Val rubbed the back of his neck, wiping away the dirt that had gathered there no doubt. "We shouldn't unpack a lot in case we need to leave in a hurry."
"Hopefully, we won't need to," I stated. "I'm sure we could all use a little downtime."
While Sy was chatting away and pointing to the river, Ajag seemed to be barely able to move one foot in front of the other.
"Can you take Sy down to the river to wash up?" I asked. "I want to speak to Ajag for a moment and it's not a conversation for little ears."
Val's eyes rounded and I swear I saw pure panic in them.
"Rad, man, I don't do kids."
"He's not going to bite you, Val." Well, he might. He was a wolf pup after all. They were known to bite things a lot. "Just take him down to the water for a few minutes."
Val rolled his eyes before walking over to Sy and holding out his hand. I saw Ajag frown when Val said something and thenstarted leading Sy away. I quickly stepped over and grabbed his arm.
"Hey, I asked Val to take Sy down to the river so I could talk to you for a minute." I brushed my hand over the side of Ajag's face. "I wanted to make sure you were okay."
"I'm okay."
I doubted it.
"You don't have to put on a brave face for me, Ajag. I know all of this is a lot to take in and you don't know which way is up. It's okay if you feel like you're falling apart. I'll be there to pick up the pieces and put you back together again."
Ajag gave me a weak smile, but it felt real. "I'm ready for this to be over, but I don't know how to stop it all."
"I think we need to talk with Val. He knows some stuff about your situation that you may not. Between the three of us, I'm sure we can figure something out."
Ajag nodded as he leaned into me.
"Let's get Sy cleaned up and then settled for the night. Once he's asleep, we can talk. Okay?"
"Okay," Ajag whispered.
I wasn't sure we were going to be able to figure this out in one evening, but maybe we could come up with a plan to get us through the next few days.
I held Ajag's hand as we walked down to the water to join Val and Sy. I sat down on a nearby rock, pulled off my boots, and rolled up my pant legs. I wanted to wade in the water a little, but I had no plans on running through it like Sy was. The kid was totally off the rails, running through the water at the edge of the river and laughing his little head off as if he'd never seen water before.
We actually had a bit of fun as we cleaned up and played in the water just a bit. By the time we headed back to the vehicles, Sy was the one that was lagging. He weaved just a bit when Ajagstarted to dress him in clean clothes. He was practically asleep on his feet when Ajag laid him down in the backseat of the Jeep and tucked him into his sleeping bag.
I sat on the ground leaning back against a log. When Ajag walked toward me, I held out my hand to him. "Sy go down okay?"
Ajag nodded as he sat down beside me. "I think playing in the water was good for him, but he is so tired. I'm pretty sure he'll sleep through the night if there are no interruptions."
Hopefully, there wouldn't be.
I wrapped one arm around Ajag's shoulders and pulled him close to me. I couldn't prevent a smile from crossing my lips when his hand landed on my thigh. "What about you? Do you think you'll be able to sleep through the night?"
Ajag shrugged, but didn't answer verbally.
I guess that was an answer.
"Val, can you tell Ajag what you told me about Elder Payne?" My brows snapped together when Ajag instantly stiffened. "Ajag, do you know Elder Payne?"
Ajag swallowed tightly, his hand tightening on my thigh. "Sy's biological father."
Holy shit!
Chapter Fourteen
