We stand in silence for a while, both of us staring out at the lake. I think back to forty-eight hours ago and how this place felt like a graveyard to me. But now instead of looking down at the dock and thinking about how I stood there years ago when my father told me Grey died, I think about how I shared my first kiss with her just last night.
“How does it feel to have her back after all this time?”
I stop and think for a minute, trying to figure out the right words to use. “I never felt like I could breathe after that night. It was like I had to fight for every breath I took. And there was this aching in my chest, right here,” I say, pointing to my heart. “And whenever I thought about her, the aching would get worst. But the second I saw her standing there, the pain disappeared, and I took my first full breath of air for the first time in years.”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you,” Noah apologizes. “I just knew I had to keep them safe. All of them safe,” he says, referring to the pack.
“I don’t like it, and it still makes me mad, but I understand why you did it,” I concede. I had always thought I was the only one who suffered after she died, but as much as I liked to think I was alone, I wasn’t. My family and pack had been mourning just as I was, and I never once considered that. “Sorry I was an ass all those years,” I joke.
“You weren’t an asshole.” Noah shakes his head. “You were a kid who didn’t know how to deal with what he was feeling.”
The sound of the door opening has both of us turning around. My chest tightens when I see her face. Her eyes are bloodshot and puffy, and her makeup has run down her face, leaving black streaks on her cheeks. Her chin is still wobbling when she looks up at me, those bright green eyes full of unshed tears.
“Pru...” I sigh, not knowing what I should say to comfort her.
She shakes her head and walks over to me, falling against my chest, and I immediately wrap my arms around her. I nod at Noah, who slips back into the house in search of Addison. All I can do is hold Pru against me and wait for her to be ready to talk. I feel her sniffling and hear the occasional sob escapes and hold her tighter.
After a minute, I hear her mumble something I can’t quite make out. “What did you say?” I ask, keeping my tone soft and gentle.
Pru looks up at me with her hands still placed on my chest. “She’s really sick.”
“I know,” I tell her, wishing there was something I could say to make her feel better. “I’m sorry this is happening.” I reach up and gently wipe the tears away from her face.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do without her. I’ve never been alone before,” Pru whispers, her eyes widening in fear.
“You may lose her, but you’ll never be alone, Pru.” I hold both sides of her face between my hands. “I’m not going anywhere. Remi isn’t going anywhere. My family and the pack aren’t going anywhere. I promise you’ll always have us. You’ll always have me,” I remind her.
“I know, but it won’t be the same without her.” Pru leans forward again and rests her head on my chest, her arms wrapping around my middle. “She’s the only family I remember having, and I don’t know how I’m supposed to make it through all this craziness without her.”
“You still have some time with her now. Focus on the days you have with her, not on losing her.”
“I don’t know how to do that. I know my parents died, but I don’t remember them, I mourned the idea of them more than I actually mourned them. I miss them, but without those memories, it’s different. Addison, though…” Pru shakes her head as if searching for the words. “As far as I can remember, she’s the only thing that’s always been in my life, my one constant, and to not have that, to not have her, I won’t recognize my life. Everything I knew or thought I knew is crumbling around me, and now Addie is going with it.”
“Your life isn’t crumbling around you. It’s changing,” I correct her. “Losing Addison will be a big change, but you will adapt to a world without her. You’ll be okay. I promise.”
“I just don’t see how that’s possible right now.” She holds me tighter. “Did you know she was in love with Noah? When she would visit my mom, she would sneak off and spend time with Noah. They would even meet up in different cities when Addison was traveling for work. She gave him up to raise me…”
It appears Addison disclosed more to Pru than just her diagnosis. “He loves her, too,” I confess. It may not be my secret to tell, but Addison doesn’t have enough time for secrets.
“Can they even be together? Since she’s human?”
“They can love each other as much as they want, but they can never be mated. That’s something special between shifters. And they both would have had to go through the change first before they can mate, in any case,” I try to explain the best I can. It’s hard to understand when you’re not raised in a shifter community. “Think of it as a sort of puberty shifters go through.”
“How old were you when you first shifted?” Pru asks as she pulls back from me. Tears no longer run down her face, and her eyes are already less red than they were.
“I was thirteen, which is the youngest anyone in our pack has ever shifted. Most males shift for the first time around sixteen, and females shift more around
