Her Daughter

HD ~ Chapter Five

 All of the sudden, I slammed into a hard chest and was about to stumble back, but strong arms trapped me against the chest. My body stiffened as the man bent close to my ear. "Calm down," he whispered softly. "You're safe with me."

I pulled back slightly to find myself staring into peculiar, golden eyes. The man looked to be in his early twenties and had light brown hair. I could feel how muscular he was as he held my body trapped against his. The funny thing about him, though, was that I did feel safe with him. I could trust him.

 I heard the halt of footsteps as I assumed the red headed man stopped in front of us. Instinctively, I shrunk into the man with the golden eyes. I could feel the red head's eyes on me as he left out a short grunt. "Declan," he addressed the man hold me protectively against his chest.

 My mind registered who Declan was and I immediately tensed. Declan was the muddy brown wolf that had chased me. The one who'd brought me here. As if he sensed my unease, he ran his hands up and down against my back and whispered words to try to soothe me. "Dustin," he replied to the red head. 

 "I was going to check on her like Cole had asked me to and she ran," Dustin explained to Declan. "She was trying to escape."

 "She's still in the house, isn't she?" Declan asked him. 

Dustin sputtered a bit before finding the right words to answer him. "Well, yes, but she was running away from me. Cole sent me to check on her and she ran away."

Declan shrugged while still holding me in his arms. He gave me a light, reassuring squeeze. "Well if there was someone twice my size coming after me, I'd run away, too," he said.

"That's not what I meant, I-"

 "Just go tell Cole that she's fine and I'll be getting her something to eat," Declan said to Dustin in a dismissive manner. Dustin just bowed his head slightly before turning and walking back the way he came. 

 He released me and grabbed my hand before I could process a thought. "Off to the kitchen then," he said as he started leading me through the house. I was too stunned to say anything and just let him tug me along.

Soon enough, he led me to a big kitchen. It was your typical, modern kitchen with stainless steel appliances, an island with four chairs in the center, counter tops that lined two of the walls with a sink built in, and cabinets, that ran above the counter tops.

 Declan gestured for me to sit down at one of the chairs on the island and I did without a question as I took in the room. "I was going to make myself a sandwich for lunch," he told me causing my attention immediately snapped back to him. "But I'm not really all that hungry. I was thinking maybe you'd want the other half."

 I hadn't eaten since lunch yesterday and could feel small hunger pains jabbing at my midsection. I remembered Cole asking me if I was hungry, but I hadn't taken him up on his offer after he said he wanted to introduce me to some of his men. I didn't want to meet people that were trying to hurt my family. People like that weren't worth meeting.

Yet, looking back at Declan, I couldn't say the same about him. He didn't look like the type of guy that would want to wipe out a pack. 

"Yes, please," I murmured softly. 

He gave me a warm smile and turned to the refrigerator. "Sorry about last night by the way," he said. "I didn't mean to hurt you. You had wandered onto our turf and I was just trying to drive you away, but then you fell so I brought you here."

 "So I wasn't intended to be a prisoner, but I woke up in a cell anyway?" I asked him a bit skeptically.

 His hand reached up to rub the back of his neck as he paused from taking out different deli meats from the fridge. "That was actually Cole's idea," he said. "When I told him I found someone knocked out near the territory, he told me to put you there. He didn't know that you were an Ordain." Turning back to sandwich making, he asked me, "White or wheat?"