Chapter 115
“Is she painting?”
“Yes, all she does is paint.”
A that
That’s her way of coping with stress. She will just paint for days on end without saying a word to anyone when she’s upset. Cash, let me talk to her.” Clayton’s voice is very soft on the phone.
Cash’s jaw twitches slightly, teeth clenched together. He walks away upstairs with my phone in his hand.
It’s just us three at the table until Carson and Crane join us.
“Are vi
you all set, Carson?” Luna Grace looks at her son.
“Yes, everything’s ready.” He looks at his mother. He won’t look at me; it’s as if he is purposely avoiding me and my eyes.
This should be such a fun car ride home.
When we were training, he made it a point to never be alone with me and to surround
himself with females.
I take a second plate of food because I’m starving at the moment. I think that run in the woods made me really hungry. I couldn’t let my wolf kill the female animals it found, they
were loaded with young in their bellies, and I couldn’t have her kill them. We aren’t that hungry; we aren’t starving for that kind of eating, not like in the wild wolf pack.
Dallas said that he went to my house and put groceries in the fridge for me, cleaned everything up so it smells springtime fresh. He understands my thing with smells and how I like clean–smelling things.
He even got the garden ready for me. All we have to do is plant the seeds and watch them
grow.
15:28
The Alpha’s Greatest Mistake
Monday I’ll start back to work as if I never left. I guess there is an abundance of females ready to birth very soon, tallas said I’m going to be very busy. It’s going to feel good to get back to work and get a routine down.
By the time we’re done with dinner, the dishes are cleaned and put away, and we have some cookies for dessert. I take more than usual because I can’t stop eating, even though I am stuffed.
Kash
ash comes back down red eyed and puffy, as if he has cried a river of tears. He puts a silver scalpel on the table. That sharp edged blade has the potential to end everyone’s life here.
“Can you bring it back to the clinic? Kennedy stole it from the doctor. She was planning on using this on herself tonight. She needed the tarp so she wouldn’t get blood on the carpet. I need to go back upstairs, but I just thought everyone should know what she’s thinking now. Rya, tell Clayton thank you.” He hands me back my phone.
Bricks of silence start to stack up on the table from those sitting around it. The weight we feel is enough to break its sturdy legs.
Her plight is sorrowful to my soul.
Before I go, I need to talk to her, make things right between us. I couldn’t leave knowing that I haven’t done my part to ease her suffering. Even though she never bothered to help ease mine, I can’t sit back without doing something.
“Carson, what time do you want to leave?”
“I was thinking around seven.”
“Okay, sounds good.”
“We’ll see you in the morning, Rya.” Luna Grace with her hauntingly beautiful face sadly
smiles toward me.
Making my way to Cash’s room, I knock lightly on the door.
“Come in,” he calls out to me.
Entering the room they now share, she’s wrapped in his arms, cuddled into his side. Her nose is pressed against his chest, her eyes shut. Her shaved head makes her look so much
nger than she really is.
Closing the door behind me, I take a seat at his desk. I can see the pregnancy book that Kennedy bought that day, all dog–eared throughout, as if someone has been studying it intently. The spine broken, I wonder if I would find coffee stains inside the pages?
The swivel chair allows me to swing from side to side. I’m not sure where to begin.
Back and forth my emotions go, contemplating how to start things off.
“First thing, Kennedy, is this…if you die, your twins die a slow death. They will not get enough to eat; they can’t survive on human formula. One pup in the pack to feed is manageable. It could be done, but not two. It’s a great strain on the nursing mothers to try and provide what is meant for their young to feed someone else. They would have to let their pups go without while yours feed. It wouldn’t work. Cash would not only have your death to deal with but also the slow starvation deaths of his pups. Did you take that into consideration, Kennedy?”
I watch her shake her head no.
“You would be gone, but it’s the living that would have to deal with the effects of what you have done. You need some help. Let them help you. Trust me, the first step is just saying you need help. There’s nothing wrong with asking. There’s nothing to be ashamed of. Sometimes we get so sick that we can’t see clearly anymore. Ask for the help. You have a family around you now willing to give you what you need.”
C
