Page 167 of Pack Frenzy
“I’m learning to surf,” I add with a snort. “Cassian’s teaching me, so…maybe don’t laugh too hard when I wipe out, okay?”
Mom lets out a watery sob behind me, and something in me cracks open.
I press the bracelet to my heart, hard enough the charm digs into my sternum, hard enough to bruise. I want it to hurt. I want to remember this.
Then, I kiss the metal once. It tastes like salt and tarnish, and every sleepover where she'd dangle it over my face to wake me up.
My arm won't move.
Let go, I tell myself.Let her go.But my fingers won't unclench. Because once I throw this, it's real. Once the ocean takes this last piece of her, I have nothing left to hold.
Cassian's hand settles warm on my shoulder. He doesn't say anything. He doesn't have to.
I throw and the silver arcs through the sunlight—spinning, flashing, impossibly bright—and then it's gone.
The sea swallows it without a ripple, like it was never there at all. Like she was never here. A sound rips out of me. I don't know if it's a scream or a sob or something in between.
Mom cries openly now. Dad wraps an arm around her, and this time she doesn’t flinch. She leans into him like she used to, before everything cracked open.
My legs wobble, but Rowan’s hand finds the small of my back. Then Cassian threads our fingers together. Eli pulls me into his side, breath shaky against my cheek.
I stop fighting it. I turn my face into Eli's chest and let myself break. Not gracefully, not quietly—ugly, heaving sobs that make my whole body shake.
Rowan's forehead presses against my hair. Cassian's thumb strokes my knuckles in slow circles. They hold me like they're not afraid I'll shatter. Like even if I do, they'll keep every piece.
And for the first time since Sabrina vanished, I stop holding myself together. I let them do it instead.
Later, we eat together on deck.
Grilled fish, bread, fruit—simple food that tastes better under late afternoon sunlight. The kind of meal that feels earned.
Dad sits across from my pack, arms crossed, eyes narrow. “So,” he says, tone all business, “any of you hurt my daughter, I’ll make sure no one ever finds out what happens. Capisce?”
Cassian doesn’t miss a beat. “Yes, sir.”
I choke on my drink. “Dad, please don’t interrogate them.”
He scowls. “I’m not interrogating. I’m telling them how it is and will be.”
“Pretty sure that’s worse.” Dad being Dad, protective and terrifying andhere.
Sabrina would've loved this. She would've made popcorn and narrated the whole thing like a nature documentary.And here we see the alpha father asserting dominance over potential suitors...
The thought hits like a sucker punch. I cover it with another sip of my drink, but Eli's hand finds my knee under the table, grounding me.
Mom actually laughs—light and genuine. “Stop it, Antonio. They seem like good men.”
“‘Good’ is relative,” he mutters, but he leans back in his chair anyway.
Cassian catches my eye, smirking. Rowan hides a smile. Eli winks.
Dad sighs, pinches the bridge of his nose. “Don’t know if anyone will be good enough for my daughter.”
Mom reaches across the table and squeezes my hand. “She’s happy,” she says softly. “That’s what matters.”
For once, Dad doesn’t argue. He just nods and looks out at the horizon, face unreadable but calm.
As the yacht heads back toward the docks, the sky melts into gold. The waves roll gentle beneath us, sunlight scattering like broken glass.
