Page 55 of Home: Posy 5

My chest burned and my growing fear made my heart race, which didn't help the straining lung situation. I went into survival mode and kicked and clawed in the water, trying to find the surface, but I was so muddled, I must have gone down instead of up because I whacked my forehead on the sandy bottom.

I need to breathe, I linked them back, wincing as the scrape burned in the saltwater,and I can't tell which way is up!

They all started shouting until Mason bellowed at them to shut up.

Posy, he said calmly and slowly.Relax your body. Let it float. It will go up all by itself.

Okay,I whimpered and did what he said.

And it worked!

Just when I thought my lungs were going to burst, my face broke out of the water, and I inhaled as much air as I could, gasping noisily until my breathing was normal again.

Swiping the hair out of my face, I looked for my mates, but they were nowhere in sight. I turned to the left, completely disoriented now, and saw nothing. Swiveling to the right, I sighed in relief when I saw them far in the distance, splashing around in the water as they searched for me.

"I'm here! Look to your right!" I both shouted and linked while waving one arm, and their heads all instantly swiveled in my direction.

How did I get all the way down here?I wondered.

Then they were running, pushing each other and scrambling in the breaking waves, and I was half-tempted to dive back in the water and hide from what I knew was coming.

You scared them enough, Lark said as she quickly healed the scrape on my forehead.My wolves, too. They all thought you swept out to sea. They ... upset.

Oh, I knew that; their 'upset' was flooding the mate bond like a tidal wave.

Deciding to face the music with dignity, I swam the rest of the way in and had made it knee-deep before the octopuses latched onto me and caught me up in their tentacles and carried me back to the beach.

I'm sorry, I linked them as four of them dropped to their knees in a circle around me and held on tight.I don't know what happened.

Scared us, sweetness. You were underwater for so long.

Goddess, I thought the worst, princess!

Don't do that again, cutie. My heart can't take it.

Little flower. My little flower.

And Cole was so worked up, he didn't join our group hug. Instead, he stood off to the side with clenched fists, the muscles in his arms and neck corded and taut. His eyes were closed and I could see his lips moving. After a few seconds, I realized he was counting to calm himself down.

At the same time they were squeezing me, I heard their wolves gently fussing at Lark. While she was basking in their worry, I felt terrible that my boys had been so frightened.

"I was tickling Ash's foot and when I swam away, the ocean grabbed me," I murmured. "It pushed me down and I couldn't get away. Then I hit my head on the bottom when I thought I was swimming to the top. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for this to happen."

"We know you didn't. We know we're over-reacting, too," Jayden murmured against my shoulder. "We can't help it, though. We thought we lost you."

"It sounds like you got caught in an undercurrent," Mason said. "That's probably how you ended up all the way down here."

"We didn't know what to do, cutie. We'll fight anything for you, but we can't win against the ocean."

I kissed the top of Wyatt's head, who had his face buried in my boobs, then turned to one side and kissed Jayden's forehead before turning to the other side and kissing Mason's. I twisted my neck and dropped a kiss on Ash's cheek, which was as far as I could reach with him hugging me from behind.

"I'm sorry, Posy," Ash whispered in a ragged voice.

"It wasn't your fault," I told him. "It was an accident. Don't feel bad."

"I was so scared!"

"Me, too," I admitted. "All I could think about was getting oxygen, but all I saw was water."

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