Page 22 of Met Your Mate

A grunt sounds. "Let me go," Casey snarls low, shocking a hushed whine from my throat.

I want to move, to see if this is real, if my fourth mate is actually here with me, but I can't move. Instead of rolling like I had planned, I think I curl even further in on myself. I'm completely naked and forcing a fetal position beyond something that would be considered comfortable.

I just can't face it. Reality. I don't know what's what anymore and I'm terrified I'll never see my pack ever again.

"Even if you're just a beta with no knot or bite to provide her, I think she needs to sink her teeth into your throat. Maybe then she'll stop trying to wither away."

Is that what I'm doing? That's a great way to explain it, I guess. I feel like I'm nothing but a shell of myself and my omega sinks deeper as time moves around us.

"Isn't this how you wanted her?" Casey spits out, making the hairs on my arms stand on end. "Nothing but a hole and a breeder?"

My beta's words are like a stab to the gut, over and over again until I realize the faint high pitch noise ringing through the room is coming for me.

"Just fucking fix her, beta. She's just killing herself at this rate and I won't have all my work flushed down the drain because you failed!"

Feet stomp, then a door slams closed. Am I alone? It's quiet for so long that I begin to believe I did actually hallucinate the whole argument, but the slightest sound makes me shift ever so slightly.

There it is again; a soft sniffle. And another.

Then the most beautiful, broken word I have ever heard. "Baby?"

Casey's nickname for me.

He's really here.

Chapter Twenty

CASEY

"Baby?" I croak after standing still like a goddamn idiot for way too long. Who the hell doesn't immediately fling themselves at their clearly broken fucking mate?! Me, apparently.

God, I'm such a terrible fucking beta and yet I swear she releases a relaxed sigh at the sound of my voice. I can't see her face, only her pale back with its protruding spine.

I swallow and take one step forward. It feels like all the nightmares I've had of Freya when she's been missing. Like no matter how hard I try, I'll never truly be able to help my mate. I won't ever find her, heal her. I won't be enough.

Like that guy said, I have no knot or bite to give her. How can I possibly help her now?

I take another step, my bare feet making no sound whatsoever, but I stop and look back at the supplies they brought in with me. It's not much, just a bucket of water and some rags, but I'll make it work.

I have to make it work.

I can't get lost in what this should be.

Running my omega a hot bubble bath, cleaning our pack bed sheets, and snuggling her into the early morning. I would brush her pretty, long platinum locks for as long as she would let me. Obviously give her a massage and?—

No, I can't think about a fantasy when my very real mate is fucking shaking on the floor three feet in front of me.

"Okay, baby, come here," I whisper, not wanting to startle Freya as I approach her.

Before I reach her though, I quickly slip out of my jeans, tug my boxers briefs off and immediately step into my pants again, trying not to feel weird that I just did that without her knowing.

Shucking my sweatshirt off too, I kneel beside her and reach my trembling hand out to her shoulder, afraid of what I'll see when I finally expose her face. Freya sniffles and jolts when my fingertips graze her clammy skin, but it doesn't deter me. If anything, the longer she goes without responding to me, the more determined I am to fix this.

The alphas helped her, saved her, but my sweet omega needs me now, and I won't fail her. I won't let my girl down like I've been doing for years. Not ever again. I have to do my best even if it will never be as good as her alphas.

As gently as possible, I roll her onto my long sleeve that I will for sure be snuggling her into as soon as I get her cleaned up. I fold my boxers and tuck the makeshift pillow beneath her head. Freya's eyes barely flutter at the change of position, and it gets increasingly harder to hold my panic at bay when I notice her shallow breathing.

Her neck and chest are littered with hickeys and love bites from her mates. As much as I want to leave my own mark there, now isn't the time. But will it ever be? I shake that morbid thought away and take a deep inhale while pressing the back of my hand to her forehead.

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