Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 93727 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 469(@200wpm)___ 375(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93727 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 469(@200wpm)___ 375(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
I was throwing up too much, and even when my stomach settled, I had very little appetite.
Pop had noticed. Daniel hadn’t.
I couldn’t fault him for it. He had intimate knowledge of my body, but it had only been weeks since we met. There was no way that he could’ve known that the only time my weight fluctuated normally was when I’d put on more muscle or I was sick. He didn’t realize that my cheekbones shouldn’t have hollows beneath them.
Pop noticed everything—that was what came from a career in intelligence and then years of watching the love of his life waste away. He clocked the changes instantly, and they were impossible for him to ignore.
My phone began ringing where I’d put it on the counter and forgotten about it, and I nearly jumped out of my skin in surprise. I looked at it for a long moment, wondering if it was worth getting up for, but when it continued ringing, I got to my feet with a groan. Everything hurt.
Aunt Halle called every day, always when Daniel was gone, always when Pop was out of the room.
Like I wouldn’t realize that he was telling her when to reach out.
“I’m fine,” I answered, walking toward the living room. “Getting ready to watch a movie.”
“You sound like crap,” she argued. “Did Gary give you—”
“Yes, I’m high. No, it’s not touching it.”
“Maybe you need more.”
“If I have any more, I’m going to feel like shit while I’m drooling like a baby.”
“It should be taking the edge off,” she fretted. “It always does for me when Dalton has to go away for a day.”
“Maybe it is,” I replied. What a scary thought. How much worse would it be if my pop wasn’t dosing me? “Why is it still this bad? I thought once we completed the bond, the symptoms would get better.”
“They should be,” Aunt Halle replied. “Have you noticed any difference?”
“It’s worse,” I complained as I curled up like a shrimp on the couch.
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Reassuring,” I grumbled, pulling a crocheted blanket off the back of the couch so it would stop digging into my hip.
“Everyone is different,” she reminded me quickly. “And it’s not all sunshine and rainbows right now. Your body is probably reacting to that. Your mind and your emotions and your body all work together, you know. If you’re anxious, of course you’d feel worse.”
“Right.”
“Do you want me to come over?” she asked.
“What, so you could watch me lie on the couch all day? No, I’m fine.”
“You really don’t sound fine.”
“This is the best I’ll sound for the next few hours,” I told her.
I wasn’t joking. The panic hadn’t set in yet, but I knew it would. It always did.
“How long has he been gone?” she asked sympathetically.
“About twenty minutes.”
“So three more hours?”
“Maybe a little less.”
“I don’t like this,” she said sharply. “I don’t like this at all.”
“I can handle anything for three hours.”
“You shouldn’t have to,” she argued. “I’m going to talk to Dalton about this—”
“Don’t you dare,” I snapped in horror, lifting my head from the couch.
“Daniel should know better than this,” she continued. “How did no one teach him his responsibilities to his mate? I know his parents, and it just doesn’t make sense. Maybe if Dalton spoke to him.”
“Don’t, Aunt Halle,” I warned. “Leave it alone.”
“He must be in pain too,” she retorted. “And the human mate’s symptoms are even worse than the Vampire’s, so how is he just—”
“Maybe he’s not in pain,” I countered, voicing the thought that had been whirling through my mind for days.
“That’s not possible.”
“He’s leaving every day, and it doesn’t seem to have any adverse effects,” I told her quietly. “He comes back completely fine. So maybe he doesn’t think that it hurts me because it doesn’t hurt him.”
“I doubt that’s true.”
“Either way,” I replied, willing to let it go. “He’s gone for the next few hours, so I’m going to lie here in my misery. Want me to call you later?”
“Yeah, do,” she said with a sigh.
I lay there for a while, staring into the empty fireplace. Intellectually, I knew the house was cool. Outside, it was sprinkling rain, and the wind was making branches from the willow tree on the side of the house clack against the siding, but it felt like the hottest day of summer beneath my skin.
Rising, I went to find my pop and Thunder. Misery loves company and all that.
I was so sick of everything. Sick of the panic and the pain and Daniel and the house and my own weakness.
“How ya doing?” Pop asked as I joined him on the patio.
“Why are you sitting out here in the rain?” I asked, raising my arms to catch the droplets. I was surprised they didn’t sizzle when they made contact.
“This ain’t rain,” he said with a scoff.