Page 11 of Dane's War

“I’ll be fine,” I tell him, climbing into my bed. “You can go home now. I’m just going to lay here and go to sleep.” I was going to do everything I could to ignore the pain radiating through my body. I was also going to do my best not to think about Dane and all that happened tonight.

“I’m not leaving you here alone,” Bandit grumbles. “Mom and Dad are on the way back, but they won’t be here until morning.”

“Bandit, I’m fine. I don’t want to talk. I just want to sleep.” I don’t want to tell him how humiliated I feel that I’m weak and wasn’t able to defend myself. I’m nothing like him or our parents. Done with the conversation, I turn away from him, not wanting him to keep talking. I know this won’t stop my big brother from doing that if he wants to. Nothing keeps Bandit from speaking his mind if he chooses. He’s stubborn and ruthless all the time, well besides when he’s taking care to show his affection to those he cares about.

Thankfully, Bandit doesn’t keep at me about finding out what’s going on in my head. He doesn’t need to know that my stupid ex sent men after me to teach me a lesson. God, I’m an idiot for not thinking Brady would do something about me leaving him.

If Bandit knew it was Brady behind my attack, he’d lose his mind and do something that could land him in loads of trouble. That’s the last thing I want to happen.

Lying on my bed, I do my best to curl on my side, face my window, and look out into the dark night. The pain in my body is nearly overwhelming. I know my ribs have to be broken. Every inch of my torso is bruised. I didn’t even want to think about how my face looked.

I hear Bandit shift from the door and come closer.He sits on the edge of my bed and his hand gentle against my hip. “Look, Raine, I know you don’t want to talk about it, but you’re gonna have to. I need to know who did this to you. I can’t let them get away with this shit. I’ll give you the night. You need rest. Tomorrow, we’ll talk. We also gotta talk about Dane?—”

“We’re not talking about him.” The last thing I want to do is talk to my big brother about a man. No, a wolf. A shifter that claimed I was his mate. I can’t say I didn’t feel something when I set eyes on him, he was the most beautiful man I’d ever seen. His wolf was just as beautiful. I wanted to stroke my fingers through its fur. To burrow into his fur for his warmth, and I knew if I asked, he’d have let me.

Bandit didn’t like Dane, and it was clear. Sloane explained things about Dane. I knew he’d been a player. But would he be like that with his mate? She told me in the car about how he’d apologized to her. Sloane even shared how she thought he sincerely meant it too.

“We’ve got to talk about it, Raine. You know we do.”

I blow out an exasperated breath and jerk upright, only to cringe at the pain that shoots throughout my body. “There’s nothing to talk about, Bandit.”

“Sweetheart, he’s your mate, and he’s a member of the Spiked Raiders MC.”

“Yeah, and he’s also the one who saved me from being beaten more than I already was,” I blurt out snappishly.

“Think I didn’t want to save you, Raine? For fuck’s sake, you’re my little sister. I never want to see you hurt, and tonight you weren’t just hurt. You were hurt bad, and I can’t take that pain away from you.”

No, he couldn’t. I didn’t like that I snapped at him. Bandit is the best big brother a girl could have. Growing up, I’d loved being able to hang out with him and have him take me for rides through the woods while he was in his wolf form. It was freeing, but a part of me always wishes I could’ve been able to shift myself, but I’m only human. There’s nothing special about me.

“Look, can we just leave it for tonight?” I mutter, meeting his heated anger filled eyes, “Please.”

Bandit gives me a jerky nod. “Fine, long as you know, we will be talking about this. All of it.”

“Fine,” I huff and lay back down, curling back onto my side facing the window. I look to the dark sky andjust lay there quietly while my brother makes his way out of my room, closing the door behind me.

I wait a while longer before finally allowing the tears I’d been fighting off. I’m sure he could hear me crying, but thankfully, Bandit doesn’t come back in here, and he doesn’t send Sloane either. I just want to be left alone.

After a while, I start to drift to sleep, and as always, it’s there I allow myself to live as I only can in my dreams.

“You’re beautiful, you know that,dolcezza?” I spin around and smile at the man I’ve always met within my dreams but never fully saw his face until now. He’s usually always kept his face in the shadows.

“What are you doing here?” I ask, looking back to watch the sun crest over the lake. It’s my favorite place to be. It’s not far from where Bandit first found me as a baby. It’s peaceful here.

“You know I’m always here for you. Always have been. I’m waiting for you, mydolcezza,as I’ve kept waiting.”

“I don’t get what you mean by that,” I tell him,feeling his arms wrap around me. “I saw you just hours ago. You saved me.”

“You saw the man I am, but you didn’t see the wolf and man together. Here you’re with me, his wolf. You know who I am to you now, don’t you, Raine,mia dolcezza, my sweetness.”

A shiver courses down my spine, and I close my eyes, wishing I could stay right where I was forever. Nothing could hurt me here. Nothing could come between us.

“How is it you’re able to be here? I don’t understand.”

It’s confusing. For so long, I thought this man was just the man I saw in my dreams. My dream lover, if that could be believed. But I’d seen him in the moonlight in the middle of a road.

“You’re my mate, Raine, everything will work out. You just can’t give up on what fate’s granted us both. Save the man, save the wolf. Save us both. It’s what you were meant to do. It’s what the fates have written for us.”

Now, I’m more baffled than I was before. “What does that mean?”

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