Page 157 of Did They Break You

I exhale.

Stretch my legs out.

Then I hear a zipper and feel the cold night air rush into the tent as someone steps inside.

I scramble up and out of my sleeping bag, my hands trembling violently to the point I drop my phone. I open my mouth to scream as I try to stand, my knees shaking. But just as I inhale, someone’s hand comes around my mouth, and a familiar voice in my ear says, “Shh, little wolf. We’ve got you.”

I freeze, turning my head and meeting Storm’s light blue eyes in the dark.

Cortland has his hand over my mouth, and he slides it down as I struggle to breathe, my chest rising and falling almost violently.

I whip my head to Cort as I sense Storm ducking down, zipping the door of the tent back.

“You scared the hell out of me,” I manage to gasp out, and Cortland yanks me close to him, my feet dragging over my sleeping bag. He’s ducked down in my tent, but he still pulls me up and crushes his mouth to mine.

“After what we did,” he says against my mouth, pulling back, “you’d think I let you sleep alone?”

My chest feels warm with those words as my hands come to his arms and I feel his biceps flex beneath his hoodie. “Really?” I whisper in the dark. “You came for that?”

I hear Storm’s low rumble of laughter, but I ignore him as I stare into Cort’s gray eyes. He leans down, wrapping an arm around my back. “Yeah, pretty baby. I did.” He nudges his nose against mine as he pulls me flush to his body. “I’m fucking crazy about you.”

Before I can think those words through, he’s sinking down to the tent floor, pulling me down with him.

But I think of Van and Ryann and as happy as I am he’s here, even Storm, I’m not ready for that conversation. “Van will?—”

I feel Storm at my back, his presence silencing my words as I face Cort, his hand threaded through mine.

“Shh, Remi,” Storm whispers against my neck, the little hairs on my arm standing on end. “We’ll be gone in the morning.”

Cortland squeezes my hand. “Lie down, baby, and I’ll try not to get too upset that you wanna hide me from another man.”

I open my mouth to argue, then snap it closed. It’s true. I’m not ready. And neither is he.

I snuggle into the single person sleeping bag and Cortland doesn’t even try to fit. Instead, him and Storm grab a bunch of extra blankets I had stacked up because Van knows I’m obsessed with blankets. Then both of them lie down on either side of me.

I can feel both of their bodies close to mine, Cortland’s arm slung around me, holding me close to his chest. I have the bag unzipped so my body is melded to his, my face buried against him as I inhale his cedar scent.

And at my back, Storm’s chest is pressed against me too. I feel warmth flood through me at his nearness, and when he wraps an arm around me, I tense, sidling closer to Cort.

They both laugh.

“He’s okay, baby,” Cortland says against my ear. “The more people to protect you, the better.”

I feel a swell of emotion with his words, especially as he kisses the top of my head. But I fight it back, trying to enjoy the warmth and security of their bodies next to me without making it weird. “What if I hadn’t been in a tent? How did you even know I was in this one?” I ask in the dark.

Storm breathes a laugh, his arm shifting against me slightly as he does.

But it’s Cort that answers me. “You left the bag of Reese’s outside the door,” he explains, and I bite back my own laugh at the amusement laced in his words. He pulls me closer, his mouth to my ear. “And if you hadn’t been in this tent, I’d have broken into the fucking cabin, Remi. No matter what,” he flicks his tongue along my ear, “I’ll get to you when I need to.”

CHAPTER

FORTY-THREE

REMI

I waketo the sound of laughter.

The scent of marijuana.

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