They didn’t do me like that.
Lucky you. She has to be hurting.
Cade took off like a bat out of hell.
Suppose that means he cares.
So where is he now?
Dawn blinked into the light, and she took some comfort in the night turning into day. So she had lived through it. Grateful for that, wanting the rest of it to just be a bad dream, she reached into the air and found Nicole’s hand.
“Hey there,” the redhead said. “Through the ringer and back again. I feel like I know you so much better now.”
Dawn tried to smile, but the feel of something cold pressing between her legs shot her away from the pillows.
“Easy,” Gloria crooned, as she pushed Dawn’s hair behind her ears. “It’s just for the swelling.”
“I’m… I’m sorry,” she started. “But you don’t know what they had in store for you. You… you never could have—”
“Don’t sell me short, Dawn,” she said. “They burned me pretty good. Of course they… they didn’t do this.”
Dawn felt her fingers pressing into the gauze now lining her cheek. So the blood had stopped flowing, but the scars would remain. Dawn felt ruined. Ugly. She tried to hide her head under the sheets when Gloria brought her back to her eyes and shook her head.
“Keep as much air on the wound as possible,” Gloria said. “Helps the healing along.”
“Healing?” Dawn asked. “And you would know, right?”
Gloria lightly lifted the bandage, and Dawn whimpered as something that had to be iodine flowed into against her flesh.
“Bound to be a mark,” Gloria said. “But we can always hide it with a little concealer.”
So Gloria counted her among those that had no choice but to hide, and for a second Dawn wanted nothing more than her makeup tips when she gripped her forearm.
“He…they killed them all,” she croaked out.
“So many,” Gloria concurred.
“Atticus?”
Gloria and Nicole exchanged a quick glance, and Dawn started to sink deeper under the sheets as the ladies raised as one to their feet.
“You sweet on him now?” Gloria asked. “Thought you were Cade’s girl?”
“I…I am,” she said. “But he was…he was the only one that tried to help me. Doesn’t that count for something?”
“Maybe more than you know,” Nicole said. “Gloria?”
The redhead took hold of the ice pack, and she worked to soothe Dawn’s aching thighs as she pointed towards the door.
“Check it out,” she said. “See if it checks out.”
“On it, Lady Boss.”
Gloria left the room, and Dawn found Nicole averting her gaze as she tried to alleviate her pain.
“You know,” Nicole started. “You didn’t have to step into it. I was more than ready to—”
“To what, Nicole?”
She was up and grabbing Nicole’s arms as she peered into her eyes.
“To ride some metal until you wanted to die?” she asked. “They burned me. They…marked me.”
Dawn pulled the gauze away, and she winced as the tape tore at her flesh. More than enough air for her wound now, and she started to hide her face in her hands when Nicole trapped her wrists in her lap.
“I…maybe I wasn’t,” she confessed. “So you took the hit for me.”
“I…didn’t want you to have to go through that again,” Dawn said, as she sobbed into her chest. Every inch of her hurt. Even as she pulled away and tried to find some comfort in the pillows.
“Dawn, listen to me.”
Clinging to the sound of Nicole’s voice, she pulled up and blanched when she saw traces of her blood dotting the linens.
“Why should I?” Dawn asked. “You’re probably just glad that it isn’t—”
“Now hold up!”
Nicole made her look into her eyes, and the redhead blinked back her tears with a heavy sigh.
“I did my dance with them,” she said. “And I had no one but Mona to help me through it.”
“You selling her short now?” Dawn asked.
“No. But there’s someone that can make you really feel better.”
Right on cue, she heard a scuffle from the other room, and she started to charge away from the sheets.
“No,” she moaned. “Don’t let them hurt him. Nicole…”
“I got this.”
Nicole left the bed, and she flung the door open as she screamed into the first light of day.
“Cool it!” she cried. “We’re following my lead now.”
The unseen men fell silent, and Dawn saw Nicole’s shoulders shift into conquest as she made like Norman and snapped her fingers.
No. No not again. I’m not strong enough to…
“Front and center, Everett. Your girl needs you now.”
Dawn leaned towards the edge of the bed, and she heard the footsteps bounding closer as Nicole shifted to the far side of the room. She saw Cade there, fuming and sweating. Knowing that she was now ugly, Dawn still wanted him. However, the pain and the scars hit the front of her mind, and she turned away.
“Dawn?”
“I can’t see him,” she muttered. “Please make him go away.”
Without looking, she heard Nicole sigh, and the redhead had to move closer to her side as her voice filled the room. “You know that she doesn’t mean it,” Nicole said. “But take my word. Be gentle.”
Nicole took off, closing the door behind her. As soon as she sensed that they were alone, Dawn started to turn her head over her shoulder. Cade was there. Close. He stepped closer to the bed, and she let him fall to the edge of the mattress. He tried to touch her wounded face, but Dawn drew back.
“I know,” she said. “You don’t have to humor me.”
“Humor—?”
“He…said that you wouldn’t like me with the scars,” Dawn said. “How could you?”
“How could I not?”
