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Lillian stared at her in surprise, and Dawn realized that she had prepared herself for the worst. An insult as well, or perhaps more.
“Craig was right,” she said. “Your beauty is only overshadowed by your compassion. Thank you.” She extended her hands, and preparing herself for the contact of another’s touch, Dawn accepted it.
She was surprised, no, she was shocked when the feeling only produced mild discomfort. It was a bit stronger when Craig shook her hand as well, but the pain she should have felt wasn’t present.
That could mean only one of two things. The mating heat was easing or she had conceived. She wasn’t certain which. She didn’t feel pregnant, but then again, how the hell would she know what it felt like?
“You have the most incredible look on your face,” Seth murmured as the Bartels moved away. “You’re making me hard.”
“You stay hard,” she purred. She really did love that about him.
He grunted at the comment, but there was laughter in his eyes, a smile pulling at the corner of his lips. As she smiled back at him, a peculiar feeling swept over her. Not so much panic, or even fear. As though the panic had hardened inside her and turned silently feral.
Her head lifted, her gaze swept over the dance floor, and her senses seemed to come alive in a way they never had before.
She couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary, couldn’t smell anything that could explain the sudden feeling, and she felt like growling in fury at the odd warning traveling through her system.
This was why she had been so adept at tricking the Breeds she trained with. This feeling. It warned her when something was coming, warned her when danger approached, whether it be Breed, human or inanimate. This extra sense, this animal knowledge and instinctive self-preservation.
“Dawn?” Seth’s hand settled at her nape and rubbed at the tense muscles there. “Is everything okay?”
“Fine,” she answered absently, continuing to search.
As her gaze swept over the entrance to the ballroom, Dash and Elizabeth stepped inside with their daughter.
Dawn’s gaze stopped abruptly at the sight of Cassie. Her makeup was expertly applied and appeared barely there. But it was there. It was masking her pale face, but nothing could mask the other girl’s wide, haunted eyes. Just as nothing could hide Dash’s and Elizabeth’s tension.
“We should talk to Dash and Elizabeth,” she murmured to him, feeling the instincts inside her latching on to the small family.
Dash was dressed in an evening suit, Elizabeth in a gorgeous gray silk gown that smoothed over her breasts and hips and gave her a seductive appearance.
Cassie wore black once more, a shimmery fabric that gleamed and glowed as she moved. Thin straps extended from the snug bodice, and the material displayed her curved figure without appearing too seductive or alluring. The dress was like Cassie herself, understated and shielding the secrets it covered.
Seth nodded, took her hand and led her to the fairly private table they had taken across the room.
Cassie wasn’t dancing. Her father’s stern, forbidding expression kept the admirers held back for the moment. As Dawn and Seth neared the table, Dash rose, resplendent in black evening clothes, his black hair pulled back at his nape, his brown eyes glittering in anger.
“You look gorgeous, Dawn,” he murmured as he shook Seth’s hand.
“And you look ready to explode,” she pointed out. “Is everything okay?”
She carried her weapon and her link in her bag, and she knew Dash hadn’t tried to contact her before coming down. The link would have vibrated and warned her of his attempt to do so.
“It will be.” Dash nodded. “Elizabeth and Cassie and I will be leaving first thing in the morning. We need to get back to Sanctuary.”
Not just to their home. Dash wouldn’t consider the brief stop at the Breed compound to collect his son as getting back there.
Dawn’s eyes flickered to Elizabeth’s concerned gaze and Cassie’s averted one.
“Is anything wrong?” She turned back to Dash. “What’s happened?”
“I happened,” Cassie drawled then, her soft voice stiff, bordering on angry. “I don’t obey so well anymore. Perhaps there’s been an error in my training program.”
Dash’s eyes flashed with pain as Elizabeth’s lips compressed.
“She won’t stay off that fucking balcony,” Dash muttered. “She was out there this morning when we returned to the suite, shaking like a leaf.”
“She was thinking and attempting to make sense of things.” Cassie shrugged. “And it was a little chilly.”
