My arms shake as I try to lift another box down from the endless stack against the wall. Giving up for a moment, I sink down, sucking in gulps of breath as my head swims.
“Sienna?”
Spinning my head around, I scramble up, wiping my filthy hands on my dress as Grayson eyeballs me from the doorway.Great.
He’s looking around the room, his brow furrowed. “This place is disgusting.”
“Thanks for pointing it out. I had no idea,” I deadpan.
Besides, it won’t be by the time I’m finished with it. I’m determined to make them all eat their words. I will clean this shithole out, and I will build a decent nest by the time Ollena comes. Even if it kills me.
Which… it might. My head spins again, and I list to the side.
“Sienna?” Gray appears in front of me. Fuck, is that actual concern I can see on his face?
“Did you eat anything at breakfast?”
When I shake my head, he swears under his breath. “Stay here.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” I mumble as he ducks back to the doorway and grabs something off the floor. When he turns, revealing the tray, my stomach growls its approval across the room.
And Grayson Cohen actually smiles.
It transforms his whole face. I thought he was handsome before – in the way that marble statues are handsome. Cold. But now…holy shitballs.
“I think you need this.” He carries the tray over to a set of drawers and places it down, giving me a stern look. “Sit down.”
And I sit. Abruptly. On my ass.
“Shit – are you okay?”
Because I’m laughing hysterically, except I’m not, because tears appear in a wild rush that says very clearly thatI am not fucking okay.
“Fuck, Sienna.”
And then Grayson is lifting me, and he’s folding himself down on the floor with me curled around him, crying great big noisy snotty sobs directly into his very soft – possibly cashmere – sweater.
“Shhh, Sienna,” he soothes, his hand rubbing down my back softly. “Fuck, please stop crying.”
I’m trying my best, but these damn tears just keep flowing. I’m so tired, and hungry, and the pain is just slowly growing and growing in the background, and my whole body hurts. And they’re just swimming along with Alicia without a care in the world.
“It hurts,” I whimper. “It hurts, Gray.”
“I’m sorry,” he murmurs. “Fuck, sweetheart, I’m so sorry.”
He doesn’t understand. Hell, I don’t understand. There isn’t exactly a manual for Soul Bonded omegas, and the only source I have isn’t here to ask. Not that I want my mother to know I’m Soul Bonded. Not like this.
So I continue to cry into Gray’s chest until my sobs become quiet whimpers, my torrent of tears slowing to a trickle. Sniffing, I pull back in mortification and scuttle off him, trying not to trip myself up on this damned stupid dress that I now officially hate.
He watches me, his electric blue eyes examining me closely. I brush myself off before hugging my knees with my hands.
“Sorry about that.”
“Don’t be,” he says softly. “You’ve held up remarkably well, considering.”
When I look away, he reaches out for the tray, grabbing a bowl and holding it up to me.
“Jax made soup,” he says with a wry smile. “It’s the only edible thing he can cook. He was worried when you didn’t eat breakfast.”
