Page 51 of Plus-Size Bullied Mate

He didn’t push. Instead, we both went to bed, and I sat in the dark for an hour afterward, feeling every second the bond was screaming at me to act. It only made the distance between us feel bigger and that much harder to ignore.

I’m annoyed with myself for even feeling drawn to him, since it doesn’t seem to help me at all. Instead, it’s only making matters worse and doing everything in its power to bring us together.

But even if that part of me does want him and this connection, wanting something isn’t the same as it being right to take.

There’s still so much sitting between us that hasn’t been named, and too many things I’ve been holding back.

After years of accumulated weight, the damage of being looked through by someone whose notice would have meant something isn’t something I can just brush aside. That kind of wound doesn’t close because he decided to see me one day and let that interaction trigger a domino effect.

It’s something that closes slowly, if it does at all, through consistency over time, and I don’t have that yet.

I have a few weeks with a few warm days scattered throughout, and a bond inside me that is completely biased.

Either way, I drink my coffee and watch the light come up through the trees. I’m trying to be honest with myself about the difference between caution that’s protecting me and caution that’s become a habit I use to avoid being hurt again. By the end of it, I don’t come to a satisfying conclusion.

Eventually, more noise reaches me from the porch as the others get up. I hear their voices as they grab coffee and food, but I stay where I am and let everything unfold behind me while I focus on breathing.

Naia moves almost silently when she steps out, but I still catch her presence anyway. With her own mug in hand, she sits down next to me and doesn’t say anything initially. Instead, she gives me a subtle nod in greeting, then we sit in silence.

I appreciate it, and I think she knows, even though I didn’t say it.

We sit for a long moment, simply looking out at the territory below.

“It’s a good view,” she eventually says, not asking too much of me from the start.

“It is,” I agree, and while I know it isn’t much to return with, I don’t know what else to say.

A few birds move somewhere along the tree line while the temperature slowly rises as the sun climbs. It’s warm against my back, and made less intense with the subtle breeze sweeping through.

“I used to do this often when I first started seeing Zane,” Naia says, glancing at me with a more supportive look than I expect from her. “I’d go somewhere outside when I needed to be away from everything going on until I felt steady enough to handle it.”

Glancing at her, I have a feeling there’s more to it than that, so I stay quiet.

“Away from him,” she clarifies, with a subtle smile that suggests she can find that version of herself slightly funny now. “I had to get away from the situation when it was too much. That part of my life was something I never asked for, but I had to face it anyway.”

I look at her more directly, and the shade of her dark brown eyes suddenly looks all too familiar. Blinking back at her, the pieces fall into place.

“You’re Hayes’ sister.”

At that, her lips pull faintly, and she nods. “You guessed it. I’m the one who managed to slip away, and now I’m with Zane in Delmont.”

The words completely evade me while I look at her, feeling like an idiot for not realizing it sooner.

Even though I was isolated for most of my life, I still heard stories of the Wraith Peak wolves, mostly about the Voss family.

From what I was told, I expected Naia to be more intense and aggressive, but seeing her now, she looks the complete opposite.

She has a composed face that’s surprisingly open and receptive, yet there’s a notable softness there, more like she has come to terms with something that was once painful. I can likely guess why that is now.

“It took me a while to realize Zane wasn’t my enemy, but the one trying to help me overcome everything that weighed me down,” she says, allowing that familiar warmth shared between them to settle in her gaze again. “It’s different for everyone. What happened between us was complicated, and I don’t know the full details of your story with Hunter, but I know what it looks like.”

More curious now than I care to admit, I lift my brows in silent question.

“When someone is standing next to something and isn’t inside it yet. You’re keeping one foot out because you’re wary of everything going wrong again.”

I look back at the tree line and swallow back how much I don’t want to jump into things initially. “He told you what happened then.”

“Zane told me some of it,” she admits, offering me that same look of understanding. “They care about him, and they didn’t know much about his past, or you.”