Kelsey stood at the edge of the room and tried to figure out what to do, how to help, but she didn’t need to. Trevor was capable. He turned from the bed, and the depth of kindness in his eyes brought tears to hers.
He shepherded her from the room, nudged her toward the hall, but she pushed back. “Hold on, I need the baby monitor. In case she calls.”
She scampered to her room, grabbed it, and came back. She followed Trevor to the living room, set the monitor on a table. There. Ready to hear anything Maggie needed. Ready to take care of her…though she had already failed once.
Trevor motioned to the couch. “Want to take a minute?”
Kelsey latched onto him, face pressed into his shirt, and began to cry.
“Shh,” he said. “It’s all right. She’s all right.”
“I know. It’s just—I couldn’t have gotten her up. If you hadn’t come, I couldn’t have done it by myself.”
“Well, you didn’t have to.”
“But it’s only been one day. What if—what if there’s all kinds of other things I don’t know yet—things that’ll happen while she’s getting better—that I can’t do by myself either?”
His hand cupped the back of her head, stroked her hair, and he murmured softly to her. In the old days those words would not have been words. They’d have been a gentle sort of rumble, not a growl but like it, deep in his chest like a motor, the way a cat purrs but not the sound of a cat either. She missed that sound from him. She longed to hear it now, to feel the rumble of her wolf as she pressed herself close to him. Nothing in her life had ever brought a sense of safety into her body the way Trevor’s wolf-sounds had done.
Almost she asked him to calm her with that sound. But no. That would be an odd request, even of…of her mate.
“Listen, Kels,” he said quietly. “Whatever comes next, we’ll deal with it together. If it’s two in the morning again, you do the same thing again. You call me, I come, we figure it out.”
“Okay.”
“I had a repair job that ran late or I’d have come by today. If you need me to, I can plan to come by every day, at least until she’s a little steadier.”
“No, no, it’s okay. Just hearing you say…just knowing you don’t mind.”
“You knew that, didn’t you?”
“I guess so. I guess I just—I need reminding when I’m this stressed out.”
She took a deep breath and stepped back to prove to both of them she was fine. As she did, Trevor bent down and scooped her up, and without thinking Kelsey nuzzled into his chest and wrapped her arms around him again. A long sigh left her, and she rested in the mighty cradle of her mate’s arms. This was good. This was home.
“Trevor,” she whispered.
She woke with a little jolt, opened her eyes… Trevor still held her. He had stretched out on the couch, his back supported by one of its arms and a few pillows. His head had lolled to one side. His eyes were closed, his breathing slow and easy. Kelsey ran her fingers lightly over his chest. He was hers. This incredibly muscular, absurdly sexy, beautifully passionate man was hers. Not only because they loved each other but also because some weird wolf custom said that fate said so. Well, she’d never argue with anything that made Trevor hers.
The sun hadn’t come up yet, though a fine gray light filtered in through the cracks in the window blinds. She looked to the baby monitor. Trevor had set it within easy reach on the table, and she held it to her ear for a minute, listened to her aunt’s steady slumbering breaths. With a sigh she set it back onto the table. Everything was fine.
Trevor didn’t stir. Kelsey relaxed against him, breathed deep the scent of him, sea salt and that slightly gamey scent all the wolves shared. Her palm settled against his chest, and her fingers stroked slowly. She let sleep come for her again, listened to him breathe, savored the safety of resting in the arms of her wolf.
He’d had to get creative. There were a dozen places he wanted to take Kelsey for their first date—well, their first in nine years. But for now, she couldn’t spend a whole afternoon or evening away from Maggie. He tucked his shoulder tighter against his phone as he drove toward Maggie’s place. Toward his mate, with her voice in his ear.
“She really wanted to try spacing out the meds, so I said okay, and I guess I shouldn’t have.”
“It’s only day four.”
“I’m very aware of that.” The edge in her voice was pure weariness.
“Sorry.”
“No, I’m sorry. You might not want to come tonight. I’ll be lousy company.”
Warning him off for his own sake not hers. “Too late. I’m on my way.”
In a few minutes he was there, filling his arms with everything he’d brought. At the door Kelsey stared at him a moment before stepping aside.
