28. Hayden
Four sets of angry eyes looked back at me. I was sure Cáel’s were angry, too. I just couldn’t see them because he hadn’t let me go since my nightmare. Even now, I was cradled in his lap on my bed while the rest of the guys paced my bedroom.
“One more time,” Cillian ordered.
I let out a shaky breath. “The men that came that night. They spoke a different language. But it sounds like what you guys sometimes speak.”
“Gaelic,” Maddox offered, his voice the mask of calm.
I nodded. “The main man kept asking where she was, but he used another word, too. In that language. Bonna-free-en-sa?”
The guys shared a look.
“Bana-phrionnsa?” Maddox asked.
I nodded.
Knox scrubbed a hand over his cheek. “It’s a term of endearment a lot of men use.” He glanced at me. “Could whoever it was have been Hayden’s birth father or an uncle? Even a grandfather?”
My stomach churned at the suggestion. Could my mother have been running from an abusive relationship or abusive family and that was why she was killed? I shivered, and Cáel gripped me harder.
Knox saw the action and instantly moved to the bed, kicking off his shoes and climbing on top of the mattress. He took my legs, laying them over his lap and framing my face in his hands. “Whatever it is, we’re going to keep you safe.”
“It sounded like him,” I said softly. “It sounded like Dexter.”
Maddox cleared his throat. “It’s completely natural that your subconscious would give the attacker Dexter’s voice.”
I frowned at Maddox, but he kept going.
“Your brain is reprocessing trauma from your past in a new light now that you know you’re a shifter. Compound that with Dexter’s threats tonight and you get a nightmare like the one you had.”
I shivered again at the memory of it. The nightmare wasn’t exactly a true memory. I heard the voices as they’d been all those years ago, but then one of them found me in the attic and pulled me down. And it was Dexter who was looming over me.
I bit my bottom lip, worrying it between my teeth. “Maybe.”
But the more that I thought about it, the more I could hear the similarities in the tones.
“Many dragons come from Irish ancestry and speak Gaelic,” Knox explained. “It’s not uncommon for our kind to have those roots.”
“Either way, we’re going to be looking into who hurt your parents,” Cillian promised.
I swallowed hard. “Thank you.”
He jerked his head in a nod as a look of longing swept over his face. “We’ll start on it tonight.”
It felt like it had been ages since Cillian had held me, and maybe that was what the look of longing was now. It was as if I could never get enough touch from any of them, my body craving it more and more. I was guessing it had something to do with the mate bond. Even though we hadn’t cemented it with those bites, I could feel it growing.
“Do you need me?” Knox asked. “I was going to stay up here.”
Cillian shook his head. “You and Cáel stay with Hayden.”
My body relaxed into Cáel at that. It might’ve made me a wimp, but I didn’t want to be alone.
Cillian’s gaze locked with me, those irises going from green to black. “I’m sorry Dexter scared you tonight. He won’t get the chance to do it again.”
Fury made Cillian’s voice vibrate with each word.
“I’m okay,” I promised.
“You’re not,” he gritted out. “But you will be.”
With that, he stormed out of the room.
Maddox gave me one last look and then followed after him. Easton didn’t look at me at all.
I burrowed into Cáel’s chest as Knox massaged one of my feet. I didn’t have the energy to try to decipher those two. I was so tired my bones ached.
Knox’s thumbs dug into the arch of my foot. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here when you had the nightmare. I shouldn’t have left you.”
“It’s not your fault. I’m going to have to be alone now and then.”
Cáel grunted in disagreement.
I pinched his side. “If you try to come to the bathroom with me, we’re going to have problems, mister.”
Knox chuckled at that. “He might try.”
Cáel grumbled something indiscernible under his breath.
Knox’s green-gold gaze lifted to mine. “No sleeping alone for a while, though. That okay with you?”
“Yeah,” I whispered. I never felt safer than when one of them was surrounding me as I slept. Even better if it was more than one. No nightmares would reach me then.
Càit a bheil a’ bhana-phrionnsa??
The deep tenor rang out in my head, casting a fresh tremor through me and finally giving voice to my fear. “What if it was Dexter who killed my parents? What if he was looking for me?”
Knox’s ministrations stilled, and Cáel gripped me tighter. He let out that rumbling growl in my ear. “Then I’ll end him. And I won’t spare him an ounce of pain when I do.”