“The Mothers from Rejoice are strangers as much as you and I are. But having them here is important.”
“And you’re going to lay claim in front of them all?”
“I’m going to come across as someone she can lean on. Itwill be up to her what happens with us after I’m confident she is safe and properly set up. Not before though.”
He shrugs, looking way too relaxed. His act has the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. “That’s true, it will work out or it won’t. Either way, you’ll remember my warning, right?”
And there it is. I knew it was coming. Honestly, it doesn’t piss me off that he’s threatening me. If anything, it settles something inside me—relief, even—knowing she’s surrounding herself with people who have no ties to her, all united by the same goal: making sure she’s okay.
“Between you and me, I’d also like the name of the Alpha in the other room. Once other people arrive, they might not be in the sharing mood, but I’m sure you understand why I want to know who he is. I’ll pay you in return, and I don’t want you putting your job at risk, but if anything was to happen and you found yourself without work, I’d have a spot for you on my team.”
“Doing what?”
“That’s a discussion for another day,” I say softly when she starts to stir.
And then she goes rigid before I can even begin to remind her she’s safe.
Chapter
Nineteen
SIMONA
Rye’s scent is medicinal as it fills my lungs, dulling the shock reverberating through my memories. It feels so right, being in his arms as each ofhishits, andhisviciousness savage me. I can’t afford the luxury of forgetting what he did, remembering only reinforces that I survived.
I stay curled against his chest, listening to his heartbeat, as I work through the maze in my thoughts.
Rye interrupts me with his melodic voice that is as healing as his scent and his touch. “Earlier, you apologised. Why?”
“I knew who you were,” I admit carefully. “I should have left, maybe none of this would have happened.”
He doesn’t rush his response. Instead he takes his time. Lowering his head to mine, he rests it gently against me. Our hair falls together, a soft curtain that hides us away from the world.
“I told you I would find you. And now I have. I’m sorry he hurt you.”
I shake my head, not wanting Brody to steal this from me. Talking about him is inevitable but right now, I just want it to be about us. I need it to be just us.
My chest tightens as hope sizzles through my veins. But before I get swept up in the rush of finally meeting him, I need clarity—does he know who I really am?
“Who am I?”
I hear him smile, and his arms tighten around me, his voice low and private, leisurely almost. “You’re my Sin.”
The draw of my inhale is proof of the accuracy of his statement. I wait for him to say more in case I’ve got him completely wrong. He must sense a shift in my mood, because his words start to tumble out, one over the other. “From those few short minutes when we met on New Year’s Eve, I knew you were mine. And it’s so weird, but it makes sense now. My memory of your scent wasn’t wrong, but it wasn’t right either.”
I squeeze my eyes shut. “Because of Melanie.”
“Huh?”
“A lady I met. We had to swap costumes last minute. Her scent was really overpowering.”
“Wow. That explains it. Because without exaggeration, meeting you felt like an awakening. Like something inside me woke after being asleep for a long, long time. Since our first meeting, whatever it is hasn’t rested, constantly searching for more and trying to figure out something I was missing. It’s hard to say how I knew so quickly that you were responsible for that, it might have been from the instant you captivated me with your eyes. For the record, I saw a universe of possibilities in them, everything though targeted towards a happy ending, no matter the start. The next indicator I’d found my match was your scent. It drove me crazy. I think that’s what woke me up the most. When I was getting ready to go on stage, when I was lying in bed waiting to see ifyou’d message me, I get a hint of your scent, but I knew something was strange with the combination. It didn’t sit right, and I wasn’t second guessing myself, but I was questioning what I got wrong. The flu was partly to blame. I was so fucking sick...”
“I got sick.”
He rubs his hand reassuringly over my shoulder. “That flu spread like wildfire. Almost every person I knew got it. Next time we can be sick together, watching movies in bed, getting special deliveries of our favourite snacks from the rest of our pack.”
I shake my head, stopping myself from getting caught up in his pretty story when I know I’ve still got some horrible days ahead.
