Looking around, I recognize where I am. I never thought I'd be in this dark alley again, but I find myself alone in the space behind Velvet Elixir, the supernatural bar Eli and Elle took me to all those weeks ago. Just like before, the pavement is damp and littered with cracks stretching on for what seems like miles. The air feels humid, too humid for this time of year.

I attempt to move towards the street, but my feet are stuck to the pavement by imaginary glue. No matter how hard I try to move my legs, they are rooted in place. Tears of frustration fall down my cheeks as I use my arms to heave my legs out of their locked position, to no avail. After a good five minutes, I give up and look around me for anyone who can help me.

"Hello? Someone help!"

No answer. What's strange is that I can hear my own echo, but no other sounds accompany it. No cars honking in the distance. No bass from the nearby club. Nothing.

I turn my head to the back of the alley, but with my human eyesight I can't see a thing. I turn back around only to see the same vampire that attacked me that night smirking at me, his sharp fangs glistening from the single streetlamp illuminating his features.

He looks exactly the same as he did before- pale skin, blood-red eyes, large muscled form. A surprised shriek comes from my throat, but I'm instantly silenced when his hands grip around my throat. My screams quiet as I fight for breath, my hands uselessly clinging to his as I try to scrape them off of my neck.

His arms are immediately thrown off of me by a punch to his face. The vampire turns to see an angry Grayson staring back at him, black eyes and all. A fierce growl emanates through the alley and echoes throughout the city. He's out for blood.

The vampire only laughs at the pain like the sadistic creep he is. The two fight in hand-to-hand combat. It looks like Grayson is in the lead until I hear him groan in pain. I scream and fight to escape the imaginary binding keeping me pinned to the floor as I see the vampire with Grayson's bloody heart in his hand. I scream louder than I ever have before as I fall to the floor, disregarding the pain in my knees from the fall.

For some reason my legs are finally free and I crawl over to Grayson as I cry and hold onto his lifeless corpse. I grip at his t-shirt and hold my hand over the space where his heart used to be. I glare at the vampire who looked extremely proud of his accomplishment. He smiles, and throws the heart deeper into the alley. The blue fog rolling in hides the heart from my sight, and I suddenly can't see Grayson anymore either because of the large quantity of smoke.

"Thea! Wake up!"

The voice sounds like Grayson, but it can't be him- he's dead right in front of me. The voice sounds again, and I look to the sky in confusion.

"Open your eyes, damn it!"

Grayson's voice is loud and firm, and I'm completely disoriented as my eyes shoot open. It's completely dark, and all I feel is Grayson shaking me harder. I abruptly sit up in bed and look in front of me to see a very much alive Grayson looking down at me with worry. He's breathing heavily through his nose, and when he sees that I'm awake he lets out a huge sigh of relief.

"Baby, are you alright? You were crying in your sleep, and then you started screaming and wouldn't wake up! I didn't know what to do..."

I notice the tears covering my cheeks, and this sensation is unfortunately old. The past week I've been having the same type of nightmare along with the same type of reaction to them. However, I never had an alive Grayson to wake up to before because I was always alone. With him here, in front of me, I launch myself at him and continue crying into his neck as I grab onto him for dear life. Grayson catches me easily and rocks me back and forth as he soothingly rubs my back and scalp. He whispers sweet words into my ear to calm me down.

Eventually my sniffles cease along with the tears, but I remain straddled on Grayson's lap as my breathing slows. Grayson occasionally places a kiss on my head, and every time I melt more and more into him. After a little while, he backs up a little and wipes off the residual tears from my cheeks.

"What happened, Thea?" His voice is soft and soothing like I imagine an angel's would be, but I still tense up at his words. I scramble to leave his lap when I realize the intimate position we're in. I apologize profusely for my behavior, embarrassed to have worried him.

"I'm so sorry! I had a nightmare. I'm sorry I woke you up. I'm so stupid." I rant on and on about how sorry I am for bothering him, but he quiets me down with a small kiss on my lips.

