Suddenly, Arden was unbearably tired.
“Lie down.” He nudged her back against the pillows.
“I…” She dropped back, fighting to keep her eyelids open.
“Adrenaline crash,” he said.
There was a knock at the door. Eyeing her for a second, Dom touched her shoulder, then headed to answer the door. She heard him talking, then a woman’s voice. Indy.
“She’s fine,” Dom said. “Falling asleep.”
Arden let her eyes drift closed and the murmurs washed over her.
Then she heard someone moving beside the bed. When she opened her eyes, she saw Dom was back. He dimmed the lights and leaned over her.
“Sleep, bella.” A brush of lips at her hairline.
When he drew back, she reached out and grabbed his arm. “Don’t go.”
Silence. “What do you need, Arden?”
“Don’t leave me. I couldn’t bear to be alone.”
More silence, then she heard rustling. She realized he was taking off his carbon fiber armor. She heard water running in the bathroom.
A moment later, he climbed onto the bed, pulling her to his side.
She pressed her face to a chest that was now covered in a soft T-shirt. She sighed, her muscles relaxing.
For the first time in a very long time, Arden felt completely safe.
She let sleep drag her under.
Darkness clung to him like tar. Dom tried to fling it away, but it crawled over him, smothering him.
He knew he was dreaming. This nightmare was his constant companion. The black turned to blood, covering his skin, soaking his hair.
You’re nothing, Dominic. Salvatore’s voice. You’re the son of a whore. A killer. Unwanted. Nothing.
“Dom. Dom.”
He felt soft hands on his face.
Dom jerked awake. He blinked and Arden’s concerned face came into view.
For a moment, he was confused. Then he realized he was in Arden’s bed, and she was pressed against him, her slender body covered only by her underwear, and a very thin layer of dark-green silk.
Her scent—delicate, floral—washed over him. He managed to shake off the remnants of the dream.
She’d been through a tough time. And then she’d relived the attack that had taken her family. Now, he’d brought more darkness into her bed.
He sat up, throwing his legs over the edge of the bed.
“No.” She grabbed his shoulders.
“I need to go.”
“I don’t want you to go.”
He looked at her and saw the robe falling off one shoulder. Her skin was smooth, unblemished. He wanted to lick it, to slide that robe away.
No. He clenched his hands into fists. He had no right to touch her.
“I have to go. I don’t belong here. Are you all right? Do you want me to call Indy?”
Arden clutched the robe edges together at her throat. “I’m fine. But… I want you to stay.”
Those words sent emotions surging inside Dom. He wrestled with them and finally beat them down. His entire life, anything and everything he’d ever wanted had been denied to him. He was good at pushing his own needs away. Pushing his desires away.
Especially those things that he wanted to protect and take care of. “I can’t stay.”
Something flickered in her violet eyes. “You don’t want to stay. I understand.”
He reached out, his fingers touching her jaw in the lightest caress. He wanted to tell her that he wanted to stay more than anything he’d wanted in his entire life.
But he didn’t. It was easier this way. He had no right to touch her.
He dropped his hand and her gaze lowered to the bed.
Dom rose, scooped up his armor off the floor, then strode to the door. He walked out without looking back.
Back in his quarters, he robotically showered and changed. He didn’t let any thoughts penetrate. Not the smell of her, the sight of her bare shoulder, the feel of her pressed against him.
He’d just pulled on a shirt when the communicator beside his bed pinged. He touched the button. “Santora.”
“Dom, it’s Levi. The doc is just finishing up with the autopsy on the stealth raptor. Thought you might want to come take a look?”
“Si. Meet you there.”
Grateful to focus on his job, Dom headed for the infirmary. As he reached the door, it opened, and a pregnant blonde strode out. The woman lifted her head, her mass of pale hair gleaming under the lights. Liberty was General Holmes’ woman, and pregnant with their child.
Dom nodded at her.
She smiled at him. “Hello, there.”
“Liberty. I hope you’re well.”
One manicured hand dropped to her belly. “Oh, the kiddo and I are doing very well. Of course, Adam is proving to be as overprotective as a daddy as he is as a general.” She winked and continued down the hall.
When Dom stepped into the infirmary, he headed straight to the curtained-off examination rooms, and not the open area where the infirmary bunks were set up. In the first room, he saw the doc in her lab coat, bending over an autopsy table. She wore gloves up to her elbows, and they were streaked with blood. Like Liberty, Emerson was also pregnant, and the mound of her belly was just starting to show.
All these babies. Dom didn’t ever want to have kids. There was no way he would hand his DNA down to a child.
Marcus, Roth, Tane, Holmes, and Niko were all standing around the sides of the autopsy table, staring at the black raptor.
Emerson straightened, blowing a strand of straight, blonde hair out of her eyes.
“Stealth raptor is a good label for it,” she said. “From what I can tell, it can distort its shape, which makes it easy for it to hide and sneak around.”
“Fuck,” Roth, the head of Squad Nine, muttered.
“Arden said it flowed,” Dom said.
Everyone swiveled to look at him.
Emerson nodded. “Its skeletal structure is like gelatin. It seems it can harden and soften at will. So it can flatten itself, and then retake a solid form.”
The general looked unhappy, staring at the raptor body with his arms crossed over his chest. “I want a way to detect this. I don’t want these things
