Chapter 34 Crew
They arrive at three in the morning.
I hear the car from the bedroom where Remi is sleeping, curled against me in the nest Knox built, her body radiating heat.
Dr. Avery left an hour ago with instructions to keep her hydrated, and keep the room cool. When the heat breaks, she'll need protein within thirty minutes. If her temperature exceeds a hundred and four, call immediately.
Her temperature is a hundred and two, and slowly climbing.
I ease out of the nest. She murmurs but doesn't wake. I pull the blanket around her and go downstairs.
Knox comes through the front door first. He's carrying Isabella.
Her head against his shoulder, her legs across his arms, her eyes closed but not sleeping.
Steele is behind him. Exhausted. His eyes find mine and the look he gives me is the one that means later. Everything I need to know later. Right now, just be here.
River Silver walks in last.
He doesn't belong in this house. He's Remi's brother, not pack, but he's here because he found Isabella. He stands in Knox's marble entryway with his hands in his jacket pockets and his green eyes tracking Isabella the way a man tracks something he can't look away from.
Knox carries Isabella to the open-plan kitchen. Sets her on the couch at the far end and kneels in front of her.
Isabella opens her eyes. She looks at her brother. "I should go home."
"Bella, let me find out who is leaving the notes and gifts first. Please," Knox replies.
She looks past him. Around the room. Taking in the house, the walls, the space she knows. Her gaze travels across Steele, across me, and lands on River. She looks at him for three seconds longer than she looks at anyone else.
"Okay. A few days. That's all."
"Can I get you something?" I ask. "Water? Tea?"
"Water," she says. Her voice is thin. Not broken, just thin, as if it's been pressed flat with exhaustion.
I go to the sink, fill a glass, return to the couch, and set it on the side table.
"Thank you." Isabella takes it and drinks with a trembling hand.
Knox hasn't moved from his knees. Steele is leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, watching his brother with the expression of a man who is seeing something he didn't think existed.
Knox’s jaw is clenched. “I’ll find out who is doing this to you.”
“I think I just need to get away from here for a bit. Go somewhere nobody knows me.”
Knox glances at the ceiling. "I'm sorry, Isabella. Sorry for not doing this right." He stops. Swallows. "I thought I was protecting you. But–"
Isabella puts her free hand on his head. “You were."
Steele crosses the room. Puts his hand on Knox's shoulder. Knox flinches, and then he doesn't. He leans into Steele's hand.
"She's here," Steele says. "We're all here."
Knox nods.
I go back to the doorway.
River hasn't moved from the entryway.
He's watching Isabella drink water with an expression I recognize because I've worn it.
The expression of a man whose body is telling him something his brain hasn't caught up with.
His hands are still in his pockets, but his shoulders are angled toward her, and his breathing has changed, and I can see from fifteen feet away the tension of an alpha who is fighting every instinct he has to cross a room.
Isabella sets the glass down and looks at River again.
"Thank you," she says. "For finding me."
"You don't need to thank me."
"I want to."
River's jaw tightens.
Knox lifts his head, pushes his hair back with one hand. The Knox I know is reassembling himself, the walls going back up, I just hope he isn’t going to go caveman alpha over Remi again..
"She needs to sleep," Knox says.
Isabella stands. River steps forward before catching himself.
Knox sees it.
"Stay," Knox says.
"I'm fine," Isabella replies, taking a step.
River's hand lands on her arm. Isabella looks up at him. He's tall. She has to lift her chin. And the look on her face isn't gratitude. It's recognition. The same look Remi has with her alphas. The look of a body finding something it didn't know it was searching for.
"Thank you," she says again. "And I'm sorry for having everyone worried. I just—"
"You're welcome." River doesn't let go of her elbow.
Knox watches. His mouth opens. Closes.
"River," I say.
He looks at me. Then at Isabella. Then releases her elbow. The separation is reluctant, his fingers trailing away.
I lean against the counter. River stands by the window.
"She's going to need someone with her tonight," I say. "Remi is upstairs and her heat is about to hit."
I wait for him to process that his sister is going to be with me, Steele, and Knox.
I wait for him to yell. But he doesn’t.
"I can stay with Isabella," River says.
I exhale. "You’re sure?"
"She has someone leaving notes at her apartment." River's voice is steady, but something underneath it is not. "I'm not leaving her alone tonight."
I look at him. Green eyes, the same as Remi's. The same inability to pretend they don't feel what they feel.
"Okay," I say.
"River is going to stay," I say to Knox. "In case Isabella needs anything during the night."
Knox's expression cycles through four things in two seconds. Protectiveness. Suspicion. Exhaustion. Then something unexpected.
Relief.
"There are two beds in that room and both are made up," Knox says.
Isabella looks at River. River looks at Isabella.
Something passes between them.
"Goodnight," Isabella tells the room. Her eyes stay on River.
"Goodnight, Bella," Steele says.
Knox kisses her forehead. She turns and we watch her walk away with River behind her. His hand hovers at the small of her back.
Not touching.
Knox turns to me. "How is Remi?"
"Her temperature is climbing. The booster is working. Dr. Avery wants her to rest, she thinks the heat will break in the next few hours."
"You and Steele stay with her. I need to make some calls."
"I will." I look at the man who Steele told me had cried on his knees when he found his sister, and is now standing in his kitchen giving orders because that's the only language he knows. "You did well tonight, Knox."
His jaw works. He nods as he turns away.
He can't take kindness. Not yet.
Steele catches my arm as I pass. "I'll be up soon. Let me help Knox. But the moment she needs us—"
"I'll call."
He nods. I glance back at Knox. He's already on his phone, his back to us, giving instructions to Dante.
I walk past the guest room where River is standing in the doorway while Isabella sits on the edge of the bed. She's saying something and he's listening with his whole body angled toward her, as if she's the only frequency he can hear, and I keep walking because that story is not mine.
I climb the stairs and walk to the room at the end.
Remi is where I left her. In the nest. She’s shaking in her sleep. The temperature in the room has climbed. Her scent hits me from the doorway, heavy and sweet, flooding the room. My body responds with a shiver that has nothing to do with the heat.
"Crew?"
"I'm here." I grab the thermometer.
"You didn't wake me. I'm burning up." A pause. "Will you hold me?"
"Always," I say as I climb into the nest and pull her against me. Her skin is an inferno.
"Is Isabella safe?"
"She is. Open up.”
"And Knox and Steele."
"We're all here." I press my mouth to her hair. "Relax and open."
This time she obliges. She lies still for a half-minute, breathing shallow. Skin flushed and hot. Then a low groan, her fingers digging into my arm.
I pull it out and check the temperature. Still inside.
"I can't hold on anymore." Her voice is rough. "Crew, I can't relax. I need... I need my alphas. All of them. Please."
"We're here." Knox's voice, from the doorway.
He stops at the edge of the nest. Waits.
Remi reaches for him.
He takes her face in his hands and presses his forehead to hers.
"We're all here for you," he says.