Page 35 of A Beta Protects

He nods at the pile of shopping bags in the room’s corner. “I didn’t buy those clothes for Rose. Her birthday is next year. I bought them for you, Kira. And I wanted to show you the best of Wylder, so you might decide you want to stay. With me.”

I look at him and I think of the last few years. The fear, the terror, the life I hated with every fiber of my body.

I could have had Dom. A man who cares. He gave me his bed to sleep in, spent six thousand dollars on clothes for me, and he went to war to get away from his feelings for me so he wouldn’t be tempted to act on them.

A man who I shouldn’t have liked when I first met him.

I spent countless hours baking and coming up with things to include in his care packages, even when I thought he hated me because I couldn’t stand the thought of no one sending him anything.

Dom didn’t hate me.

Ever since I arrived in Wylder, he’s made it his mission to look after me, giving me everything I need.

All this time I could have had him instead of dragging myself through days, weeks, months, and years with Bryce, a man who spent all those years controlling me.

Bryce twisted my love into hate, trapping me in a life I didn’t want. I never realized how trapped I was married to the former star quarterback and sheriff, whom everyone loved and saw none of his failings. But I did. All I saw were his failings.

I swing away before Dom can see the tears in my eyes fall.

“Kira?”

I shake my head, staring at the ground as I will my tears away.

“Kira?”

Maybe I should just leave so?—

I gasp as he tugs, and the first of the tears that fall don’t hit my cheeks. They soak the front of Dom’s shirt.

I will the rest away, but I can’t. Now they’ve started, I can’t stop.

I press my face harder against Dom’s chest, gripping soft cotton as he wraps his arms around me, drawing me even closer as he breathes, “It’s okay, Kira. I have you. No one will ever hurt you again.”

“What happens now?” I ask, long after I’ve finished soaking through Dom’s shirt to the skin beneath. I blush when I see the mess I’ve made, but he doesn’t seem to even notice.

He thumbs moisture from under my eye and lowers his head. I hold my breath as he presses the softest, most achingly sweet kiss on the corner of my mouth that sets my blood on fire.

When he lifts his head, his gaze is determined. “Now, you go to bed. Tomorrow, we’ll have Shawn come to the house and talk about all the ways we’re going to protect you from the man who doesn’t deserve you.”

That same prickle starts up in my eyes and I swallow the spiked ball lodged in my throat. “Bryce is a sheriff. He’s dangerous,” I warn him.

“Bryce doesn’t know what dangerous is. If he keeps this up, he will.”

I shouldn’t want anyone dead or hurt, but something about his silky threat does something to my insides. Or maybe it’s the determination in Dom’s eyes to protect me.

Dom’s nostrils flare, and he takes a slow, deliberate step back. I miss his arms the second they fall away from me. “Sleep, Kira. I’ll see you in the morning.”

He has the door open when I unglue my tongue from my mouth and remember to use my brain.

“I’m sleeping in your bed,” I call after him.

His hand tightens around the door handle and I hear him draw in a deep breath and then slowly exhale. “Yes. You are.”

Tension radiates up his spine as a breathless, nervous energy invades my body. Suddenly, I’m all too aware that it’s just us in his room, and beside me is his bed.

I clear my throat. “W-where are you sleeping?”

He peers over his shoulder and I feel the impact of his heated stare lance through me. “Goodnight, Kira.”

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