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What else could explain this?
“How is this possible?” Roman asked aloud.
We were all still standing on our stone circles. Part of me afraid to step off, after all, the pain that was endured if we weren’t in the right spot was meant to be horrific.
“Maybe...” Rose gulped, “Maybe this is because you’re not in New York anymore?”
I didn’t think so, but I didn’t say it aloud, instead laughing and saying, “Then we’re never going back.”
I gathered my woman into my arms, still refusing to step off the stone circle. My brothers were doing the same thing. I glanced across at them, wondering who would be the first to say it aloud.
Gabe lifted his head and looked at me, “Do you think we’re dreaming?”
I snorted. “Or we’re all dead, and this is heaven, because this makes no sense.”
Angelique rushed to the coffee table, tripping over the area rug in her haste. She stumbled and fell.
Gabe took a step towards his mate, his foot touching the carpet, “Sweetheart, are you...” Then he stopped and looked down at the floor.
I gulped. “Gabe, are you okay?”
He looked up at me and nodded, then he did the unthinkable. He put his other foot down on the carpet and walked over to his woman, helping her to her feet once more.
“I was just going to check my phone for weird weather patterns, or something to explain this,” she said, sitting on the couch and rubbing her knee.
I looked at my other brothers and took a deep breath. We could do this. I could do this.
Rafe wasn’t moving, which I could understand. He was the only one of the four of us who’d tried to spend a day out of stone form and had endured horrendous pain.
Rose moved back and I lifted my chin, grabbed some courage out of nowhere, and stepped off my circle.
My knees threatened to collapse beneath me, but I walked forward, feeling nothing more than a slight exhaustion from the days events.
Roman was next, walking with Chrissy around the stone area and to the small bar. “I need a drink.”
He poured some whiskey into multiple glasses and although I was tempted to go to Roman first, I walked over to Rafe, who was still frozen in place. Out of all of us, Rafe had suffered the most, and I wasn’t sure how he was going to do this.
“Rafe?” I said, walking up to him where Bella stood, holding his hand. “How you doin’?”
He was shaking, that was obvious. “I... can’t...”
“You don’t have to.” I said, holding my hands up. “You can stand there all day. No-one’s rushing you. Want a whiskey?”
He jerked his head rather than nodded.
Roman brought me a glass filled with alcohol and I took it, then offered it to Rafe. “Here, brother.”
Rafe’s arm moved slowly, reaching for the glass like it was a bomb. When his fingers touched the glass, he was shaking. But I didn’t pull away, I held onto the drink until I was sure he had it, then let him lift it up and put it to his lips.
He sloshed it over his chin and down his shirt but managed to get most of it into his mouth. Then he tipped his head back and swallowed. When he handed me back the glass, his arm was steadier.
“How do you think this happened?” Angelique asked, still sitting on the couch with Gabe.
“I have a theory,” Bella said, her gaze shifting from Rafe to me again. “You know how you all talk about your shifting during the day, being like... a curse?”
“Yeah, we do.” There was no other way to describe it really. It wasn’t like it was a positive of any sort.
Roman and Chrissy came up next to us, joining the conversation.
