Page 57 of Stitches

I looked around and saw we were alone in the darkness.

Fucking figured it would be me to find her.

The last thing I wanted was to approach her, but apparently, my feet had other plans as I slinked forward quickly and positioned myself on the other side of the tree she was against.

As much as I didn’t want to do this, I knew I had to. Asylum freaked me out and made me question my sanity, but he’d never been wrong. I had to trust his process, the weird fuck.

Drawing in a breath, I stepped around the tree and faced Sirena.

Her eyes widened at me, and her lips parted. Fear washed over her face as she drew back tighter against the tree, her chest heaving.

“Hey, Siren,” I murmured. “You look lost.”

Her bottom lip wobbled, the dried tears on her cheek visible in the moonlight. Instinctively, I reached out and thumbed away a new tear, my brows crinkled.

“Don’t cry,” I said softly.

I was stupid if I thought that was going to help her. A new flood of tears worked their way down her pale cheeks.

“Fuck,” I choked out. “Don’t. Don’t cry. It’s OK. I’m not going to hurt you.”

I saw the look in her eyes though.Disbelief.She didn’t believe shit out of my mouth. And why would she? I’d promised her the same damn thing before I’d stuffed her away in that box with Asylum only weeks before.

“I’m not here to hurt you,” I said fiercely. “I’m not. I-I…”

I what? What was I there to do?

The words Asylum spoke to me echoed in my head.

Follow your instinct.

Fuck it. What could it hurt? It wasn’t like I was winning any brownie points by making her cry and try to crawl up the damn tree to get away from me.

“Look,” I said, tugging off my hoodie and baring my battered chest to her.

Her eyes darted to the various cuts and bruises on my body before they settled on my chest where I’d carved her name deep into my skin.

Her brows crinkled as her lips moved, no sound coming from them, but I could recognize what she was saying.

Siren.

She was reading her name on my chest.

“For you,” I whispered. I didn’t know what I thought I was proving with the horrid display, but I was willing to do anything to get her to calm herself down to see I wasn’t there to hurt her. Not really. At least I hoped I wasn’t, but one never knew with Asylum at the helm.

She shook harder.

Well, fuck.

“Here,” I said, backing away from her and grabbing my hoodie off the forest floor. I handed it to her, but she looked away from me, her jaw quivering.

“You’re cold,” I said gently. “I only want you to be warm. You can wear it.”

She didn’t respond as she continued to look away from me. Her gaze darted around, most likely looking for an escape.

I sighed and dropped the hoodie back to the ground and closed the space between us. She was shaking like a leaf. I assumed it was from being cold mostly, but I wasn’t stupid enough to think her fear wasn’t involved.

Trusting my instinct and that crazy fuck Asylum, I gathered my courage and reached out for her. She did as I expected and squirmed when I tried to bring her against my body. She was like holding ice. She was frozen to the bone and needed to be warmed.

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