+CHAPTER 49+ Nightmares

Amber groaned in pain.

Dark Gods! Her back was killing her. She shouldn't have come between her father and Vladimir. It had sucked all the energy from her body.

Her day had been hectic. Vladimir had proudly announced to Aric that he was staying because Amber had requested him to stay.

Aric had lost his shit and he had started cursing Vladimir like a sailor while Rome had shrieked at Aric like a banshee to stop cursing around his godchild, not caring even a bit that he was talking to the King of Beasts.

It felt like Amber had started living in a circus where a millennium-old King of Beasts and Vampire King liked to get on each other's nerves. They were even worse than Jimmy who God knows why was hell-bent on making Darach's life a living hell.

Laying on the bed Amber held her breath, closing her eyes she waited. . . It was almost midnight and soon Darach's beast was going to wail.

Every time his beast howled at the Moon in agony it took everything in Amber not to go out there to him, to comfort him.

She had grudges against Darach but his beast had done nothing to her. His beast was the one who had loved her. He was the one who had told her that her scars were war trophies.

Darach's beast was the only being Amber knew who would love her even when the whole world will turn against her. It wasn't the beast's fault that he was trapped with an asshole.

The banging on her front door pulled Amber's attention. She sighed in annoyance.

Dark Gods help her if she found Rome at the door she was definitely going to skin him alive.

Damn with the consequences.

He was becoming a pain in her ass since she told everyone that Vladimir was staying. Vladimir was getting a kick out of annoying Aric but Amber couldn't find it in herself to stop him.

Vladimir had always amazed Amber. When she had kidnapped him from his kingdom, he had offered her the position of his Queen and when Amber had turned down his offer he had refused to sleep with her. Telling her that the only time he will take her to his bed will be their wedding night.

And the bastard had kept his words~

Lost in the thoughts of Vladimir, getting up from her bed Amber headed towards the front door when she swung the door open. She gasped at the person standing in front of her.

Amber took an unconscious step back.

Darach was standing there, his intense blue eyes wild, tears were streaming down his face. His hair looked like he had pulled at them multiple times.

He wasn't wearing a shirt, his chest was on full display.

Getting a grip on herself Amber stepped forward to close the door but before she could close the door fully Darach gripped the door with his hand.

"Please...." He pleaded from the other side of the door.

His voice held the same pain that Amber had felt when he had broken her heart, when she had tried to open up thinking that he might understand her but he had caged her in, shut her reasonings and pleadings out.

When Amber didn't lose her grip Darach begged. "I can't take this anymore please... Make them go away."

What was he talking about?

Losing her grip on the door, Amber let him in. Breathless from the effort of keeping him out and exhaustion Amber stepped back.

As Darach entered her home, his body shook violently. He didn't even spare her a glance, without saying another word Darach walked in the direction of her bedroom as if he owned her home.

Amber huffed in annoyance~ How can he just go to her bedroom without her permission? It felt like she had to put him back in his place again. But without her powers, it was difficult to throw him out.

Damn! She shouldn't have opened the door. . .

When Amber entered her room, she saw Darach sitting on her bed with his back towards her. Amber barely stopped herself from gasping at his back in horror. His back was decorated with huge bruises.

They looked horrible.

What the hell happened to him? If Jimmy was behind this then Amber was definitely going to have a word with the little devil.

Amber's eyes widened when she saw Darach's shoulders shaking as he cried silently. Amber stood at the doorway, watching a lycan warrior cry like a small pup.

What was she supposed to do. .?

When he buried his face in his hands and started sobbing loudly, Amber's stomach felt torn apart as if she had been stabbed and the knife was steadily turning in her gut.

A part of Amber was telling her to leave him alone but another part of her was telling her to go to him, to ease his pain.

Surprising her own self Amber gave in to the later one. She walked towards him until she was standing in front of him.

She didn't say anything or tried to touch him. . .

Dropping his hands from his face Darach didn't look up, his eyes were hooked on her stomach as he hiccuped.

With shivering hands Darach touched her stomach. "It's still there, I can feel it." He closed his eyes in relief, his lips trembled as he laughed through tears.

