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“You said something about a fire?” Sam asked after a beat, her voice uncharacteristically soft.
“Yeah,” I hiccuped. “We have to wait to hear from the fire department as to whether anything is salvageable, but it doesn’t look good for our apartment or our stuff.”
My sister made a sympathetic humming sound, and I heard her walking around on the other side of the phone. “I’m sorry, sis. I’m sure everything will be okay. On the bright side, it looks like the payment plans I set up for Mom are working. This wasn’t a call for more money.”
What in the world did we even talk about if Sam didn’t need to talk about money? Every phone call I’d had with my twin had been about Mom and needing money to cover medical bills. I couldn’t remember the last time we had just talked.
“How are things going there?” I asked.
“Going okay. Balancing Mom and my job at the moment, which, as you know, isn’t easy, but it was a good day today. I knew you’d want to know. Do you have a place to stay?”
“Yeah,” I reassured her, letting out a shaky breath. “I’m good. Got a place to stay until I can figure things out. Thanks for trying to call me.”
“Hey, we’re sisters. Of course I’d call you.”
“Thanks, Sam.”
“I’ll let you go. I know it’s late there.”
“Bye.”
Click.
I scrubbed at my face just as there came a soft knock on the door. Hoping like hell I didn’t look as shitty as I felt, I forced myself to stand up and answer it. River stood there with a smile that immediately turned into a concerned frown once they got a good look at my face.
“Sienna?”
“I just—” Tears pricked my eyes again. I was overwhelmed by the fire, my mom, this pack… Everything was hitting all at once. River wrapped me up in a hug and kicked the door shut behind them as they whispered reassuring words in my ear.
I lost it.
Falling into their embrace, sobs wracked my body. I couldn’t stop shaking as they squeezed me close. River ran their hands over my back and started to purr. The deep rumble slowly broke through the pain and anxiety twisting in my chest until I quietly clung to them, wishing like hell I could hide away.
“Hey, hey. None of that.” River shook their head as they pulled back. Their warm hands cupped my face and gently tilted my head up to meet their gaze. “You had a lot of big things happen today. You’re allowed to break down and cry. That doesn’t make you weak.”
“Says the person whose face isn’t red and swollen from crying,” I joked, and a small smile tugged at their lips. “I need to shower. It might help me calm down before I have to brave the cooking happening right now.”
“If it’s bad, we can hide out here later and eat pizza while we watch some TV,” River promised me. “I’ll even let you pick out the movie since you’ve had a hard day.”
“Any movie I want?” I asked, trying and failing to suppress a smile.
“Unless it’sTitanic. No one wants to watch a ship sink for six damn hours.”
“It’s not a six-hour movie!”
“You’re right. It justfeelslike six hours of my life I’ll never get back again.”
“River!” I gently smacked their shoulder as I burst out laughing.
“Go clean up,” they urged. “We’ll be in the kitchen when you’re ready.”
River pressed a soft kiss to my forehead, and I closed my eyes, feeling treasured and comforted by that simple gesture. They pulled back and left soon after, but I didn’t move an inch for a few minutes. I wished I had kissed them.
After a quick, steamy shower, I changed into the black t-shirt and sweats River had brought me and joined them in the kitchen. Nash and King could actually cook, which was a pleasant surprise. They’d whipped up some delicious BBQ that did a better job of waking up my appetite than I would’ve thought possible. No one talked about the fire, so we spent the meal bullshitting over random topics, and although we didn’t dig into anything deep, that was just fine with me.
Later that night as I curled up in the giant king-sized bed alone, I made a mental note that I needed to talk to my besties. I had agreed to date four alphas, and I had no clue what to do with them.
The ball was completely in my court, but I couldn’t tell you if I was playing basketball or football at this point. Most importantly, why did my brain have to go with some horrible sports analogy?
