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It felt like salvation and tasted like forever.
Ocean breeze carried the scent of salt and sun, the gentle, rhythmic sound of the waves lifting all the heaviness on my chest and shoulders. This is what I missed the most. Just this. Standing in the face of something so huge and feeling like it saw you. Like you breathed, and it breathed back.
“You do matter,” he whispered. “Why? I’m—” “Because you’re a fucking person,” he said, holding me flush to his body. “You’re beautiful, and I won’t lie, I searched your work. You’re fucking talented. You’re kind when you don’t need to be. You care about your friends and family. It took me no time at all to see those things, and even if not one of them was true, you’re still a person, Isolde. You matter.”
“Have you ever had a moment where you looked back and realized how foolish you’d been? The truth of everything just slams into you and you can’t stop it? You have to face it, even if it’s painful?”
Because I’m not grieving for him, I’m grieving for me. I did that. I stayed. I didn’t realize that I was a placeholder in someone’s life until they didn’t want me.
There was something soothing about knowing you were alone like this, but close to people. Very different from actually being alone. The choice was what mattered.
How was I supposed to let go when I held my life together with both hands? At the end of the day, I was the one responsible for me.
“But we have something he didn’t.” “General human decency and the skill to actually bring me to orgasm?” Laughs burst out through the room, including Hawk. “Those, yes. But we have the knowledge that you’re perfect for us. And we’re perfect for you.”
“Let’s get down there and get back. I want to take a nap with my naked Omega.” “Why do I think that a naked nap is going to turn into not a nap?”
They smoothed out the hard edges of my scars and filled in the empty spaces I’d never noticed. They cared for me effortlessly, and when I was with them, it was easier to breathe.
Closing my eyes, I inhaled the ocean air, sinking into that low, settling feeling I had when I was near the water. It was always there, even when I didn’t look for it, but there were moments I felt it. The ocean had always been my home.
“You really love the ocean. I didn’t realize how much.” “I can’t explain it.” “You don’t have to,” Cade murmured. “I know it’s just—it’s always been there. No matter what is happening, it stays the same. It’s always wild, always dangerous, always… endless. Always exactly what it is, despite everyone trying to tame it or use it or change it. It’s just there. And it didn’t matter where I was, it always felt like home. Until you.”