Cade’s voice turned her back around. His eyes were warm as his fingers met her slashed skin.
“Dawn, I—”
“It hurts, Cade,” she whispered. “Think it had more than enough air by now.”
She started to push the bandages back to her skin when her fingers sputtered, fumbled.
“You don’t have to hide it from me,” he said. “Even if it hurts.”
Cade gently kissed the blood away from her cheek, and when she cringed, he ran his hands down her arms and pushed up to her hair.
“It hurts?” he asked. Dawn nodded her head, and Cade found fresh gauze as he reapplied the bandage and taped the wound back into hiding. As soon as he was done, he folded his arm around her shoulder and kissed the top of her head.
“Better?” he asked.
“I…”
“I should have come quicker,” he said. “I should have known as soon as I felt you leave me.”
“And did you feel that?” she asked.
“Dawn…”
Their eyes locked, and he started to kiss the tip of her nose when he drew back and hung his head.
“I told myself that it was bad dream,” he said. “I thought that there was no way that I wouldn’t wake up and see you right there.”
And Dawn had wanted nothing more than to be back in that space. She choked back a sob and waved her arms in the air when he tried to hold her close.
“I let you down,” she said.
“Dawn, don’t—”
“Don’t try to tell me that I didn’t pay the price.”
Her thighs burned, and the memory of the metal came back in full force. Even more than the marks on her face, she was ruined for all time, and Dawn huddled into the pillows as she felt his anxious hands running over her back. Cade settled at her side, and he spooned her from behind.
“I can’t.”
“You don’t have to do anything,” he tried to assure her. “You walked through the fire never meant for—“
Dawn shot up and pulled at his hair. Cade winced, but he stayed in her gaze as he pressed his teeth together.
“But I did,” she said. “And they…they burned me. They…they made me undress. And that…that thing that hurt so much…”
She softly touched the space between her thighs and winced at the feel of her own fingers on her skin. No way she could know him there again without quaking, and she wanted him to leave when he lay next to her and gently stroked her hair.
“I’m so sorry,” he said. “But you…you can be with me again.”
“No,” Dawn said. “Not like—”
“How about like this?”
Cade collected her arms. He made no move to lose his clothes or strip the sheets from her body. The Alpha just cuddled close and kissed her hair as he caressed her back. Dawn sank into the sweetness of his touch, and she felt her breath calming in her chest as his whisper hit her ear.
“Is that better?” he asked.
It was better. Dawn felt the pain flying away as he pulled her closer, and soon, there was nothing but his heart pounding in her ears as he kissed her neck.
“Cade?”
Somehow she turned her head to his eyes, and Cade brushed his fingers over her eyes as he nodded his head.
“What do you need, Dawn?” he asked.
“They’re…Norman is not coming back?” she asked.
“Not on my watch,” he assured her. “Or ever.”
Taking some comfort in his words, she started to snuggle closer when he touched her legs.
And without wanting to, Dawn winced.
“Dawn?”
“See?” she said. “Damaged. You should have left me with them.”
“Don’t even think like that.”
Cade turned her to her back, and his hold was light as he pushed her to the pillows. It felt like another trap, but Dawn’s first thought was not to kick and flee when he moved his fingers over her lips and drew back before she could kiss any part of him.
“Dawn?”
She tried to speak when he left the bed. Watching him pace the room pulled at her heart, and she forgot every other pain as he pressed his fingers to the window.
“Can I tell you something that no one else knows?” he asked.
“I…I like thinking that you can.”
He smiled as he fell back to her side, and Dawn let him take her into his arms. His strong and tender hold put her at ease.
“I still don’t look half as good,” he said as he adjusted her gauze. “And I’m not nearly half as brave.”
“It didn’t feel like that,” Dawn admitted. “I felt weak. And it…it hurt.”
Cade’s eyes grew dark, and he looked like he was ready to kill when she shuddered into his chest. He held her closer and kissed the sides of her face as he smoothed his fingers down the length of her body.
“Tell me this doesn’t,” he said. “Tell me you feel okay right now.”
Dawn nodded into his neck, and she sighed when he folded her close to her chest. His kiss moved like crazy around his hair, into her eyes, and when he pulled back and started to lower his eyes, Dawn touched his chin and smiled.
“I feel safe with you,” she said.
“Truly?”
“I…”
It wasn’t the easiest thing for her to give life to the words. She could see could see him feeling her pain. And she started to turn to her other side when he caught her chin in his hands and smiled.
“Do I have you back, Dawn?” he asked. He started to lose her shirt, and she knew what was coming next, wanting it on some level when she pressed her fingers to his bare chest and shook her head.
“Can I…can I just feel safe?” she pleaded.
For a second, Cade appeared disheartened, and Dawn felt sure that he would leave her when his arms tightened. He held her close for a split second before bringing her back to the bed and smoothing the sheets around her sides.
“Safer?” he asked. “Better?”
“Please come closer.”
Cade started to fall to her side when he drew back. Dawn kept reaching for him, and she just caught hold of his hand.
