Hayes gripped her shoulders from behind, waiting as she closed her eyes and slowly drew oxygen into her lungs over and over. When she was done, she turned toward him and buried her face in his chest.
Hayes bent to lift her into his arms, being careful to keep her dress over her panties. He rubbed her back, confused by her reaction. “Can you tell us, Baby girl?”
She shrugged, not meeting anyone’s gaze.
Hayes held up a finger before stepping back into the house and aiming directly for their bedroom. As soon as they were alone—relatively speaking—he sat on the edge of the bed and leaned her back. “Talk to Daddy, Little one,” he whispered.
There was no way to keep their communication from Molly, but that wasn’t important. What mattered was giving Rylee a chance to collect her thoughts and not have to worry about the emotions on her face while she explained herself.
She sniffled, not meeting his gaze. “He smells like death, Daddy,” she whispered so softly it was possible no one heard her. If Molly did, hopefully she didn’t flinch.
Hayes stiffened. “What does that mean to you, Baby girl?” he murmured in response.
“I don’t know.”
He stood, set her on the bed, and squatted in front of her. He wanted to understand what she meant, but he wasn’t sure evenshedid. It’s not like she was used to scenting so many weird things. He’d encouraged her to smell orange and glass. What was she supposed to do with death and evil?
“Do you think he killed someone? Or he’s going to get killed?” Hayes said as softly as possible.
She shrugged. “I don’t know, Daddy,” she hissed. “Maybe he’s dying.” She threw up her arms. “I don’t know what it means,” she sobbed.
He gathered her in his arms and held her close. “Okay, Little one. It’s okay. It’s not your responsibility to figure this out. I don’t want you to stress. How about if you lie down? I’ll go talk to everyone for a minute and be right back.”
She nodded and let him help her onto her side. He pulled off her shoes, dragged a blanket over her, and kissed her temple. “I’ll be right back. Don’t move.”
He hated leaving her there nearly in tears, but he had to make excuses, at least to Thorn and Surge. Once the bears were gone, he would talk this over with his own pack members.
Hayes slipped out of the bedroom and found everyone exactly where they’d been standing five minutes ago. The bears were still on the porch, and he joined them.
“Everything okay?” Thorn asked.
Hayes sighed. “I think she’s just shaken from so much happening in such a short time.”
Surge frowned. “Was she scenting something about Drow?”
“Yes, but she doesn’t understand it. It’s only been a few hours since she realized she can smell things that don’t have a scent.”
“What kinds of things?”
“Colors and materials. Probably emotions like fear and danger. It’s confusing to her, but also to me.”
Thorn nodded. “I get that. She probably needs time to process it.” He handed Hayes a card. “Both my number and Surge’s are on there. Call us if you think there’s something we need to know.”
Hayes smirked. “You have phones?” Never once in all the time they’d known these two guys had anyone exchanged numbers with them. When they needed to know something, the bears simply showed up. They couldn’t even arrive unannounced anymore.
Surge laughed. “Yeah. We don’t have a need to use them often, but we own them. You can call or text. I know you haveplenty of people on your end who know our every move, so we don’t exactly need to let you know when we’re coming, but we have no other way to get messages from you if you need to reach out. I don’t want our communications to be a one-way street any longer. We should lean on each other.”
Hayes smiled.
“And, Hayes,” Thorn said, “I know your mate smelled something that upset her. We get it. I’m sure it was unnerving. Drow is not a good person, so don’t feel bad about whatever she thinks she knows.”
“Thank you. I’ll text you if it becomes clearer to her. But, meanwhile…” Hayes glanced past the bears in the direction he knew Drow had been pacing. “Just…be careful. I don’t trust him.”
“We will. Thanks.” Surge waved as the two of them took off for the tree line. Seconds later, they were shifted and gone.
Chapter Nineteen
“I’m sorry, Daddy.” Rylee couldn’t stop crying. She’d held herself together for a long time while Daddy said goodbye to the bears and then to everyone else. She felt bad for not speaking to her friends before they left, but she was so drained and couldn’t stop shaking. Now that everyone was gone, she was a sniffling mess.
