Page 70 of His White Moonlight
Once Bennett left,I dropped my act of indifference and made all the sad faces as I checked my scrapes.They weren’t that bad, but they throbbed with every heartbeat.I knew rinsing the dirt off wouldn’t be fun.
Every move hurt something, and I silently cursed Storm.But honestly, it wasn’t all her fault.I hadn’t been paying attention.If I had, I might have heard her.Maybe not.It was hard to say because I hadn’t been focused.I’d thought I would be safe off the pack land.
As I’d expected, the water burned.So did the soap.I gritted my teeth and muttered curses under my breath as I cleaned one scrape after another.Once I was sure I’d gotten them all, I turned off the water and carefully towel-dried.
Two steps from the door, I heard Bennett say, “I’m waiting in your room.”
“Well, don’t.I need to get dressed.”
“Open the door, Wrenly.I heard you swearing.”
“You’re going to hear me swear again if you don’t leave.”
My bathroom door opened, and I glared at Bennett as he came in.I would have tried closing the door in his face, but I knew not to start a battle I couldn’t win.
“Do you mind?I’m in a towel.You could at least let me get dressed.”
He picked me up.Again.Rather than fight it, I put my hands in my lap as he started walking.
“Which ones hurt the most?”he asked.
“My palms.I put them out to catch myself as I fell.I’m lucky I didn’t break a wrist.I should have ducked and rolled; then I could have come up on my feet and broken my wrist hitting her in the face.”
“No hitting shifters.Storm will be handled.”
I snorted.“Like she was handled the last time I was home?Or the time before that?Talking does no good when neither party is listening.”
“What do you mean?”
“She’s just acknowledging the same thing you did from the beginning.”
“Which is what?”he asked, entering his room.
“That I don’t belong here.”
“You don’t belong anywhere else but here, Wrenly.”
I wasn’t sure if he was saying that because I didn’t have any blood relatives left or if he was speaking for Mom and Dad and the rest of the family.My guess was the former, which made him a dick.
He set me on the edge of his bed and took a knee in front of me as he looked at the scrapes on my legs.It was a tempting pose.
“Do you know how much I really want to push you over right now?”
“I can smell your frustration and anger.Is it all for me?”
“Most of it.Some of it is for the rest of the family, then Storm and this place.”
He dabbed salve on a scrape and then gently blew on it.
This wasn’t the first time he’d doctored me.I had a fuzzy memory of him helping me with another knee scrape when I’d been younger.After that, the tattling had started.
“Does this mean I lost my freedom to run?”I asked as he dabbed salve on the other knee.
“If I ask you to promise only to run with me, would you see it as limiting your freedom or an attempt to keep this from happening again?”He bent his head and started blowing on my knee as the salve melted into the wound.
“Had you not asked, probably the first thing.Are you saying you’d run with me to keep me safe and not to restrict me?”
“All I’ve ever wanted to do is keep you safe.”
