“What if…?”
Riley couldn’t finish his sentence. There were too many horrible ways to end it—how could he possibly choose?
“If anything goes wrong,” Seth said, his words slow and careful, “then I’ll compel her, and we’ll be on our way. It will be very sad, and probably painful, but it won’t destroy you. I’m here, and your moms will come as soon as you call them. Whatever happens, you’re not alone.” Seth slipped his hand into Riley’s, squeezing. “I promise. Never again.”
Riley swallowed hard. Seth’s promises were so easy to believe. He always meant them with his whole heart.
Riley slouched down in his seat and turned his head plaintively to his mate. “I need a kiss first.”
Seth smiled. “Okay, baby.”
He leaned over the console and pressed a soft, warm kiss to Riley’s lips. Then his cheek. The other cheek. Both eyelids, one by one.
Riley kept himself still, soaking in the affection. “And I—I need you to tell me you love me.”
“I do,” Seth said immediately, his breath ghosting over Riley’s temple. “I love you so, so much.”
Riley took another breath and let it out in a long, slow exhale. His heart was still beating like it was fit to break out of his chest, but that couldn’t be helped. “Okay. I’m ready.”
They got out of the car and walked up the drive. Side by side, they climbed a quaint wooden porch up to the door. It took an eternity. It took no time at all.
Riley’s moms had found the address. Or, more like, they’d had it for a while, after keeping track all these years. It was a promise they’d made him, when they’d first taken Riley in—that once he stabilized, he could look for her, if he wanted.
Riley hadn’t ever been sure he’d be stable enough. Or brave enough. But he and Seth had been making their plans to visitTucson, and Riley had…wondered. For the first time, he’d asked his moms to tell him what they knew.
Seth hadn’t pushed or said a word about it until Riley had broached the subject himself. And then Seth had said that whatever Riley chose to do, he’d be there at his side.
And now they were here.
Riley knocked on the door.
It took her a minute to answer. Riley’s moms had told him that she hadn’t had any more children, or ever married. Riley didn’t remember enough to know why he hadn’t had a father in the picture—he only knew he hadn’t. Just his mother. He remembered it had felt like more than enough.
The door opened.
The woman in front of him had dark eyes and dark hair shot through with gray. Riley had forgotten the details of her face, but he knew her instantly. Her nose was strong, and her cheeks were round, although she looked thinner than he remembered. Older.
“Hello?”
It took only a split second, as she looked between them. Then her eyes locked on Riley’s face. They widened in shock.
And then she was crying, and Riley was being held tightly by arms he’d never thought he’d feel wrapped around him again. He hadn’t expected it, and he was sent back on his heels with the force of it.
“Ohh,” she moaned, and there was so much grief in that sound that Riley could hardly bear to hear it.
“I’m sorry,” his mother whispered, clutching Riley to her. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to yell. I didn’t mean to scare you. Didn’t mean to—to say?—”
Riley carefully—so carefully—reached up and patted her back, this woman he knew and didn’t know all at the same time. “It’s okay,” he said. “I’m here. I’m here, Mama.”
She pulled back, placing her hands on Riley’s face. She waspretty, even with those deep grief lines around her mouth and on her brow. She had kind eyes. He’d known that. “Riley.Riley. My boy.”
Riley’s face was wet, his throat thick with emotion he couldn’t yet speak. She started pulling him by the arm. “Please. Please come in.”
If he’d been alone, Riley didn’t know if he could have done it. A strange, overwhelming mix of fear and love and hope and grief had him frozen, his feet stuck to the porch.
But then a hand clasped his, warm and calloused, and Riley felt it—Seth’s love, that beautiful blanket that never grew any less comforting, no matter how many times Riley wrapped it around himself.
Just like that, Riley’s muscles unfroze.
Whatever happens, I’m not alone.
With his mate at his side, Riley stepped inside the door.
The end.
