“Please,” she said through another uncontainable sob.
“Shhh. Just…” Slowly, Gash eased to a crouch in front of her, lifting his hand so very slowly. “Just let me help, okay?”
He was going to touch her. His Bailey. He’d never done it before, not even on accident. Only through a screen that beamed a black and white image of her into his office.
His fingers trembled like butterfly wings as he carefully brushed Bailey’s tears from one cheek and then the other, lingering to push the power of their fledgling bond at her. Anything to ease her now. Because he’d had enough pushing her away, enough hurting them both, enough denying what was his. What was hers. When it wasn’t helping anyway.
Felix was coming for them whether Gash pretended these people meant nothing to him or not. And after what had happened tonight, his brother would know what a lie it was.
It was time to be honest. With her and with his heart.
Chapter Two
Never let a man see you cry. That’s what mama used to say. Along with, don’t let yourself get too round. Careful what you eat. Always push that chest out. Walk like a delicate female, but never appear fragile. Smile when spoken to. Especially if it’s a male. Other females are not your friends. They’re your competition. Do all these things, Baileena, and you will catch yourself a proper mate to put cubs in you. Fail, and you will be cast out of the streak to live on your own.
But mama was wrong about a lot of things, and right about some.
Bailey had been so careful to never let Gash see her tears. Or anyone around the lodge. Because they were hers to bear, and nobody else’s. She cried easily and often. Happy, sad, or anywhere in between. It was her go-to expression since she’d never been allowed to cry as a child. She wasn’t ashamed of it. She just didn’t want any of her friends thinking she was broken because of a couple tears.
But tonight, she’d held it in as long as she could. After the horrid exchange with the shadow clan, everyone had gone home to settle their animals… or so she’d thought. She’d stayed to settle her tiger the only way she knew how: cooking.
Bad idea, Bai. Sandals-with-socks level bad.
She tried not to look at Gash as he knelt so close she could smell the diesel from the wrecker he’d ridden in earlier. More embarrassing sounds clawed their way up her throat. The scent brought everything back with brutal clarity.
She had watched him through the dining room window as he’d traded places with Owyn. Just before he climbed in the truck, he gave her a look so naked and raw, her stomach heaved with despair at the mere memory. Eyes that gave her everything in the flicker of a moment. His regret, his devotion, his promise. A look that claimed her, no matter his harsh words from before.
She was his.
She feared that’d be the last she ever saw of Gash. And the fate she imagined waiting for him in Memphis was unbearable to think about. But somehow she’d held it together. Somehow, she’d wrestled her tiger away from running after him.
But then he’d silently marched right back in the lodge not thirty minutes later, like there’d never been a group of psychotic wolves forcing him away. Right past the dining room where she was shakily cleaning up the remains of the disrupted party. Like he hadn’t told her with his parting gaze that she was his.
Now she was curled on the floor, bawling like a baby, and embarrassing the hell out of herself. Except… did it really matter? What good was her pride when her clan was in such a hopeless situation?
Owyn had been hurt tonight. Doc, as his mate, had been careless, letting her emotions cloud her judgment. The pregnant mates, Bethany and Josie, were put in danger, along with the most vulnerable of the them all, the clan’s lone young… three-year-old Rhys.
Bailey shuddered, trying to reel in her emotions. But everything was so raw.
And Gash… his eyes were soft like she’d never seen them, and his hand was slowly moving toward her, and things felt very real and surreal at the same time. He was salt in the wound. And the sting was brutal.
She gasped as he touched her. A light brush of his fingers against her cheek to wipe away the wetness of her tears. Then another. Careful, yet sure. And another.
Bailey let the pent up breath rush out as a wave of relief that could only be supernatural wrapped around her heart.
A mating bond.
Gash was trying to use his bond to soothe her, and holy hell, it was working.
Bailey squeezed her eyes closed as another surge of his unique balm washed over her. The muscles that clenched her bones in a death grip released, and she slumped back on her ass, leaning against the cabinet. She was a tangle of legs and fabric, her dress and apron bunching up in a weird way she couldn’t really care about. She heaved another sigh, her sobs fading into the background as her eyes found the wall directly in front of her.