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“But that’s not the most important thing he is. He’s also our brother. Your friend. And for her…” He nodded toward the hospital door she had disappeared behind. “You know what he is for her.”
“I know.” And I could never compete with that. There must be something about the fact Amelia had a mate bond with Brennan that had been broken by his death, and now she was attaching to his brothers. It didn’t make sense to me. I’d never heard of that happening before.
“Did you really dig the tracker out?” None of us had known that he even knew it was there.
Liam rotated his arm, touching his shoulder where he had dug the tracker out. It wasn’t hard for me to imagine wild-eyed Liam digging into his own flesh with the point of a knife. “I had Amelia to help me feel better after.”
Jealousy shot through my gut, but Liam seemed oblivious. Of course I was never sure when he was being oblivious on purpose. If we hadn’t trained together so long, I wouldn’t have realized his subtle little tricks. He was often confused… but not as often as heactedconfused.
Amelia came out with Dylan. Dylan started to run across the parking lot and she had to grab his shoulder. I smiled. Like mother, like son. I thought it was cute that she’d run across the parking lot to Shaw.
I just wish she’d run to me.
I covered the distance between us and scooped Dylan up into my arms. “Hey buddy.”
Dylan hugged me tight and didn’t say anything. Amelia rubbed her hand across his back, her wrist brushing my forearm. The two of us had touched often when we were sparring, even fighting on the ground. But her touch still jolted me.
There was just something about having the two of them close to me that made me imagine the three of us as a family.
I pushed those thoughts away. Amelia needed me and so did Dylan, and what they needed from me was what I did best: providing security. I needed to focus on making them feel safe and guaranteeing theyweresafe.
The three of us met Shaw and Liam at the car. Dylan gave Shaw a hug too. Then Amelia pulled him close. “Hey, I’m going to stay here to help Aunt Rose, okay? And you’re going to go with Cole. So you can go back to school and go fishing while I’m busy here at the hospital.”
“When are you coming back?” Dylan frowned.
“I don’t know exactly when yet, but it won’t be long before we’re together.”
“At our house?”
Amelia frowned. “Our house?”
“Where my Lego blocks are? The big white house?”
I could see the pain etched around Amelia’s eyes even as she smiled. “We’ll be together again soon,” she said, ignoring his question and leaning in to kiss him on the forehead.
Dylan looked frustrated. “I want us to go home!”
“We are going home, and then your mom will join us soon.” I promised.
Amelia’s gaze met mine over his head. I understood that she tried never to lie to him, and that was admirable. But I hoped like hell we would all be home together in the end, just like Dylan wanted.
Amelia was all smiles with Dylan. When she straightened, once she had buckled him in the backseat, her eyes welled with tears.
All I wanted to do was take her in my arms and make everything better. I’d make sure they were reunited, whatever it cost me.
And I would make sure they were safe.
She pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes as she turned to me, then suddenly lunged in and hugged me, her arms circling my waist. “Thank you.”
“Of course,” I promised her. I slid my arms around her body, squeezing her for a second. Her warm curves pressed against my chest and I breathed in her intoxicating scent of grapefruit and petrichor. God, I wanted to keep her close like this. “Always.”
She pulled away, tears still clinging to her lashes, and I wanted to kiss her, and I wanted to tell her everything was going to be alright. But neither would’ve been right. I couldn’t make any promises.
I let her pull away, and with an ache in my chest like I was being torn apart, I walked to the driver’s side and got in. Dylan waved at her from his seat as we pulled out of the parking lot, and my jaw clenched watching Amelia grow small in the rearview mirror.
The sun set over the horizon as Dylan and I drove back to King territory. The air had grown colder, the sky the color of steel, but Dylan was still filled with energy. For the first few hours, he alternated between playing on his iPad and keeping up a steady patter about his games.
I wasn't wildly interested in anything to do with Paw Patrol, but I remembered how quiet he had been when he first came to the King pack. I felt touched he wanted to share so much with me, even though it was hard to focus on our conversation. I was vigilant the whole time expecting for us to be attacked. While Nathan desperately wanted Amelia back, he also probably wanted Dylan. He thought the boy was his son.
