His Arrogant Human Mate novel Chapter 46

"No, Caroline. No, it wasn't your fault at all. There wasn't anything you could have done. It was just bad timing," I insisted. "It was no one's fault except the attackers."

Her misty eyes met mine. "But you said-"

"I was telling you what you thought. You've blamed yourself this whole time and you didn't even know it," I explained. "That's what I was trying to explain to you. That your thoughts are destructive and painful, but you won't let anyone see it or help you."

She let her head fall against the glass again, her lids closing. "Everyone leaves me."

I slowly sat beside her, leaving the plate of cookies on the floor. "Come here, little one." She hesitated, but slowly twisted her body to face me. I hooked my hands under her arms and pulled her to lay on my chest. "I'm not going anywhere, okay? Even though you usually wish I would. You're it for me, Caroline, and I won't let that go."

I reached down for a cookie and held it up to her, watching as she hesitantly took it and began nibbling. "Good girl," I whispered, stroking her back. "I'm sorry it hurt you so much, sugar, but it had to be done."

Then she was reaching for another cookie. They must have been good because within a couple minutes half of them were gone. I tipped her face up to look at me, examining the details of her face. Her eyes were still red and puffy, her cheeks pink. There were small crumbs around her mouth, which made me laugh a little as I leaned in to kiss her softly.

"Please don't do that to me again," she murmured once I pulled away. At first, I thought she meant the kiss, but the fear in her eyes told me otherwise. She didn't want me to make her cry or break down like she did earlier.

"I won't, Caroline, I promise." We were quiet for a little while before I decided to tell her something I promised myself, at one time, that no one would know of. "Last time I visited, I snuck into your room."

// Flashback \\

The little runt would learn her lesson when I scared the hell out of her. She had gone from being scared to acting defiantly, which I would have to fix. All I had to do was sneak into her bedroom and shift, and wake her up. If all went well, she would wet the bed and cry all the way to her alpha, and never stand up to me again.

"I didn't do anything. I wasn't attracted to you or anything. It just happened. I had to do something." She was quiet, which surprised me. I thought she was going to be angry. "You had a picture of you and your parents on the nightstand. Tell me what happened to them."

"No, I can't. I already told you before," Caroline mumbled, the painful memories evident in her tone of voice.

"Years ago. Tell me again, all of it."

"How are things going there?" I asked Andrew. A couple days had passed since the emotional breakdown that Caroline had and her mood hadn't improved. Plus she wasn't eating very much, which was starting to concern me. I didn't want to use force or have to scare her into eating, but I would if it meant keeping her healthy.

"Things are going as well as can be expected, if not a little better. No one has been outrightly homophobic to us yet, which is a good sign," Andrew said with a laugh. "Though Alf is having trouble fitting in. He hasn't made any friends yet."