“I…I can’t do all of it,” she confessed. “Except for…”
No way she could let her touch her there. And she feared that it would turn him off to the point to the place where he would force her to follow after the Panthers’ scraps. Ready to rise and make her way on her own, she was stunned by the feel of Cade’s fingers surrounding her wrist.
“Can I still lay with you?” he asked. “Just let me do that?”
Dawn nodded, and he gathered her chin in his hands. His supple lips alleviated most of her fears, and she kissed him softly.
“More that I had hoped for,” he said. “Makes me think that—”
“Don’t push it, Cade,” she gently warned. “I’m still a mess after what he…after what he did to…”
She found it hard, next to impossible to finish the story. But Cade bowed his head and rested his head closer to her side with a heavy sigh.
“Tell me you’ll stay now.”
Their lips nearly met in a kiss, and she was on the verge of savoring her lips when she drew back and remembered her wound.
“It…it still hurts,” she said.
“Can I help you there?” he asked.
Dawn nodded, and Cade kept the gauze in place as he nuzzled her neck.
“I’ll tend to your wounds for as long as you’ll let me,” he said. “And this is enough for me.”
She met his lips and kissed him softly. It was so much better than any frenzied pursuit. And Dawn felt safe with him as he smoothed her hair about her wounded cheek. Their eyes locked, and she smiled.
“Think you need to sleep now,” he said. Dawn nodded her assent, but Cade kept her close. She let him lower his arms around her body, and she only shifted her position to gaze deeper into his eyes.
“Cade, I—”
“Rest,” he whispered. “I swear that’s all I want.”
Believing in his words, Dawn dared to kiss his cheek. And he folded her closer. She took comfort in his arms and wanted nothing else as he rocked her.
“Like a baby, honey.”
“What was that?”
They started to break apart, and Cade’s face was wracked with worry. She should make the move now to soothe his soul.
“Don’t call me that,” she whispered. “Please.”
He gave her a few inches, as he kept his hands in her hair. Dawn saw his eyes filling with concern, and she touched her fingers to his unblemished cheek and sighed softly. She had no words as he pulled her closer to his chest, and the pain became more and more memory. He was here and real, and Dawn nodded at the sound of his name leaving her lips.
“Fits,” he said. “Sun is almost up in the sky.”
Cade kissed her hair and carried her to the window. Sunlight passed through the glass, and she paused to soak in the heat of the rising sun. It was warm, but the curve of Cade’s arms widened her smile.
“I didn’t run away from you,” she said. “I only wanted to help you.”
“Don’t take those kinds of chances,” he said.
Dawn started to nod into his neck when her thighs burned.
“It still hurts,” she confessed. “I can’t…I can’t even say that…”
“And you don’t have to,” he said. “Let’s just go back to bed.”
Cade followed the words with the deed, and as soon as he had her settled under the sheets, he kissed her cheek before moving his lips to the gauze.
“Wait.”
The Alpha followed her order, and he rested his chin to her shoulder as he touched her lightly.
“Do you still want me with you?” he asked.
“I...”
“Say yes, Dawn. Say that I can just hold you.”
Looking into his eyes, she nodded quickly and wasted no time falling into his arms. The tears fell freely as he held her closer and tried to kiss her hair. Dawn backed away without wanting to, and she moaned when Cade stopped short of claiming her lips. He just rested her mouth to her neck, and cuddled her closer. The pain grew fainter as she rested against his chest, and she thought of slipping into sleep when the lure of his eyes was too calming to resist. Better to stay in his gaze and linger in the space of the waking dream as he smoothed his strong hands down her sides, his lips caressing her hair as his brow fell to hers.
“You know I’d sooner die than have anything like that ever happen to you again,” he said. “You know that, right?”
“I do,” she said. “And I didn’t want it to be Nicole again.”
“We’re all grateful for that,” he assured her. “Kind of makes you one of us now.”
Pushing back from him ever so slightly, she cupped his chin in her hands and lightly kissed his lips. Strange as it seemed, this felt right; she wanted to be one of them with everything that it might mean. Dawn gave no thought to the story, to exposing them where they stood. But could they…?
“What happens now?” she asked. “You guys can’t stay here.”
“Don’t see why not,” Cade said. “We’re the only game in town now.”
“But the cops,” she continued. “They’ll point a finger at you. Cade, I… I don’t want to even think of losing you.”
She gritted her teeth as she threw her arms around his neck, and Cade held her tighter, whispering into her hair that she had nothing and no one to fear. But Dawn stretched to her elbows, and Cade kept her hand in his.
“You won’t lose me, Dawn,” he promised. “You—”
“Where is the kid?” she asked.
“Who?”
“They boy. The one with green eyes.”
“My boys are working him over,” he told her.
“But are they asking the right questions?”
Cade seemed confused as she forgot her pain and moved away from his side in search of her sneakers. He started to pull her back, and Dawn nearly sank back into his chest.
“You don’t have to worry about that,” he said. “Right now you need to rest.”
He kissed her cheek, but she reluctantly backed away as she shook her head.
“No, Cade,” she said. “I think it’s something that we all have to worry about. Right now.”