Page 56 of Sweetheart: Part Two

“Let me go!” Finally, I tore away hard enough to break his grip, only then I found myself staggering back too violently, losing my footing. I crashed to the ground, a whine slipping out as the bruised area of my stomach flared with pain.

I jumped violently as an aura split the air, and I was on my back in an instant, eyes wide. Rook looked worried, but when he stepped toward me I scrambled back.

It wasn’t rational. It was pure, terrified instinct. I’d been here before… It was hard… It was just hard for menotto react.

He lifted his hands up. “Are… are you okay?” he asked. But I couldn’t reply. “I’m… I’m trying to…” He swallowed, stepping back again. “I c-can’t get rid of it. I’m trying.” He looked wild, running fingers through his hair. “I can’t… fuck. I’m not going to hurt you.” He sounded so desperate, but I could barely hear the words, blood roaring in my ears.

“P-please just… just let me go,” I whispered.

I didn’t want to cry again, not because of this. All of this was wrong, the aura was wrong, my fear was wrong.

“Please!”

He took another step back, and there it was again, the thing I didn’t want to see: how lost he looked. I turned, staggering to my feet and making for the glass doors that led to the gardens.

Love and Drake thought I was talking to Rook. They wouldn’t come looking for a while.

I needed air.

I needed to breathe.

FIFTEEN

EBONY

If Vex thought, for one moment, I hadn’t installed cameras around this entire property to alert me whenanyoneleft, she was sorely wrong.

My phone had buzzed the moment she’d run into the gardens this evening. “What are you doing?” I demanded, striding toward her as she huddled before a dead firepit.

She jumped, spinning where she sat, and got to her feet quickly as I reached her. I paused, noticing the tears streaking down her face. “I-I wasn’t going to stay long,” she stammered.

“You can’t be outside without one of us around.” My initial anger was waning at the distraught look on her face. Had something happened? Or was this just part of the healing process we knew we’d face when we got her back?

“Why?” she asked.

I cocked my head, trying to figure out if she seriously meant that. “Our job is to keep you safe.”

“I’m in the garden…?”

“I don’t trust anything is safe without one of us here,” I snapped. Plus, the pool was less than ten feet away.

What if she fell in? I’d worked far too hard to see my omega die like that. I’d have to fence it off, or teach her to swim, but I doubted she’d be open to that right now.

She wiped her eyes angrily, then folded her arms and squared me up with a bratty look. “That’s too bad because I don’t want your company.”

I narrowed my eyes, stifling the affrontement that surfaced as she said that right to my face.

Fine.

But she was mistaken if she thought I gave a shit about her feelings on this. I took her by the wrist, hauling her back toward the house.

“Let go of me!” she hissed, throwing her weight against my grip. When I didn’t flinch, she leaped at me instead, sinking her nails into my arm. I just turned on her and tossed her over my shoulder instead.

“Fuckyou!” she screamed, gripping my shirt, trying to kick and scratch at me however she could. “Let me down! I don’t want to go back to my room yet!”

“I’m not taking you to your room,” I told her mildly as we reached the doors. “Rook’s still up, you can hang out with him.”

“N-NO!”

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