Chapter 613 Chapter 613
Asher squatted against the wall far enough away that he could observe her. The reason in his head was to give her space, but the truth was his emotions were all over the place after what she’d told him. That day his world had crashed down on top of him; when he’d hidden, she had followed them. A young girl, younger than him, and she had still followed them. In theory, she shouldn’t have survived that trip, but here she was. He watched her lift her face and inhale slowly, taking the cool air into her lungs. She had balanced on a bumper, most likely at top speeds and at the risk of being caught or run over to follow them.
Daigo came running over and circled the wheelchair a few times, then took off again in the wolf version of the zoomies. This woman that a wild animal had adopted had crawled into the cargo space of a plane without hesitation and endured the horror of the cold temperatures and dark, cramped space to follow her little sister into the unknown.
Journee laughed at the pup, which caught his cat’s attention, her happiness. Up until now, he’d been so silent that Asher was worried about what he might do without conferring with him first. She hadn’t shared everything, but somehow, he knew parts of her story just from the bits she had told him. Most he saw in her eyes as she spoke.
How many times had she almost drowned trying to get off the island? He wasn’t going to ask her, but he knew it was too numerous; it had to be for her to be gone that long. He couldn’t imagine being in the middle of a large body of water with no way to reach shore, but swim and hope exhaustion didn’t overtake you before you reached it. He was a good swimmer, often enjoying a swim after a long run, but he wasn’t sure he’d be able to do what she had done.
There was no more doubt in his mind of what she had gone through since that day. While she was talking, he’d seen it in her eyes, everything that she’d endured. His cat had felt it too, and now Asher wasn’t sure which one of them was the most messed up about it.
“You said we needed to talk.”
Her voice brought him out of his head. “Yeah.” He studied her for a moment, had the girls helped her brush out her hair. It had been a mess of knots and tangles when she’d shifted. Now it looked silky smooth, and his fingers itched to touch it. He blinked, realizing she was still looking at him. “I just—” he shook his head. “I don’t know how to say it.”
She quirked an eyebrow at him. “Is it bad?”
That was a question. Was it? He opened his mouth to say no, but in his head, he wasn’t sure. After everything she’d been through, this was probably not bad to her, but she had also been alone and hiding all these years. If it had been him, he’d spend the next ten years just running without the confines of water on all sides confining him. “What do you know about true mates?”
She smiled. “My parents were,” she shrugged one shoulder, “what does that have to do with any of this?” She motioned to the building.
Staying still wasn’t working for him. He was up on his feet so fast he got dizzy. “It doesn’t have anything to with the island and the hurt we’re going to put on Tomas when we get him.”
“Tomas?”
Asher sucked in a breath and blew it out fast. “The man that is responsible for taking our kind,” he frowned; that was giving that one-form too much credit. “Aiden Tomas, his family, and organization.”
“I knew it was bad.” She closed her eyes. “All those girls that left were soon replaced with younger ones.” Opening them, she looked at him. “Nichelle told me that the Alliance has been rescuing others.”
He nodded. “We’ve found a lot of places he was keeping them and have been getting them out and shutting them down.”
“Good.” She frowned, “do you have names?” She sat straighter. “I was wondering if my sister had been found.”
Asher froze. Why hadn’t he thought of that? “I can find out.” He pulled out his phone and pulled up Illias’ number. “What’s her name?” He almost said was, but for her sake, for his own too, he wanted to think she was still alive.
“Emi.” She whispered it.
He nodded, “is that her full name?”
She nodded. “With an i.”
He typed out the message quickly, asking Illias to look up if an Emi Snow had been found at any of the locations they’d hit. Sending it, he closed the screen and then looked at her. “Look, I thought we needed to talk about things, but you know what, you’ve been through too much…”
“I made it back.” She held him with a sad look. “I’ve missed everything.”
Asher exhaled the breath, erasing the rest of what he was going to say. His cat stirred inside of him, he wasn’t happy about the anxiety pouring off her. “Look,” he was over and squatting beside the chair before he knew he planned to move. Daigo came over and climbed into his lap. That made her smile that the pup was using Asher as a step so he could climb into her lap. “My heart aches when I think of what you’ve been through, and I know it’s not over, that you’re going to have to go through more before this is over.” He sucked in a breath and almost forgot what he was going to say when she focused on him so intently with those hazel eyes. “I wished I could just ignore it and not bother you with it, but then it occurred to me that your cat might be trying to convey things to you that you don’t understand because you’ve been away from clan so long.”