Page 15 of The First Year Continued
Once she knew how much I cared about her. How much we all did—we could maybe ask her to eat more.
For now, we had to get her to safety.
Up the stairs and into her room, Desi saw us. “Is she okay?” Roxy’s friend asked. I’d never spoken to Desi much before Roxy came along, but she was good to our girl. Cared about her.
“We think so. We’re going to bring her to her room and warm her up. I’m sure she’ll tell you everything. Don’t worry.” Sol stopped to speak to her while Evander and I rushed toward her room.
Inside her room, we wrapped her up in blankets but she was still shivering. Her lips had lost all their color. Long gone was the blush she’d had only hours ago when we were kissing under the alcove. She was paler than I’d ever seen her.
“Roxy, sweetheart, can I put you in the warm shower?” Her eyes flicked up to mine, the first sign of life since we stopped chasing the person or thing from outside. “I won’t look. I swear.”
She opened her mouth to speak but instead of saying anything, her teeth chattered and her chin quivered.
Instead, she nodded.
“Come on,” I said to Evander.
Sol came in and closed the door. “Desi is worried but said she trusts us to take care of her. Where are you going?”
“She said we could put her in the shower. We can’t look.”
Sol nodded. “Of course. Let me help.”
In minutes, all three of us were in our boxers, and Roxy was covering her front private parts and breasts with a small towel. As soon as her body hit the warm water, she let out a groan of contentment. Her knees wobbled, so I reached out and held her by the hips. “Tell me when you’re ready to get out.”
She stayed under the spray for what felt like hours. Finally some blush returned to her cheeks and the trembling subsided.
“Can you get yourself dressed?” I asked. Sol and Evander were outside the shower with their backs turned. We were nothing if not gentlemanly.
I wouldn’t betray my mate like that for anything in the world.
“I can. Thank you.”
I made sure she was out of the shower and had enough towels and a robe before we left the bathroom. We waited outside, listening to the sounds, making sure she hadn’t fallen or hurt herself. When she came out with a robe on and looking better, we all let out a breath of relief.
Somewhere along the line, we really needed to have a talk about us and who Roxy was to us.
“Do you need something to eat? Are you ready to talk?”
She sat down on her bed. “I’m fine. I think…I think I can talk about it now.”
Chapter Ten
Roxy
The shower helped. At least it stopped the shivering. I’d never been cold in my fur before. Nor had anyone I knew ever mentioned feeling something like I just experienced while in wolf form. Of course, generally I made the choice to shift, and in this case, that decision had been made for me. Standing under the warm spray, I tried to fix in my mind everything that had happened.
It felt a lot like a dream, even the part before my wolf took over. I never wanted to experience that level of pain again. Sure, I knew that all those bodily changes happened, but before, it had always been muted, the first few times a little uncomfortable, but never like this.
“You okay, Roxy?” Evander called from the doorway. “Need anything?”
“No. I’ll be out in a minute. I’m all right.” At least I hoped so. I was better, for sure.
“Desi is here, too.”
“She knows what happened in the office,” I called. “I filled her in.”
“So she says. And we’re doing that with what just went on. At least as much as we know.”
