Page 21 of Gather the Storm

“I don’t care.” Ruth’s eyes welled with tears, and she sat back down on the bed. “We already lost Blake. I don’t want to lose you too.”

The words hit me like a punch to the chest. Ruth was still a kid, the same age I’d been when I’d left the party to find Blake, when I’d stumbled on him by the river, already dead. Of course she’d be worried about losing someone else, about losing her only remaining sibling.

It was too soon to tell her why I was inviting the Beasts to live with me at the falls. Better to let her get used to the fact that I was moving out and that I’d asked them to help fix up the house.

I put my arm around her. “You’re not going to lose me, I promise. They just got out of prison, they don’t want to go back, and this town is so small everyone and their mother will knowthey’re living with me by tomorrow morning. It’s going to be fine.”

She sniffled. “You promise?”

“I promise,” I said.

Silence filled the room. When she spoke again, I was expecting some kind of warning. Instead she sniffled again and asked,“Will you be taking all your clothes or just your favorites?”

I laughed and gave her a shove. “Brat!”

Ruth pulled me back onto the bed and we lay there for a minute, looking at each other, her face stained with tears.

“I love you,” she said.

“I love you too.”

I suddenly felt the weight of my responsibility.

To Blake. To Ruth.

Until now, all my plans had been imaginary. Now I was about to make those plans a reality, and I couldn’t deny it: I was scared.

Because the three gorgeous guys who made my blood run hot? Well, they were probably murderers.

And now they were going to be my roommates.

Chapter 10

Wolf

“Iwish you wouldn’t do this,” my mom said, standing in the door to my room.

“I know.” I picked up a stack of T-shirts from my dresser and put them in my duffel bag next to the jeans I’d already packed. They were probably too small now, like everything else I owned, but they were all I had. I’d need to go shopping if I didn’t want to bust out of my clothes like the Hulk, something that was even more important for Jace, whose T-shirt seams had literally been straining when we’d gone to Daisy’s last night.

“You just got home.” My mom sounded sad, and that made me sad because no one deserved to feel sad less than her.

I’d put her through hell, first with our confession, which had come as a surprise to everyone (intentional, so no one could talk us out of it) and then with the five years prison time.

She’d never missed a single visiting day.

I was her only kid and I’d been gone for five years. Now I was leaving again.

“I’m sorry,” I said, walking over to kiss her cheek. Jace and Otis were like my brothers, but my mom was my best friend. Always had been. “I know I just got out, but this is different. We can see each other whenever we want. I’ll be right around the corner.”

She sighed. “You need new clothes.”

I chuckled. “I know. I’ll take care of it.”

“You have money?” she asked. “Because I can— ”

“I have money.” My mom didn’t have it to give. Her modest salary from the community college covered the basics, but not much else.

Besides, I did have money. Not as much as Jace had stashed before we went away, but plenty.

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