*Ainslee*

I can’t sleep. I can’t breathe. I feel like part of me is dying.

“Jerim is on his way,” Annamarie reminds me, holding my hand as she sits by my bedside and watches me shake. “I’m sure there’s something he can give you.”

“I need this to stop,” I say to her through chattering teeth. “I’m useless if this keeps on. It’s like he’s gone mad. I can feel it. Everything feels torn.”

The door opens and Jerim, who ran through the night with the other two guards, is standing there, medical bag in hand.

“It’s the mate bond,” she explains to me. “Something has happened. He’s not dead,...