22. Crew
Camilla’s soft breaths whisper across my cheek as I press closer to her. It doesn’t seem to matter how close I get, it’s not enough. As much as I struggle to admit this, even to myself, being without her, even for a few days, made me question every single decision I’ve ever made. Every single moment that led us to her being taken.
And now that I finally have her back, I’m not sure how I’m going to let her out of my sight. I’ve yet to close my eyes because I’m afraid if I do, this will all just be a dream. That she’ll still be with Davenport when I wake up, and we’ll be no closer to bringing her home.
“Are you ever going to go to sleep?” Bishop murmurs from the other side of her.
“No,” I reply, pressing a kiss to her temple.
“We should have checked she wasn’t hurt before we got her into bed. We should have had Rogers check her.”
I sigh. “It’s just the cut on her neck, I checked it when you all fell asleep. It’s dried up and is beginning to scab over, so I don’t think it needs stitches.”
“And what about the injuries we can’t see?”
Camilla chooses then to roll her head toward him and buries her face in his bare chest. It’s not lost on me that when we all filed in here after Kaos brought her home, it was the first time we’d shared a woman like this. With no sex, no touching, all of us just needing to be near her, and it just confirms what I already knew. That the little menace in our arms is everything we never knew to wish for.
“He didn’t touch her,” Kovu murmurs from his place between her legs. “She wouldn’t let all of us touch her like this if he had.”
Kaos makes a noncommittal sound of agreement, and it doesn’t surprise me that he’s not asleep. His body is way too big for that armchair, and the few times I’ve looked up at him, his neck has been at an angle I’m not envious of.
This is the most complete our family has felt since Caleb died, and I lean into the feeling, knowing that when we leave this room, war will be at our doorstep.