Who Do You Love - Dean Ambrose

Chapter 16: Where You Lead

In the months since my first entrance with The Shield, I had begun to get used to coming in through the crowd. I mean, don't get me wrong, it wasn't my favorite thing to do – what with the leering and the cat-calling and attempted groping and stuff – but the guys were always good at totally surrounding me and Dean made a point of keeping hold of my hand. As scary as it was I always felt protected –

Which I needed tonight more than ever before.

Five months earlier Bray Wyatt had kidnapped me and kept me handcuffed to a crappy motel bed. Granted it had only been for twenty-four hours, but each one of those had been the longest of my life and although he had been warned since then to keep his hands off me, just the prospect of his proximity was almost more than I could bear. There was something unnatural and almost animalistic about him, like he worked on base instinct instead of societal norms. Nor did it help that he had his own followers, who took the form of two gigantic lackeys – called Harper and Rowan – who hung off his every word. Together the three of them proudly stalked the corridors liked the big defrosted Neanderthals they were. In short, they didn't inspire a very reassuring presence and at just the mere thought of them my knees began to knock. Feeling the shudder, Dean bent in towards me and squeezed my hand a little,

"Hey, you alright?"

"Uh huh," I whispered mildly as in front of us Seth shouldered a path through the crowd. A couple of children reached out to stroke him, but knowing better, the adults stayed well back. Touching a Shield guy was like stroking a tiger. You were liable to get your head ripped clean off.

"Bullshit, you're terrified," Dean growled darkly, "I fuckin' knew this was a crazy idea."

"I'll be okay."

"Yeah? Well you'd better be. Otherwise I'm having your stepmother's head on a plate."

As Seth performed a swan dive over the barricade and landed perfectly with a somersault on the floor, Dean hopped after him and then swung round to get me, taking my weight as Roman lifted me up. Over at the announce desk, my commentary colleagues were staring across at me and chattering fit to burst. I couldn't make out what they were saying above the crowd noise – not to mention The Shield's heavy bass – but I could only imagine the topic of conversation and as their eyes flickered over, I realized it was me.

Oh great.

What the hell was I even meant to say to them? What was I meant to say to the people watching at home? It was all very well wanting me to be a mouthpiece, but that didn't mean it would actually work. I was still just a novice at wrestling. Most of the time I still flinched and whispered ouch. How I was supposed to add something meaningful was totally beyond me. What did Vince want? My head was spinning and my body was trembling and so as fingers brushed across me I visibly jumped,

"Huh – ?"

"Easy Princess," Dean growled back smoothly and I spun around quickly towards his raised brows, "He's not gettin' near you, okay? I won't let him. Tonight I'm gonna bury Bray Wyatt for good."

With another gentle tap, he steered me towards commentary and then hovered unhappily as JBL pulled back my seat. I fumbled briefly and got tangled in the headset but then took a breath and slotted it in place. Instantly the crowd noise was all but drowned out again and it felt oddly peaceful.