"I don't care that I woke up. I care that you're this upset. Will you tell me about the nightmare? Talking about it could help you." His words make sense, but I don't feel like reliving the awful nightmare again.

"I don't want to talk about it. The same thing happens every time," I mumble, and when Grayson stiffens, I realize my mistake. Stupid me just revealed that this is a normal occurrence. I should win an award for how idiotic I am. As expected, Grayson questions me further.

"What do you mean the same thing happens every time? Does this happen often?" His voice is tense and angry, but I know he's not directing his anger towards me. However, it's still a bit overwhelming when his dominance peeks through in this way.

The sooner I tell him what he wants to know, the sooner he'll go back to sleep. I'll stay up the rest of the night so I don't risk waking him up again. I'll drink even more coffee in the morning to combat my sleepy state.

"Every single day this week I've had the same awful nightmare. I haven't been able to sleep because I keep waking up crying," I whisper. I move to hug Grayson tighter, and he rubs my back soothingly.

"That explains the bags under your eyes and the tired state you've been in. What are the dreams about?"

"You."

Grayson backs up his head and places his hands on my cheeks. His light blue eyes look more like steel at the moment with the harsh look he's giving me.

"What? Tell me." His words leave no room for questions, so I begin telling him about the nightmares.

"Ever since last week, I've been having these horrible dreams about you. The first one was when I came here really early in the morning last week. I dreamed that you were killed. Every night after that, you would continue to die in my dreams. Every time you tried to protect me, you would be stabbed, or beheaded, or your heart would be ripped out!" I cry into his shoulder, hyperventilating just thinking about him dead.

"There was always this stupid blue fog, and then I would wake up and-"

"WHAT?!" Grayson's voice is tense and comes out as more of a growl. I shake just from the intensity of the single word he utters. I look into his eyes which are slowly turning darker and darker, his wolf instincts kicking in. "Did you just say blue fog? It's there every single time?"

I nod my head, confused as to how the weird blue fog in my dream could be so important. I apparently don't understand anything because Grayson lifts me into his arms easily and carries me out of his bedroom. I tighten my legs around his waist as he marches towards an unfamiliar room. When he kicks the door open in anger I begin to worry about why he became angered so easily. Does he know why these nightmares keep happening?

Grayson sits down in a large swivel chair positioned behind a desk covered in paperwork. He switches my position so I'm seated sideways on his lap as I lean into his chest. He's still not wearing a shirt, and I greatly appreciate that fact as I snuggle deeper into his bare chest.

Not a minute later, movement at the entrance of the room shift my attention. I see a gruff-looking Axel with blonde strands falling in his face in disarray, followed by a sleepy Cooper with a wrinkly band t-shirt and boxers. They both look like they were woken up mid-sleep. Along with the two of them, Cole follows with a red-head who I recognize from dinner. Based off of their hand-holding, I assume she's his mate. They also look exhausted.

"Alpha, what's wrong?" Cole questions immediately, skipping the pleasantries. The four of them look concerned. Honestly, I would be too if I was woken up in the middle of the night to find an angry Grayson. Now that I look at him, he doesn't just look angry. He looks livid. His eyes are pure black as he clenches his tightly.

"Thea has been having nightmares," he begins, and I try to tell him it's not important enough to wake them up in the middle of the night, but he ignores me completely. "For the past week, she's been dreaming about my death in various ways, all of them including fucking blue fog."

At the mention of the blue fog, all their gazes shift to me with concern. Axel looks worried, Cooper looks petrified, Cole looks sorry for me, and the redhead looks at me with understanding in her eyes. And pity.

"How could this have happened?" Axel asks, taking control while everyone else in the room recovers from the shock.

"Why the fuck do you think I know? That's your job to figure this shit out! Now! She's already not sleeping as it is!" Grayson punches his desk with such force that it sends cracks through the wooden surface. I whimper back in surprise from the loud bang.

"Control yourself, Alpha. You're scaring your mate," Cole says, motioning to my shaking form in Grayson's lap.

