Page 66 of Run Free

“Don’t. You don’t have to apologize, Gage. We talked about this. You’ve been alone for a long time. There’s going to be an adjustment period. You don’t need to apologize or explain it to anyone. When you need your space, take it,” she insisted.

I shook my head. “How’d I get so damn lucky to have you for a mate?” I leaned in and kissed her.

A knock on the window above Clara’s head broke up our moment. I looked up and shook my head. My parents. Mom gave a little wave. Clara looked over her shoulder and laughed.

“Guess that’s our cue,” she said.

“Guess so.”

We got out of the car.

“Sorry, son. Your mother was too excited to see you again. We shouldn’t have interrupted.”

Clara blushed, but I just smiled back proudly. “It’s fine. We were on our way over to see you guys anyway.”

“I was worried you wouldn’t come back,” Mom said.

I huffed. “Of course I was coming back to see you. You guys came all this way and everything.”

There was an awkward silence between us. I suspected it would always be this way. Too much had happened to fully repair, but I hoped we could at least find some new common ground and leave the past in the past. It was a good theory, but so much harder in reality.

“Your sisters wanted to know if they could FaceTime and meet you today. I told them that probably wasn’t a good idea but wanted to mention it in case it was something you were interested in,” Mom said.

She seemed anxious but optimistic about everything. She was nothing like the woman I remembered. Then again, I had to remind myself that I was nothing like the son she remembered either. Clearly they had changed. Of course it had been a long time, but it didn’t make things any less weird, though.

“I’d love to see them,” I said, still surprised by the relief she exuded every time I agreed to something. I didn’t know how to tell them I was terrible with technology. “Maybe we should wait and Clara and I could fly out to meet them in person, though.”

Clara didn’t bother to hide her surprise that I would offer to get back on a plane ever again. I could feel her amusement with the situation.

Mom’s face fell and still a part of me hated disappointing her. “Okay, yeah, that sounds wonderful,” she said.

We headed into the Collier Pack house and spent the remainder of the afternoon catching up and getting to know my parents again. They filled me in on my brother and his family, as well as more on my sisters. We stayed for a nice dinner with both sets of parents. Cora was a wonderful cook. I didn’t think I would ever tire of her food. And the shock of hearing that I had two sisters was finally beginning to subside by the time we called it a night and headed home.

“Today was actually sort of nice. How are you holding up?” Clara asked as I pulled into the garage. She had been oddly quiet on the drive home and I could feel worry wafting from her.

I turned in my seat to look at her. “I’m fine. You don’t have to worry or try pull shrink on me or anything. I know you’re a doctor and can’t help yourself. Let me guess—multiple counts of post-traumatic stress syndrome. I’m aware. And I love that you respect and even encourage me when I need time alone to cope, but I’m fine for now. It was kind of nice, in a strange way.” Clara continued staring at me like she was trying to evaluate if I was speaking the truth or not. I leaned in and kissed her lips softly. “Angel, stop worrying. I’m not going anywhere tonight. I really am okay.”

Clara

Chapter 28

I still couldn’t help but worry about Gage. He had done well for the last few days and hadn’t run away to escape reality again since he had left Thomas’s. I knew he had a lot of trauma and issues still to deal with and I was prepared to stand by him no matter what. Lord knew I had plenty of oddities myself that he didn’t seem to mind at all.

We spent much of the weekend with his parents and my family. It was really nice and somehow, despite everything, Gage just blended right in. He and my dad seemed to have similar music tastes in the classics and he had attended enough country music concerts to make my mother swoon just talking about them. He had traveled extensively and was a very animated and funny storyteller when he relaxed and spoke up to share his stories.

I had learned a lot of those little details about my mate. We said goodbye to his parents on Sunday as they flew back home with the promise we would visit soon and as often as we could mange. By the time Monday rolled around, I felt like we had somehow grown closer because of it all. Even after catching up with everyone during the day, Gage and I had spent each night laying in bed talking into the wee hours of morning about anything and everything.

One thing was certain, I was falling head over heels in love with him. It wasn’t the bond making me feel those things, it was the way he had opened up and shared his past with me and dreams for our future. He wasn’t that scared and broken man I’d found in the cage anymore. He was strong and vibrant and as we sealed the final details for Tuesday night’s plan to protect Thomas, I realized just how strong-willed and protective he was over me. The bliss of a perfect weekend was suddenly gone.

“I’m not going to back down on this, Clara. I don’t want you anywhere near that place when all this goes down,” Gage said stubbornly. We had been fighting about it for over an hour.

“I have to be, and you know that. If I’m going to determine the type of poison we’re dealing with, I need to be onsite to act quickly. How many other ways can I possibly get that through your thick skull?”

We had taken to shouting at each other and didn’t hear the car pull into the driveway or even notice the door open until Lily interrupted us, laughing, and I looked over to find Ruby with her. My sister’s chin nearly hit the floor, her mouth was open so wide.

“I think Clara’s met her match, or Gage has met his,” Lily said.

“Clara, are you okay? I’ve never heard you raise your voice like that to anyone before,” Ruby finally said, still looking shocked and sounding genuinely concerned.

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