Jack rubbed his back faster to put some heat back in Dylan’s cold body. He had to get the boy to land so he could ascertain the extent of his injuries and warm him up, but he couldn’t leave Charlie behind.
Then her words drifted back through his mind.“You have to promise me something.”
“Anything,” he’d said.
“If it ever comes between Dylan and me, you will pick Dylan and protect him no matter what.”
Everything in Jack rebelled against the idea of leaving hismateout here. If he could find Mike, he could give him Dylan, but he’d promised to choose Dylan over her. To do what she asked of him, Jack had to abandon his mate to a horrific fate.
He was meant to share his life with Charlie. She was the woman he loved more than he’d ever loved another, and she was his future. If he left her out here, he could lose her forever. Maybe drowning wouldn’t kill her, but he had no idea where she’d end up if the sea swept her away. And then there was the possibility something within the sea might kill her, or she would get caught up on something and trapped beneath the water forever.
If she survived and washed up on shore tomorrow, or a month from now, leaving her here would be condemning her to an excruciating existence for that amount of time. The idea of allowing his mate to endure such torture caused his fangs to lengthen. His hands tightened on Dylan when his teeth chattered in Jack’s ear.
He had to get Dylan out of here.
Another wave rolled in, shoving them toward the cliffs. Jack kicked against the current to keep away from the lethal rocks and spotted a head bobbing in the water fifty feet away from him.
“Mike!” he bellowed. “Are you okay?”
“Yes!” Mike shouted back.
“Do you see Charlie? I can’t find her!” He heard the frantic edge in his tone.
Mike twisted in the water as he searched the waves before turning to look helplessly back at Jack. “No!”
“Mom,” Dylan moaned.
Jack squinted against the blinding light the setting sun cast across the cresting waves. “I have to get you to shore,” Jack said to Dylan through his gritted teeth.
“No,” Dylan whimpered, and a shiver racked his tiny body. “Wait a minute more. We can’t leave her out here.”
Jack couldn’t argue with him when he wanted one more minute too.
And then, near the cliffs, he spotted what looked like a hand breaking the surface.
“There!” he shouted, but whatever he’d seen was already gone. “Hold on to me, Dylan.”
The boy clung to his shoulders as his legs remained locked around Jack’s waist. Jack kept one arm around Dylan’s waist while he used the other to propel him toward the cliffs. He saw a flash of something else, but it vanished too fast for him to tell what it was.
“Hold your breath,” he said to Dylan. “And if you have to return to the surface foranyreason, pinch me.”
“I will.”
Dylan took a deep breath before Jack dove beneath the waves. This close to the cliffs, the current was tougher to fight as it sucked at him and attempted to batter them against the rocks. Holding on to Dylan made things harder, but Jack resisted the pull of the ocean as he searched the gloomy depths for Charlie. All he saw was the bubbles of the water as it churned toward the cliffs.
He could stay under longer, and Dylan hadn’t pinched him yet, but he suspected Dylan would wait until the last second and then it might be too late. Jack’s instincts screamed at him to find his mate, but he had to keep Dylan safe.
He propelled them back to the surface and burst free of the sea as the sun vanished behind the horizon. When Dylan’s wheezing breath sounded in his ears, Jack knew he’d made the right choice.
“I didn’t… pinch you!” Dylan protested as he coughed out mouthfuls of water.
“I needed to come back up,” Jack lied.
“Go back under.”
Jack almost chuckled at Dylan’s commanding tone; it was so like his mother’s. “Get some more air.”
Dylan frowned at him, but his blue-tinted lips trembled, and the blue veins in his face were visible beneath his pale skin. The stubborn look in his eyes said that if Jack didn’t call an end to the search, Dylan would stay and search for his mom until hypothermia took him over.
