Page 42 of Shaped By Discovery

Looking up, all I can see is the ceiling. The ladder goes to a ledge, almost like a hidden second floor.

My curiosity is piqued, and that’s all it takes for me to climb up.

The ledge opens into a room of sorts that is no more than a large box with a high peaked ceiling and a large window opposite me. It’s dark outside, but even still, just enough soft light streams in for me to see.

The other two walls are lined with shelves, much like the one in the dining room, but instead of bottles, they are full of books.

“Holy shit…”

This place is so cool. If this were my house, this is where I’d hide away.

“Is that another one of your weird insults?” Ryker asks as he climbs up the last rungs of the ladder to stand behind me. I can feel him, the heat of his body so close, but I make no move to step away, and neither does he.

“No,” a smile pulls at my lips, and I chuckle, remembering his lack of knowledge of swear words. “This one is one of amazement,” I admit.

“Glad you like it.” He steps around me, letting his fingers trail over the spines of books as he passes. A mass of blankets and pillows is just below the window, far too many to count. It spans from one bookshelf to the other, taking up most of the room and making a bed of sorts. He drops down onto it with a huff, and damn, it looks comfortable even if there isn’t a mattress. “I’ve never brought anyone up here before, or to the house for that matter, but this is the only real place to sleep other than the rug, and that’s not very comfortable.”

He tells me as if he’s speaking from experience, and while I don’t doubt him, I’m sure I’ve slept on worse. When I was younger, I often hid under my bed after a nightmare and would fall asleep down there. Scared the shit out of my mom the first time she came to wake me and couldn’t find me, but I felt safe there.

“Oh, I don’t mind. I’m just happy to be somewhere with a roof and four walls. I can sleep down there, no biggie,” I tell him, stepping back toward the ladder. "You’ve done enough for me already. I don’t need to put you out any further.”

“Just stay. You’re already up here.”

“It’s fine, really,” I assure him, swinging my leg back over the ledge where it lands on the ladder's top rung.

“Rena.”

My head snaps up at the sound of my name. His voice was quiet, hardly more than a breath, but it felt like he shouted it.

Our eyes meet across the small room, and once again, I feel trapped by his gaze, as if he's trying to tell me something. So many emotions swirl in the mix of purple that I can’t possibly grasp them all, but the one I have no problem identifying is one I often saw in myself as a child.

Loneliness.

“Please, stay.”

His voice doesn’t waver. There’s no sign of the emotions I see in his eyes, but that only makes it worse somehow. If he’d begged me to stay, it might be easier to say no, but he isn’t, even though I get the feeling he wants to.

What is it about him that keeps drawing me in like this? Is it because he reminds me of myself, back before the guys when I, too, was alone? Could it simply be because he was nice and offered to help me when he could have just as easily left me to fend for myself? Or is it something else altogether?

I don’t have an answer, and the more I think about it, the more I’m not sure I even need one.

Our gazes stay locked together as I debate what to do. In the end, I look away first. Looking around the room again, my eyes fall on the mass of pillows and blankets. There’s more than enough room for the two of us. Even with his size, we would have room to spare.

Sighing, I pull my leg back to rest on the platform.

“Okay.”

He doesn’t say anything, and I can’t bring myself to look at him as I walk to the far side of the ‘bed,’ opposite him, and plop down much like he did.

It’s surprisingly comfortable, and beast or not, I can’t help but roll around, burrowing deeper into the plush fabrics all around me.

"Good night, Ryker,” I whisper, unsure if he’s even still awake. Not that it matters because now that I’m comfortable, sleep pulls me into oblivion, and I go happily.

He’s lost his fucking mind. That’s the only thing that makes sense, and even that’s pushing it. I’m not sure what’s worse, though: Garrett’s crazy rambling that Serena went home or the fact that we’re listening to him. No, we might all just be a little crazy right now, it would seem, but I can’t bring myself to say anything against him as we follow him into the woods down the road. If he says he can help us find Rena, I’m willing to try.

We all are.

Her scent is here, though it’s not exactly strong, so I can’t tell if she was here recently or not. I can’t remember her coming out here at all this week, though, so I guess it’s possible. Another scent mixes with hers, and I’m unsure what it is. It’s potent and damn near suffocating, almost enough to overpower her scent as we head deeper into the woods.

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