At Dawn, in the Forest

Dawn wasn’t all right. She wasn’t okay. She wasn’t fine.

Dawn was stuck in her room. The old tv there had a DVD player and Sarah had found some old documentaries that Dawn could watch, and she did so religiously. One after the other she replayed. It became her escape. Dawn didn’t know how much she missed her family, but her body did. Dawn didn’t know she couldn’t cope with the loss of her case, her parents leave, and she had no path to walk on, no clue what to do with her life. But once again her body did. She was stuck on her bed. Barely was she able to leave the room.

Dawn missed her father. The comfort he could give with merely his presence, she missed the most.

But her coping mechanism was a great concern for many. Everybody thought Dawn would wither away. They were debating on sending her back to her family. At the same time, the doctors were afraid a big change in environment might cause bigger problems. Nobody knew what to do.

Aiden was at a loss too. He wasn’t prepared for a mate who had to go through so many hardships in her life. Aiden wanted to know what to say, what to give, what to do for Dawn, but he didn’t.

Today was another day he had barely seen Dawn and when he was done with his tasks he checked up on her. Aiden could hear the familiar voice and words echoing in the hallway that was connected to her room. He carefully knocked on the doorframe as he entered, making his presence known. Dawn didn’t pay him attention, however, as she kept playing with her hair while her eyes were set on the screen.

Aiden moved smoothly through the room to prevent scaring his mate. Cautiously, he sat down on the bed next to her. “Dawn?” He whispered. “Dawn, can you please put it on pause?”

Dawn didn’t want to listen. She wanted to be left alone. But it was Aiden and Aiden had a special place in her heart. She couldn’t understand as to why that was, nevertheless, the feeling was there. Dawn searched for the remote control and put her beloved documentary on pause. She turned to him in a somewhat uncomfortable way and carefully asked, “What?”

Dawn was annoyed but was afraid to show her annoyance. She kept her voice light and leveled and tried to keep her face neutral.

“We- Have you eaten anything today?”

Dawn tilted her head and had to search in her mind if she had. “No,” She finally said shaking her head.

“Well, it’s almost seven in the evening. Don’t you think you should have had some?” Aiden asked, not trying to patronize her.

Dawn thought for a second. “No,” She finally answered.

Aiden knew this wouldn’t be the best battle to fight, so he directed his tactic to get Dawn out of this room. “How about your medicine? Did you take those?”

Dawn shook her head. “Why not?” Aiden continued. She shrugged her shoulders. “Dawn, you need those medicine. Just like you need to eat, to move around for certain periods of the day, and need to rest, and sleeping here is not resting.”

“Did I do something wrong?” She asked hesitantly. Dawn thought she was out of everyone’s way by staying in that room.

And right there Aiden was once again reminded that Dawn wasn’t any regular woman. He wished Sarah would be there, she knew how to read Dawn better than he did. A fact that he wasn’t too proud of. As Dawn’s mate, he wanted to be the one to know how to say everything correctly without hurting her feelings. He finally opted with, “No, not intentionally.”

A silence enveloped them.

Dawn didn’t understand what she did wrong and Aiden didn’t want to come across as the others had, pushing her to her boundaries. “Dawn…” Aiden didn’t know what to say or do, until suddenly an idea popped up in his head. “Dawn, how about you come with me? I have a surprise for you.”

“A surprise?” She whispered.

“Yes, but before I can take you to the surprise maybe you need to get some clean clothes on,” Aiden suggested apologetically.

Within thirty minutes Dawn was somewhat cleaned up and freshly clothed. She followed Aiden obediently even though the small library was calling out to her. She followed the Beta out of the packhouse and into the woods, a path she hadn’t taken before. It led to a small communal area where a couple of houses were built. Aiden walked to one close to the edge of the woods. It was two stories high and rather slim in size.

Dawn saw how Aiden fished a set of keys out of his pockets and opened the front door. Dawn tilted her head in confusion as to why she was brought here and what this place was. She was hoping for some kind of explanation, but Aiden only winked at her when he let her in.

The first thing she noticed was that most of the interior, like the exterior of the house, was made out of wood. The next thing was the amount of plants and flowers inside of the home. Everywhere you looked you could see them, this brought some ease to her. In her head, she started to name every one of them to calm her nerves when she heard people moving around somewhere in the house.

Aiden carefully put his hand on Dawn’s lower back and guided her towards the tiny kitchen. An older woman was hanging above a pan on the stove, busy cooking dinner. Aiden cleared his throat upon entering. The older woman immediately turned around and smiled when she laid eyes on her son.

“Aiden, how lovely of you- Well, who do we have here?” The older woman wiped her hands off on a rag and walked towards the couple. She smiled kindly to Dawn. “T-The name is Dawn, ma’am,” The young woman answered politely.

“Oh, no need to call me ma’am, you can call me Elise. But it is always good to see young people still have manners,” Elise joked where Aiden immediately shot a pointed look at her.

“What?” She asked. “I am only joking, honey.” She turned around again to busy herself again over the pan on the stove as she asked, “Are you both staying for dinner? Your father would like that, he missed you.”

“Yes, I thought it would be nice to spend time together again.”

“How nice! Could you be a dear then and call your old man to dinner, he is busy chopping wood in the backyard.”

Aiden nodded his head as he responded, “Yes, sure.” And with that, he left Dawn in the care of Elise.

When Elise noticed Aiden had left the poor woman alone she turned around again and signaled her to sit down at the dinner table in the kitchen. “Please, sit down. Would you like something to drink?”

Dawn shook her head as she sat down on the squeaking chair. “Are you sure? Yesterday I made a killer lemonade syrup. Just-just try, okay? I need another one’s opinion on the taste. And I don’t trust my mate, he thinks everything can be made sweeter even though that’s not what will make anything better.”

Dawn was amazed by the mother of Aiden. She was nothing like her own mother, the Alpha female, or Dr. Klein. She could feel the warmth of Elise several feet away from her. It was both frightening and shocking she was being cared for so cheerfully like Elise did.

After her first sip of the lemonade, she was again amazed. “Is it good? Your face says it all,” Elise laughed. Dawn just nodded her head. Just then something sizzled on the stove and Elise cursed quietly and quickly made her way to the stove again.

As Dawn observed this kind and warm woman, she wondered where Aiden could be. Elise didn’t seem threatening at all, but still, Aiden was her rock and she needed it in this new environment.

“I know this is not very welcoming of me, but could you be a dear and help set the table? The plates are up there in that cabinet and the cutlery is in that drawer.”

Dawn noticed that Elise didn’t wait for an answer and went back to cooking again. Hesitantly she stood up and took the plates and cutlery out on the table and set them up. Suddenly Dawn felt this calm presence around her. Doing something this mundane and unordinary felt like back when she was a teenager and complained about helping around in the house. Back to the time when she wasn’t tormented by those doctors and everything was normal.