all right when they first came out but now it's like........" she went on and on about cell phones and how it was when people sent letters.

"Wait! Aleca, slow down honey, why did you call me in the first place? You said something about my sister..?" I asked

"Oh yes, your sister, I wanted to talk to her about going shopping to pick out what we're going to wear to the party Saturday."

Oh well, I'll go get, well never mind, I'll call back later sweetness, it seems as though my sister knows when she's being talked about." I said as I hung up the phone. I was surprised when I looked up and saw Alec instead of Andreyah like I expected.

"Andrey, remember when you told me to watch out for visions?" Alec asked in a rush.

"Yeah, why?" I replied clearly confused.

"Well, I think Aleca's in danger and when I say danger I mean life or death danger."

~Aleca~

I sat there in shock wondering why he hung up so abruptly. "Oh well." I thought to myself "At least I know he loves me." or that nagging voice in my head said, 'at least I think he does.' "No!" I thought "I will not think like that. Just because one were hurt me doesn't mean that they are all the same. I mean Andreyah has never had any intentions to harm me..... I think?" I ended unconvincingly "Ughh!" I growled under my breath. I really need to tell somebody what happened. I spent the worst half of an hour trying to convince then unconvinced myself to talk to somebody. "I'm going to tell someone today." I said aloud.

"Tell somebody what?" a soft voice said from my door way.

"Shit!" I said as I stared into Andreyah's eyes.

---------------

Okay okay I know that this took a hell of a long time and I'm sorry. On another note thanks to cannd for editing this you rock! Oh yeah, I know that you're going to go all ape shit and ask a bunch of questions about the flashback. the ony thing I'm sayin' is, No the dude wasn't Alecsander and yes you know deep down inside who he is (so does Andreyah). Yes I'm evil I know. LOL

~Lioness_Queen, smooches <3