However, it was the way his fingers tenderly caressed Isis’ weak arm while he watched her sleep that told me Bjørn hadn’t searched so fervently just for me, or even just for her, he’d also done it for himself.
Sitting on the other side of them, I placed a careful hand on her cheek. “You love her, don’t you?”
A tiny chuckle left him, like “loving her” was an understatement. “Don’t tell her that. The first warning she ever gave me was not to fall in love with her… And I bloody hate when people tell me what to do.” He winked at me like he was letting me in on the secret.
My eyes watered even as I smiled. “Ishouldleave you with her?—”
“No,” he insisted, reaching for my hand before I could stand. “She’d want you here too. Isis has given a lot to keep you safe. The person she loves the most should be here when she wakes up.”
“I think the person she loves the most is you,” I countered, emotion rushing to my throat.
“There isno oneas important to her as you are,” Bjørn guaranteed. “But when it comes to you, dearie, I gladly take second place.”
A tear escaped me with his words, but he lovingly wiped it away, guiding me to lie down on the bed with them. So, I did. My head rested on the pillow next to Isis. The Fae and I smiled at each other, our love for her connecting us deeper than anything else could.
No wonder she’d never wanted to mate with anyone in the pack… she’d already found her mate in him.
When my eyes opened again, I realized we’d both fallen asleep with Isis, and night had already taken over the city on the other side of the balcony doors. Except, Isis was no longer on the bed.
“Isis?” I called, sitting up and low-key hyperventilating, only to find her exiting the walk-in closet in a long, silk, sleeping gown and robe now covering her body.
Before she could answer, I rushed to her side, my arms trapping her in a bear hug.
A few chuckles escaped her as she embraced me too. “My sweet baby girl,” she whispered, kissing my cheek. “I’m so glad they saved you and got you out of there. Ouch!”
“Sorry.” I began to pull away, but she hugged me again. “I’m not made of glass, I’m just still a little sore, that’s all.”
“They didn’t save me, you did,” I corrected, glancing into her still dull brown eyes. It hurt not to see the spark they’d always carried.
“Oh, believe you me. It was a group effort.” She humorlessly chuckled, before pain clouded her expression. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t here for you, Tasha. I’m sorry that things transpired the way they did. It was never supposed to happen this way. I wanted to?—”
“I don’t care.” Fresh pain tugged at my heart. She had almost died to save me, and here she was, apologizing. “You have nothing to be sorry for. I just care that you are safe and by my side again. I can’t do any of this without you.”
“Oh, baby.” She squeezed me again, probably a bit harder than she should. “Ouch.” We chuckled at that and pulled away to look at each other. “What have they told you so far?”
“Not much.” I snorted, making her lips twitch. “Vane shared some of her story with me, and so did Dante, and Bjørn. But I don’t know the truth of why I’m even here, how you know them all, or why they care about me in the first place. They guard their secrets well.”
“It’s not their secrets they guard.” She exhaled, taking a strand of my hair, and caressing it. “They are just respecting my wishes. I wanted to be the one to tell you the truth. I wanted it to come from—” She doubled over, as a moan of pain ripped from deep inside her. Isis’ touch left me, and she gripped her side.
“You need more rest, lay down.”
“But there’s so much I must?—”
“You can tell me tomorrow morning. Right now, you are more important. You need to rest.” Her lips pursed tightly, and I knew she wasn’t happy with me cutting her off. She had raised me better than that.
“I’m sorry…”
All this time I’d thought about asking her if she trusted them, but it was a moot point by now. She’d endured being in the river knowing without a shadow of a doubt that Bjørn would get to her the second he felt her. And he had. She trusted that whatever condition she was in, Dante and D would use their abilities to heal her. And they had.
Isis trusted them with her lifeandmine… and I realized then that so did I. When I chose to protect Debbie instead of myself, I knew Dante would heal me. The truth was, I already trusted them all with my life too.
Of course, I was still pissed at D and Dante for talking about me behind my back with the freaking Viscountess.
Whatever.
“Do you trust Anastasia? Is she agoodVampire?”
Isis’ eyes widened with my words, and she turned around to glare at the sleeping Fae, grunting. “Men, I swear sometimes I wonder why the Goddess created them.”
