Page 183 of Drown My Sorrow

He kisses me hard. I cling to him until he reluctantly leans back.

“Yes, you are.”

We look for Nat, but there is no sign of her. The motor for the boat is gone, too. With disappointment, we slink back into the night to search for Nat and another way to escape.

Chapter forty-five

Shale

ShaleAged24

I’ve never been more scared than I am right now. Her house is open, the storm is long gone, but so is she. For hours, we’d tried to get back, when we finally could, we came straight here.

One day. Twenty-four hours since the storm rolled through.

Where is she?

Beau jogs around the house. “Nat’s not home either.”

“Fucking damnit!” I shout.

Keagan comes out of the house and marches down the yard. Where the water would have run. I frown until my mind clears with clarity. No, she wouldn’t have gone there, no!

I jog after him, pushing in as he stops, waiting for his eyes to adjust. The ground is wet still, and there on the mattress in a tight ball is our omega.

“Aspyn,” I breathe in relief, in horror, in I don’t know what.

Beau lunges forward and snatches her up. “She’s freezing. We need a doctor and a warm shower.”

I race back to the house, turning on the water in the shower. Beau passes her to me, and I stand in there fully clothed, not giving a fuck as I cradle her tiny form to my chest.

The urge to bond her just so I can keep her safe drives at me, but we discussed this. We can’t force her, we can’t take her choice away.

I lean down and press my lips to her temple. “I love you.”

She doesn’t hear me, she never does.

Aspyn needs to heal. Her soul wounds are too big to let her see us. But we are the buffer between her and the world, the rescue that will always come, the people she can lean on.

My hope is one day she can look at us and see us. See me.

Her eyes flutter open, and she looks up at me. Tears fill her eyes. I would never tell her how much she breaks my heart.

“Shale?”

“I’m here, and you’re safe. It’s over.”

Beau and Keagan trip over themselves, coming into the bathroom, touching her arms and hands, stroking her hair, needing the reassurance that she’s okay. She’s alive.

We get her clean and dry and hold her while the doctor checks her over and prescribes some vitamins, bed rest, hot tea, and soup and says he’ll be back tomorrow.

We stay when she falls asleep.

Watching over her. Always.

PresentDay

“It’s almost been two weeks, Shale. I’m done waiting.”

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