Chapter 61 AURORA

I don’t know why I expected Dane, but it took my fogged brain a moment to realize the man holding me wasn’t him. He wasn’t quite as strong, didn’t hold me quite as tightly as Dane did in the rare moments I’d felt his arms around me.

I pulled back and looked up. Then I gasped. “Holden? What are you doing here?”

I blinked, slowly taking in my surroundings. I was in the Blue Ridge pack house still…in the infirmary.

Then it all came rushing back. The Reeds. The caves beneath the old pack house and the monster made of shadows that apparently lived inside them.

Dane, in danger. And me, with every instinct I had screaming to protect him, leaping in front of him to take the blow that was meant for him.

A dream lingered in my mind. At first, I was sure I’d just had a nightmare…then I remembered the goddess, and that pushed everything else from my mind.

“Your grandmother’s orders,” Holden said, answering the question I almost forgot I’d asked. “She isn’t happy with the dangers that you’ve faced here. She thinks Dane isn’t doing enough to protect you.”

Chapter 62 AURORA

“Mate?” I gasped.

Dane stalked into the room. “Former male,” he growled. “I misspoke.”

Something in me that had been rising popped like a balloon and collapsed. I cursed myself for reacting that way, then wondered if maybe I really was cursed to still get butterflies for Dane after year after year of heartache and disappointment.

Slowly, Holden eased me onto the bed and rose. “You did misspeak,” he growled.

“I don’t want you in the infirmary where my vulnerable family members are lying,” Dane said. “There’s a certain level of treatment I’m forced to give you as an Alpha, but respect that you’re in my territory. Leave this room. Don’t come back.”

Holden smirked, then dropped into an exaggerated bow. “As you wish.”

He left the room.

Dane watched him go, then slowly, deliberately, he stalked over to me.

“You’re awake.”

There was something in his voice…a tension he was trying to hide from me. But Dane had never been able to completely hide his emotions. Not from me.

“Yes.” I still felt so weak, though. Holden had helped me sit propped against the back of the bed, so at least I was upright.

My fingers played nervously across the blanket over my lap. I forced them to be still, then folded them calmly together. “Why do you sound like my being awake is a bother for you?”

“It’s not.” His voice was gruff, and he wiped his hands across his face. “The twins will be so happy. Don’t worry, they’re safe and taken care of. Trajan and Evander and Mrs. Jamison are with them. And I…”

He paused, then shook his head. “I was with them, until just now. I wanted to reassure them, but I didn’t know how. I couldn’t promise them things would be all right, that you would be all right. But now you’re awake.”

I couldn’t help it; my heart warmed at the sliver of vulnerability I saw in him right then. “I know what it’s like to want to comfort your children but to not be sure things will be okay. It’s terrible. But I’m…glad you were there.”

He breathed out, and it seemed like all the tension went from him. He came and sat in the chair by the bed. “How are you awake when Piper and my grandfather aren’t?”