Moon Child (The Year of the Wolf #2) - Serena Akeroyd Page 0,122
as she turned into me too, kissing the side of my face as she did so.
Austin staggered back a half-step, then dropped to the ground at my side. I felt him watching, but not judging, staying silent for once in his life as he let me have this moment.
Let me have this release.
She hummed a song I didn’t recognize as she held me, as the knot tied us together forever, and whispered, “Let it out, baby. Let it out.”
There was nothing to let out.
Nothing.
So why was I this fucked up over what had gone down?
“Because, and you guys forget this too much, you’re part human. You’re not all beast.” She kissed me again. “I love you.”
The words were whispered in my ear, and not my mind. “I love you too.”
Austin shuffled closer, and when his thigh pressed against mine, I knew he was too close for comfort, but close where we were concerned was neither here nor there. He was my twin. My wombmate.
His words were muffled, telling me he’d pressed his face into some part of her body, as he mumbled, “I love you.”
“And I love you.”
So many ‘I love yous’ and all of them needed right about now.
How long we sat there like that, our limbs entangled, our bodies connected, I’d never know. But then her scent changed, turning deeper, richer. Fuller. Like a full-bodied red wine that was blossoming as it aerated, developing a million more essences, tangs, and perfumes.
I pulled my face away from her throat to stare up at her, seeing a future in her eyes I could never have imagined, that I would never have dared to dream of.
So, smiling at her, I whispered, “Sabina, I have something to tell you.”
Eighteen
Austin
I hated saying goodbye. Even if it was only goodbye for now, I fucking hated it.
And I hated even more that we were bidding farewell to Daniel to save that prick kid, Seth.
Giving him a squeeze one last time, I muttered, “Daniel?”
“Yeah, Austin?” He peered up at me with shining eyes that seemed to see all my guilt and shame and distress, because he grinned at me. “Don’t be sad. I’ll be home again one day.”
My jaw worked at that. “You know this is home, though, don’t you?”
He nodded. “Sure do.”
I squeezed his shoulder. “You’re my kid, yeah?”
His smile beamed at me. “Yep.”
My throat felt a little too choked, so when Eli grabbed him, hauled him into his arms for a tight hug, I let him, and watched when Ethan did the same.
All of us had fallen for the kid. Over math lessons that none of us really understood, except for Ethan, boring Civil War stories that were for history class, and trying to undo the shit his father had put into his head, he’d become ours.
And we were sending him away.
It felt so fucking wrong, I couldn’t stand it.
My hands balled into fists as I watched Ethan whispering something in his ear, and I twisted around to look at the SUV that was going to take him and Seth to the airport so they could catch a plane to Miami.
Seth was already in there. Staring straight ahead like he didn’t give a fuck about leaving home, and maybe he didn’t. We hadn’t dared let Maribel see him, just in case he did something crazy like try to kill her again, and whether or not he’d recognize he was leaving his father behind was something we hadn’t asked. Leon was driving them both to the airport, so they’d have their goodbye there, I guessed. But I couldn’t see it.
Seth, as bizarre as it was, only seemed to respond to Daniel. Nobody else.
“He’ll be okay,” Eli muttered to me.
“I know he will, but I don’t like it.”
“Me either,” my elder brother admitted. “Me either.”
“We don’t have much choice,” Ethan rasped as we all watched Sabina bend over to hug Daniel tight. She squeezed him harder than any of us did, and to be honest, I envied her the tears she willingly shed.
Daniel didn’t seem too upset by the situation, not like I’d imagined he’d be, especially when I’d seen his terror when Todd had come sniffing around, trying to get him tossed out of the pack. But then, I guessed this was a kind of relief. He would still be with a pack, it just wouldn’t be us.