Page 58 of The Alpha's Stolen Mate

As I ate, Grayson launched into a story about his day spent going to the hospital with Summer and visiting his Grandpa. Then, when Goose went over to the lawn, he asked Summer if he could be excused.

“Yes, but then you're going to take a bath. You have ten pounds of syrup on your face,” Summer said and tried to wipe Grayson's face with a wet napkin.

Our son ducked around her and ran toward his dog, laughing the whole way.

“I love his laugh,” I said as I put my fork down.

“Me too,” Summer agreed.

A look passed between us, and I swear I saw a flicker of the gold thread connecting us, but in an instant, it was gone.

Summer quietly gasped, and just from her shocked expression, I knew she saw it, too.

“I'm going to clean up,” Summer's aunt mumbled, grabbed a random plate, and hurried inside.

“She's so subtle,” my Mate mumbled under her breath and then sighed.

I would give everything I owned to know what she was thinking.

“Listen, Gabriel, I've been thinking about last night…” she trailed off, bit her lip, and glanced at Grayson, who was running circles around Goose.

When she looked back at me, her eyes were full of indecision. We sat there for a full minute, simply staring at each other.

I swallowed. The anticipation was killing me. I wanted to reach out and hold her hand and comfort her.

But I needed to give her space right now. She needed time to process everything that was happening between us. I fully understood the indecision in her eyes and her hesitance to enter into a romantic relationship with me.

I had broken her trust. I needed to do everything in my power to earn it back and show her I would never betray her again.

“I just—“

Her words were interrupted by a sharp scream.

Splash!

Our heads simultaneously whipped to the side.

Dread coursed through me.

By the light of the setting sun, I saw two little hands flailing in the deep end of the pool. Summer’s warning about Grayson from yesterday ran through my head.

He isn't the best swimmer.

Chapter Nineteen: Enough

Summer POV

My brain and body froze.

But I just saw him over by the grass with Goose. Grayson can’t be in the pool. He can’t be…

Gabriel shot out of his seat like it had been set on fire and sprinted toward the pool. Thankfully, my body unfroze, and I was only a split second behind him, running at his heels, anxiety for my son making me run faster than I’d ever had in my life.

As I neared the pool, my heart dropped when I saw Grayson struggling to stay afloat, his head breaking the surface of the water for only a second and then sinking back down,his little body struggling toward the edge of the pool.

Goose had run over, and he was barking at Gabriel, like he was yelling at him to save Grayson.

Gabriel jumped into the pool and grabbed hold of our son as I skidded to a stop at the edge.

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