Page 46 of Wanted
“I was ten when my birth parents died in a car accident. Ashley was only four. It was her birthday. My mom told me to watch Ashley for just a few minutes while she and my dad ran to the store to get the cake they ordered.”
Emery makes an expression as if she’s laughing.
“Ashley loved vanilla-flavored rainbow cakes. She still does.”
She shakes her head.
“The time kept getting later and later. When it started to storm Ashley ran to my lap, clutching the special rainbow pillow my parents bought for her.”
Emery looks me right in the eye.
“Whenever someone asks her what her favorite color is, she would always tells them ‘the rainbow.’”
She shakes her head.
“That night I told her everything would be okay. I promised her. My mom always told me it’s my job to look after my baby sister. I’ve done that. Since that night, when the police knockedon the door with our parent’s best friends to tell us they would never be coming home.
“When we moved to Upstate New York to live with those friends as our new parents. I looked out for my sister,” she tells me.
That’s when the first tear falls.
I wipe it away with the pad of my thumb.
“What if the same people that tried to attack me did something to her? What if she’s hurt and scared? She always calls me when she’s scared. Why didn’t I stay in Florida to find her?” she questions.
“It wasn’t safe for you in Florida,” I remind her.
She shakes her head. “If it isn’t safe for me, it probably isn’t safe for Ash either. I should’ve looked harder for her.”
I shake my head before wrapping Emery in my arms as her body begins to shake. It wasn’t safe for her in Florida. I still don’t know for sure who sent those wolves after her. Which means there could’ve been more of them.
The safest thing to do was to get Emery the hell out of there. Was it selfish of me? Yes, but my pack wasn’t around and I wasn’t certain of who, outside of a few, I could trust in Florida.
The safest option was to bring Emery here. Home.
Where she belongs.
I ignore my wolf’s words. Or was that from my human subconscious?
Either way, I ignore them both.
Emery doesn’t say anything else. Nor does she need to.
She’s terrified for her sister. Almost as bad, is she believes she’s the one who let Ashley down.
“We’ll find your sister,” I promise her.
There is no other option. I won’t allow Emery to blame herself or to go without knowing what’s happened to Ashley.
I lean down and press a kiss to her forehead. The need to do it again consumes me.
And when Emery tilts her head upward, her face merely inches from mine, a heat I’ve never known courses through me.
“Kiss me,” her lips say.
I cover those lips I’ve stared at, thought of, and fantasized about for the past two and a half days. Nothing could’ve prepared me for the touch of her lips on mine.
I tug her bottom lip in between my teeth, the same way I’ve seen her do multiple times in the last day. Then I run my tongue across that lip. There’s a vibration that I imagine is a groan escaping her lips.