I flinched. Keith noticed, and when his eyes met mine, they softened.
“Come on,” Keith said, his tone gentler now, “let’s find the others. Jonathan, you carry Colette.”
I turned my head into Griff’s small, thin chest and shook my head. I held onto him as tightly as I could. I didn’t know who to trust, but my gut told me to trust Griffin. He moved his hand into my good one and pulled me from the room.
The others followed, forming a triangle around us. Johnathan and his son, Teddy, were in front, and Keith behind. I kept looking back, expecting someone to stop us. Griffin placed an arm around my shoulders and pulled me close, careful of the arm I held to my chest.
The farther we went the more I fidgeted. I could smell a hint of outdoors, and I wanted to breathe in the fresh air. I made a small sound and Griffin shushed me. But I couldn’t help it. I wanted to see the sun and sky again. I needed to know this was real. My skin felt tight, excitement, and fear that this was too good to be true beat an unsteady rhythm on my heart. My movements became jerky. I hadn’t realized that I’d been crying until tears fell onto my arm.
John paused at a door. He looked back at us then pushed it open. I breathed in the warm, night air as we stepped out into a large parking lot littered with SUVs. The large vehicles were parked haphazard. None of the men outside were our torturers, but it didn’t stop me from drawing closer to Griffin.
“Griffin,” a loud voice boomed. The tallest man I’d ever seen strode towards us. He looked a lot like Griffin, but his hair was darker. I stumbled backwards in fear, trying to pull Griffin with me to protect him, but he held steady.
The man ripped Griffin from me, and I cried. It was like teeth gnashing on something deep inside me. I wanted to fight for Griffin. The enormous man was going to hurt him. But he wrapped his arms around Griffin in an embrace.
What was happening? While they hugged while the pain got worse.
“Dad, let go for a sec,” he said.
“No, son,” his breath caught, “Not when I finally have you back.” He pressed a kiss to Griffin’s head.
“Dad…” Griffin’s cry was laced with pain now as it wrapped around both of us. Was this simply from us being apart?
I fell to my knees, crying. Keith moved to help, but Griffin’s Dad had released him. Griffin wrapped his arms around me again. The pain stopped immediately.
“It’s okay, Lettie. It’s okay, now.” He hugged me, swaying us back and forth. “I’m going to let go, but I’ll be right here. You can grab my hand whenever you need to, okay?”
I nodded, sniffling. I was worried that if he let go we’d never see each other ever again. He hadn’t left me yet though. Griffin ran back and hugged his dad, whose glance flickered from me to his son with those familiar black eyes.
“Who is this?” his dad asked, still watching me.
“Colette,” Keith and Griff answered at the same time.
Keith had moved closer to me in Griffin’s absence. I drew a little closer, not wanting to feel alone.
“She was the only female taken, right?” Teddy asked.
“Yeah. Come on. We need to hurry up and see which pack she belongs with.”
The men started to move, and I went with them, not wanting to lose Griffin. We went farther into the parking lot. There were more of the tall men. I moved closer to Keith, trying to hide behind his long legs. He looked down at me and shook his head. He turned and scooped me up before I could react. I naturally wrapped my legs around his waist, and gently rested my injured arm between us. My other hand lay upon his firm chest. Keith rubbed my back as softly as he could.
“Shh, sweet Colette. It will be okay.” Keith’s voice was soothing. I relaxed in his arms.
“Caine, Bade, Brady,” Griffin’s dad called.
I peeked to see three large, tall men move towards us. A couple men eyed us, but didn’t move any closer. The one on the far right was the shortest, which wasn’t saying much. They were all extremely tall. The rightmost one was wider than the rest, with bright green eyes and dirty blond hair. He nodded once when Griffin’s dad said his name,