Page 7 of Chasing Dawn

That shook me. I stood, bending down and scooping her into my arms, berating myself as she hissed in pain.

“I’ve got you now.” I wouldn’t fail her again.

I ran as fast as possible toward the den and the infirmary inside.

CHAPTER 3

DAWN

Iwas used to waking up with the searing pain in my stomach, so when I opened my eyes and catapulted back to consciousness, I gasped, but not in pain, in relief. For the first time in a week, I felt nothing.

It was glorious.

I looked around the room I was lying in. The walls were all a sterile white, and it was definitely some kind of hospital room. There was a glass sliding door in front of me, and a beeping monitor on a tall stand beside me. To my left was a large black recliner, and in the recliner was a bear.

Well, a man, but a man I knew was a bear.

I’d made it. The last twenty-four hours had been more of a fever dream than anything else as blood poisoning made me delirious. I’d made it over the border between Idaho and Montana, but it was just fog after that.

I watched the resting face of Vance, Alpha of the Cold River Sleuth, as he slept, and he was just as handsome as I remembered. Actually, maybe even more so. He’d aged, not just in years, but in the fine lines across his face. His body had filled out even more, though I always remembered him being huge when I met him as a kid, probably because I was even tinier than I am now.

I just took him in. His light blond hair fell across his forehead like he was a Hallmark card. I felt like I knew him, almost. In reality, I’d met him for five minutes in the company of my former Alpha.

On cue, his eyes snapped open, and I was snared in the warm chocolate depths. “You’re awake.”

I tried to smile, but it didn’t come naturally anymore. “So are you.”

He uncurled himself from the recliner, and he just kept going up and up. I was wrong. He wasn’t large, he was ginormous. A part of me shrunk back in the pillows, and I gritted my teeth.

I didn’t want to show weakness, but a lifetime habit was hard to break.

My response wasn’t lost on the Alpha bear. He didn’t sit back down, but he didn’t come any closer either.

“Who did this to you, Dawn?”

Hearing my name spilling from his lips was my every teenage fantasy come to life. “It doesn’t matter now. That’s not why I’m here.”

“I think it fucking matters. Talbot and Franklin think it matters. You were basically gutted, Dawn. How you even made it here…”

I shrugged. “Once upon a time, you sent me a plane ticket. You said it didn’t matter when I used it, so I decided to take you up on your offer.”

I could see him straining to move closer, and his expression was hard to read. I was an Omega. We elicited wild responses from Alphas. It was our job in life, according to… my past.

I could see his bear in the depths of his eyes, and I wanted to shrink away. To my Omega, Alphas meant pain.

The woman knew that wasn’t true for everyone. She also knew that if there was ever an Alpha we could trust, it was this one.

“Do what you need to do, Alpha,” I whispered softly.

Vance shook his head. “I’m in control, not the bear, and we both respect your boundaries.” He lowered his head and eyes in supplication. “Omega.” His words were gruffer than normal, more bear than man for a moment. Someone might see the expansion of the Alpha bear’s presence through the room as a direct contradiction to Vance’s earlier statement that he was in control of the bear, but I knew that wasn’t true. It was a flex. He was in control of the bear, and he could let him out and put him away as needed.

No, that made it seem like one side had to have dominance. What he was really proving was that the man and the bear were one person who operated symbiotically. That was extremely impressive, especially in an Alpha who was relatively young in years.

“It would ease us both,” I murmured.

He stepped toward me, his body soft and nonthreatening. He put his hand on my arm first, and I forced myself to stay relaxed. He huffed out a deep breath, and I felt my Omega rise to meet his needs. I calmed his beast, and in turn, I felt safe for the first time ever.

That wasn’t normally what happened when Alphas laid their hands on me, but usually, it wasn’t quite as gentle either.