Chapter 3

• I watched my mate as she stirs from her sleep and I slowly move closer, attempting not to wake her or let her feel startled. When she sees me standing by the bed she sits up in fear and pushes herself into the headboard.
• Hey, hey, it's okay." I say quietly.
• She shakes her head at me, her whole body shaking.
• She's awake. I mindlinked Leigh.
• On my way.
• "I'm not going to hurt you." My eyes pleaded with hers but I knew my words were no use, she wasn't going to trust me right now.
• A million different scenarios played through my head with the things that she had been through. How could they make someone so terrified and broken.
• As Leigh approaches the room quietly my mate still jumps as she entered, her eyed flickered between the both of us.
• "Hey," Leigh said gently, as she smiles down at my mate. "What's your name?" Leigh asked as she approached the bed.
• Her eyes clouded with fear and I watched as she bit her lip, hard enough to drawl blood.
• "I'm Leigh, and this is Asher." She introduced us as she pressed her hand to her chest and turns to me.
• I don't take my eyes off her, the fear on her face is making me sick.
• 'What's your name?" Leigh asked as she moves closer to her.
• She holds a hand up to defend herself and let's out a shaky breath. "It's Willow, just p-please don't hurt me." Her voice quivered.
• "We would never hurt you willow." Leigh said her tone dropping.
• Willow's eyes soften at Leigh's voice, the presence of a woman is probably calming her down.
• "We just want to help you Willow." Leigh said.
• I shuffle closer to Willow and Leigh slightly. Her head whips to me and she backs up into the headboard even more. "It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you." I say and stupidly reached for her.
• Her green eyes widened and she jumps over the bed straight into the bedside table, knocking the lamp off onto the floor. Everything happend so fast that I could barley register any of it.
• "Jeez Asher!" Leigh yells at me as she rushes to Willow's side.
• I followed her steps quickly and my eyes went to my mate as she lays on the floor, she's crying again and I feel like the shittiest person in the world. She didn't trust me, I shouldn't have made any move to try and touch her.
• "Please don't try to run Willow, it will only make things worse." Leigh said desperately.
• "I don't believe you!" She yells at my sister, fear is written all over her. She puts her hand out and tries to stand up but I grab her and restrain her.
• "Get off of me!" She cries out and my heart breaks at the sight of her discomfort.
• "I can't." I say over her cries as she tries to fight me off. "You're going to hurt yourself."
• She twist and turns trying to get away from me, her whole face turning red as she struggles. I look into her emerald green eyes and seen that the tears slipped down her face, they never stopped.
• She pressed her arms into me trying to get away again but her strength wasn't a match from mine. "Leigh please put her to sleep. She is going to hurt herself again." I desperately said, not knowing what else to do.
• Leigh nods at me, I wish I knew what to do in this situation but I had no choice. She closes her eyes and I watched Willow relax onto the floor.
• I scooped her up into my arms and placed her back onto the bed. A deep sigh left my chest as I stared down at her, I glanced at Leigh and she offers me a small smile.
• "You probably should restrain her like that. She obviously has a problem being touched Asher." She tells me.
• I wanted to scream, yell, curse at her, but I stopped myself. "What do expect me to do Leigh? If I didn't restrain her she could have seriously hurt herself or she'll run out into the woods and I'll never be able to find her again!" I snarled at her.
• "By restraining her you will never gain her trust, you need to set limits and boundaries. Get her to start feeling comfortable around you." She said folding her arms against her chest, she's so much better in situations like this. She's the logical thinker and I just panic.
• "I know," I said.
• Leigh closes her eyes just for a second and sighs. "You almost need to remember that she's not Lauren and she never will be."
• I gave my sister a death glare. "Don't you think I know that?" I say through clenched teeth.
• "I just don't want you or her to get hurt. She isn't stable. And your still grieving over Lauren." She says sternly.
• "You really think that I would hurt my own mate?" I say, shaking my head in disbelief.
• "No, I'm not talking about physicaly I'm talking about emotionaly. You might not be ready for a new relationship, you and Lauren really loved each other and she was snatched from you. I know you still love her but Willow nee-" I cut her off before she finished.
• "Stop!" I growled at her making my sister flinch slightly.
• "This is my second chance Leigh! How many vampiers do you know get second chances? I'm not going to take it for granted, I'm going to find out what happened to her and I'm going to show her that I can give her a good life, whether it kills me or not." I state.
• I could hear Leigh's thoughts from here, questioning why I was willing to be nice to this girl when I haven't even had a proper conversation with her. But when you feel the mate bond between you, there isn't any point in trying to explain it because the feelings is to hard to describe.
• I've always believed everything happens for a reason. And no matter how horrible the event or outcome turns out, I still live by this.
• "How are you going to do that exactly? You see how she shakes at the sight of you." She shakes her head at me. "It's going to take her weeks if not months to open up to you!"
• "I need your help." I tell her.
• Leigh raised her eyebrows. "Huh?"
• "Show me what's she's been through."
• "No, uh-huh no way. I'm not going to go in her head and show you. Your are on you're own." She says as she walks out the door.
• Along with Leigh's healing powers she can see what people have been through in the past. Her powers are beyond amazing and I'm jealous that she inherited something so powerful. Out mother has similar powers, except the only this I inherited was mind reading.
• "Leigh, please." I begged.
• "Don't you know how wrong that is Asher? The things she had been through isn't any of our business, when she gets ready she will tell us."
• "You're right, it might take weeks but what is she is in danger? What if someone is out there looking for her? We are putting our whole coven, ourselves, and her at risk. I'm not asking to know everything I just want to know where she came from and if she is in danger." I said as I let my tone drop.
• She runs a hand through her hair and sighs, I can sense she is debating her options.
• "Please." I begged again.
• "You know I can't always control the things I see Asher, what if I see something that I shouldn't have? It's not right." Her worried eyes flickered to me.
• "I know, but you don't have to tell me anything you don't want to, okay? I want to respect her and her privacy. I just want to know who the hell made her like this. We'll gain her trust after." I say to my sister.
• Leigh nibbles on her lips. "Okay." She says eventually and my lips turn into a smile of appreciation. "I'm not going to explain how you know all of this stuff about her, that's on you." She says with narrowed eyes.
• "That's fine."
• She sat down on the bed and holds Willow hands and closed her eyes.