“Under normal circumstances,” Brooks murmured against my lips, “I might let you apologize, even if you didn’t need to, if it made you feel better. Not this time. If you hadn’t looked into the story, we wouldn’t have Aiden. And even if that weren’t true, you arenot at faultfor the actions of people who tried to kill you.”
Logan stood and came to the bed. Brooks made room for him to take my hand, lift it, and kiss the back. “Yes, we were scared. ButBrooks is right. That isn’t your fault.” He pulled his chair close enough so he could both sit and cradle my hand. “The five of us are struggling with the fact that we didn’t see the pattern. That we suspected the break-in was more serious, and we still let you walk out the door.”
I saw what he was saying without words. We were all going to feel guilty when we weren’t. We were all going to react to this differently, and that was okay. But my whole body and soul were unsettled. “I don’t know how to feel.”
Brooks smoothed my hair back with one smooth motion. “That’s okay.”
“I love you,” I whispered. “I haven’t said it to all of you, and I thought I’d never be able to.”
Logan made a noise low in his throat, choking back his own tears. “I love you so fucking much, and I couldn’t breathe thinking you might not know. But I do.” Taking a slow breath, he closed his eyes. “It’s fine that you don’t know how to feel, because none of us do. We’ll be okay, but it will take time.”
“I love you too,” Brooks said, finally perching on the side of the bed. “And I plan on telling you every day until the end of time.”
I swallowed slowly. “Can you tell me what happened from your side?”
“Yeah.” They did, filling in the details of how they found me. “Your blood sugar was through the roof when we got here. All the stress and adrenaline.” Brooks stroked a finger along the tube in my arm. “It’s better now, but they’ll be back to test again.”
Something tiny released between us. Him facing that same fear and being okay. A final healing in the middle of all the rest of it.
“Where is she?” a panicked voice said. “I’m going to make sure she’s okay before I kill her myself.”
It was Isolde. She came to the door, Ocean close behind her. “Oh, thank goodness.”
Brooks leaned in and kissed my forehead. “We’ll give you a couple of minutes.”
I wasn’t sure I wanted that. I loved my friends, buttheywere the only thing that made me feel safe. “Yellow,” I whispered. “Please don’t leave me. Please.”
He nodded once and glanced toward a chair on the other side of the room. “I won’t. Will you be okay if I sit over there?”
My breath shuddered in and out. “I think so.”
“I’m proud of you for telling me what you need.” He kissed my forehead one more time. There it was. The golden, hazy glow of approval and safety. So strong it nearly made me cry again.
It seemed silly that I needed to know things hadn’t completely changed in less than a day, but it helped.
My friends approached, Ocean with a small vase of flowers. The waythey both looked at me, between shock and horror, made me cringe. “Sorry I’m late.”
It broke the tension and Ocean shook her head, laughing once. “This is what I could pull together from what we had. They all either mean ‘healing’ or ‘alive.’”
The little bouquet was a chaotic riot of color and green leaves. It made me smile and brought a little lightness to the room. “Thank you.”
“Are you okay?” Isolde asked. “I mean, kind of a stupid question, but…”
“I’m alive. Other than that, I’m honestly not sure.”
“Yeah. That’s fair.”
I looked at Ocean. “Please thank your Alphas. They saved my life.” If the guys hadn’t had access to that helicopter, I would have been out of reach.
“They were happy to help.”
“You want to kill me?” I asked Isolde.
She laughed, but her eyes were teary. “No, but if you ever pull this again, I will absolutely kill you. Not that you pulled anything. You know what I mean.”
“I do.”
Ocean glanced between me, Logan, and Brooks. “It’s nice to meet you guys. I hope to meet the rest of you too. We’re not going to stay. We just wanted to see you.”