Page 96 of A Broody Mate for the Human

I turn my head slightly, noticing how Dave is sitting in his bed, looking at me. My wolf senses work well, allowing me to see through the night, and I can notice his eyes wide open in worry. I must have tossed around in my bed and groaned… which woke him up.

“It’s nothing,” I grumble.

Dave is quiet for a while. “It’s not nothing.” He slips to the edge of his bed, his feet dangling down now while he looks at me. “Do you want me to…”

His voice trails off, and he looks away flustered.

I keep looking at him, taking in his features. His kind and warm eyes, his beautiful face, his soft features… he looks so fragile in comparison to me. I feel Nero stir a bit while butterflies seem to flutter through my stomach. I wonder what Dad would have thought if he saw him, if he saw us. He would have hated Dave, hurt him, maybe even killed him.

He would beat me until I wouldn’t be able to move anymore.

But how could he hate something so real and pure?

I lift my blanket a bit, and Dave jumps out of his bed and hurries under the blanket. His feet feel cold against mine. “Are you kidding me?” I grumble. “Your feet are like ice!”

“Oh, come on, grandpa.” Dave smirks.

Goddess, the things I want to do to him and his sassy mouth sometimes. Once again Nero stirs slightly, and out of instinct, I reach out my hand to put it on Dave’s waist. It feels warm where I touch him, almost like… no… it’s impossible…

Dave sighs contentedly and turns to the side, his back resting against my chest now. It surprises me to see him so relaxed. Earlier tonight when we went to bed and he felt cold, he seemed to be in a bit of a mood, and it kept me confused as to why.

I bury my nose into Dave’s neck, trying to take a lungful of his scent. It seems to calm me down, to stop me from my restless sleep, preventing my nightmares.

“Is something wrong?” Dave asks, worried. “You dreamed, didn’t you?”

I remain quiet for a while. “My father abused me,” I finally say.

I can’t see Dave’s face, but I can feel the sadness radiating from him. “Yes, I thought as much,” he whispers. He sounds heartbroken. For me? I’m surprised he cares so much for me.

“He beat me whenever I was nice to someone he deemed unworthy. Even as a kid. When I befriended someone of lower status, when I helped the omegas carrying something, when I showed a sign… of weakness, as he called it.” I don’t even know why I tell him all that, but the words just seem to flow out of me. “He slapped me, hit me, whipped me, threw me in the dungeons, all under the alpha’s watch, and then one day, I found myself believing in what he said. Kindness is weakness. The mate bond is weakness unless it fates me to a strong-ranked she-wolf. I need to make my family proud. I can’t let them down. I need to be strong and ruthless.”

“But you weren’t,” he whispers.

“I was,” I say bitterly. “I hurt my sister. I forced her into this arranged marriage… or at least I tried to.”

He is quiet for a while. “Yes, maybe you did,” he says. “But your last memory is of your sister and Stella, isn’t it? I don’t think you marrying off your sister is the end of the story.” He shifts in my arms before he turns to face me. It’s dark, but I can easily see the outlines of his face. “Your father might have tried to beat the kindness out of you, to brainwash you and manipulate you, but at the end of the day, it didn’t work.”

“If that’s true, why do I feel so guilty?” I want to know. “My subconscious is telling me something, and although I can’t remember it’s eating me up.”

“That’s because you have empathy. The fact that you are feeling guilt further proves my point,” Dave says. “If you were truly a terrible person, you wouldn’t be capable of feeling guilt.”

My grip around his waist tightens like I’m holding on for life. I’m scared he will push me away, that my proximity right now will be too much for him, but to my surprise, he rests his hand against my arm gently. “It’s alright,” he whispers. “I’m not going anywhere.”

*DAVE*

I wake up to the chirping of birds and a heavy feeling on my chest. Raffy has wrapped his arm around me, holding me close to his body. While I normally tend to feel suffocated by guys holding me so close in their sleep, with Raffy, I don’t mind. Lying in his arms feels so comforting.

But I don’t want to allow myself to indulge in this feeling for too long. I’ve already had a crush once on a wolf… on Jun. And I know how it feels not to be a wolf’s mate. I don’t want to repeat this mistake again because, this time, it’s not just a crush.

Fuck. I rub over my eyes.

I’m falling for a man whose name I don’t even know, who I have met on the streets, who might just meet his mate tomorrow and then leave me.

“Dave,” I can hear Raffy’s hoarse voice. His tone is always a bit gruffly and rough, but in the morning, he sounds even more grumbly… which is so endearing. “I can feel your tension. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” I lie.

Raffy doesn’t seem convinced, but he fortunately doesn’t push me further. “So, we have the day off today?” he asks instead.