“Sky wants me to sit with him while he’s in the tub. He doesn’t want to be alone.”
Adam nodded slowly. “Why don’t you try to bring his spirits up, and I’ll run to the store for a few items to make some state-of-the-art comfort food for dinner. Sound good?”
I beamed at him. “You’re the best husband ever.”
He cracked a grin back. “I know.”
I returned to the bathroom with the items I promised and sat beside the tub while Sky immersed himself in the hot water. The candles flickered gently as the steam made the scent of lavender that much more potent.
Neither of us said much of anything while he soaked; we just shared silence. My heart ached for the young man who’d been through hell and back, wishing I could somehow fix it and do more than put a bandage on his pain.
We spent the rest of the day watching trash TV and eating comfort food. True to his word, Adam made a big pot of gruyere macaroni and cheese and smoked sausage, which was delicious and probably a million calories, but I didn’t even care. Sky dozed off in my lap while I played with his hair, and Adam and I exchanged a look.
As night fell, we got ready for bed. We said goodnight to Sky and retired to our own room.
Today had been a lot. Today had been a lot. I felt emotionally drained, and Adam also seemed exhausted. We curled up together and settled in to sleep, and I was nearly there when a soft knock on the door startled me back to consciousness.
Frowning, I rolled out of bed and went to open it. “Sky?”
Sky stood there, hugging his arms to his chest. He looked anxious and almost haunted, his bottom lip caught between his teeth.
“Can I…” He hesitated, swallowed, then tried again. “Is it okay if m-maybe I sleep in here tonight?”
That surprised me. I glanced over my shoulder at Adam, who was staring at us, his expression unreadable. Who knows what was going through his mind. The last time we’d slept with another man, it hadn’t gone so well, but that was in the past—and this wasn’t sexual, anyway.
This was about comfort.
Adam nodded and pulled the covers back. I opened the door the rest of the way to let Sky in, then closed it behind him, and we both returned to bed.
Sky climbed up onto the mattress, taking up the space between us, while I took the other side. I pulled the blankets over me and curled in, and I found my heart was racing in the strangest of ways as the younger Omega all but latched onto me, whispering a soft, “Thank you…”
We nestled in, but I wasn’t able to sleep. Not until I felt Sky relax fully, his breathing going soft and even as he fell under the comfort of slumber.
Swallowing the lump of emotion in my throat, I spoke softly into the silence. “Adam?”
“Right here, kitten,” Adam replied. “I’m right here.”
Calmed by my mate’s reassurance, I closed my eyes and wondered: What happened next?
14
SKY
I woke up alone.
It took me a moment to realize where I was, but Adam’s smooth cedar-and-citrus scent mixed with Fletcher’s much sweeter elderberry blended together in the sheets, reminding me I’d slept in here last night. With them.
I wrapped myself up in the blankets, surrounding myself with their scent and letting it calm my skipping-a-beat heart as memories of yesterday flooded my mind anew.
Pain tore through my chest, fresh, raw, and red. All of those stories, the ones I painstakingly written in my notebooks, the tales I told myself to justify the horrible truths that had happened to me—they were all a lie.
River never loved me. River never wanted me, or cared for me the way I believed he did. Of course, now it made sense that he’d move on and take a mate and have a pup of his own, one that wasn’t tainted by incest and memories of a terrible past.
I should’ve just been thankful that he got me out of there, instead of ditching me when he had the chance and leaving me to rot in that hellhole.
Fresh tears spilled hot. I hugged Fletcher’s pillow to my chest, burying my face in it.
What happened next? Did I really just keep going to therapy and learn to cope with the truth? Try to move on with my life? Stay with Adam and Fletcher until I met my future-Alpha, the one who would calm the wild in my soul. The one to whom I’d get married and start a family with, but even then, would I even be a suitable parent? Or would the past always come back to haunt me?
