Bennett - Milly Taiden Page 0,27

her shoulders.

“It’s not you that we blame,” Vance said darkly. “It’s Gray. What the fuck is he mixed up in for the house to be attacked?”

Dakota shook her head. “I don’t know. I was only told to watch over the house and keep it and Bennett safe. And…I failed.”

She swallowed her sob, but it made her body shake again. It was so hard just standing there, watching Bennett. Waiting for something, anything to happen, all the while hoping the worst never came.

Chapter Fourteen

Dakota

The morning turned into the afternoon, which faded into night. The docs, as Dakota had started to call them in her head, had taken turns watching over Bennett, but she had refused to leave his side. The docs had tried everything to get her to leave the room. They had bribed her with food, but no amount of cake or ice cream was going to lead her away from her ailing mate.

It was Stuart who had finally convinced the others that they needed to let it go. She wasn’t budging. They didn’t understand shifters, and that was just the way they did things. Dakota was appreciative of his understanding, and he suddenly became her favorite of the three docs.

That’s why she felt extremely betrayed by him when she tried to get back into bed with Bennett, and he blocked the way. She had gone to pee, but Stuart stopped her path back to her mate.

“I don’t know how shifter bodies work, but I do know that humans need food to survive. We can’t have you fainting due to starvation. You can get back in bed with him as soon as you’ve eaten something. Vance got some stuff all ready for you in the kitchen.”

Dakota narrowed her eyes at him. “Traitor,” she growled.

He nervously took a step back, but there was resolve in his eyes. His fear scented the air. It was pretty evident that he didn’t usually give orders. Dakota felt bad for him, but she also decided not to give him a hard time. He was asking her to feed herself. There were worst things. She gave him a nod, and she followed him into the kitchen.

The docs had cooked a bunch of frozen foodstuffs in the oven. The smells of meat, potatoes, and other delicious things filled her nostrils.

“I’m really mad at you for this,” she told them. She would have preferred to stay by Bennett’s side. In case he woke up or took a turn for the worse.

Corey blushed but nudged a plate loaded down by chicken wings, fries, and coleslaw in her direction. The sweet, tangy smell of the hot sauce on the chicken made her empty stomach grumble. If Dakota was honest with herself, she would admit that she was starving. She hadn’t taken notice of the gnawing pain in the pit of her stomach, too worried about Bennett to think of her own survival needs.

But now it was impossible to ignore her hunger.

With a shaking hand, she took a chicken wing and brought it to her mouth. The second her teeth sank into it, her tigress roared in appreciation. She polished off the wing, picking the bones clean with one well-placed slurp. Dakota did the same a few more times before she noticed the docs starting at her, mouths wide open in shock.

“What?” she asked, self-consciously wiping her mouth.

“Never seen anyone pick a bone clean like that. I thought it just happened in cartoons.” Corey’s words were tinged with wonder.

“The predatory animal in me likes to get every drop of nutrients.” She added a shrug before biting down on a particularly juicy drumstick.

For a few moments, Dakota and the docs ate in silence, standing around the kitchen island. It probably would have been too much to ask for them to sit around a table and have a normal meal with Bennett’s life still hanging in the balance between life and death.

“He seems to be pulling through,” Vance said as if he had read her mind.

“That’s good,” she croaked, swallowing her bite despite her suddenly dry throat. She would only believe that Bennett would be okay once he opened his eyes.

“The serum is probably working.” Vance pushed his meal around his plate, leaving most of it untouched. “You said Bennett is your mate. Is he going to feel that when he wakes up?”

Dakota didn’t know what to say or how to answer that question. She knew, down to the very core of herself, that Bennett was the man for her. But he hadn’t