Page 141 of The Beta's Blind Date

His nose is tipped with pink, his eyes are puffy, and his cheeks are stained with tears. He sets his hands on my shoulders and takes a deep breath.

“You should go. Spend some time with your mate.” He glances at Taryn and smiles at her.

I shake my head, and Taryn rubs my back. “I don’t want to leave you. You shouldn’t have to go through this alone.”

“I’ll be fine,” he says, squeezing my shoulders. “Bonding with your mate is more important than—”

Another coughing fit hits him, and he lets go of me, covering his mouth and gripping the bedding again, his knuckles turning white. Taryn moves around me and rests her hand on his arm, pulsing more of her golden healing magic into him.

“We don’t mind staying,” she says, her voice cracking. “I can’t save your wolf or heal a broken heart, but I can ease some of your pain, at the very least.”

My arm wraps around her waist and I slide closer to her, my lips kissing her shoulder. Selfless. Brave. Strong. Fierce. This female is all that and more.

And she’s mine.

“No,” my dad insists, shaking his head and frowning at her. “I can’t ask you to do that. I don’t want you putting any strain on yourself for me. You have a pup on the way, and you need to take care of yourself for her.”

“We’re marked,” Taryn says, putting gentle pressure on his arm. “Dr. Russo said—”

“Even so, I can’t let you put yourself or my granddaughter at risk. Again. And we’ve all lost enough already.”

Taryn blinks and a tear falls down her cheek, her head turning to rest against mine as her lips purse together. I adjust my body and pull her to sit on the mattress between my legs, holding her tight against my chest, my chin over her shoulder.

“Let us stay with you then,” I say, catching his eye. “You shouldn’t have to face this alone.”

“I’ve faced worse than this.”

“But—”

“I don’t want you to see me like that,” he says. “And this is something I…” He swallows and blows out a breath, staring at the ceiling. “I have to face this on my own. It’s what I…”

He shakes his head, unable to finish his sentence, and a short growl spills from my lips at what he is implying. “Dad—”

“Please, Reid. Please respect my decision on this. Let me face this on my own so I can heal and come back to you and your family.”

I grit my teeth and tighten my arms around Taryn. I want to argue, want to push him on this, but I don’t. He’s punishing himself, which isn’t good, isn’t right, but he’s agreed to rehab and therapy, which is a step towards healing himself.

“You promise you’ll come back?” I ask, a tear escaping my eye.

“I promise,” he says, nodding.

Taryn picks up the string of ultrasound images and, with one claw, slices off the top image and hands it to my dad. “Take this with you,” she says. “So you remember who is waiting for you at home.”

The flimsy paper flops in his hands, shaking harder now as the end of his wolf’s life draws nearer. “Does she have a name?”

“Not yet,” Taryn says at the same time I say, “Sour Patch.”

Taryn sighs and rolls her eyes, her fingertips pressing into her forehead, and my dad laughs, angling the ultrasound image and squinting at it. “She does look a little like a Sour Patch Kid…”

He winks at me and flicks his eyes to Taryn. She groans and her head falls back onto my shoulder, but I catch a flicker of amusement in the bond.

“We’ll make sure we keep you updated and send more pictures as we get them,” she says, lifting her head. “You’re her only grandfather, after all.”

“Thank you,” he says, setting the image on the table. He reaches his arms out, and she leans forward to give him a hug. “You take care of him, okay?”

“I’ll try, but he seems to find trouble easily,” she says, and he laughs.

She walks to the door, and I stay by the side of the bed, half of me ready to walk out of the room with her, the other half wanting to stay with him despite his insistence that he be left alone. My hands clench and I close my eyes, trying to breathe. He promised he’d come back. He promised he’d get better—for all of us.

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