Dawn

5

Hayden

I was on a cloud.

I was on a cloud, floating and drifting, feeling like air itself. My head was light and fuzzy, my heart was pounding, and my skin was warm. Dawn was asleep on my lap.

We had curled up on the sofa downstairs, turning off all the lights and bundling blankets on our laps. Dawn had checked on Sydney quickly on the way down, finding Ash building a fort for her sister. I had laughed at Ash's behaviour; since he discovered that Sydney was his mate, he felt inclined to give her anything she wanted. I couldn't blame him.

Downstairs, Dawn had been insisting on watching Twilight, claiming that she found Taylor Lautner immensely attractive. I had to rein in my wolf before he attacked the DVD, growling under my breath. So we settled on Van Helsing— ironic, really.

After about forty-five minutes, I'd noticed my mate yawning, with her eyelids occasionally drifting shut sleepily. I didn't move, driven crazy by the thought of Dawn sleeping on my shoulder, my hands in her hair, her nose on my neck. I waited patiently, trying to focus on the movie but finding it impossible with the soft breathing of the angel beside me posing as a distraction.

And finally, adorably, she fell asleep.

It was odd, I hadn't moved or touched her, for fear of waking her up, when she started to mumble under her breath. At first I thought it was my imagination, but then she got louder. I couldn't make out what she was saying— not even with my advanced hearing —but every time a murmur escaped her lips she would rub her cheek on my shoulder, trying to get impossibly closer to me.

I was over the moon. I thought that having her face buried in my neck was good enough, when suddenly her hands ghosted over my chest and wrapped around my waist. Her lips pressed against my collarbone as she pushed her face further into my flesh, and her legs draped over mine. She was curled up in my lap.

The movie ended; Dawn was still asleep. I wasn't going to move her. I'd give my right arm to have stayed in that position forever.

Mum shuffled in a few times, and when she noticed Dawn cuddled up on my lap, she would grin and dance around silently. Mum was a little excitable.

I was really enjoying myself, actually, playing with her dark brown hair, watching her chest fall and rise, when a loud ringing made us both jump. Dawn's eyes flew open and, shocked, she scuttled away from me as quick as she could, a fire raging in her cheeks.

"I'm so sorry," she said, shielding her face, "I can't believe I did that— I never do that, I'm so sorry!"

I chuckled and pushed her chin up to face me, "It's okay. You don't need to be embarrassed. You were sleeping."

Despite the darkness of the room, I could still tell when her face bloomed red again. The ringing that had woken her up was still incessantly playing, and she scrambled to locate her phone. When she had, she held it up to her ear and asked, "Hello?"

"Oh yeah, she had a great time. I'm, uh, picking her up now. I'll be home soon. Yeah, see you in a minute."

She ended the call and jumped up from the sofa, wringing her hands together. "I have to go. My parents are back and I should be taking Sid home now," she explained.

My face fell but I quickly covered it up and made my way over to the entrance of the living room, shouting, "Ash!" up the stairs. Soon Ash and Sydney came wandering downstairs, wondering what I wanted.

"Sydney has to go home now," I told my brother.

His face crumpled. "But why?"

"Her parents are home and they're wondering where she is, Ash."