My eyes cut across the open space to the living room without meaning to. Cliff is still on the couch. Adam tucked into his side, and Perrin's feet are propped up on the coffee table. The low murmur of the TV drifting through.
They're all acting normal.
So unbearably normal.
"I don't—" My voice comes out soft and far away, like it belongs to someone else. I clear my throat and try again. "I don't really know how to answer that."
Raff waits, his gray eyes watching me.
And the water keeps running.
And the TV keeps humming.
"It's just—" I swallow hard against the tightness climbing my throat. "It's been a really long time since anyone asked me that."
The silence that follows is soft.
I blink at the sink. Once. Twice. But my eyes are already burning, and there's nothing I can do to stop it. So I stand there and let them fill with tears, hoping the low light in the kitchen will hide it.
“Omega,” Raff whispers and I look up, unable to stop myself.
And that's mymistake.
The tall alpha is looking at me with the softest expression I've ever seen on a man his size. All that height and ink and dominant presence, and his gray eyes are so genuinely, quietly sad that it does me in completely.
My nose starts to run and my chin wobbles.
I press my lips together hard, trying to stop it, but it’s too late.
"Hey," Raff whispers so quietly as he opens his arms. "Come here, sweetheart."
I step into them without thinking, and his arms instantly close around me. He's so warm and solid as I press my face against his chest and cry. At first, it's a few, useless tears, but then my shoulders start shaking with the effort of trying to keep from making any noise, and I let go, letting the silent tears fall.
Raff's hand moves slowly up and down my back. He doesn't say anything. He holds me as I press closer to his chest, trying to make myself as small and quiet as possible.
"It's okay," he whispers against my hair. "I've got you."
And then Cliff finds me through the bond.
It's not words or even a conscious push…I don't think.
It feels more like a tide coming in. A slow, deliberate wash of warmth that moves through me from the inside out, like he's trying to hold me from inside.
I press my eyes shut.
Another wave rolls through, quieter than the first. Softer. And underneath it something that feels so much like “you're safe”that my throat tightens all over again for an entirely different reason.
I breathe in slowly.
Then out.
Then in again, and this time my body doesn't shake.
"I'm sorry," I whisper as I pull back from Raff's chest and wipe my face with the back of my hand.
"Don't," he says simply as he reaches out and tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. His eyes move over my face, his expression so soft it makes it hard to look directly at him. "Sleep in my room tonight,” he says suddenly.
I go still. "What?"
