Page 55 of Fangs
Sam released me, and Griz immediately enveloped me in his arms.
“You scared me,” he murmured into my hair before turning his head and adding, “Mac, Nemo needs you.”
“I’ll walk Wolf back downstairs,” Mac said, his voice like quiet steel.
Wolf huffed an angry noise, but I heard his footsteps retreat from the room. Mac quietly promised to be back later, and then the door shut. I pulled back from Griz, my eyes scanning him carefully.
“I’m ok, Bones,” Griz said. “You healed me and everybody else.”
I inhaled a shaky breath and glared up at him. “I’m really fuckin’ sick of healin’ you.”
He grinned. “I love you, too.”
Gods, if that didn’t take all the air from my lungs. I barely managed to keep myself under control. That’s why they felt like family, why this place felt like home—because I loved them.
I seized the first distraction I could think of, desperate to avoid bursting into tears again. “Did I say shit when I was feverish?”
Both Griz and Sam grimaced, and my stomach dropped.
“What?” I demanded. “What did I say?”
Sam looked at Griz, and they seemed to be conversing silently.
“You sure you want to know?” Griz finally asked.
“Please just tell me.” I tried to brace myself.
Griz cleared his throat. “Mostly, you kept askin’ for Trey, and you got pretty upset about it. You thought other people were Trey a few times. We, uh, let you think Sam was Trey for a while ’cause you were practically hysterical, and holdin’ onto him was the only thing that calmed you down.”
I glanced at Sam, my faceandmy eyes burning. He wrinkled his nose at my expression, shifting slightly on the bed.
“You just wanted to cuddle,” he reassured me. “And I’m always down for bein’ a body pillow.”
“I’m sorry,” I mumbled, anyway.
“It’s really ok, Shortcake.” His voice softened.
“You thought Nemo was Juck the one time he came in.”
My stomach flipped. “What’d I do?”
“You got real quiet and scared, but when he got close, you panicked and started sobbing and—” He broke off and took a breath as his hands clenched into tight fists. “It seemed like you were having a flashback about…something awful he did to you.”
Sam muttered something I couldn’t make out. I twisted the blanket in my hands, feeling nauseous. I could easily imagine what sort of awful moments my brain picked for me to re-live.
“Was Wolf in here for any of this?” I asked.
“He saw some of it. We let him come in for about half an hour once a day, supervised. You told him he looked like your brother a few times.” Griz seemed to hesitate, glancing sideways at Sam.
“What else?” I demanded.
“You asked him where Dune was a couple times.”
Oh.I had to work to make my voice come out normal. “What’d he say?”
“He always said Dune was at the market,” Griz’s voice was so gentle. “He didn’t talk to us much but always talked to you. He didn’t seem to care you weren’t making much sense, and he just went along with whatever you were saying.”
I didn’t know what to do with that.
