Daphne wasn’t ready to go back to Gavin’s cabin. There were too many shifters under one roof, even with Casey and Evangeline back in their own apartment. Daphne didn’t balk or run away. Instead, she went to the kitchen for a garbage bag and began picking up the spilled couch stuffing.
“Are any of your notes salvageable?” she asked while cleaning up the mess Zander had commissioned.
Stricken and probably a little confused, Ford watched her. His gaze slowly moved to the charred notebooks on the table. He didn’t move right away. Daphne prepared herself to be more forceful about making the best of this, but Ford finally flipped through the topmost notebook.
“The first chunk of pages is lost, but I can read the latter half. I don’t think they let it burn for long. Guess whoever did this didn’t want to garner too much attention by burning the house down.” He looked around. “Are you sure you want to stay here?”
“I don’t let anyone push me around,” Daphne said, trying to sound confident.
Ford chuckled. He gathered his notebooks into a pile, probably to deal with them later, then went to get the broom. The sound of metal scraping metal soon filled the air as Ford cleaned up his shattered knives.
Daphne told herself, over and over, that this was only a setback. Zander wanted to scare them. He was trying to make them as unsettled as possible so when it came time to fight, they wouldn’t be able to think straight. Daphne refused to play into his tactics. Zander would not win through trickery and fear.
Finished with the couch, she went into the bedroom to pull the sheets from the bed and shove them into the washer. One foot past the room’s threshold, a hand closed around her wrist. She let out a shriek when her world tilted.
A commotion in the kitchen was followed by a grunt. Daphne had little time to acknowledge it as she was pulled face to face with a shifter she’d trained. She bared her teeth before the shifter spun her around and twisted her arm behind her back.
She hissed in pain. The shifter apologized in the dark, his voice soft and filled with regret. Her beast slammed against the surface. It was ready to fight. The room was too small, though. If she shifted, she risked breaking down walls and exposing herself to the world.
The shifter shoved. Her shoulder wrenched and sent a lightning sharp pain through her. She gritted her teeth and walked forward, the shifter directing her.
In the kitchen, Ford towered over the now-broken table. Another of Zander’s shifters had crumpled onto it. Ford looked as though he would jump to action, but the shifter behind Daphne tightened his hold on her again. Her shoulder sang with burning pain until she could no longer hold back her grimace.
“The boss wants her returned home,” the shifter said.
In her pain, Daphne had forgotten his name. After what he’d done, he no longer deserved to be remembered by her. Maybe he did feel bad, but that would never excuse what he was doing. This man had been a friend of hers. Now, he kneeled to Zander’s cruel machinations.
“Things will get much uglier if we don’t take her back,” the shifter said.
The man at Ford’s feet groaned and rolled over. He got to his feet and put some distance between himself and Ford. Her mate scanned the room. When his gaze settled on her, she realized he would not move for fear of getting her hurt.
His concern for her warmed her heart. So few people ever put her first in their lives. She’d always been an accessory or an employee. Even her own brother had walked away from her without much care. Ford’s only concern was for her.
With a grin on her face and pain coursing through her shoulder, Daphne threw her head back. Her skull connected with the bridge of the shifter’s nose. He howled in pain and released her. She spun and brought her foot up into his groin. He crumpled as he looked up at her like she’d betrayed him when it was the other way around.
There was a shuffle behind her. She turned in time to watch Ford throw the other man out the door. The shifter Daphne had kicked in the nuts staggered to his feet and charged out the open door as well. If they believed in Zander and what he was doing, then they would have fought harder. Their abrupt retreat told her that they were doing as told only to avoid punishment.
No one really wanted to side with Zander. He ruled with power and not compassion. He only wanted to protect those who granted him power. He would keep coming for her because she allowed his clan to constantly grow in numbers. So long as the numbers gave him power, he would keep assaulting them.
Daphne sighed. Her knees trembled. Exhaustion threatened to drop her right then and there. If they let their guard down, Zander could send more. Daphne needed to sleep, though. She needed to lie down and rest.
Ford lifted the broken tabletop and hauled it out the open door. She listened to it hit the curb before he stormed back inside. He froze in the doorway, his eyes on her. His brows furrowed ever so slightly as his lips parted. Then, she watched his shoulders droop.
“This is going to be way harder than I thought,” he said.
Daphne should have asked why, but the only thing running through her mind was the need to find somewhere to collapse. Her shoulder throbbed. It might have been dislocated. Shifting would put it back in place, but they were in the middle of town. No room would be large enough to hold her dragon form, so she had to suck it up.
She spun and swayed in place before lurching back toward the bedroom. The sound of hurried footsteps caught up to her. Gentle hands braced her.
“I realize now that since you can fight back, that means you’re going to be in harm’s way a lot. I’m not prepared to lose another mate.”
She grinned. “So, you’re admitting that I’m your mate?”
He huffed and stepped away from her. “Seeing you in danger and pain…”
“I can protect myself,” she argued.
He opened a nearby closet and grabbed something from inside it. Shoving the bundle under his arm, he turned and finished ripping the sheets off the bed. “I’m not saying you can’t. I’m saying I can’t handle it. You’ve been in harm’s way twice in just as many days. If I have to…”
He didn’t need to finish that sentence. She knew how it would end.
He snapped open a fresh sheet. She caught the other side and winced when her shoulder flared with fresh pain. She must have made a sound, because Ford stood beside her before she even realized he’d moved. He hesitated, hands hovering over her like a silent request for approval. Daphne nodded.
No pain she’d ever experienced could have compared to that moment. Her eyes watered as the joint slid home. She hissed through clenched teeth. Ford’s hands left her the second they were finished, like he thought she would blame him for the pain.
He finished putting fresh sheets on the bed and pulled a blanket over top. “Sleep,” he commanded. “You deserve it. I’ll stay up and keep watch.”
Before he could leave her alone, she grabbed him by the front of his shirt. “Stop trying to serve me.”
He cocked his head. His stare made her cheeks warm. She met his confused gaze and tried to put the right words together.
“We’re a team,” she said. “You don’t have to stand watch. You don’t even have to make me dinner. Sleep with me. If anything happens in the night, we face it together.”
He seemed skeptical. She yanked him down onto the bed and then crawled up beside him to curl into his body. Her aching bones finally settled, and she let out a breath to release the tension wrapped around them. Ford’s arms were the only home she had anymore.