AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I swore,” she whispered again.
“And He forgave,” he told her gently, his hand moving to tip her head back.
And then she saw the destruction of his tears. His expression was ravaged, heavy with grief, his gray eyes nearly black with emotions as he cupped her face in his palm.
“I love you,” he whispered, and her heart stilled in her chest. “I have loved you since the day I saw you, and the depth of that love can never do anything but deepen, Dawn. Whether you stay with me, or you walk away, I need you to know that. You define my soul.”
She blinked back at him, swallowing tightly.
“The mating heat…”
“Didn’t start until we touched,” he told her. “I loved you before I touched you. When I saw you, I felt my heart beat and I swear to you, I felt it beating for you.”
She stared up at him, feeling all the fears begin to lift, all the fears that he would reject her, even now, after the mating heat, after every touch he had used to show her how important she was to him.
“I wanted you then,” she whispered. “You left me alone, Seth.” Another tear fell. Another weight rose from her soul. “Callan was wrong. I didn’t want you to leave me.”
His lashes drifted closed as a pain-filled grimace twisted his expression. “It wasn’t time. You know it wasn’t time, sweetheart. As much as I loved you, you needed your distance, and you needed your strength.”
“And you had others,” she bit the words out. “You were going to leave me forever, Seth.”
His head shook, his gaze became rueful. “I forced myself to let go of you, or I would have withered away, Dawn. And that’s not your fault, it’s mine. But no matter what I wanted to convince myself of, Caroline was on her way out. She knew it, and I did as well.”
“She didn’t look on her way out.” Feminine fear, Dawn knew what it was, the fear of losing what she knew had to be hers.
“She wasn’t sleeping in my bed,” he reminded her. “And she wouldn’t have been. No other woman has slept in this bed, Dawn.”
And that she knew was the truth. There was no scent of feminine lust permeating the room, no taint of another woman’s hunger for his body.
“I didn’t want to remember,” she finally said. “I knew what had happened. It wasn’t the memory of the rapes I was scared to face.”
“It was the memory of feeling deserted.” His thumb brushed over her trembling lips. “Of having no hope, no promises to believe in. And the memory of betraying the vows to yourself.”
She nodded. “I hadn’t kept the promises I made to Him. Why should He keep the promises I read of? Each time it was over, I swore the next time I’d kill. And I never did.”
But the promises had been made. Another realization she had hid from herself for so many years. The agony had stopped, and eventually, freedom had come. And then, there had been Seth.
“Come here.” He lifted her until she stood between his thighs, shaking, trembling as her body realized how incredibly tired it was.
There was no adrenaline rushing through her, no anger or fury spurring her to fight against the darkness she always felt inside her.
And now she was tired.
The sun was rising; she could feel it in her blood, heating her despite the weariness as Seth slowly undressed her.
He didn’t caress her as a lover would. He caressed her as a mate. Loving, soothing kisses where she was bruised. A murmur of regret at a scratch to her flesh.
He had no idea that this was the least damaged she had ever been in a fight with Stygian. He rarely gave quarter, and he taunted her in the bargain. But it had never drawn free the primal fury that Seth had drawn from her.
Because no other Breed had been allowed to restrain her; Callan forbade it. Seth didn’t
kowtow to Callan, and he didn’t fear him. He had staked his claim there in that room, on a mat that dampened with her sweat and her tears. And he had given her the gift of making her whole.
Dawn wasn’t a fool, and she knew Seth wasn’t either. There would be other nights when she would cry, because when she awoke from the nightmares, the memory of them would be there. But she knew he would be there to hold her. He would shelter her, and her tears would be welcome.
“I need you,” she finally whispered as he stood and stripped his sweaty shirt from his body.
“You need a shower, then you need to rest.” He finished undressing and turned to lead her to the shower.
