Page 55 of Silent Secrets

“I think she’s in shock.”

With a sigh, I pull her into my arms and stand. I choose to ignore the confused looks on my friends’ faces. I don’t need to explain myself to them—not that I think I can even if I wanted to.

Hadley settles her head on my chest, hand grasping my shirt, and eyes unseeing as I carry her from the room. Kai sprints ahead, I assume to let Grace know we’re coming.

I can hear Caiden’s and Marcos’s voices behind me, but I tune out what they’re saying as they follow me. Instead, I focus on the beautiful woman in my arms. Even though I don’t want her here, I can still admit that she’s gorgeous—both inside and out. But that changes nothing. It can’t.

I force my eyes away from her, jaw locked as I keep my eyes focused on where I’m walking. When I see Grace pop out of her office, I duck inside and head towards the couch. I go to set her on the couch, but her hands scramble at my chest as she lets out a whimper.

“It’s okay, princess. Nothing’s going to happen to you. I just want to sit you on the couch,” I murmur, but quickly realize that she’s not hearing my words. I can’t stop the growl that slips from my lips at how helpless and terrified she is as she tries to keep her hold on me.

“Okay, princess,” I sigh as I pull her into my chest once more. “It’s all going to be okay. I’ve got you.”

I see the looks that my friends are giving me, but I ignore them as I settle onto the couch with Hadley in my arms, cradled against my chest. Hadley calms quickly, head once more laying on my chest as she stares at the wall. I growl when Marcos opens his mouth to say something, and he snaps it shut with a frown.

I don’t know what the fuck to do for her, but I see how she’s fighting going to sleep. She looks exhausted, but I guess walking into that scene would exhaust anyone. But why is she fighting it?

“You should sleep, princess. Everything will seem better after a good night’s sleep.”

Caiden sighs from behind me. “We’ll need to find her somewhere else to sleep. She can’t stay in there tonight. Hell, she might not want to stay there ever again and I wouldn’t blame her.”

Grace hums as she settles next to me on the couch, brushing a hand over Hadley’s forehead and she once again doesn’t react to being touched. Grace frowns, shaking her head as she stands up.

“She’s in shock. I’ll give her something to knock her out. Then we’ll deal with finding her somewhere to sleep and the mess in her room.” She swipes a hand over her face. “I’ll need to assign guards just for her.”

I assume Kai told her what we’d found in her room. Which is good, because I don’t want to think about it, let alone talk about it. My eyes flicker down to Hadley again, and I hate how vulnerable she looks in my arms. What I hate even more is the desire rising inside of me to take care of her.

Gritting my teeth, I squeeze my eyes shut. I need to get my shit together. I won’t go through this again—I can’t. It’s been so long since I last let a woman inside, but maybe I need to remember what happened when I did. Maybe I need to remember all the pain and heartache so that I can stop looking at Hadley like I want her to be mine.

“Okay, Hadley. I’m just going to give you a little something to help you sleep. It won’t hurt a bit.”

Grace kneels in front of me, a needle in hand as she rubs Hadley’s arm lightly. Annoyance rushes through me as I watch her slide the needle under Hadley’s skin and push down the plunger.

Hadley’s whimper has me gritting my teeth as her eyes flutter shut just moments later. It takes everything in me to not lose my shit right now. I’m annoyed at Grace for drugging Hadley, but also at myself for giving a shit. I shouldn’t care what happens to the girl I hold in my arms. She shouldn’t even be in my arms, but I hadn’t been able to stop myself from scooping her up when I’d seen her on the floor after throwing up.

But I know what happens when you care about someone else—especially when that person can’t take care of themselves. Not that I don’t think Hadley can’t take care of herself. She’s proven over the last few days that she’s stronger than any of us expected. But I know what happens when you let yourself be vulnerable to others. I swore I would never do it again—not beyond my siblings and the brothers that I chose. But I also know that my brothers can take care of themselves. And I’ll make damn sure that I protect my younger brother and sister. They will never have to deal with the shit that I and the other guys have had to deal with while growing up, I’ll be sure of that.

“She can stay in my room.”

I glance up at Kai, knowing that he’s speaking to Grace, but he only has eyes for Hadley. It’s at that moment that I realize it’s too late for him—he’s already decided that he cares for Hadley. He’s never going to want to let her go, and I can’t protect him from the hurt that’s coming his way. Could I stop from adding to that pain? Probably, but I won’t. It’s better to end it now, before he falls any harder.

“Kai and I will watch over her,” Caiden adds when Grace opens her mouth. I’m sure that she planned to argue that it wouldn’t be appropriate to have the future queen stay in Kai’s room with just him.

Grace glances between the two of them, though their eyes are on Hadley as she sleeps against my chest. She grimaces, and I can almost follow her line of thought from here. Having two of them instead of one would cause less scandal. But also, if she knew that Caiden and Kai were in a relationship, then she’d know that the two of them together were more likely to cause a scandal than just Kai on his own. And then there’s the fact that she’s already slept with Marcos—something else that Grace doesn’t know.

It’s ridiculous that there would be a scandal to begin with. The older generations are stuck in the past. They still believe that sex outside of marriage or bonding is wrong—much like some places in the mortal realm. But it’s worse here because we live for hundreds of years and they get so stuck in their ways.

“They’ll keep her safe, Grace,” I tell her, waiting until she meets my eyes before continuing, “and she trusts them.”

“But not you?” she asks with a raised brow, and I have to hold back my laughter. She sees more than I give her credit for.

“No, not me.”

“And yet, she’s sleeping in your arms.”

I shrug as my eyes fall to Hadley once more. “She was in shock. I could have been anyone.”

“I don’t think that’s true, Hunt, but think what you want.”

I lift my head to find Marcos frowning down at me. I don’t really want to hear what he has to say—I don’t want to hear what any of them have to say.

“You’ll have guards posted outside of Kai’s room?” I ask as I stand, practically shoving Hadley into Caiden’s arm.

“Of course.”

“Good,” I cut her off, heading for the door. “I’ll see you all in the morning.”

Someone calls out behind me as I slam the door, but I don’t stop. I jog down the hallway, needing to distance myself from them—from her. I need to remember what’s at stake here, why I can’t let myself feel anything for her.

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