Sighing, I held her tighter. “Please don’t make me drag it out of you, Rin. And don’t make me leave you with tears in your eyes.”
“I—” A shaky breath. “I just don’t like it when people leave.”
The way Cecil left her over and over again. Maybe it was because he often went without plans for when to return, and it was that anxiety taking hold.
“I’m not leaving you,” I whispered into her hair. “You know exactly when I’ll be back, and the others are going to keep you so busy you won’t even notice I’m gone.”
She didn’t say anything, so I pulled her back far enough to see her face, and she wouldn’t look at me. Tears leaked from the outside corners of her eyes, and another thought struck me. I stroked my thumb along her jaw. “You’re safe, Trinity. Nothing is going to happen to you while I’m gone.”
Her gaze snapped back to mine and her eyes went wide. My jaw clenched, and I shoved down the anger that swooped in. I’d been shooting in the dark with that one, wondering if I was right. Clearly I was.
Trinity hadn’t told us the full truth of why she wasn’t comfortable with her father’s pack. But I knew there was more to it than she said. And this felt less like she was upset about my leaving and more like she was afraid.
I pulled my phone from my pocket and texted Bastian. He was the only one up this early.
Logan
Get in here.
“Someday I’ll ask you what happened to make you afraid of someone leaving.”
She smiled, but it wasn’t real. “I’ll just miss you.”
“Don’t do that,” I said. “Don’t push me away.”
Trinity brushed her fingers over her cheek, removing some of the tears. “I feel silly. Like you said, you’ll be back soon. And I want you to go. It’s important to you.”
“You’re important to me too.”
That was as close as I’d come to saying how over my head I was when it came to her. Her beautiful eyes glossed over again, and I pulled her head to my chest once more. “When I get home, we’re going to talk about it,” I said, putting the command she needed into my tone. “It doesn’t have to be all at once, but we need to know. We’re in this with you, remember? We don’t want to trigger you. All we want to do is help.”
“I don’t want you to think about me like that,” she murmured. “You won’t see me the same way.”
“That’s not true.” She whined, and I wrapped my hand around the back of her neck to keep her with me. “It’snot. You are my Omega. That’s not going to change.”
“Okay.” She didn’t believe me, but she didn’t need to. Eventually she would. Trinity needed actions and not words. We would show her we were telling the truth.
“Bastian’s going to take you to his bed so you’re not alone. And if you need to cry, you cry, baby. Nothing bad is going to happen. I promise.”
As much as I wanted to take the time to pry every secret out of her right this second, I did have to leave, and teasing out whatever pain and fear this was would take time.
“Okay,” she said again.
“Come here.” I lifted her face to mine and kissed her again, purring until she relaxed, even though she still clung to me.
A soft knock came from the door, and Bastian came in. “Can you take her to your room?”
He nodded once, and I kissed Rin one final time. “I’ll be back before you know it, okay?”
Her face crumpled, but she nodded. “I hope you win.”
“If I do, it’s because I’ll be thinking about you.”
Bastian lifted her out of my bed and carried her away. Watching her disappear was like a splinter in my chest, because I knew that leaving would hurt her. I was going to strip out every unnecessary activity and get back here as soon as humanly possible. The countdown started now.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
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