Page 101 of Pit Stop

“Why don’t you go back to your little sidepiece and leave us alone,” Rob says.

“Sidepiece?” Maverick says, his nostrils flaring. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Move, you cheating bastard,” Rob growls, shoving Maverick aside. He barely shifts, but does allow enough room for Rob to bend over me and help me up. A low moan erupts from my mouth as my shoulder bone grinds against the socket. I may not be a shifter, but we do heal faster than normal and I know in a few hours, I’ll be okay. The issue at the moment is getting to a doctor before it sets incorrectly.

“I’m taking him to the hospital,” Rob says, and Maverick stands there, staring at me.

“Rob. Why does he look like that?” he breathes. “What the fuck is going on?”

Rob ignores him, and helps me into the passenger seat, buckling me in and pressing a soft kiss to my cheek.

“You’ll be okay, love,” he whispers.

“Rob. Tell me what the fuck is going on!”

“I’m not telling you, asshole. I was going to, but you were off with someone else.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” he growls, his bones cracking, and I shut my eyes once more, not wanting to see him. It hurts too much.

This is terrible.

Rob should never have brought me here. Everything is worse now.

Everything.

Rob curses at him, his voice muffling as the door shuts behind him. My head is throbbing, as is the rest of my body. From the fall, from the broken shoulder, but it’s more than that. It’s my heart.

It’s ripped to pieces.

He’s moved on.

Without me.

CHAPTER

NINETEEN

MAVERICK

The weeksapart from Skye were a nightmare. One I couldn’t wake up from. After the bond was broken, I was physically ill. It hurt to touch him, to know what I lost. So I didn’t. For days after arriving home, I slept, tossing and turning, fighting off a fever. The ache was excruciating inside of me. But it eventually subsided enough for me to get up and go to work.

Everyone there knew what had happened. Hushed whispers followed me throughout the day. Poignant, sad looks. They knew what I’d lost. They knew how much it had cost me.

All of them knew about my crush on Forest’s brother. Some knew even before I did. They recognized it in the way I’d watch him, in the way I often spoke about him.

And then when I showed up last week, looking like a wreck, they knew it was over.

I didn’t talk about it, though. I just lived with it, working until I couldn’t stand up straight. Working until my muscles screamed and my eyes hurt. When my uncle found me passed out between shifts, he sent me home for an extended break. Two days off.

I went wild.

My bones were cracking, my vision whiting out. I spent ages running through the trees, trying like hell to expel some of the energy inside of me. It didn’t work. Skye was more present than ever.

He was everywhere I looked. In my mind, in the sky, in the dirt beneath my feet.

At one point, I thought I was actually shifting. The wolf inside of me roared. I felt it viscerally, but it never happened.

I’m glad too. I don’t know if I’d have been able to go back to being human. I think I’d have lived as a wolf. To escape the feelings of loss. To escape the pain.

---