“Shit,” he hissed. Atlas scooted closer to her, and before he could stop himself, he enveloped her in his arms and ran his hands down her back. “It’s okay, trouble. I won’t call them.”
She wept in his arms, shaking through sobs and also trembling for reasons he didn’t know. He just held her, her tears wetting his bare chest. After a few minutes of silence, she pulled away from him, wiping her tears. She gave him a watery smile that broke his heart.
Who had hurt this woman? The second he had their name, he was going to destroy them. No one should be allowed to make his mate cry.
“Sorry,” she whispered. “I got snot on you.”
He waved her off. “It’s fine. Do you need anything?”
She hugged a pillow to her chest, and he was jealous of it. Why was hugging a pillow better than holdinghim?
“No. Sorry for waking you.”
“Do you…” He cleared his throat. Atlas didn’tdotalking. He was rusty, at best. “Do you wanna talk about it?”
She laughed through a few more tears. “No. I wouldn’t torture you with my nightmares. Not any more than waking you up in the middle of the night.”
“I was already up. I was on the hunt for a snack.”
Her eyes sparked. “Snack?” she sniffled. “I could use a snack.”
Despite himself, Atlas grinned at her.
She gasped and dropped the pillow. “Holy shit! You know how tosmile?”
He rolled his eyes and stood. “Impossible.” He walked out of the door and stopped at the doorway. “You coming or what?”
“You wanna cuff my legs together or something?”
“Trouble,” he sighed. “Come on. I’ll feed you.” He didn’t wait to see if she followed, but when the steps squeaked behind him, he grinned.
FOUR
LILLIANE
Good job, Lil. You wanted to be such a tough girl, and now look at what you’ve done. You are crying in Atlas Silvers’s arms. After the stupid, sexy man locked you in his bedroom.
Lilliane wasn’t just embarrassed. She was full-on devastated. There was another emotion pushing through, but she didn’t want to think about how the only person to ever hold her during a bad dream was Atlas. The same man who locked her in his house.
How could he do both of those things? Was he trying to confuse her? It was working. She was confused and a bit relieved if she was honest. If…when…Victor found her, she would be telling the truth when she told him that she couldn’t escape to find her way back to him.
Without meaning to be, Lilliane was a bit grateful Atlas was locking her in. He thought he was protecting his pack and every other person who lived in Silvers. Really, he was protecting her from Victor.
She should tell Atlas right away that she was only going to bring death and pain to his pack. She was selfish as ever to keep quiet, to put a bunch of people in danger because she was so scared and so weary of living with Victor breathing down her neck.
Victor was her nightmare. Even though she was locked in an alpha wolf’s house, Victor haunted her mind. Lilliane couldn’t actually remember the last time she hadn’t had a nightmare. It was silly, really. She hadn’t had them as a kid, with Valentine and Celestine looking out for her. But as a grown woman, she was plagued by them.
How long would the dreams overwhelm her? Maybe she would be okay just in time for Victor to find her.
“Come on,” Atlas said. “I’ll feed you.”
Lilliane considered ignoring him. She looked back at the bed and shook her head. There was no way she was going to sleep again tonight, not after a nightmare. It was impossible to fall back asleep. She was up for the day, even though she’d only gotten a couple of hours in before the nightmare.
A nightmare so loud and disruptive that even the wolf keeping her locked in his house had taken pity on her.
He held me.
Lilliane still couldn’t believe the gentleness of his embrace. He held her like he cared. Like he wanted to chase away the monsters in her mind. Like he would have climbed into her nightmares to make it better.
