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Pol picked up a stick, poking at the fire. “We wait. I have two days off that my pride expects me to be here, lying low and enjoying my camping.”
So that was what this place was; his camping site. That made sense.
“We will work together to come up with a plan. It will give you time to heal before we make any determinations.”
I nodded in agreement, skeptical that two days would do much of anything.
“I can’t walk you all the way back to my territory without help.” He let out a long sigh. “And we don’t have an ATV trail that comes out this far.”
“I can manage.” Or at least I’d try. Maybe two days would give me the strength to manage that.
“If you were able to shift, maybe.”
“I tried earlier.” A few times. All of them a fail. And part of me wondered if shifting would only make my leg harder to fix in the long run. There was much to consider. “My animal wouldn’t come forth.”
“Some more time healing, then perhaps?” He didn’t sound confident, which was fair. My body was incredibly broken, and I still wasn’t sure how I managed to get out of that situation alive.
“I think so. Though it will be gods-awful painful.”
Pol spread out the coals, letting the fire die down. “We should get some sleep. In the morning, I’ll catch us fish.”
My stomach rumbled, and I chuckled. “That sounds amazing.”
“Do you want to eat now? I have food,” he offered, and as much as I wanted it, my stomach still wasn’t so sure about things after the granola bar.
I shook my head. “Would you… I have no right to ask you this, and you can say no, of course…” Why were the words so difficult?
Pol smiled. His eyes twinkled in the firelight as if he knew the direction of the question I wasn’t able to finish. “I’d like to sleep by your side. I want to know you are there. Breathing.”
“I’d like that, too,” I said. More than anything.
Pol got up, came over to my bedding, picked up another sleeping roll, and laid it next to mine. Then he laid down with me. “Sleep, mate. Things will look better in the morning.”
Sleep, mate. Two words, and yet they meant the world to me.
The gravity of the situation weighed heavy on me, but how could it not? My best friend was seriously injured, an enforcer pack was out to arrest me for the crime, my leg wasn’t useable and wouldn’t be until it was re-broken, and my mate was risking everything to help me.
Even the presence of my mate by my side didn’t stop the rattle of pain at the unknown. How could it? There was just too much at play. If Steelwick was looking for me, that meant the Alpha of my pride was still at large—inflicting pain on other omegas. He needed to be stopped. The only part of nearly killing me that fazed him was not getting to assault my friend. A man like that wouldn’t suddenly wake up and be a good guy.
Pol gripped my hand. His touch was firm but gentle. A reassuring presence in the sea of uncertainty that plagued me.
“We will set things right,” he said. “I may not know you, mate, but I can sense what is in your heart. You care for Nathan and wouldn’t have done that to him.”
There was something about the way he said Nathan that felt off. Did he think Nathan was mine? That I was already spoken for?
“He is my friend,” I said. “He… We talked about being more if we never found our mates, but it never came to pass. Both of us wished to find our mates one day, and I think us discussing that was our way of saying we were waiting, I guess.” A ghost of a smile came over my lips. “I never expected to meet mine this way.”
“Neither did I. Fate, she works in mysterious ways.”
“That she does.”
Pol scooched closer to me, our shoulders brushing against one another. I took my arm and put it around his shoulder so that he was tucked into my side.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he said.
“Having you farther away hurts me,” I said. “It’s been… a crazy few days. I want to have you near me, if you don’t mind.”
“I don’t mind. I want it, too.”
