Page 68 of His Arranged Plus-Size Mate

She blinked a couple of times before her eyes moved, looking at me. I rubbed my fingers along her cheeks. “What’s wrong? You look like you saw a ghost.”

“I had another dream.” She slowly sat up and turned around. She looked at me, frowning. “They were moving around. They were talking about getting the gem back. They seem on edge about it being gone.”

She glanced over toward the gem. “They said something about making sure the body was still buried. I don’t know who they were talking about, though. But I think it’s connected.”

I knew there was no getting Hazel to go home. So I stayed and decided to help her. I looked through one book while she scanned through another. We’d moved from the storage room to Chelsey’s office.

The center was quiet now. It was late into the night, and Hazel sat in the chair across from me, munching on a Twizzler. I sat at the desk, trying to understand. But the more I read, the less I did.

I looked away from the book toward Hazel. She was turning the gem over in her hands, looking at it with a perplexed expression. “I wonder if the person they spoke about was always evil.”

I raised an eyebrow at her, tilting my head. “What do you mean?”

She glanced at me. “Do people just turn evil, or do they have good reasons to be that way?”

“I’ve seen a lot of evil in my life. Some people are just that way, and others…others had reason for doing what they did.”

She frowned. “You’ve probably seen a lot.”

I nodded. “I’ve seen enough evil and wrongdoing to last me a few lifetimes.”

She looked back at the gem, and suddenly her entire body froze. I watched her eyes grow wide, but she wasn’t looking atme. It was like she was watching something. Her eyes flickered back and forth, and for a solid moment, I thought she was having a seizure.

“Hazel?” Panic grabbed at me, and I moved closer to her. I grabbed her shoulders and shook her. But I realized she was having a vision. I’d seen Jade and Nora look like this many times.

I felt like I couldn’t breathe as I waited for her to come back. Her eyes suddenly blinked, and she looked like she was going to vomit. I cupped her face. She was white as a ghost and cold to the touch. “Hazel?”

She pushed me away and went crawling toward the trash can. I turned as I heard her vomit. Her entire body was shaking as she shoved her head into the can. I could hear myself starting to sob.

I moved closer. “Hazel?”

“I saw it.” Her voice sounded so broken as she leaned back, wiping at her mouth. She looked at me with tears in her eyes. “I saw it all.”

I swallowed. “What did you see?”

She closed her eyes, leaning back, and pressed her head against the wall. “That area….where we always end up. That wide open pasture.”

“Yeah?”

She opened her eyes. “He used to live here. He was a sorcerer. A very talented and powerful sorcerer. He was married with a son. They lived away from everyone else and were just happy. They had no worries in the world. And she was beautiful. His wife. She was... breathtaking.”

She blinked, sadness crossing her face. “A traveling pack was camping near their home. They found the house and…” She paused, wetting her lips. “They raped his wife. Torched the house and beat him. He managed to keep his son away from it, but he couldn’t save his wife. They killed her. Slit her throat in front of him. And they laughed as he broke apart.”

I reached for her, cupping her face. “Hazel….” I wiped at her eyes, knowing what seeing can do to a person’s mind. “This was a vision.”

“A terrible one,” she whispered. “How could they do that? How could….how could you treat them like that?”

I kissed her forehead, feeling her shake. “He was so angry. I could feel the shift in the air. That space was so peaceful and calm. They didn’t have a care in the world. They were so happy. And this pack just…ripped it apart.”

I pulled her closer, holding her tightly against my chest. She sniffled. “He uhmmmm….he put a curse on the members and the land. It’s why it’s so strong when you go there. He raised his son to hate shifters. Raised him pretty much to hunt and kill.” She wiped at her eyes. “The gem…it’s how they shift. He had a witch put a curse on the gem. It was his wife’s. It allows all of the vampires to shift into their horrible form.”

She swallowed. “He did it all because of her. He wanted revenge, and over the years, his hatred grew and shifted into something even more evil than it was at the beginning.”

She looked up at me. “He raised his son to hate, and it only grew from there.”

“Obviously, this man is dead right?”

She nodded. “Yeah, he’s buried there. Deeper in the rocky area we were in. That’s why the gem was there.”