Page 58 of Holly Jolly Heat
"I fell because the ladder shifted. Not your fault."
"I was holding the ladder?—"
"Michelle." I caught her wrist gently, stopping her spiraling. "It wasn't your fault. It was an accident. I'm fine. Stop trying to take responsibility for everything."
She looked at me, and something in her expression softened. "You really are okay?"
"Really."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
She nodded, then very carefully cleaned and bandaged the scrape on my palm with more attention than such a minor injury required.
Pack behavior. Taking care of me. Making sure I was okay.
"Thank you," I said when she finished.
"For what?"
"For caring. For letting yourself be scared. For not running away when you felt something."
Her cheeks flushed. "I didn't have time to run. You fell too fast."
"But you're not running now."
She looked at the bandage on my palm, still holding my hand. "No. I'm not running now."
Progress. Slow, gradual progress, but progress nonetheless.
"Michelle!" Josh's voice from the living room. "Mom wants to know if Dex survived the ladder incident!"
"How does she already know?" Michelle called back.
"She has cameras on the backyard! She saw everything!"
"Of course she does."
I laughed, and Michelle glared at me. "This isn't funny. My mother is a menace."
"Your mother cares about you. About us."
"My mother is trying to force us together by any means necessary."
"Is it working?"
She looked at me for a long moment, her hand still holding mine. "Maybe."
My alpha purred with satisfaction.
"Good," I said simply.
She rolled her eyes, but she was smiling slightly. "You're impossible. All three of you. You and Lucas with your patience and optimism, and Ro with his certainty and observation?—"
"We're pack," I said. "We're supposed to be impossible to resist."
"Is that how it works?"
