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Seeing him sad hurt me, made my chest ache. So, I didn’t wait. While he was distracted with the backpack, I started down, crouching to lower myself over the rocky ledge. My hands were braced as I brought my leg over, feeling for a foothold. He must have looked up just as I slipped.
Luke screamed my name. My fingers slid off the rock as I felt the ground fall away. But it wasn’t the ground. It was me. Falling. Reaching out for anything I could grab on to. My hip slammed into a jagged rock, knocking me to the side. Then a hard strike to my temple, blinding pain, before all went dark.
19
SYLVIE
Luke was carrying me, telling me I was okay. But my head hurt so much. Darkness again.
My eyes opened in his car, his hand pressing a cloth to my forehead while he drove.
“Stay with me, Sylvie.”
I was too tired. I couldn’t stay awake.
People moved around me, voices low. I was lifted onto a bed. Then I was moving, fluorescent ceiling panels flashing past overhead. There was a pinch on the back of my hand and a kind voice telling me I was going to go to sleep again, but everything was fine.
Everything was fine.
I woke up slowly, opening my eyes to find myself lying in a private hospital room, propped up on what felt like six pillows. Without turning my head, I knew immediately who was sitting in the chair to my side. Her honeysuckle scent filled the air.
“Hi, Kat.”
“Ah!Shit, you startled me.” My head was achy as I moved to look at her. Kat’s eyes were bloodshot, her nose red from crying, but she was smiling ear to ear.
“You look like crap.”
Kat let out a surprised laugh, wiping tears away. “So do you.” She released a long sigh. “Do you remember what happened?”
“A little. I fell. Hit my head. And my hip.” It was like speaking while extremely tired or a little drunk. My brain and body were heavy, weighted down.
“You have a mild concussion. They scanned you to make sure it wasn’t more serious. Eight stitches. Your hip is bruised, but nothing was broken.” She nodded toward my duffel bag on a chair. “Your stuff is here, and your car is parked back at your apartment.”
I took a minute to process all of that, and then she went on. “The doctors said you’re really lucky. Luke did a good job with first aid.”
Luke.
“Is he here?”
Kat snorted. “He hasn’t budged. The rest of your pack is here too. They’d all be in here right now, except the hospital only allows one guest in a room at a time, and they agreed it should be me. They’re pacing around the waiting area, driving the nurses crazy asking for updates. I convinced Mom and the Dads to wait at home since it’s so crowded out there.”
I blinked, stuck on her first words. “They aren’t my pack.”
“Could have fooled me.” She studied me, biting her lip. “Did you decide you didn’t want them?”
“I don’t know. Everything is fuzzy.” Nothing was clear to me, whether it was confusion in my heart or my aching head or both. But I knew one thing. “I don’t want to see them.”
Kat was silent for a while before she spoke, her voice firm, reminding me of our mother.
“I think you should reconsider. Those men all love you, Sylvie. They’re so worried.”
It meant something more coming from her. Her own pack was fractured, so her perspective spoke to truths she might see more clearly than I did. Even so, I couldn’t stop thinking about Edward, how much his death had hurt all of them. Were they actually ready to love someone else, to love me?
And wasn’t I causing them more pain? I hated the idea that they were worried about me. They’d dealt with enough.
“Sylvie? You know you’re worthy of their love, right?”
That stopped any words I would have spoken. Tears were my only answer. So many tears.
