AllFreeNovel
Share Us
ChapterThirty-Three
SUNDAY
Iwas going stir crazy in this cabin. The raging storm, combined with the tension of knowing what I’d done, how I’d destroyed the one thing hiding us from our enemies, was a heavy burden that never seemed to let up.
The one silver lining was that the storm seemed to be clearing. It was still too wet and muddy for me to wander off without Caleb. I had no intention of reenacting the old “help, I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up” commercials. But at least I could stand in the entryway without having the door slammed shut on my metaphorical tail. The wind had been so strong last night that a window shattered in the living room. Now it was boarded up, keeping the daylight out.
Closing my eyes, I tipped my head back and breathed in the salty air. For a place that started off as my prison, it sure was beautiful here. Taking another deep breath, I drew in the scent of pine, snow, and... citrus. If I didn’t know better, I’d say I was smelling my mates, but that was only wishful thinking. Just because the cloak had been destroyed didn’t mean they were going to suddenly show up. I mean, I was still carrying on full conversations with them in my head. Smelling them was only the next stop on the crazy train. Hallucinations, here we come.
But I swore I felt something pulling me, some invisible thread tugging at my heart. It made tears spring to my eyes, and a sob caught in my throat. Fuck, how could my heart break all over again? I thought it had been shattered already.
“Sunshine?” Kingston’s broken voice hit me hard, making my knees weak with the disbelieving anguish in that one word.
“Good grief, get it together, Sunday.” Even as I admonished myself, my eyes scanned the horizon. And when my hopeful gaze landed on three familiar shapes running my way, I went down like a rock.
Noah’s arms were around me before I hit the ground, his lips at my ear, mate bond telegraphing his relief straight to me. “I’ve got you, dove. It’s okay.”
I pressed a shaky palm to his cheek, feeling light-headed as I sank into him. “Are you really here?”
He feathered kisses over my face. “We’re really here. We came for you.”
I blinked away tears only to have my eyes immediately well with more. Twisting, I blindly reached for Kingston, fisting his shirt and pulling him to me. “Alek, get your ass over here.”
Kingston wrapped me in his embrace, his mouth claiming mine in a sweet and tender kiss, the tremor in his lower lip sending a knife through me. “Fuck, baby. I missed you.”
Then my Viking reached down and scooped me into his arms, taking me away from the others but still staying close. “I was afraid I’d never hold you again, Kærasta,” he whispered before nuzzling his face into my neck.
I sobbed, the dam breaking free and letting loose the weeks of panic and grief I’d been trying to hide. They were here. All four of them. We were finally all together.
The moment should have felt perfect. It was the one thing my heart had secretly wished for since I’d first met each of them. But my stupid traitor of a brain wouldn’t shut up.
They were here, but things were far from resolved between us.
Squirming, I silently asked for Alek to release me. But of course, the big lug wouldn’t. He pretended he didn't notice the cues until I finally demanded. “Put me down.”
His lips brushed my jaw as he took a deep breath, inhaling me, his beard tickling the tender skin just beneath my ear. “I never want to stop touching you. Not after being apart.”
“Well, too bad. I’m not a child. Stop holding me like one.”
“No.”
I narrowed my eyes but couldn’t maintain any sort of serious expression. I was too damn happy to see them. “How are we supposed to have a serious conversation if I’m not even standing on my own two feet?”
“Trust me, dove. I think we all know just how serious you are.”
My gaze dipped at the soft censure in his voice, but he glanced at Alek and offered a slight tilt of his head. My Viking begrudgingly set me on my feet, but his palm remained on my lower back, massaging tense muscles. I’m not gonna lie; it felt amazing.
“How could you just leave us like that, Sunshine?”
The raw pain in Kingston’s voice nearly gutted me. I had to stay on the defensive, or I would never make it through this conversation unscathed.
“Technically, I was kidnapped.”
The air around us crackled with tension. If I had been looking, I know I would have seen the promise of retribution blazing in their eyes. Caleb had a reckoning coming. I hoped he was ready for it. But Caleb wasn’t here. I was. So for now, I was the one on the witness stand answering for my perceived crimes.
“You took your bag. You were leaving either way,” Noah pointed out. “You had Moira cloak your scent from us.”
So I guess we were doing this here, then. Why didIfeel guilty? I was running from them for a reason. The kidnapping notwithstanding, I would have left to save my baby no matter what.
