TOUCH

Damon's P.O.V

She nods quickly before she stops and shakes her head. She bows her head, her hair flopping over as more sobs rake through her small frame, trembling against the bricks with a racing heart and puppy in her hands.

Thank fuck the barking had stopped, but the dog was still looking at me as if I was the one responsible for her owner's tears.

"Where are you hurt?" I ask after another moment but my mate doesn't reply. She was scared of me, a familiar feeling I knew but it stung more than it usually did.

I don't think she's scared of you in particular, something clearly happened - Theo corrects as he paces, his restraint slipping with the sadness we felt for our mate. I reel him in quick, the last thing I needed was to shift from stress.

"What can I do to help?" I ask instead, hoping this would open a door somewhere.

"Go away." She replies but it sounds more like a plea than a command. I pray that Theo was right because it sounded as if I was the problem, not someone else.

I pump a few shots of patience I didn't know I had and take a deep breath as I look at her.

"You want me to leave you in an abandoned ally while you're clearly hurt and scared?" I ask calmly instead and pat myself on the back for replying in a 'humane' manner. But the self-praise stops the moment her fear kicks into high gear, the scent of it poignant as her heart threatens to collapse.

"I-I don't know." She croaks as more tears pooled out from her eyes. Her inner turmoil surfacing as she tried to determine whether or not she could trust me.

I'm your mate. Of course, you can trust me.

I bite my tongue to stop the words from coming out, my mind screaming a reminder that she was a human. A human who knew nothing about my kind besides what was on television and wouldn't understand the concept of mates.

I curse mentally with the realization that not only was my mate a human that could easily reject me when she found out what I really was.

Goddess truly was a cold-hearted cunt.

"Would you like me to call someone?" I ask from my spot, hands fisted with an impatient need to comfort her. It was uncomfortable to experience the way the need filled me, a need I hadn't felt before other than on a smaller scale for my family. Yet now, my clearly hurt mate in front fo me, it reared up with agitation. The distance between us going against my very instincts to pull her closer and protect her.

She shakes her head again and I barely bite back my sigh.

"Would you like to go to the hospital?" I offer instead, humans went there when they were hurt right?

She seems to consider this for a moment before shaking her head again.

"Would you like me to take you home?" I ask, hoping she'd pick this one, I already knew where it was.

She doesn't answer this question and I frown slightly.

If she's this afraid right now, I think she's even more terrified about showing a stranger where she lives - Theo suggests unsurely.

"I have an idea," I say to her, my voice eager at the bulb that went off in my head. I pull my favorite knife from my belt holder and twisted it around between my fingers. "I have a knife."

Probably not the best way to start that sentence because she tried to scream again but her throat betrayed her as nothing but broken screeches came out.

"No, no. I'm giving it to you." I say quickly, crashing over my words to correct myself. She stares up in my direction through her wet eyes, arms tightly caging herself and her dog in that spot. "I'll take you home and you can hold the knife to me, if you feel threatened, you can use it."

It was a weird thing to offer and I suppose even stranger for humans, but I had no other ideas that came to mind.

She seemed unconvinced and I force myself to see it from her perspective. A stranger had shown up, offering her help but still a stranger and was now giving her a knife, trying to take her home.

Yeah, I wouldn't trust that for shit either.

My mind reels desperately for a way to ease her suspicions but coming up embarrassingly empty.

"I'm Damon," I say after a moment. Offering her a bit of personal information with the hope of it building the base for trust, though it'd be fickle now. "I live in a nearby apartment complex, The Stems."

I catch the way her eyes widen in surprise at that and force my features to stay relaxed, not wanting to give away that I'd known that she lived there too.

That'd be creepy.

"M-Me too." She fills in sounding a little more comfortable.

Humans.

"Oh, wow," I say feigning surprise. "That makes things easier."

Silence dominates the space for another minute or two before she speaks up.

"O-Okay." She stutters after a moment and I release a sigh a relief at the first step of cooperation. "Give me the knife first." She demands and I barely manage to swallow back a growl.

I remind myself that she didn't know I was giving her my favorite knife for the moment and was just scared. Yeah, she was scared.

"I'm going to come to give you the knife. No screaming on me, okay?" I warn seriously as I twist the knife to put the handle out first.

She nods shakily and I take slow, careful steps towards her until the handle meets her shaking fingers. She wraps them around it quickly and tugs the knife to her, some of the tension seeping from her shoulders with the weapon in her hands.

Progress, slow but gentle progress.

"Is that your bag on the floor over there?" I ask pointing in its direction. She pats herself widely with one of her hands, seeming to only then realize that she didn't have it. She nods sheepishly making my heart warm too much.

I push away the strange turmoil inside of me and make quick work of getting the small bag before returning to my spot, not wanting to get any closer and trigger the banshee again.

"Now, can you stand?" I ask once I'd tossed the bag over my shoulder.

"I don't know. I hurt my ankle." She says as she wipes at her eyes.

The crying had stopped but her voice was still soft and weak, I refrained myself from chalking it up to her being a human.

I was in absolutely no position to judge anyone these days. Not with the absolute shit show, I became every time I was alone for too long, which was every day now

"Can I take a look?" I ask and she immediately pulls back with a whimper at the sudden movement of her leg.

"D-Don't touch me." She barks through her fear. I could practically smell it dripping off of her in layers, far greater than when I initially found her.

"Okay. I won't touch you." I reply speedily and hope she'd believe me. But her strong recoil at the offer only made more worry weigh inside of me at the thought of someone hurting her this bad. "So you'll walk?"

She nods after a moment. I watch her set the dog on the floor, but the dog doesn't part her side. It may be a little shit to me but I was content with its loyalty to her.

She places her palms beneath herself, laying them flat on the ground as she props up her good leg. She takes a deep breath before pushing up, grunts straining through her clenched teeth as she stood with a few strained whimpers, forcing herself to stand on her good leg.

She struggles to stay balanced but leans against the wall for support. I notice how much smaller she is than me, almost as small as Peter. It didn't bother me nearly as much as I thought it would, but now wasn't the time to analyze my fucking mate.

"If you can't stand up on your own, how will you make it home?" I ask with a bit of my impatience slipping out. I curse myself for it the moment she lowers her gaze to the floor. "I don't mind carrying you." I offer instead.

"Don't touch me." She snaps, this time her voice stronger than it'd been since I found her.

"Then how the fuck do you suppose I get you home." I snap angrily.

"I don't know!" She yells back with equal frustration.

We stare at one another for a moment, but she didn't really seem to be looking at me. More like at her direction, but soon her gaze settled on my nose rather than at me. I frown, rubbing at it furiously, mentally wondering if I had something on it, but the staring doesn't shift.