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“How long are we going to stay here?” he asked, his voice soft and almost inaudible.
I climbed onto the bed beside him and held out my arms, and he folded himself against me. “I don’t know, honey. But we’re here tonight, and we’re safe, and I’ll be right here when you wake up in the morning.” I kissed the top of his head.
It wasn’t a lot, but it was all I could promise. I couldn’t tell him that he was safe. I could only tell him that we were safe for tonight.
I pulled out the first book, only to spy a familiar cover, and my heart almost stopped.
Brennan and I had been wandering around the city one day and we’d gone into a bookstore. There had been a display of picture books, and Brennan had tapped a copy ofThe Gruffalo.“That was my favorite when I was a kid. My mom used to read it to me,” he’d said.
After Dylan was born, I’d bought him a copy and read it through tears that blurred the cute little illustrations. I couldn’t help imagining Brennan holding our infant son on his chest, stopping to kiss his sweet-smelling newborn head. I imagined him reading to Dylan every year as he grew into a quiet toddler and then into a sturdy, tenderhearted preschooler.
I read him the books and then turned off the light, and he nestled down in bed, fitting his little body tightly to mine. I closed my eyes. Wrapped in the cool crisp sheets, my body relaxed in a way it hadn’t in years. I didn’t have to make sure I stayed awake, because Nathan wasn’t going to rage at me if I fell asleep with Dylan.
Of course, I couldn’t imagine there was any way I’d fall asleep in this strange house when I still had no idea what would happen. Dylan didn’t need to worry about what would come in the morning, but there was no way I could avoid it.
His breathing relaxed into soft, even sounds, and I marveled at the fact he could fall asleep here. But then, if I shifted, he shifted against me, searching for me in his sleep. I was his comfort, no matter where we were. And he was my comfort too in a way, even though protecting him felt overwhelming.
I wondered if my mom had ever held me like this, nuzzling her chin on the top of my head. I didn’t remember it. But then, kids forgot so much—fortunately. Dylan was young enough that childhood amnesia should set in to erase all of these memories from his conscious mind. Though I worried his body would carry the trauma.
My mom used to say, someday, I would understand everything she did when I became a parent myself. But I felt the opposite. I would do anything for Dylan. I didn’t understand the distance my mom had kept between us from the time I was a child. She had always seemed annoyed by me, always impatient, always pushing me away.
I lay there for a long time but couldn’t fall asleep. Finally, I shifted away from him carefully until I could roll off the mattress. His little arm reached across the bed, but then he fell silent again, his breathing soft and even. For a second, I just stared at him, taking in his round baby cheeks and the way his face looked so sweet and relaxed in sleep.
The love that welled up in my chest when I looked at him was fierce and unstoppable. I would do anything to protect him.
I stepped out onto the balcony and was surprised to see Cole lope out of the woods. My heart stopped in my chest. He was tall and handsome, the moonlight revealing dark and bronzed skin over his chiseled muscles. But I didn’t think that was the primary reason for the flutter of heat when I saw him. I couldn’t stop thinking about the way he’d looked when he knelt to talk to Dylan, the easy warmth when he engaged him.
It seems surreal to think the man who was so kind with him had been so cold in the car and had helped kill so many members of my pack. I should have been scared of him.
So, as he stared up at me, why did I stare back, tension burning in the air between us?
Cole was bare to the waist, every muscle defined, but in the lean, understated way that suggested functional fitness rather than hours spent pounding protein shakes and working out in the gym like Nathan. He didn’t seem to feel the cold wind, as if he were impervious to the weather. I wondered if his skin would have felt cool to the touch, or if he was as warm and comforting as he looked. Some crazy part of me ached to press myself against him and seek comfort from his body the same way Dylan had sought it from mine.
Well, not exactly the same way. Because it didn’t take much for me to imagine not just drawing comfort from his body, but for his head to dip down, his lips nuzzling my shoulder. Something clenched low in my gut, tightening my core. He stared up at me with sudden fire blazing in his eyes.
Then, another figure emerged from the forest. He was so tall and commanding that my gaze was drawn to him unavoidably.
Stone.
When I shifted, my panties clung to my thigh. I was suddenly soaked with my own slick like I hadn’t been since . . . since Brennan. The citrusy tang of my desire mixed with the fresh clean night air, and both their heads seemed to rise in unison, their nostrils flaring as if the scent was being carried to them on the breeze, as if they were drinking it in.
I ducked back into my room and hastily closed the balcony doors between us. What the hell was happening? I had spent the last five years grieving with every molecule in my body. I hadn’t felt the slightest sense of sexual desire. Even my period had stopped, the cycle of hormones and heat fading completing for me.
But now, my body seemed to be awakening. In a place where I had every reason to be afraid, just like I had been in Nathan’s house. So, why were my breasts suddenly tight, my core throbbing, and why did my mind keep playing a bizarre image of myself leaping over the side of the balcony, only to be caught in Stone’s strong arms? Being lowered to the ground and kissed, held between him and Cole as their hands ran over my body and their lips swept over my skin?
It was madness.
I was still lying in bed, trying to fall asleep, when I heard a rumble of male voices down the hall. An instant pit opened up in my stomach, my heart racing. I’d been feeling safe, but that sensation vanished in a split second.
Since I couldn’t hear what they were saying, I got up and went toward the door, easing it open just a crack. From down the hall, I recognized Cole’s voice first.
“I smelled something in the woods. Familiar, but . . . wrong.”
“I’m going to patrol tonight. I’ll find it.” Stone’s deep, rich voice was unmistakable, pure sex, and my core clenched despite the racing of my heart . . . and my better judgment when it came to Stone. My core felt so tight it ached.
I was surprised Stone listened to his people. That wasn’t what I was used to from Nathan. He treated all of us like we were stupid children, except for his drinking buddies.
“Watch over Amelia.”
