I don't own any of these characters, Black Dagger Brotherhood is owned by JR Ward and I'm not planning to make any money off this piece or to send the text to Ward herself.
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This starts just after Rhage has found Mary at Bella's house and said his goodbyes.
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Bella’s feet hit the stairs silently and swiftly the second the warrior closed her front door. Had he hurt Mary? No, not possible for a male that deeply bound. Bella had expected him to leave with the human, but his face told another story. He was a male in agony.
And for some reason that pissed her off. Her own experiences with males had left her decidedly pessimistic regarding the chances of ever finding something true for herself. Her own fiancé had set out to ruin her with the glymera. Granted he wasn’t her fiancé anymore at the time, but she’d obviously not identified his capacity for cruelty when she’d agreed to become his shellan. How many males were there who had the depth of feeling to love as the warrior clearly loved Mary? Not many, that was for damn sure. And how many females would kill to have even a fraction of that?
The door was open just a crack and Bella pushed it. Mary lay on her side on the bed, tears silently tracking over her face to dampen the comforter. Pity shot through Bella for a moment, but indignation kept track. How fucking noble to destroy yourself for the unwelcomed “good” of someone else? Bullshit.
“Why did you reject him?” Bella asked, keeping her tone calm.
“I had to.” Was the answer.
“Don’t you want him?” Bella walked to the window and watched as the warrior began to trudge slowly across the field, broken.
“It’s not that I don’t want him,” Mary sat up, wiping her face, disappearing any evidence of weakness. “I’m sick, Bella. Very sick. I’m going to be an absolute wreck in a few weeks. I never want to put someone else through that.”
“Shouldn’t that be his choice?” Looking back at Mary, who was studying her own hands.
“He doesn’t know what it’s like,” Mary sighed. “I took care of my mom through her entire illness. All the way to her death. It was horrible. I’d never wish that experience on another person, especially not on someone I … care about.” Her breath caught at the end there, so Bella moved in for the kill.
“So, if you could go back and do it again you’d have someone else take care of your mom?” Bella glanced out the window and saw the warrior stop. He looked up at the sky, his stadium wide shoulders slumped with pain.
“No!”
“Why not?” The warrior held his hand out, palm up. Beseeching the heavens? What was he doing? Seeking help? Hope? Good luck with that if this didn’t work.
“Because I loved her …” Mary froze. Truth was sinking in. Finally.
“What if she sent you away to spare you …” That was as far as she got before her friend went thumping down the stairs.
Bella watched out the window as the warrior reacted to the sound of Mary’s steps. Alert. Ready to attack, hoping for it probably.
Sure she felt like a skeevy voyeur watching someone else’s romantic reconciliation. Thought she should turn away. Screw that. If she couldn’t have it herself she could live vicariously.
Mary entered her line of sight and Bella realized the human wasn’t even wearing any shoes. Didn’t seem to bother her though. She made it to the warrior in a sliver of a second and launched into his arms. He caught her effortlessly and wrapped her up. Bella let out a sob accented with a laugh when Mary all but disappeared in all that leather.
After a minute or two she really did feel like a perv so she turned her back on the scene. A tear tracked its way down her cheek to her chin and dropped on her shirt.
For some reason that scarred warrior popped into her mind. Zsadist was his name. Mary had said she didn’t think he was as evil as he pretended to be, but Mary was always looking for strays. Bella had no business even thinking about him, much less thinking about him. Still, if he were open to something casual it might take the edge off her disappointment in the gender. The opposite of her childish dreams of love and mating might be just the thing and he definitely wasn’t the type to settle down. With her or anyone else. He was a hard and fast type. Just the therapy she needed.
Too bad she’d never see him again.
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