Page 73 of Drown My Sorrow

My mother takes an envelope from him and shoves it into her bag. “Is the car here?”

“Yes, and here are the tickets. Remember your deal, don’t come back.”

The cold, dreary day plummets as fear makes my stomach hollow out. What does that mean? Why is she taking money from him?

“Don’t come back? Where are we going?”

The alpha simply smiles widely. “My name is Typhor Raines.”

I don’t even care about him. I refocus on Mum, who looks anywhere but at me. The guilt, the shame, wafts off her.

“Mum?”

“Get in the car. We have to go. This is our chance.”

Kelly is here, though. If I go, I will never see him again. Why would I leave him? Why would she make me? He’ll come around eventually. I know he will, right? At least I’ll get to see him, even if it’s from a distance. I can’t leave him. The very thought makes me want to throw up.

“Our chance? Mum, what’s going on?”

I don’t get to say anything else. She grabs my wrist and shoves me towards the car. My leg buckles, and I end up sprawled on my back in the car park, staring up at my mother in shock. The pain is nothing compared to the betrayal.

“Get in the car, right now, Aspyn, or I will leave you here.”

She means it, I think with terror. I can’t survive alone. Part of our new existence is resentment. I depend on her for everything, and I hate it. I’ve trapped her in a life she had no plans for, and she hates it.

There’s no choice.

I get up and get in the car. Leaving my heart shattered and broken in the car park for a second time in six months, longing for a man who will never want me. I can’t leave him, but I’ve got no choice.

He rejected me.

He could never love me.

Maybe this is a second chance.

PresentDay

Being in this place is bringing back old memories. I stand with the Daane behind me and Nat beside me and watch the waves curl and race towards the shore. Not going to lie, every time one of those huge monsters comes in, my heart explodes into action and the urge to run beats at my mind.

My mouth is dry, and I’m shaking a little bit when Kelly paddles in. He stabs his board into the sand and peels off the top of his wetsuit.

I’m mesmerised by all the skin, but then I notice Ezy just behind him. Ezy is slimmer than Kelly but no less stunning, and Gael is gorgeous.

“You’re drooling.”

I slap a hand to my mouth and glare at Nat. “I am not.”

“I mean, you are, but it’s okay to drool, they belong to you.”

I shake my head, a wordless protest.

“It’s okay, those giant slabs of man flesh are staring at you.”

I lift my eyes and find she’s right; they are looking at me, but now so are half the people on the beach. My skin crawls with the attention, and Pack Daane move in close.

Kelly moves in my direction, but Ezy reaches out, capturing his arm, and whispers to him. Abruptly, the three of them turn, changing direction, and disappear into the crowd.

The sting of rejection burns a little more intensely than I would have expected it to. Nat huffs, and even from here I can feel her anger building.

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