“Oh God, not again. Please help me. Not again,” she cried, then slammed and locked the door behind her.
“Melissa, what’s wrong?” Damian’s voice was near the door. “Come out and talk to us, baby.”
* * * *
Damian could hear her sobbing. She was trying to be quiet, but she was breaking his heart.
“Melissa, open the door, sweetheart. Why did you run, honey? Please Mel, you have nothing to be crying about. Open the door.” Luke looked just as worried as Damian felt.
When the door stayed closed to them, Damian began to get really concerned for their mate.
“What do you think that was about?” Luke asked.
“I have no idea, but we’re going to find out,” Damian replied firmly.
“Melissa, open this door right now.” Damian growled the command. He decided to take matters into his own hands when nothing happened. He didn’t want to scare her, but he needed to see her and try to understand why she was so upset. He’d heard her saying “not again” and there was a knot lodged in his gut because he had no clue what was going on.
“Melissa, if you’re near the door I want you to back away from it.”
She screamed when Damian kicked the door open and came crashing through. The door bounced against the wall but he caught it before it could move toward him again.
Damian entered the bathroom, taking in her tear-stained face, red-rimmed eyes, and pink cheeks. She had never looked more beautiful to him and from the look on Luke’s face, his brother was in agreement. Now that he could see her face, he wanted some answers. Had someone hurt her and she’d freaked out? If that was the case, whoever it was was a dead man.
There was no way he could let someone who had hurt his mate continue to walk around without being shown the error of his ways.
Melissa looked like she was embarrassed and wouldn’t meet his or Luke’s eyes. Even though she tried to hide it, he saw the tears in her eyes and he would have walked up to her and taken her into his arms if she hadn’t started speaking. He wanted to hear what she had to say without spooking her any more than she already was, so he stayed still to hear her out. It took all of his control not to go to her when the tears began rolling down her cheeks.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered, and Damian could hear the agony in her voice. “I didn’t mean to. I can’t seem to help it.” She still wouldn’t look at him or Luke, and she clutched tightly to the top of the towel she’d wrapped around her body as if it were a lifeline. Her knuckles had turned white.
“What exactly are you sorry for, Melissa?” Luke asked quietly.
When Melissa didn’t reply and kept her eyes down on the floor. Damian finally walked over to her and gently clasped her chin in his thumb and finger, and lifted her gaze to his.
“Answer the question, baby,” Damian demanded in a firm voice.
“I wet myself,” Melissa said on a broken sob. “I’ve done it once before. I didn’t think it would happen again. I thought, hoped, it was a one-time thing, but I was wrong.”
Damian couldn’t stand her unnecessary heartache anymore. Bending down, he scooped her up into his arms and carried her back into the bedroom. He sat on the side of the bed, tucking Melissa onto his lap and into the warmth of his chest.
“Melissa, I’m going to ask you a few personal questions which I want you to answer truthfully. How many times have you had sex, baby?”
Melissa closed her eyes as if trying to shut him out, but he wasn’t about to let that happen. Not now when it was so important to get to the bottom of her shame. Damian needed her to learn from the start that she could open up with them, tell them anything, and they’d help her work out her problems. But he had a feeling this situation was because some asshole had made her feel bad about her body’s normal reaction and function. He and Luke needed to reassure her that she wasn’t an anomaly or a freak, but first he needed to know if his mind was on the right track.
“Um…if you mean intercourse, I–I haven’t. If you mean heavy p–petting, twice. I–Including today. I–I’m sorry.” Melissa sobbed. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
When she cried quietly and she looked away from him and down at the floor again, and a shudder wracked her body, he couldn’t stand to see her pain. Whenever his mate was in pain then so was he, but he couldn’t let her continue to think the way she was. She had done nothing wrong and everything right.
“Ah, Mel, who told you there was something wrong with you?” Damian asked, trying to keep the fury from his voice.