Only Her- ON HOLD

Chapter 52.

Noah's POV

I saw a blurred vision of my father's face staring down at me. His face was twisted into an expression of disgust.

I felt a strong arm across my throat, pinning me down and restricting my air flow. Fear filled me, suffocating me as a primal reaction swirled inside of me. A surge of power lit as if on instinct and I thrashed and fought, clawing at him to force him off. I managed to leave a bloody trail of scratches down his face and that's when I realized the hands weren't my own. They were a female's.

They were Dani's.

I heard a quiet groan from beside me and realized it was Dani. I felt her jolt in the bed, pulling me halfway out of the nightmare. I groggily looked over to her side where she'd rolled over in the middle of the night to see her labored breathing. I could hear her heart pounding loudly and getting faster by the second.

Her panic was suffocating me as if it were my own. She was dreaming of what my father did to her. And the images now continuing within my mind were unbearable to watch.

"N-no. Stop!" She muttered. "Pleas...just don't hurt my baby." She cried.

I forced down the anger and bile rising up my throat from seeing my father harm her that way. I quickly rolled over and gently shook her shoulders, pushing my voice into her mind and sending only comfort and love through the bond to wake her from what she was reliving.

Her eyes shot open and she sat straight up in the bed, hands gripping into me as if I were a lifeline.

"You're safe baby. Dani...it's ok. It's me. You're home." I said softly, trying to snap her out of it.

Silent tears streamed down her cheeks and for the first time, I allowed myself to fully feel everything she was feeling; see everything she'd been through. I'd wanted to protect her privacy. Let her tell me on her own time. And selfishly, I wanted to protect my own mind from snapping into a blazing rage, which was inevitable the moment I knew what had happened to her.

"Noah...it was..." she stammered quietly and I nodded, gently pulling her closer.

"I know baby. I saw." I whispered, stroking her hair as her muscles tensed against me.

"You saw my dream?" She said, her words barely above a whisper.

I exhaled slowly, trying to bottle the hatred surging within me for him. "I think you were reaching out for me. You linked me in your dream and when I woke, I didn't break the connection."

She exhaled shakily and leaned back to look at me, her expression one I'd never seen before. I felt shame coming from her and it made me want to hunt my father down and kill him myself for making her feel this way for something he'd done to her. Not wait for a battle that would come and hope to find him myself before someone else did. Now.

"I didn't mean to do that. I know you don't need to see...what I allowed to happen to us." She forced out the last words and I growled at them.

"Don't you say that. You couldn't stop that Dani. What happened to you was not your fault. Do you understand?" I said sternly, trying to keep my words soft. I cupped her cheek in my hand and she leaned into it instinctively. "And as for what I need or don't need to see, you don't need to worry about that. I am your partner and I am here to help you in whatever way that looks like. I can take the images you have in your mind because you survived the actual event. You survived and you kept our baby alive. And that's all that matters. I love you Dani. And nothing that has happened or will happen is going to change that." I stroked her cheek and she let more tears fall freely.