Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
Brooks
The drive back to Sage’s brother’s house is mostly quiet. I sense she’s drained, and I rub my thumb along the back of her hand where it rests in mine. She’s staring out the window, eyes slightly glazed as though she’s not fully here.
“Are you okay, Petal?”
Sage blinks, then turns to face me. I’m pleased when she holds eye contact a bit longer than normal, though she still drops it quickly.
“Yeah,” she says, a confused dip to her eyebrows. “I just, I don’t know. I’m all messed up inside.”
“How do you mean?”
“Josh… My brother’s friend,” she hesitates, glancing away from me as her body tenses. “He says I’m his—”
A growl punches from my chest before I can stifle it and Sage startles in her seat, wide brown eyes darting to me. Shit. I force the growl to cut off, and attempt to clear my throat.
“I’m sorry, Sage. That wasn’t directed at you. My alpha instincts are perhaps a little possessive of you already.”
“Oh…” She doesn’t seem to know what to do with that, but I prompt her to continue before whatever she was going to share is lost.
“You were saying? About Josh?”
“I know he’s not mine. And I don’t want him to be.” She shudders and her lip curls up at the thought, settling one worry I had. “But still… It still hurts when he comes home smelling like…”
She doesn’t finish the thought, but I don’t need her to. The non-violent side of me is quickly losing ground, but I maintain my outward calm with a steadying breath of her lavender scent.
“He shouldn’t treat you that way, it’s not right.” The words feel like needles in my throat, but I push them out. She needs to know that she deserves better.
“I don’t want him, though. And,” she pauses, doe eyes meeting mine for another second. “I don’t want to be his.”
I squeeze her hand in mine.
“You aren’t his, Petal. You are your own, and if you’ll have me, I’d like to be yours too. I’d also be thrilled for you to be mine, but I don’t know if that’s what you need or want right now. Most important, you are yours, not his.”
She stares through the windshield, hardly blinking as the words sink in. Then she ducks her head, staring down at her lap where her free hand fidgets with the pleats of her blue dress. Her throat bobs with a hard swallow, then she speaks so softly I have to lean closer to hear.
“I’d really like that. For you to be mine… And maybe…”
I’m pulled up to a stop sign with no one around, so I turn toward her, keeping my foot planted on the brake.
“Come here, Petal,” I say, tugging her toward me.
She leans in, and I place a gentle kiss on her temple.
“That’s how it is, then. If that’s what you want. I’m yours, from this moment forward, whether you decide to be mine or not. And if you want to be mine, I’ll treasure you every single second of every single day.”
Her scent sweetens, but she pulls away and turns to her window. I can only hope she heard and believes my words.
It breaks my heart to have to let her go back into that house, especially seeing how dejected and tense she is as we pull onto their street.
I don’t think we have much of a choice, though.
Her scent sours, turning acrid and soapy when the house comes into view.
It’s on the tip of my tongue to offer to whisk her away from here, but I get the sense that would be too much, too fast. She was hesitant to agree to this date, and it was only a couple of hours.
Leaving forever? No, I can’t jump ahead that quickly.
Not yet.