Page 15 of Hybrid Heroics

Part of me knew she needed to confront Alric in a space she could manipulate. It was safer to do what she was doing, but I didn’t understand why she had shut us out.

Was she hurting? Or did she expect to be hurt?

What was she hiding? Or was I overreacting about all of this?

I couldn’t decide how else to feel about any of it.

Except worried.

That was the one word that circulated my mind continuously. I couldn’t make it go away.

I wished she could have taken one of us with her so she had some backup. But then... Another part of me knew she didn’t need that either.

She didn’t need us.

She wanted us.

And that was a hell of a feeling to consider as a factor in all this mess.

I readjusted her in my arms, hoping to keep her comfortable, though I knew she wasn’t really here. Her body was warm but completely unresponsive. Her heart had last flickered over an hour ago, and had beaten, maybe twelve times total, since she went into this stasis.

She was breathing, though I wasn’t confident about calling it that. Ten minutes had gone by since her last shallow breath. But again, she was warm. That had to count for something, right?

I didn’t like that our bond was missing, because it meant I had no inkling as to what she was going through. My wolf was a snarling, panicked animal backed into a corner without the threads to his mate tethering them together.

That made me wonder what my mom had felt when my dad died. If my wolf was this unstable now, how had she managed for years without her mate? Her loss was far greater. She knew Dad wasn’t coming back.

I wasn’t in the same boat. My wolf wasn’t mourning his mate; he was throwing a fit over the closed bond, acting dramatic, though I wouldn’t say it wasn’t deserved. I could sense him on the edges of my vision, watching her as closely as I was.

We were all waiting for her to pop up, happy with herself for enacting whatever master plan she’d concocted. With Alric in her head, it was difficult to be mad about her not sharing her plans. I trusted her to make the best decisions she could, given the circumstances. I just wished she could have told us a little more about what we should be doing.

Were we looking for Alric? Trying to get here before him? Or were we only here because it was the safest place to hide her until she woke up?

I needed more direction.

But she trusted us, trusted our instincts... So whatever was here, we would find it.

One thing I had learned about Sloane was that she picked up on our strengths and weaknesses pretty quickly. If she left us to do this alone, then she knew we could handle it. I had no reservations about that.

Another thing I had learned—the one that made this relationship so easy—was that she didn’t care about my baggage, about any of the outrageous amounts of baggage this group had. Maybe she would give us a hard time on the easier stuff, or funnier stuff, but she wouldn’t judge us on it. She cared when it bothered us, when it haunted us. She didn’t push.

She wouldn’t throw my parents’ choices in my face, and I didn’t have to sacrifice spending time with my brother or enjoying hobbies outside of things we could do together. It was ridiculous to think that way, but I’d had relationships where I sacrificed the things I loved to keep my partner happy.

Now? It was a nonissue. She wouldn’t ask me to choose between seeing my brother or spending every waking moment with her.

Sloane wasn’t jealous of him or the adventures we might go on. She knew that I’d had a life before I met her. If anything, she would encourage me to do more than I had already done. She was like that with all of us.

Because the third thing I had truly learned about Sloane was that family was important to her, even if she didn’t like them.

We were hers now, and that meant our families were just as important. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that if Bay needed me, she would be right by my side. The guys and I had always stuck together like that. Having Sloane in our lives hadn’t changed that aspect of our group.

She had added to it.

Made the threats more threatening… Made the support more supportive.

I knew part of this was because of her past. Her baggage. And some of that was absolutely insane, yet she had survived it, even thrived despite it.

But I didn’t thrive in chaos without a medium, a cushion to distract me. A commercial kitchen was loud and hectic; however, cooking kept me centered and focused my attention on manageable tasks.