"Shit," Grayson mumbles as he looks down at my huddled body. He closes his eyes and places several long kisses on my forehead as he runs a hand down my back soothingly. I instantly relax in his arms once again. He opens his eyes, and I'm happy to see them back to blue. He's back in control.

With a deep breath through his nose, he relaxes and turns back to the group. "Cooper, you spend the most time with Thea. Is there ever anyone suspicious around her at school that could have done this?"

Could have done what? Caused my nightmares? He's obviously talking about something supernatural that could have magically altered my dreams, but what sort of creature could do that? And why?

Cooper scrunches his face, something he does when he's trying to concentrate. I can practically see the wheels turning in his brain. After a few moments, his eyes widen and his jaw drops. "Shit! That motherfucker!" He begins pacing across the room as he goes deeper into his thoughts, his mouth releasing more curses than a sailor.

"Explain. Now." Grayson grows impatient, and Cooper looks to him with his neck bared and shame on his face.

"I'm so sorry. At the time I didn't think anything of it. There was someone who had a strange scent that was talking to Thea, but it was so minimal that I just dismissed it at the time. Thinking back on it, it must have been a warlock masking his scent. Fuck, I can't believe I messed up. Thea, I'm so sorry!"

Cooper came up to me and grabbed my hand as he knelt beside me. His eyes were filling with tears as he sat in front of me with so much remorse. "You're my Luna. My one job is to protect you and I failed. I'm gonna make this right, I promise."

Okay, now I'm confused. They're throwing around words that I don't understand. A warlock gave me bad dreams? I don't even know what a warlock is capable of- the only one I know of is Magnus Bane from City of Bones, and he's fictional!

"What are you guys talking about? A warlock did this to me? Can he undo it? And who is he?" I ask a million questions, unsure of which ones I want answered first. Grayson makes it easier for me when he holds me closer to him as he growls out "who is he?" For some reason, I can tell that the fact it's a guy makes him ten times more mad. He was already furious before, but now I fear that he's going to murder this warlock. I want the warlock to pay, but I don't think death is the answer.

"It's that guy with the white hair in your Ethics class. The one I stopped from talking to you last week."

"Eli?" I ask, shocked at the revelation. Now that I think about it, the blue fog in my dreams did match the flash of blue in Eli's eyes during our argument. He touched my hand, and shocks released in my body and made me weak for a moment. The timeline adds up- that was the first night of my nightmares. Why didn't I connect the dots sooner? I knew Eli might be a part of the supernatural world, but I never thought that he would try to hurt me.

I thought Eli and Elle were my friends, but our whole friendship was based off of a lie. They probably only befriended me because I was Grayson's mate and were looking for a way to weaken him- and what better way than attacking his weak, defenseless human mate?

Now more than ever I am angered by my lack of strength. I'm a weak human who can't defend herself and has to rely on other werewolves to save her. I'm the worst type of damsel ever because I can't even see the danger in front of me! I never even thought to assume that something supernatural was wrong with me, and once again Grayson has to come to my rescue. This is so mortifying.

More than anything, I feel betrayed. I trusted Eli, considered him a friend, and now that I'm learning that our friendship was a lie, I feel like crying again. I feel used. I feel hurt.

"Who the fuck is Eli?" Grayson directs the question to both me and Cooper. Great, he's fuming again.

"He's my friend- well, was my friend from my ethics class. We studied together a few times and I- oh my god, I'm so stupid! He and his twin Elle took me to Velvet Elixir! That was a supernatural club, wasn't it? That's why they were there and the vampire showed up? Oh my god!"

I begin crying once more as the emotions become too much for me. This betrayal combined with my lack of sleep is costing me dearly. I'm not in a healthy place, and I think Grayson can tell because he growls protectively and brings me even closer to him.

"You're not stupid, Baby. He's the stupid one for thinking that he can get away with hurting you. Cole," Grayson's voice is infinitely softer when he speaks to me compared to when he speaks to Cole. The change in his tone is astounding, and I'm grateful that he cares for me so deeply and can tell that he needs to be gentle around me.

"I want him in the cells by sunrise."

"Yes, Alpha."