Trashed & Treasured

14

"I've always seen you like a son, Cruz, and I owe you for saving my life, but I have to admit that this whole thing makes me uneasy for reasons you are already aware of. One is that you're nearly ten years older than her. I don't play when it comes to my little girl and her heart. After hearing what Cameron put her through and seeing the way she responds to you, I've come to understand that there is something between the two of you that cannot be controlled...even if that were my intention. I give you both my blessing as long as Char is behind it." He looked over at my Mom and she nodded with a growing smile. "Please believe me when I say that if you make her cry even once, cool calm Lance that you see now will not be the man you have to deal with."

"I won't hurt her. That is a promise. She single-handedly brought me back to life after I'd given up on living long ago. You can take this any way you want, but I need her," he looked down at me with warmth in his tone, "more than I've ever needed anything. My intentions are to do whatever I can to make her happy; mend her heart until there are no signs that it had ever been broken."

I could easily fall in love with this man. How do you not fall for someone so gorgeous, so sweet? I know all too well what it feels like to be unloved and unwanted and those feelings are fading away. Have been since this gorgeous piece of a man threw on a superhero cape and forced me to see that life doesn't end with Cameron.

Too caught up in those eyes, I don't notice my father walking over until he puts his hand on my shoulder and pulls me out of Dominic's arms and into his own. As a child, my father's hugs were always reassuring. With his arms around me right now while Dominic's so close, nothing can take my smile away. While we're still in our embrace, he loosens one hand extending it to my mate, "I think you'll have to convince my son a little more, but that was all I needed to hear. Welcome to the family."

***

Standing between Dominic's legs as he leans against the driver's side door of my car, I can think of a million things I'd like to do to him now that we're finally alone. Once we left the hospital we went home with Mom and Dad so I could shower and change only to find the Alpha had already been notified and was there waiting for us to run a few tests of his own which ran into the meeting to reintroduce Dominic and me to the pack. That left us with no time to even breathe in the other's direction without eyes being on us until now.

Being out in the open, I'm noticing things I never would've before. Just how many stars line the sky, the way the craters on the moon form a pattern, and most of all Dominic's scent. With no one else around to taint my senses, his scent alone is sending my body into a frenzy. I could kiss him senseless. I want to so badly but suddenly I'm a bundle of nerves which shows through the only thing I can manage to break the silence between us with; a random question.

"When's your birthday?"

He chuckles but doesn't hesitate to answer. "May 16th. Yours?"

"March 8th. You and my Dad are friends so I'm guessing you're prehistoric?"

He chuckles again placing his hand on the small of my back while he readjusts himself beneath me. "If twenty-six is what you call old, then yes, my teeth sit in a glass beside my bed at night and I rode a dinosaur to school."

His teeth are a little too white and straight to be real. I knew something had to be wrong with him like there is with everyone. He's sweet, gorgeous, and that body...

"Aww you really are an old fart, aren't you? I'll still take you. Dentures and all."

"That's good to know, because I'm joking, Baby." Suddenly his face turns into an expression of conflict. "What was it like not having a wolf?"