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Ransom just curled up tighter, his breath hitching as he inhaled her scent.
Ever so slowly, I reached out to him, still tense, anticipating his madness. He’d been this calm before, but never if anyone touched him.
So very gently, my knuckle brushed his cheek.
He flinched, another wounded whine in his throat as his eyes darted up to mine. Blood roared in my ears as I waited.
Waited.
Waited...
He just stared at me, gaze as vacant as ever, but he remained still.
One by one, my muscles loosened as he still didn’t react.
“Ransom.” My voice was low and rough.
He flinched, eyes still fixed on me, still clutching her scent in his fists.
I tried to untangle what I was seeing.
This was…something, right?
I warred with disappointment from the misplaced hopes that had flourished the moment I’d realised Shatter’s scent. Foolish dreams… that when he caught it, he would wake entirely.
That I would have my brother back.
That was stupid. It was only her scent on a pillowcase for fuck’s sake.
And this... thiswassomething.
“I’m...” I cleared my throat, making my voice as casual as I always did for him. “I’m going to bring you to the shower, alright, mate?”
An impossible task on most days. Sometimes I needed Umbra, but I always tried to avoid it if I could.
I let Ransom keep her scent until he was under the hot stream of water.
He stood in nothing but shorts, staring at the pillowcase which I’d placed on the vanity. The steam was lifting her scent into the air.
It was everywhere, calming me as well. I kept getting flashes of last night. Of her terror when I’d told her what the pill would do. Of the way she’d curled into me with nowhere else to go. The way her tense body had relaxed when I’d begun to purr at her scent rather than…What?
What had she expected?
Who had convinced her to hide like she did? I would undo it all, I would make her see herself the way I saw her.
I picked up a washcloth, adding body wash and taking one of Ransom’s hands, still stunned at his lack of fight. I began drawing the cloth up his forearm, already soaking through my shirt and sweats, but that was how this had to go.
I wouldn’t leave him behind, and if he woke—whenhe woke—I would have kept every piece of his dignity intact I could manage.
He didn’t react. Not even when I squeezed shampoo into my hands and began lathering it in his dark auburn hair. He was a bit taller than me, though not quite as built, and I had to reach up to do it. He hated when I did his hair—don’t know why that triggered him out of everything.
I should shave it off to avoid issues, but he’d loved it longer. Problem was, sometimes I had to tranq him to brush it. The dark auburn waves stuck to his shoulders right now, sopping wet as it was. A good length for him. He’d like that, if he were to wake soon.
Maybe… maybe by the time that happened, he would be back.
It wasn’t until I turned to grab another cloth that he moved. I spun quickly, my mind scrambling to locate the rod—but he wasn’t aggressive.
Instead, he just sat down on the floor of the shower, hugging his knees with his ankles crossed. His eyes were locked on the pillowcase.
