Chapter 615 Chapter 615
Asher stood there with his arms crossed. His cat was at it again, and it felt like he was pacing inside him. He really needed to go for a run. Glancing around, he figured that every single body in here probably did too. He needed to because he could feel the waves of anxiety coming off Journee. Personally, he thought it was too soon for her to be doing this, but he knew the others needed to know what he did. He doubted he could have sat there in front of this group and told them what she was. He didn’t know why they wanted her to tell all that was there. He got team leaders; they needed to know, but why was everyone else here? Twice he almost walked out, and she’d only been talking for a minute. Rayne introduced her and given a little background. The background was their families had been slaughtered.
Journee nodded to whatever Rayne said quietly and cleared her throat. “I—had no idea how long I was gone.” She lifted her eyes briefly and looked at a few of the others closest to the front.
“That’s understandable.” Gia gave her an encouraging look.
Asher looked at a few of the other women in the room, and their expressions told him they were right there with her in this. That was good, he figured, so she wouldn’t feel so on display. Also, she was going to need women to help her through this. There was probably a lot she didn’t know or understand. He barely understood himself, so he was not going to be able to help her with any of that stuff.
“After I finally got off that island—” she looked at Gia now as she spoke. “Successfully. More than once, the way I tried to go with one of the boats didn’t work out, and I—” Her mouth flinched for a second that could have been a smile; he wasn’t sure. “I got very good at swimming. We’ll say that.”
“Do you know where you were when you reached land?” Konner was studying her intently.
“No. Once I realized I had gotten away from the island—finally. I shifted and ran as fast and as far as I could from any people just in case they found out about me.”
Konner nodded but made no comment.
“So, what took you so long to get back then? If you were on land again, you could have just run straight through.”
Asher’s head snapped to glare at Nox. Chairs scraping the floor echoed through the silent room, and he caught Amari and Blaise heading toward him. Rayne stood up and put up her hand up. Both women stopped when she shook her head.
Leah moved out of the kitchen door she’d been standing in and walked right up to Nox.
The slap across his face sounded very loud to his shifter hearing. “You should be nicer.” Her voice was shakey. “It’s very difficult to run to a place when you don’t know where it is.” She nodded her head once and then backed away.
Jesse was up and beside her before anyone could blink. He turned her, and she had her hand over her mouth, shocked she had done that.
“Guess Evanna told him.” Someone whispered.
Asher turned to see it was Deacon. Gia shook her head. “That’s not Evanna.”
“Oh.” As he turned to give Leah a gobsmacked look was all Deacon could say.
Jesse ushered her toward the kitchen.
Nox had his hand over his cheek. “I’m—” he cleared his throat and squared his shoulders. “Sorry. Please finish.” He sat down and looked at the table.
Rayne was watching Jesse and Leah, but Devin had squatted down in front of Journee and was talking so softly that even with his animal hearing, Asher couldn’t hear what was being said.
He was sure everyone held their breath until Leah and Jesse sat back at the table. Leah looked down at her dress, and he could see her roll her eyes. Was she upset with herself? Getting up, she flipped the chair around and sat backward as she pulled her hair up.
“That’s Evanna,” Gia whispered to her mate.
“I’m sorry.” Journee held her chin up. “I don’t know what I was saying.”
“You were finally on land and got the hell away from people.” Wynter supplied, “You take your time, Journee, I’ll bash anyone that tries to rush you.” She looked at Nox when she said the last part.
The shocked look on Journee’s face made Asher smile. Wynter Carr had her back, no one would mouth off to her now.
Journee nodded and blew out a breath, “I didn’t think at the time to write down names of places.” Looking down at her hands, she said, “My writing isn’t very good.”
“That’s okay, honey; we know you weren’t in school while you were fighting to survive out there.” Wynter nodded.
“I did later on. Write down the place’s names.” She nodded, “But so many streets and things are the same all over, so I drew things that were, I hope,” she glanced at Rayne, “will help find the way back to that island.”
“Illias has scanned her sketchbooks, and I need everyone to take a look at them and see if they recognize anything.” Devin now stood behind her with his arms crossed. “We’re also going to share them with the International team.” He glanced around the room. “Any questions?”
“I have one.” Kelsey looked at Journee, “For Journee if that’s all right.”
Journee nodded.