Page 24 of Boundary

Dropping my phone, I huddled against the side of my bed. My instinct was to apply pressure to the bleeding, but if I'd broken a rib, I didn't want to risk displacing it.

"Vera?" Dale's voice called from the back door. "Shit, it's locked. Vera?"

Drawing a breath to call back, pain seared through my side, and I cried out in pain instead.

"Vera!" Dale sounded frantic. "Give those to me."

A moment later, Dale was running into my room, his pants on and sans shirt. Bob and Jeremy behind him. "What happened?"

Lifting my singlet, I watched them all gasp in surprised horror. "He knows I survived. I dream real. In my dream, he found me and beat me with his belt."

Forehead drawing down, Bob tilted his head. "Are you sure you didn't fall?"

Dale held up his hand. "Vera, does he know where you are?"

"He'd be here if he did."

Accepting my explanation without hesitation, Dale nodded. "He'll be looking for you now." Dale looked to Jeremy. "Call Jonathan and get him to come over."

Stepping out of the room, Jeremy pulled out his phone and started talking.

Bob frowned. "You believe Malcolm did that?"

"Lycan females have a history of the goddess walking their dreams. Sometimes what she shows them comes back to the waking world with them."

"I always thought I must have dream walked, or he drugged me before hurting me, so I thought I was dreaming. But the first time I woke injured was the week before Malcolm became alpha. I didn't tell anyone because who would believe that insanity?"

Bob paled. "So, Malcolm beats her in her dream, she suffers it for real?"

Dale nodded and came to my side. He lifted my singlet and examined the wound. "You said he used a belt? Do you think he broke your rib?" I whimpered. "Okay, our doctor is on the way, Vera."

Sobbing into my bedspread, I gripped it in my fist. "How did this happen? I was so careful covering my tracks."

Putting his arm around me, Dale was careful not to put pressure on my injury. "I don't know." Holding me, Dale repositioned my face to his chest. Crying into his shoulder, my breath hitched on the spikes of pain from my ribs.

The doctor came an hour later. Jeremy letting him in. "Sorry, I was at work when you called. What happened?" Jeremy filled him in, then the doctor came to sit by me as Dale extracted himself.

"I'm Jonathan, the pack doctor, can I have a look?" When I nodded, he lifted my top to examine me.

Inhaling his scent of earth and musk, I exhaled and cringed. "You're pack too?"

"I am." Feeling around my injury, Jonathan concurred the rib was likely fractured. Turning his head to look at Dale, the doctor raised a brow. "This is your mate, right?" Dale nodded. "And she's full-blooded?"

"Can you not smell her?" Bob asked, exasperated.

Jonathan tapped his nose. "I was dealing with a blue bloater when you called. All I'm going to be smelling for a few days is a dead, drowned guy."

"She's full Lycan," Dale confirmed.

"Well, that's easier. Just bind with her, and she'll heal overnight."

Jaw tense, Dale gritted his teeth. "I won't do it without her permission."

Jonathan seemed lost. "What do you mean? She's your mate, protocol requires you to mark her and bind your life to hers. As a full blood female, you should have done it on the first meeting, since they are all the more precious."

Glancing up to meet Dale's eyes, I noted the rigidness of his posture, almost as if he was the one in pain. This is what he meant by protocols, and by not recognizing him. "It's okay."

"It's not okay, Vera. Once I mark you, bind with you, that will marry us. You aren't ready for that yet."

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