Sort of like someone teaching a baby to swim in the ocean.
During a tsunami." Adam hadn't gotten up when I did, and when I looked at him, his face was grayish underneath his tan.
He had his eyes closed, and he was sitting as if moving would be very painful.
"Not your fault, Mercy.
I asked you to open up to me." "What happened?" I asked him.
Adam opened his eyes, and they were as yellow as I'd ever seen them.
"Full-throttle overload," he said.
"Someone probably should call Darryl and Warren and make sure they're all right.
They stepped in without notice and helped tuck you back into your own skin." "I don't remember," I said warily.
"Good," said Samuel.
"Fortunately for us all, the mind has a way of protecting itself." "You went from fully closed to fully open," Adam said.
"And when you opened yourself up to me, the mate bond settled in, too.
Before I realized what happened you ..." He waved his hands.
"Sort of spread out through the pack bonds." "Like Napoleon trying to take over Russia," said Samuel "There just wasn't enough of you to go around." I remembered a bit then.
I'd been swimming, drowning in memories and thoughts that weren't mine.
They'd flowed over me, around me, and through me like a river of ice--stripping me raw as the shards passed by.
It had been cold and dark; I couldn't breathe.
I'd heard Adam calling my name ...
"Aurielle answered," reported Ben from the hallway.
"She says Darryl is fine.
Warren's not picking up, so I called his boy toy's cell.
Boy will check up and call me back." "I bet you didn't call him a boy toy to his face," I said.
"You can effing believe I did," answered Ben with injured dignity.
"You should have heard what he called me." Kyle, Warren's human boyfriend, who in his day job was a barracuda divorce lawyer, had a tongue that could be as razor-sharp as his mind.
I'd bet money on the outcome of any verbal skirmish between Kyle and Ben, and it wouldn't be on Ben.
"Is Dad all right?" asked Jesse.
The wolves moved aside almost sheepishly to let her through--and I realized they must have kept her away while the matter was still in doubt.
Judging by Adam's eyes, he held on to control by a gnat's hair--so keeping his vulnerable human daughter away had been a good idea.
But I knew Jesse--I wouldn't have wanted to have been the one keeping her back.
Adam got hastily to his feet and almost didn't lean on Mary Jo-- who'd put her hand out when he swayed.