She shook her head, clinging harder. /Nothing/ was okay. She didn’t even know if she was dreaming or not. Probably — Derek would never let her this close in the waking world. She was going to have to leave the one place that seemed to offer any safety, go back out into fear and danger.
She didn’t even realise how much of her fear and heartache she was broadcasting for him to feel. She hunched her shoulders up around her ears and started to cry, silent and ragged.
Derek furrowed his brows together as he didn’t know what to do. He was in over his head and not good with this sort of thing. He quickly pulled her out of the hunched position she was in and forced her to rest against his chest. He cradled her small frame into his larger one. “Shh, you need to relax. Nothing will get you. Not while I’m around. I promised, remember?”
She tried to fight against his hold, the same way she tried to fight against knowing his sincerity, but both were too strong to resist. Exhausted and miserable, she let him cradle her, and lulled by his warmth and words drifted back to sleep.