Found by the Lycan King by Natalie Winter

My whole body shuts down upon hearing those words. I would have fallen to the ground had it not been for Xander who is fast and quickly wrapped his arms around me.

“Be careful,” the pain of what he said was worse than a physical blow. I've felt it now and I know how bad it can be, it is almost as bad as it is when you're not prepared for it. I've also noted the difference between how it is coming from someone who has experience fighting physically and that of newbies. Like my brothers.

If anything, being in Xander's pack has shown me alpha Jameson and my brothers aren't who I should have been scared of all along. There are real monsters in the world and they are so much worse than all three of them combined.

"Adriana," Xander's voice that surprisingly sounds worried pulls me from my thoughts, plunging me back to reality I didn't want to accept.

All my dreams, dreams I haven't even let myself acknowledge were destroyed with that single statement. Xander doesn't realize it but he just killed me again. He has been killing me since I came here, doing little things and killing off parts of me. He just murdered another one, without even knowing.

I shake my head against him, hating the way his body felt like a rock, exactly what I need right now. I could feel my whole world crumbling, the walls I've put around me falling until they become wasted dreams at my feet..

The little confidence I gathered during the past week that I started training and the words of Draken crumble until it becomes nothing and I'm back to being that little girl that is always crying at her father's door in the night, the one at the table waiting for when he would ask her how her day went the way he did with the boys, the same one that cried for a whole a day after she was ran out of the dining once she turned eleven because she didn't deserve to eat with the rest of the family. The person that was reduced to nothing but a maid.

I felt like her now and I hated it, I hated that Xander of all people was the one witnessing my breakdown. My emotions didn't care for the animosity between us and it knows nothing about being strong in front of people that wanted nothing more than to bring you down. People that have hurt us the same way our father had done, and now our mother. Whom we always gave the benefit of the doubt.

I guess, I put her on a very high pedestal because I simply couldn't believe both parents didn't deem me worthy.

"Shhh, it's alright." Xander's hand wiping my tears made me notice them. I will my tear ducts to stop, he has already seen me at my weakest. He doesn't deserve to see more.

One part of me supported that notion, to stand up and square my shoulder and pretend I was fine even though I wasn't, another different part of me was focused on how his body felt warm against mine and how he warmed me from the inside out.

"Breathe darling, please." I don't know what he is talking about. I know my vision is hazy but that isn't because I'm not breathing, or am I not breathing?

My forehead does feel damp, and my chest feels like it has been tied with strings. Weirdly so. But I am breathing, my chest is moving at an alarmingly fast rate and that would only happen when I breathe right?

I cough loudly, my eyes burning now with tears. "There, there." I feel a pressure on my chest and air is forced into my lungs. I cough again, my throat feeling like sandpaper.

"You're okay now, you're okay." Xander's voice sounded panicked, it was almost shaking. I don't know what he must have seen to warrant that reaction.

I feel the back of his fingers stroking my cheek gently, his thumb comes below my eyes, he wipes a stray tear I hadn't even noticed. I blinked a few times, his worried face coming into view. It was weird seeing him like this, looking almost humane.

"You're alright." He says more to himself than me. His hand reaches down and he hooks them under my knees before picking the both of us up from the floor.

He walks us to the bed and lowers me on it, the gown is constricting though I don't mention it. Xander pulls me off the chair and undoes the buttons, then he unzips me. I hear his breathing turn shallow and that makes the hair around my back rise.

He draws the dress down from the collar, making the white lingerie visible to his eyes. I trace his every move with my eyes, half out of fear and half because I can't help myself. His look isn't probing, it is the first time I could say he hasn't looked at me like he was picturing me naked since we first met.

His expression had been suggestive since the first time we were introduced, but today, he doesn't let his gaze linger anywhere. He only pulls the dress down my back and leaves it around my lower waist.

"Is it too tight?" he asks, his voice deeper than usual. I shake my head though I know I'm lying. "Are you sure?" I have a feeling he knows the truth but he still goes ahead and asks. That is unlike him, it is a little bit unsettling.

"I'm going to get you something else to wear." He doesn't wait for my reply before he straightens his back and walks to my closet. I'm surprised when he goes to the right door.

I know it is his house but I don't think he wastes his time checking room settings, and the setting of this one is entirely different from the others. It wasn't even as big and I found that to be the thing I liked most about it. I know he hasn't been in here since I came, not that I know of, at least.

The last thought makes a cold shiver skate down my spine.