Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 32284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 161(@200wpm)___ 129(@250wpm)___ 108(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 32284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 161(@200wpm)___ 129(@250wpm)___ 108(@300wpm)
"Dahlia!" She calls out for me, but it's too late. The door slams closed, and I run into the woods as fast as I can.
It's daylight, so I'll be safe. Nothing will go wrong because the worst has already happened.
Chapter Eleven
Draven
"Fuck!" I roar, sweeping my hand across my desk as fury courses through my veins. Everything on top crashes to the floor, glass shattering at my feet. I never should have pushed Dahlia to contact her father. Had I known he was such a fucking asshole, I would have kept my mouth shut. But I didn't do that. I urged her to talk to him. I let him see me.
What the hell is that…thing?
Thing. Not a man worthy of his daughter. Not a man at all in his eyes. To him, I'm a mere thing. The monster I've always believed myself to be.
Except I don't believe that anymore, do I? Dahlia doesn't believe that. She sees a man, where her father sees a monster. She makes me see a man too. And by God, I am worthy of her. No one will ever love her better or adore her more than I do. I may be a seven-foot-tall freakshow, but I'm her seven-foot-tall freakshow.
That's why I'm pissed. That…fucker…hurt her. He can call me what he wants. I developed thick skin a long damn time ago. But what he can't do is say it to her. What he can't do is spew his venom and his hatred at her. My beauty is as gentle as she is fierce. She loves deeply. I've lived most of my life in this form, hidden from those who would never understand. Those who, like her father, have sharp tongues and hard hearts. She hasn't. This is her first taste of what life in this form is like. And it came at the hands of someone she loves.
The urge to hunt him down and kill him slowly is strong. I want to make him suffer. That's my instinct. Kill what hurts my mate. Destroy it so it can never do so again. No one hurts Dahlia. No one makes her cry. No one.
It's a serious fucking problem when giving in to that instinct would hurt her too.
Her father was wrong. I'm not a monster. I'm not a man, either. At least not fully. I'm something in between. Not entirely one, not fully the other. I'm just…hers.
"Draven!" Ma calls, her steps hurried as she rushes into my office. "I heard a… Oh, dear."
"I'll take care of it," I mutter, scrubbing a hand down my face. I'll clean it up later. Right now, I need to see Dahlia. I need to apologize for pressuring her to talk to that…fucker. I need to make sure she's all right. I need to make her smile and laugh again. The world won't be right until she's smiling. "Where's Dahlia?"
"That's what I was coming to tell you when I heard…that," Ma says, and I can just imagine her waving her hand in the direction of the mess at my feet. Atticus is going to be pissed when he has to design a new monitor for me. "She went running off into the woods."
"She did what?" I growl, my heart stalling in my chest. Even though it's midday, the woods are no place for her. Mountain lions aren't the only animals that roam the forest. And I'm not the only monster in Screaming Woods. There are others. They aren't all civilized.
If anything happens to her…
No. I won't allow it. I'll splinter every tree in the forest with my bare hands before I allow a single hair on her head to be harmed.
"She ran into the woods. She's terribly upset," Ma says.
She left me. My beauty…left me.
I swallow the bellow of agony, the roar of rage, refusing to voice it. Refusing to believe it. She wouldn't leave me, not like this, not after everything. She loves me that much I know for sure. Even if she is angry that I pressured her into facing her father, she wouldn't leave like this.
"Perhaps I should go after her."
"You'll do no such thing," I growl.
"Draven Asher Woodburn, don't you tell me what I'll do," Ma harrumphs.
"Ma," I say, striving for patience when every instinct screams for me to run, to chase Dahlia down and demand answers. Part of me wants to punish her for fleeing. The other wants to scoop her up and dote on her. Monster and man, always at war when it comes to her. Will it ever be different? "The last fu…the last thing I need is both of you lost in the go…in the woods or eaten by bears. You'll stay here. I'll go after her."
"You can't see!"
"It'll be dark soon."
Ma harumphs again.
"Ma, I'll be fine."
"You better be, Draven Asher Woodburn!" Her footsteps sound on the floor, her shadow moving closer. And then I feel her arms surround me in a fierce hug. "If anything happens to you, I'll kill you myself. Bring our girl home, my darling boy. She needs us as much as you need her."