I pulled it gently away from her teeth and soothed it with a kiss.
“You haven’t eaten all day,” I said, trying to keep the censure out of my voice. But I couldn’t stand seeing her go hungry. Feeding her was one of the few useful things I could do.
“Sorry,” she whispered, her eyes downcast.
Nope. Wasn’t going to tolerate that.
I got up from my chair to grab food and Josie whipped her head to look at me, fear in her eyes. My heart clenched—was she afraid of me? But then her hand shot out to grab my wrist.
“Please don’t leave,” she said. “I’ll do better, promise.”
I growled as I wrapped my arms around her and placed her on the counter. She whimpered, clinging to me. I took a deep breath and purred.
“I wasn’t leaving, precious. I’m going to be stuck to your side like glue from now on.”
“Okay,” she responded in a small voice.
I held her there for several long minutes, the soft music trickling from the speaker, my omega’s arms and legs wrapped around me.
“Are you not eating because you’re worried about your weight?” I asked, working up the courage to voice my fear.
Josie’s breath hitched, and I pressed her face to my chest, trying to provide any reassurance I could.
“My body’s all messed up,” she whimpered, her hand reaching up to touch her bandaged upper arm.
I grasped her hand in mine, pulling it away. The image of her clawing at her arms in the gym last night haunted me.
“Not true,” I growled. She wouldn’t meet my eyes.
“I just… I just want to disappear,” she choked out.
My chest seized in pain as my heart broke a bit more. I wished I could take all this suffering from her.
“Please don’t say that, precious. Please.” Tears spilled down my cheeks, and for a moment, I felt that familiar shame that told me to hide them, that real alphas didn’t cry. But then Josie wiped my tears away, looking at me with love and tenderness beyond what I deserved.
“I’m not saying I want to die,” she said, biting her lip again. “I just don’t want to be in my body anymore. It feels ruined.”
“No one could ever ruin it, Josie,” I said, wrapping my hand in her hair and fighting the urge to run out of the house to destroy Glen Jacoby. “This beautiful, wonderful, soft, perfect body is yours. No one can ruin something that belongs to you.”
Her expression told me she didn’t believe me, but she didn’t pull away either. I wracked my brain for something, anything that could make this better. I remembered being in the pool with her one of the first days after she moved in with us. She had looked so calm, moved so freely.
“Want to come in the pool with me, precious? The water’s nice and warm. We can just float for a bit.”
Josie hesitated, glancing down at her body.
“Every one of your curves is a miracle to me. Every line of your body, the feel of your skin, like heaven.”
Josie blushed so sweetly that I couldn’t help but kiss both of her cheeks. She giggled and the sound felt like victory.
“Okay, I’ll go in the pool with you.”
I wanted to dance around the kitchen but kept my cool. I helped her off the counter and grabbed a few plates of food. She looked at them nervously.
“In case I get hungry,” I said with a wink, leading the way out to the patio.
“You’re so full of it,” she responded with a smile, leaving the blanket on the kitchen chair and following me through the French doors.
I placed the food down by the side of the pool, hoping that my scheme of getting her to eat something would work, and stripped off my clothes. Josie’s eyes were heated as she ran them down my naked body, and it made me want to puff out my chest.