More tears streamed down his face.

He was hurting~

"I dream but I don't want to. I want to know but I don't want to see it. I can't go through what you had endured. I'm not strong enough." Placing his face against her stomach, Darach branded his arm around her waist, pulling her close as he sobbed.

A proud Lycan was crying while holding Amber close, admitting that he was not strong enough. Amber knew it wasn't easy for him.

She felt safe and warm in his embrace after a few moments she found herself relaxing in his arms.

With hesitation, caressing his head Amber whispered in a soothing voice. "It's okay. I don't want you to go through what I have endured."

"You don't understand how I feel after having nightmares of your past. I feel helpless. I'm there but I can't help you, it's driving my beast mad. He can't understand the difference between reality and nightmares. I just stand there in the shadow as you cry in pain, calling for the Moon. I feel your pain."
Amber sucked in a breath at his words. He was reliving her past.

And then it clicked~

"Are those bruises from your nightmares?" Amber asked in horror.

"Yes." This time Darach leaned his head back and looked her in the eye. Amber knew that he wasn't lying.

She was a witch and once the Goddess of Nature had warned her that she should be careful while holding grudges because as a Crone she holds the power of making others go through unbearable grief without casting a spell.

A Crone's willpower is enough to inflict more damage than any spell~

Amber must have made Darach relive her past along with the pain. A part of her must wanted him to understand what she had gone through.

A part of her must wanted him to know that she wasn't evil, she was just a girl who had gone through hell and she just wanted someone to love her for what she was.

Even though she had let him go a part of her had still lingered on to him~

"I'm sorry." Amber whispered.

The guilty of what she had done to Darach made her shoulders curve in shame. No one should go through what she had lived through.

Even if she was not on good terms with Darach, she would never want him to carry the demons of her past.

Darach wasn't paying attention to her apology. His hands were caressing her stomach while his eyes followed the movement of his hands in amazement.

"It's the first time you are letting me touch you." His voice broke at the end.

Amber swallowed the lump in her throat. She couldn't pull herself away from him. The moment they were having was so pure. . . She can't narrate it into words.

She gasped as she felt her child kicking her. Darach pulled his hand away from her stomach with lightning speed.

His wide eyes collied with Amber's eyes.

"I swear I did nothing! It wasn't me!" Darach exclaimed in horror.

Amber chuckled at his horrified expression.

"You did nothing it's just that the little prankster inside here likes to give me a hard time."
Amber said while sitting beside Darach.
It felt good to talk to him, the anger she had against him wasn't as strong as before.

It would have been easy for Amber if Darach had returned to his Kingdom, leaving her alone but he was one stubborn warrior. Who was hell bend on melting the ice around her heart.

"Does it hurt?" Darach asked.

"Sometimes when he kicks multiple times, it's like getting kicked in the gut. Bloody hell! It knocks all the air out of my lungs." Amber explains with a silly smile.

She can't get annoyed by her baby. His kicks were proof that he was there and all this wasn't just a dream or a fragment of her imaginations.

"I wasn't talking about this." Darach touched her stomach. "I was talking about this." He placed his hand over her heart and Amber's heart fluttered at his touch.

"Does it still hurt here? My words? My action? Do they still hurt you?" Regret laced his tone and shame filled his gaze as he stared at her.

Amber didn't give him an answer.

"I know it will take time for you to forgive me. I'm not afraid of waiting but my beast is afraid that it might take a lifetime for you to forgive me. I'm not complaining though. Please, Amber don't tell me to leave because I might lose it if you threw me out of your territory." Darach's voice was firm, standing from the bed when he turned to leave Amber held his hand stopping him.

At that moment Amber was not holding Darach's hand. She was holding onto a future, a future that held happiness for her.

"Stay." Amber whispered, swallowing her ego.

Darach turned towards Amber in surprise.

He swallowed the lump in his throat. Without wasting another second Darach sat beside her. He was afraid that his mate was going to change her mind if he hesitated.

Darach couldn't risk waiting for another three and a half months.

Maybe he still had a chance of a happily ever after or was it the start of another doom?