Broken Bond - Callie Rose Page 0,14

all worth it. She makes no comment on how full it is as she lifts the glass to her lips.

Ridge throws a dish towel on the orange juice puddles. I should thank him, but I’m too busy staring at her.

I take a seat across the table as Ridge brings over the finished eggs and Archer sets down the coffee carafe. For a while, there’s only silence as we fill our plates. Sable starts eating immediately, taking small, slow bites and chewing each for a long time, as if she’s getting used to the motions again. I keep my gaze riveted to her, ready to jump up for her every need. On either side of me, Ridge and Archer are poised to do the same. We watch, ignoring our own plates, as she gains momentum. The more food she puts away, the more clearly she’s regaining strength.

She looks around the table at one point, raising an eyebrow. “Aren’t you going to eat?”

The three of us react immediately. I reach for a piece of toast and shove it into my mouth while Archer slams his fork into a huge chunk of scrambled eggs and eats it in one go. Ridge looks away and takes a long gulp of his coffee, even though I can tell from over here that it’s gone lukewarm. None of us fool her.

Sable lays her fork down on her plate and sighs, her blue-gray eyes worried as she looks at each of us individually. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

I stop chewing and exchange glances with Ridge. There are a lot of emotions working through me; so many that I don’t even know where to begin. I lead my pack by action and quick thinking—not by any special talent for speaking my feelings and emotions.

Ridge, luckily, seems to have his head on straighter than I do. “Nothing is wrong, Sable. Nothing we can’t all face together anyway. We need you to know we won’t leave you. We won’t abandon you.”

I nod my agreement, my head bobbing like one of those big-headed dashboard dolls. He took the words right out of my thoughts, even though I had no clue how to reassure her the same way. I’ve never had to talk about this shit. Keeping emotions at bay, shoving them down deep, is something I’m good at. It’s why I’m a good alpha.

Not so good at being a possible mate, however. Can’t even pour a proper glass of orange juice. The dish towel is still on the floor making that point.

But even the inkling that I might not be a good mate to this woman bothers me. If Ridge and Archer can be sensitive and compassionate, then I fucking can too. Even if it means stepping outside my comfort zone.

“How are you feeling?” I ask. I mean for the words to come out kindly, but I’m in such a hurry to speak, to add my voice to the conversation, that I basically fumble over the statement and scream it at her.

Smooth. What the fuck is wrong with me? Why does she affect me like this?

But Sable just smiles weakly and rubs her chest with two slender fingers. “I can feel the magic inside me. It’s like… a rolling, throbbing sensation. A bit like having a stomach ache without the pain.” She sighs and picks at the eggs on her plate. “How could I have been a witch my whole life and not known? Was my uncle a witch? Or my parents? I just don’t understand.”

I school my face into something I hope looks like sympathy. She’s asking all the right questions—all the questions I have myself. But none of us have the answers. When it comes to witches, the only thing shifters know for certain is that they’re the enemy.

Even so, I’m also damn sure Sable isn’t my enemy at all.

I’m hoping Ridge or Archer knows the right thing to say, and I look to them to take the lead on this one. But before either man can speak, the sound of rustling drifts in from outside the open window.

Somebody’s out back.

6

Sable

My entire body stiffens, mirroring the postures of the three men around me. My fingers are still pressed to my chest where I can sense the magic inside me. Before the noise came from outside, my magic was light and fluttery, as if it were a butterfly in my chest. Now, as adrenaline rockets through me, the fluttery feeling has turned to a thick, rolling turmoil. I’m surprised the