When she didn’t say anything more, Sawyer moved his chair so close his thighs were touching hers and she could feel his warmth through both of their jeans.
“It started with an argument with my brother,” she said, focusing all her attention on the thumb rubbing little circles on the back of her hand again. “He was nagging at me about showering too long and using all the hot water. Before I knew it, we went from arguing to shouting so loud the whole house heard us. My emotions had been all over the place for the past few days, the pressure building as I tried everything I could to hide the changes from everyone, and for some reason, I lost it.”
“Did you shift?”
She nodded glumly. “Further than I ever had before. When my brother freaked out, my parents and sister all ran upstairs. My dad grabbed me and shoved me away, I slashed him with my claws, tearing open his shoulder. Seeing all that blood pulled me back from the edge, but it didn’t matter by then. My whole family had seen what I was and the look of horror on their faces is something I’ll never forget. The worst was my little sister, Jenna. She’d always idolized me, but seeing her look at me like that crushed me. My mom told me to get out and never come back. I did and haven’t let myself shift that far since.”
Harley promised herself she wasn’t going to cry, but when Sawyer gently pulled her onto his lap, she did just that, the tears she’d never let fall back then coming after all these years. She waited for the embarrassment to come, but it didn’t happen. Instead, as Sawyer’s big hand came around to rub her back, she felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
He let her cry for a long time before tenderly wiping the tears away from her face with his fingers. The intimate touch felt like the most natural thing in the world.
“Did you go back to uni after you left home?” he asked.
She should probably climb off his lap, but being in his arms felt too good.
She shook her head. “The idea of going back to school and becoming a teacher was out. All I could imagine was losing control in the middle of a classroom and slashing up a bunch of kids.”
“You’d never do anything like that,” he said firmly.
“Now I wouldn’t, but back then, when I was fighting the change with everything I had in me, I wasn’t so sure. Regardless, I took every penny I had left in my bank account and disappeared.”
“Where did you go?” he asked, his face so close to hers she could feel his warm breath on her skin, the scent of cinnamon coffee cake surrounding her, and it was all she could do to keep from shoving her nose into his neck so she could inhale even more of it. How had she not realized the delicious scent was coming from him the first time she’d experienced it?
Harley took another breath, letting it out in a long sigh before shaking her head to clear her senses. “A better question would be where didn’t I go? I was so scared of being found out again, I never stayed in any one place for too long. Before joining STAT, I spent time in nearly every state in the continental U.S. Except Colorado. I never went back there.”
As she relaxed against Sawyer’s muscular chest, she realized it’d been an exceedingly long time since she’d been in a man’s arms. It was amazing how comforting it was.
“Speaking of STAT, how did you end up working for them?” he asked. “Did they find you, or did you find them?”
She laughed a little at that. “It was definitely the latter. While I got very good at hiding the more obvious aspects of my werewolf nature, I constantly found myself in situations where someone needed help, and the next thing I knew, I’d toss someone through a window, or get shot at or run over by a car. It’s like I was a magnet for trouble.”
“That’s your innate alpha instincts,” Sawyer murmured, rubbing soothing circles along her back. “Your inner wolf sees someone who needs your help and you can’t help but get involved.”
She snorted. “I guess. Regardless, that’s how STAT found me. I was waitressing at a diner in Omaha when McKay sat down at a table and offered me a job. They heard about all the situations I’d gotten myself into and figured out I was a werewolf. I was terrified when he told me, but in the end, knowing there were other people like me out there who’d accept me for what I am was too good an opportunity to pass up.”
“Have you talked to your family since you left?” Sawyer asked.
Harley felt tears fill her eyes again and Sawyer’s big hand moved up and down her back until she relaxed. Damn, he had really good hands.
“Jenna is the only one I’ve kept in contact with.” She wiped away a stray tear. “I text her a few times a week and talked to her twice. She was eight when I left, and while she saw what happened, she doesn’t get why I can’t go home. She thinks it’s as simple as apologizing to Mom and Dad. I’d do it in a heartbeat if I thought they’d forgive me, but I’m nothing but a monster to them now.”
Even though she knew how they’d felt about her for years, there was something about saying it out loud that made her feel more hollow and wrung out than ever. She was on the verge of losing it again, fighting the tears that threatened to overwhelm her, when she felt Sawyer’s hands
