The Awakening Aidan - By Abby Niles Page 0,68

sad smile graced her friend’s lips. She handed Jaylin a bottle of water and a muffin. “Thought you could use some energy.”

“Thanks.” She took both, but placed them on her lap, and went back to staring at the animal that stared back at her.

Pam came around the chair. “You need to eat, Jaylin. You’re starting to worry me. You’ve been living off nothing but coffee for days. It’s not healthy.”

Jaylin glanced down at the muffin in her lap, but couldn’t bring herself to eat it. Her stomach was so tied in knots the idea of food made it twist even tighter. “Do you know the last words he said to me before this nightmare began?”

Pam paused, biting her bottom lip. “You haven’t said much of anything since you got back.”

Because she couldn’t find the strength to talk. All she seemed to be able to do was stare at the animal and hope. Hope that this was a dream and she’d wake up. When that dwindled, she hoped she’d see a sign of Aidan, which then led to hope that Trevor would slam through the door with a “Eureka, I’ve got it,” and everything would become normal again.

Hope. She was running out of it.

“He said he wished he’d never laid eyes on me.” She covered her hand with her mouth, smothering a sob. She’d never said the words out loud, but they had replayed so much in her head over the last week she thought she’d go crazy. “And he still sacrificed himself to save my life. I’ve never done anything good for that man. Even he knew it in the end.”

Her friend squeezed her hand. “I don’t know what caused him to say that, but I don’t believe a word of it. You’re his mate. He could no sooner hate you than leave you.”

“But he has, hasn’t he.”

“Not by choice, Jaylin. The device did this, not you.”

“Didn’t I? I continuously pushed him away, reminded him we’d never be together the way he wanted. What if I killed his will to fight?”

Pam lifted an eyebrow. “We are still talking about Aidan O’Connell, correct? That man has more fight in him than anyone I know.”

That he did. “Why isn’t he coming back, then?”

“I don’t know, but I can pretty much guarantee that he’d do it all again if he knew it was the only way to save you.”

“Sad, isn’t it? He’d willingly give his life for a woman who refused to be loved by him. That was all he wanted, Pam. To love me, and I refused him.” Her throat tightened on another sob and she covered her face in her hands, allowing all the emotions she’d kept locked away to flow free. Pam took her into her arms, holding her tight. When Jaylin pulled back, her friend was blurry through her tears. “W-why did I refuse him? I’d take it all back now if I could.”

Maybe if she’d bonded to him, she could’ve used that bond to reach him now. She could feel that he was okay. But all she had was this uncertainty that she’d ever feel whole again, that he’d ever be whole again, and it terrified her.

“I know you would, and there’s still hope.”

There was that word again.

“How? Trevor has tried everything he could think of, fixing his favorite meals, playing his favorite music, having Liam and Britton talk to him. You’ve even shocked him with the Splycer under sedation. What’s left to try?”

The day Liam and Britton had tried to get through to Aidan, and hadn’t, had been a devastating blow. It was one thing that she couldn’t get through to the human side of him. She understood Aidan probably wanted nothing to do with her, but his two best friends?

Ever since, Liam had pretty much snarled at her the same way the cougar did, and kept his distance. Britton was another story. Something was off with that man. The tall, black-haired shifter spent almost as much time standing in the room as she did. One moment she’d be alone and the next he’d be beside her, arms crossed tight across his chest, his face a mask of tension, but he never tried to connect with the beast in any shifter manner.

She’d asked him to, once, hoping since Liam had been unable to spur on the change Britton could shift and spend time with Aidan in his animal form, possibly connecting to him in a way only another close shifter could. The fury in his electric-blue eyes