We both gaze down at her, and time drifts away.
Chapter Forty-Five
Riley
“Vee?”
A sleepy mumble sounds from the pile of blankets we’re all sweating under, and I pull them back to reveal a semi-clear eyed Sage. Her brows are furrowed, and she looks between me and Brooks, then around the room.
“There’s our girl,” I start to say with a smile, but her scent spikes, turning acrid, and her breathing picks up.
“Hey, it’s okay,” I say, attempting to soothe her. “She just went?—”
“Alpha?” she raises her voice, panic leeching into her tone as her eyes dart to the cracked open door. Her breathing accelerates even more, turning shallow and ragged.
It wakes up Brooks on her other side, and he rolls over, cupping a hand on her cheek to pull her eyes to his.
“Hey, Petal,” he says. His purr stutters in his chest, and he frowns.
Her scent is distressed, and I have no doubt it’s affecting him even more than me. Her eyes stay locked on the open door even while she allows him to turn her face toward him.Should I kiss her? Try to distract her? My mind races through ideas, but I’m frozen with indecision; I don’t know what the right thing to do is.
Then a sob hitches in her chest. Brooks and I stare at each other in panic, and then we both yell at the same time.
“Vee!”
She comes barreling into the room, eyes wide and fists ready to fly.
“What? What is it?”
“Alpha!” Sage cries out for her, struggling in the blankets. She attempts to both disentangle her body from them and raise her arms at the same time, which results in her face planting and then squirm-rolling around, a whimper slipping past her lips. If she wasn’t so heartbreakingly upset, it might have been funny.
“I’m here,” Vee says, dropping to her knees and pulling Sage into her arms. Her purr roars to life, and she holds Sage close, tucking her head beneath her chin. “I’m here, Sweetling. Tell me what’s wrong.”
“Vee?” she says, looking up through watery eyes. “Where were you?”
Neveah freezes. She looks stricken as her eyes dart up to ours, but all I can offer is a sad shrug. We should have expected her to have issues with us leaving. I mean, she does have a history of being abandoned by alphas when she most needs them. My heart breaks for her all over again, and I scoot closer to Brooks in an attempt to offer us both some comfort.
“I—” Vee says, then stops, looking back down. “I went to grab more food for you, I’m so sorry I left.”
“Don’t leave,” Sage mumbles, burying her face in Neveah’s neck.
“Okay,” she says, stroking Sage’s hair, and rocking her back and forth. “Okay, sweet girl.”
Sage reaches blindly behind her, hands waving in ourdirection and then latching onto mine and Brooks’ fingers when we hold them out to her. She drags us closer, then closer still, tucking our hands along her stomach and chest so we’re in one giant cuddle puddle.
Her face is turned toward me, and I swipe my thumb across the tear tracks on her cheeks, then lean down to place a gentle kiss on her lips. She sighs, her breath brushing across me, and I lean into Vee’s shoulder, placing another kiss on Sage’s forehead.
Brooks’ purr shudders back to life, and he relaxes against Sage and Vee on the opposite side from me. His brows are still pinched together, concern and guilt lining his face. I want to tell him he’s too hard on himself, that he’s doing better than he thinks he is, but I don’t want to break the fragile peace surrounding us after her breakdown.
It’s not long until Sage is squirming in our arms, a frown pulling at her pretty lips.
“What do you need, Petal?” he asks.
Sage turns her head, placing her other cheek on Vee’s chest to look at Brooks and giving me a mouthful of wavy brown hair. I smile and sit up, assuming she’s ready to go again.
“Brooks,” she says. She’s more present than she was at first, and I wonder if those few quick orgasms helped stave off the hormones and bring her back to us.
His eyes light up, and he strokes his free hand down her cheek. “I’m right here, Sage. What do you need?”
