Cupping the back of her neck, I kiss her, lips lingering on hers. “Obviously. Not sure what you consider a good morning, but this certainly makes my top ten.”
“It pains me that you consider this such a good time,” she teases, mirroring my earlier sentiment, “when we’ve had several others I’d think would have made your list instead.”
Placing my hand on her lower back to guide her out the door, I wink. “If you’ll remember, I said topten.The first few being several moments that I’m sure you can recall, and the next couple, the nights I’ve laid awake replaying those memories.”
As we rejoin Damian and Bo, my blushing mate’s stolen from my side in an instant, the latter helping her get dressed. Since we’ll be stuck in the car for the majority of the day, he aimed for comfort with a pair of cotton shorts and a tank top, and I stiffen as soon as I remember we’re stopping to eat first. Internally scowling, I unbutton my shirt on my way across the room, holding it out expectantly for her to slip into.
She raises an eyebrow. “It has to be nearly eighty degrees out there. Howyouare even wearing a long-sleeved shirt is beyond me, but like hell I’m about to subject myself to that misery.”
Pressing the tip of my tongue to my tooth, I mentally count to ten before responding. “It’s lightweight, and with the amount of skin your outfit leaves on display, it’s either this, or someone else will need to drive today, because I’m not going to be able to focus on the road. If you insist on going out for lunch somewhere instead of hitting a drive through,” I trail off, letting the unsaid threat hang in the air.
“You guys are absolutely ridiculous, and using food as a threat is cruel and unusual torture.” Regardless of her protests, she stuffs her arms in the sleeves of my white dress shirt. “I weep for your future offspring’s eating disorders. Can we go eat now?”
There’s my girl, I knew you were still in there somewhere.
Her purple tank top is visible beneath the fabric, drawing attention to her chest, but it’s better than nothing, and I’m counting this as a victory. A quick glare at Boden shuts him up before he makes a single comment about her phrasing of the offspring quip, because this is absolutely not the time or place to addthatstressful topic on top of everything else.
By the time she's gently working a brush through her hair with the occasional wince, Hunter returns with a bag from the gas station down the road. “Here.” He offers it to her, and the second she takes it from him, he strides past without another glance. “Grabbed a few options, and some pain killers, too.” Picking up a couple of the bags in the corner, he heads back to load the truck, missing the flash of regret on Sabrina’s face.
“Hunter?” she timidly asks, and he pauses in the doorway, but still doesn’t turn around. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it the way that came out earlier.”
“You did, but I don’t blame you,” he replies easily, continuing out the door.
He stumbles on his next step as she blurts, “No, I meant I don’t get why it was a guarded secret from you three when you live right next to the Slaughters, but Stonewood knew what they were up to. They’ve been getting shipments for who knows how long, yet not a single person around here has ever used one of those syringes before? Bullshit. More like they’ve been experimenting over the years trying to get the right results, which means the Slaughters were using people here as test subjects to perfect the drug and keeping it a secret from the packs around their home, so that doesn’t bode well for any of usgoingthere. I was struggling to figure out what was nagging at me about it with only just waking up and feeling like crap, is all.”
Twisting the cap off of her soda, she drinks half of it in one long pull, sighing in pleasure and instantly perking up between that, and making some sense of her jumbled thoughts now that she’s voicing them aloud. Forehead creasing as she furrows her brow, she looks between me and Boden. “You said your fathers got increasingly worse in their aggression until they shifted and started attacking people in the middle of the city? Maybe they were part of the initial trials.”
Thankfully Bo pipes up, because I’ve suddenly lost the ability to speak. “They didn’t have any need for a drug that would release their wolves. They could shift, had a mate.”
Taking another drink, she strums her fingers on the bottle, head slightly tilted and eyes glazed over. She’s staring straight ahead, but not really seeing, lost in her head as she contemplates things.
