Page 117 of Drown My Sorrow

Can I forgive them?

Chapter twenty-eight

Kelly

KellyAged27

Gael and Ezy walk out of the water and pause when they see me. I bristle, but their scents hit me hard enough that I almost stagger.

Agave syrup is Gael’s potent scent, drawing me in and twisting around me. I can smell a hint of jasmine in the air, but I think that’s just my memory playing tricks on me.

They would love her.

Ezy smells like red grapefruit, sweet and sensual. His mop of dark hair is sopping wet, but his eyes are inquisitive.

This is my pack, I would know them anywhere.

Tears fill my eyes, and my knees buckle, but they catch me, holding me up.

“Kelly Raines?” Gael says with a hint of an accent.

The last two years have been lonely devastation. I’ve never been alone the way I have since I left. I miss my parents. I miss Raider and Bethany. Ryn, Locke, and Lia.

I yearn for her, wondering where she is and if she’s happy with every spare moment I have.

For the first time in years, I let myself feel it all.

And my pack holds me, keeping me from breaking.

PresentDay

“The first time I saw my pack, I cried. I cried so hard and for so long. I left everyone I’d loved behind, and I’d been driven away from my entire world. Including leaving my omega at the whims of the universe. Ezy and Gael didn’t hesitate to hold me up, to protect me from the world. They are good alphas, despite what we’ve done, they are really good alphas.”

Shale just stares at me.

“I just want you to know that.”

“Why?” He finally uncoils that lean length of his. He’s not as big as me, not as many muscles. His smile isn’t as potent, and yet, this alpha has something more that I don’t have, and, to be honest, it draws me in like a breath of fresh air. I can feel myself relaxing around him, giving up some of the pressure that has been weighing me down all these years.

To Shale, I’m not Kelly Raines, heir to Alpha Labels, Kelly Raines, pack leader, Kelly Raines, surfing superstar. Or Kelly Raines, the destroyer of omegas.

No, to him, I’m nothing more than an alpha in his pack. I’m not stronger. I can’t challenge him. But he treats me like he values what opinions I might have.

Like I’m an equal, and that confuses me, considering what we did.

I move away from him, down onto the beach. The night sky is beautiful, and the skies reflect on the ocean, turning it into one huge galaxy.

Shale follows me and catches up, walking side-by-side.

“I’m telling you because I don’t want you to hate them.”

“I don’t hate them or you, Kelly.” Shale grips my arm, dragging me to a stop.

I can hear my mother’s words and my father’s accusations, and I feel the weight of my failures tonight pressing down on me.

That letter, that threat against our omega, is pressing at me. Demanding I answer it.

“Tell me about Typhor Raines.”

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