Page 60 of Sigma
My father’s expression has me thinking he’s going to be inflexible about all of this.
“Dad, please.”
“I’m on patrol,” he insists.
“We’ve got a full roster worked out the next three days, Lor,” Joel tells him. “But we’ll tweak it and try and have only mated alphas paired with betas. Do our best to have no unmated alphas here until things cool. Linc and I will do any communicating by phone until everything levels out. If it needs doing in person we’ll have one of the mated council members do it instead.”
“Well, now it’s a roster with one more,” Dad says. “I’m goin’ home to get some of my shit sorted and I’ll park beside them. I won’t be leaving until either this is sorted or he’s gone.”
“Whatever makes you feel better,” Linc agrees.
Dad comes over to me, grabs the back of my head and gives me a rough jerk so he can briefly press his mouth to my forehead. “Love you,” he says, gruffly.
“Love you,” I rasp.
“I fuckin’ hate him, though, baby girl. Fuckin’ hate this shit for you.”
“We’re on it, Lorenzo,” Erica tells him. “We’re covering multiple bases. The coven. The council. Catrina. We’re going to figure this out.”
She’s vowing this to me. And I believe her. I have to. I can’t let any doubt creep in, or it’ll bring me to my knees.
“I know you will,” I tell her. “If there’s anything I can do–”
“Just keep doin’ what you’re doing, girlfriend,” Erica says.
“And what’s that?” I ask, bewildered, because I feel like I’m doing nothing to help.
“Being what he needs. Wearing him down,” she winks. “Believe it or not, it’s helping.”
“Is it?” I ask.
“Absolutely.”
“Thank you. Thanks to all of you. But I need some alone time.”
And I turn and go inside, shut the door, and lock it. I grab the two weapons and strap them to my waist. I don’t want to cry in front of them again. And I don’t want to be around anybody. I’m going to turn some music on, clean up our brunch dishes, and wait for him to wake up.
I crank the music and fill the small sink with hot water, squirting dish soap in while I hear multiple car doors closing as well as Riley’s motorcycle starting up.
After I hear nothing else, I let out a long breath.
Catching sight of myself on the back of the frying pan I cooked the eggs in, I can see I look like shit. My hand still has a little damage from his claws, and I can still feel it on my back. My eyes are red, so is my nose from crying. I need to do another shift to heal.
So that’s what I do. I heal on the outside and hope hard that all these people that care will find the answers we need so we can work together to help my mate heal on the inside.
***
I’m done having alone time. I want him.
I venture out there to see if he’s still wolf, to see if he’s awake. I find him sitting with his head in his hands. I walk in.
He has the mask off. He eyeballs the loaded toolbelt.
“What happened?” he asks.
“You shifted. You jumped me. But you got your mask on before that so that was good.” I shrug.
“It didn’t hurt you?” he asks.