Haltingly, she eventually says, “We don’t know what they were told. If Stonewood pitched it as something to make them stronger, it could have simply been like getting them hooked on steroids; they might never have even known what they were a part of. And theoretically, if Brent wasn’t sure what this stuff would do, he wouldn’t want to test it on his own men right off the bat. Could have gotten your dads addicted to it, and once they saw what it was doing to them, how they were destroying themselves and pissing off every pack in the area as they became worse and worse assholes, it would seem a good opening to eliminate some competition with Emmy getting closer to the age she could be mated off. Two birds, one stone.”
Clearing my throat, my voice is still rough as I catch onto where she’s going with this. “And from there had some data to give to the Slaughters, who adjusted the formula. Most of the men in Stonewood’s pack became more open about being assholes after our parents died, but we assumed it was because they were growing more confident in their place in the power structure and simply stopped pretending to be decent people.”
Bo curses. “But they were likely the next wave of people taking it, Brent confident enough to start experimenting on his own pack. Motherfucker. You tell any of those men they had a chance of being able to shift without waiting for a mate, and they’d have been lining up to volunteer.”
Damian slowly approaches Sabrina so that he won’t startle her. Smoothing a hand up her arm, he waits until she blinks a few times, snapping out of her pensive state before he speaks. “Which is all the more reason why we should get back on the road. They’ll hear about what happened, know what that drug can do now, and likely be thrilled at creating killing machines more dangerous than any wolf, even if thereareside effects. If we don’t do something soon, there will be nothing stopping them from starting a war that we can’t hope to win.”
Hunter sets the suitcases down, stepping back in the room with an expression made of stone. “D, can I talk to you outside?”
Damian ignores him, pleading with her. “But they won’t take that risk of unleashing a bloodbath with you there, when you could get hurt or scare you away before telling them where your mom is hiding. We can buy ourselves some time to get them on our side before Ash gets wind of what they’re doing an-”
Grabbing Damian’s shoulder, Hunter hauls him away from Sabrina and snaps, “You’re talking about offering her up to the devil as a distraction. What the actual fuck iswrongwith you!? There’s no guarantee the Slaughters are going to be concerned about her safety. For all we know, the second we show up they might slit all of our throats and lock her in a basement to torture until she gives them the information they want.”
Smacking his arm away, Damian seethes through gritted teeth, “Because I believe inher.”
“She’s not some prophesied savior! Not a fallen angel come to grace us with her presence, or fight off the demons that plague us. She’s just a girl, as cursed as the rest of us, if not worse because she was saddled with mates that think she’ll solve all of the problems that they couldn’t handle themselves.”
Shoving Damian away from him, Hunter stalks back to the door and snatches up the fallen bags. “We’re supposed to be the ones taking care ofher,protectingher.Not making her fight our battles. Let her just... exist without trying to force some greater purpose onto her shoulders.”
We watch him storm away, none of us knowing the first thing to say. Damian stares at the open doorway for a solid minute before shooting Sabrina a look begging for understanding, and then jogs out of the room to catch up with his friend. It leaves Bo, Sabrina, and I dumbstruck, standing around in mutual silence, and I’m helpless to do anything other than watch her for a sign of how I’m supposed to react.
Everything that came out of Hunter’s mouth was an additional blow making me feel like shit, pulverizing the newfound purpose I’d only settled upon twenty minutes ago. She came into our lives and I looked at her as a light in the darkness, a beacon of hope for our future. And when things got hard, I passed the reins her way, taking a step back so I could offer support for whatever future she wanted to create, but is that really much different than what Damian was talking about?
Dangling the potential demise of his, Kaige, and Hunter’s packs in front of her to guilt her into putting herself at risk was an asshole move, but I recognize the desperation that was on his face. After all, how many awful things have I done in a bid to protect my family over the last few years, to save Emmy? And Sabrina... it’s impossible not to think of her as a blessing, a gift far too good for the damned. She’s everything; light and hope, an angel. I’d tear out my heart and place it at her altar, if only to keep her in my life, to worship her in every sense of the word.
Yet every decision we make when it comes to her will be wrong, because nothing we’re capable of will ever be enough for someone that deserves everything.
