“What are you up to today?” he asks. I know he doesn’t want to be left alone in this room again.
Tate and Axel are doing club shit that I don’t want to know about, so staying with Cash seems like the perfect way to spend the day to me.
“Well, you see… I have this Alpha.” I grind on his hips a bit and smirk. “Poor thing is bedridden and being a total nightmare about it. So I thought I’d keep him company all day.”
“Is that so?”
Winnie chooses that moment to whine and use her nose to nudge Cash’s hand off of me, begging for pets.
“I’m really pissed she likes you more than me,” I whine with a pout as he pets the dog that was supposed to be mine.
He gives me a small grin as he keeps one hand on me while the other pets the dog.
“Once we get the new house built, if you want to get her a friend, we can,” he suggests.
“I think it’s only fair. This time when we get a dog, I will only let her around me and none of you for weeks, so she imprints on me. This isn’t fair,” I grumble as I give in and pet her too. She accepts my touch, loves it even, but the little brat doesn’t look at me the way she looks at Cash.
“I should take her out, and then we can spend the day together in bed.”
“Fine,” Cash agrees.
“Come on, girl,” I say to her, clicking my tongue.
She looks to Cash for orders, and I want to roll my eyes. He gives her a tilt of his head, and the dog follows me outside. The compound is entirely fenced in and Winnie is friendly, so I don’t bother with a leash while I let her sniff, stretch her legs, and do her business.
I’m flipping my sunglasses off the top of my head due to the bright-ass sun when I see Shelby for the first time since we left the lake house.
She’s walking to the sweet house, and I follow after her, shouting her name. She doesn’t turn until I finally grab her arm and tug at it, forcing her to spin around. She stumbles nearly losing her balance, and there are dark circles under her eyes. She looks like she has been out all night with the state of her clothes and the stench of beer wafting off of her.
She’s absolutely drunk… and it’s not even noon.
“Are you okay?”
“No. I’m not likeyou.I don’t have the perfect little pack that’ll help me forget all this horrible shit that fucking happened,” she spits.
She might as well have slapped me in the face. It would have hurt less.
“Fuck, I didn’t mean that. Just leave me alone, Lily,” she growls, trying to tug her arm away from me.
“I’m worried about you,” I say softly, doing my best not to take her words to heart.
“I don’t need anyone else on this stupid fucking compound worrying about me. I’m fine. I’m dealing with it. I’d be better off if everyone just stopped bothering me all the time. I don’t want to talk about it, I don’t want to think about it. Just…” she sighs and shakes her head, her tone going softer as she speaks. “Just leave me alone for a little while, okay?”
“Shelby,” I sigh out her name, not knowing what to say.
I know that I can’t leave her alone. She’s clearly not okay. We went through a lot together and while I have three people to lean on; she has no one.
Her big blue eyes are welling with tears, and she shakes her head. “No, I don’t want to do this right now.”
I ignore her words as I wrap my arms around her and hold her tight. She sobs drunkenly against my shoulder, her cast between us and her other arm hanging limp. Eventually, she wraps her uninjured arm around me and hugs me back.
“I’m always here for you, okay?”
“Okay,” she hiccups.
Winnie comes between us, and Shelby gets on her knees to pet the dog. Winnie licks up her tear-streaked face, and I watch the tension rolls out of her a little.
“Do you want to watch her for a few hours?”
