Downpour (Alpha Love - A Paranormal Werewolf Shifter Romance Book 1) (25 page)

“Great. That all sounds...great. But, won’t you miss your family? Being away from them for so long and all.” Sofie tries to stop from grinding her teeth together as she says the words.

“You’re so thoughtful, Sofie, always thinking of others. My family understands the importance of the work that we’re doing here. Of course, I’ll miss them, but I’m hoping that I’ll find other ways to occupy my time while I’m here.” Luke gives her a meaningful look and, although he hasn’t laid a hand on her, she still feels dirty. “Now, you should probably go clean yourself up and get ready for the news crew. You’ll be great for the camera, Sofie. That face of yours…the audience will eat it up.”

“Right, thanks.” Sofie’s legs automatically take her towards the entrance of the motel. Her brain is whirring like an over-heating computer, but her body is reacting on autopilot.

“Oh and Sofie,” Luke’s voice commands her to turn around. “I’m glad we worked all this out, and you’ll be staying at Shale. It really would be such a shame to lose you.” He smirks at her, but she doesn’t even have to swallow the witty retort on the tip of her lips because there was none. She feels completely and utterly drained, like the exhaustion that had been threatening for the past few days has finally hit and now it isn’t going to let her go.

The day passes in a haze of camera flashes and inane questions. Sofie hopes that she comes across as something other than a frightened deer caught in headlights, but she’s not willing to bet money on it. Luke had clearly told Darwin that Sofie would be working with him during the drill and was now staying as far away from her as he could. Darwin had been her mentor; he was the best in the field. She hated to think that he now believed she was trying to take his position. But, right now, Darwin’s hurt feelings were the least of her worries. Several times during the day, she goes to send Ashton a message with the news of the impending Shale invasion. However, each time she remembers that his cell is probably still lying where he left it, shattered into teeny tiny pieces.

The mood within the team is somber. Darwin is struggling with the news of Sofie’s promotion; Finn is even more disillusioned with the company he’s been working for since college than he was before; and Sofie is all at sea. She doesn’t know how she’s going to break the news to Ashton. His pack is in danger and there are no two ways about it. They call time on the day earlier than usual, all three of them preferring some alone time.

Back in her motel room, Sofie looks dully at the calendar on the wall. It’s coming up to the end of the month, which only meant one thing, collection day. However, she isn’t going to be there to hand over the cash. She had finally paid off the interest, but the debt was still almost all of her salary, what she didn’t need to live on. She pushes the thought to the back of her head. She can’t deal with this worry on top of everything else that’s going on. There would be time for her issues later. Now, there was something more important that had to be dealt with.

Her feet drag as she heads towards Ashton’s store. She doesn’t have any desire to tell Ashton what she knows she has to. When she opens the door, he is the only one there. He’s leaning over the counter, with his head in his hands. It’s an expression of hopelessness, helplessness that she’s not used to seeing on him. It fills her with a dull ache to see him like that.

He looks up as soon as she sets foot inside, sensing or smelling her presence. He can tell from the expression on her face that she isn’t bringing good news.

“Hey.” She walks over to him, wishing that she could take the pain away for him, just like he did for her that night in the woods. But she doesn’t have that kind of power. She couldn’t give him what he needed. In the back of her mind, she wonders if this is the first time of many times that she’s going to feel insufficient, inadequate in the very basic way that they weren’t the same and never would be.

“Hey.” His features relax, as he draws her into him, feeling their bodies against each other.

“Ash, I’m so sorry.” Her voice wavers, as she feels the tears start to prick the back of her eyes like little needles. The days of the pack were numbered; they couldn’t go on living the way that they had been. While the digging was going on, they would continually be at risk of being found out. Beaumont had gone from being one of the safest places in the world for them to one of the most dangerous.

He rests his forehead against hers and holds her gaze. “You didn’t do this, Sofie. This isn’t on you.” He closes his blue eyes, like he’s trying to block something out. “I’ve known something was coming. I just thought, hoped that we’d have more time, more time to prepare.”

“How could you know what was going to happen?” Sofie looks at him in confusion.

“Sometimes I have dreams, dreams that come true.” Ashton says it so casually that it would be easy to take it as a normal everyday thing.

“You can see the future? How is that even possible?” Sofie raises her hand to her head, like she’s trying to get her brain around what he’s telling her.

“It’s not like that. It’s images, flashes, feelings, a sense. It’s hard to put into words.” Ashton smiles wanly down at her.

“What did you see?” Sofie leans back so she can look at him. She wants to absorb every moment that she has with him. Their future is so uncertain that all they have is the present.

Ashton doesn’t respond right away, as if he’s weighing his words, not wanting to worry her. “I saw rivers.” The words he says eventually sound an alarm bell in her head, and her memory plucks out one of her own dreams. Ashton sees the expression change on her face. “What?”

“Rivers of what?” Sofie is insistent, needing him to tell her.

“Rivers of oil.” Ashton looks at her questioningly.

“Rivers of oil and blood.” They say the words together at exactly the same time and both their eyes widen.

“You saw it too?” Ashton’s jaw has dropped to the floor.

“It was a dream I had—that first night I spent at your place—the night I read
The Origin
.” Sofie can feel her body start to shake at the strangeness of it all

“But that shouldn’t be possible. It’s not...” Ashton frowns, looking at Sofie again, like he’s searching for something in her face, something that will answer the questions in his mind.

They stand there, dumbstruck, each lost in their own thoughts. Eventually, Ashton breaks the silence, his deep voice rumbling in his chest and vibrating through her body. “How long do we have before it starts?”

“A week,” she replies in a small voice.

They tighten their hold on each other, neither quite sure what happens next.

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