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“The noodles are your safety net. In case it ever…?” I threw my arms around him. Pressed my glistening eyes into his shirt. “Oh, Lloyd.”

“I know it doesn’t make sense.” His breath hitched. “I’m a part of one of the richest packs in the city, but I can’t shake the fear. The hunger, Tully, it was like being eaten from the inside out. I can’t do it again.”

“Nobody would.” I leaned up to press a kiss to his lips.

“I have these nightmares where my stomach is concave again, and hunger is the only thing I can think about. But if I have the noodles, I know we’ll be ok.”

I urged Lloyd into the nest, burrowed down until Lloyd’s pale face rested on my breasts. I didn’t know what to say to make him feel better. It wasn’t what he was asking of me.

You can’t wipe away years of trauma with a well-placed apology.

I knew from my own experiences. But being there with him, letting Lloyd know he was safe and heard, was something I could do.

“Of course, those boxes make you feel safe. Use whatever methods you need to keep the fear at bay.” He nuzzled into my soft chest with a hiccup.

“I’ve never told anyone about the food.” He aimed a shaky smile up at me, and I sank my fingers into his blond locks.

His scent settled, and my heart swelled in my chest. We were curled up on this nest like mates, as if we’d done this a thousand times before. He locked his athletic body around mine like we were one piece, split in two.

“What about your mom?” I asked, wishing I hadn’t when his face fell.

Lloyd sucked in a fortifying breath. “When I got my scholarship, she paraded up and down the alleyways, bragging. I promised I would buy her a house where she had space and a garden of her own, she loves gardening.”

I stroked the side of his face, pressed a kiss to his crown. My vision warbled through the sheen of tears.

“You succeeded, Lloyd. You work for the Baylark Foundation and are part of an amazing pack,” I soothed.

“The pack and I offered to buy her a house but she refused. She likes the community around her, and it’s all she’s known. We talk on the phone and I make sure she has enough money in her account, but I can’t go back there. I refuse to step foot in The Barracks ever again.”

I pressed my wet cheek to the top of Lloyd’s head and clutched him closer. My heart ached as if his words punctured it. I offered him the warmth of my body, hoping it was a cocoon in the wake of his confession. I thought of my dad and how he was the first to help the community that raised him when they were in trouble.

“You’ve been through so much,” I whispered into his locks. “If the pressure gets too much, you can lean on me.”

His gaze turned molten. Thumb trailed down the smooth column of my neck. The touch seeped through my skin, like a tattoo on my soul.

“What about you? Who do you lean on, Tully?”

Who did I lean on?

I chewed on my bottom lip and shrugged. Everyone left, eventually. It might not have been their choice, as in my parents’ case, but they were still gone. My skin ached with the weight of my loneliness sometimes, but it was familiar now.

I was on an island. Unreachable.

Except Lloyd was pressed up against me. He was here, and from the moment we’d met, it had been easy. Warm. A net from the lingering hurts life dealt me. Even through a phone screen, he wanted to be there for me. He buffeted against my shields, and all I had to do was let him in.

Lloyd was the soft landing I never knew existed.

“Since my parents died, I feel like I have always trusted the wrong person.”

Lloyd cupped my face, his breath puffed against my lips. I’d never lain with another person like this, trading oxygen. Sharing heat. We were an untouchable bubble.

He made me feel safe.

“You can trust me.” Lloyd brushed his lips over the tip of my nose, and my insides unstitched. One by one. I snaked my arms around his neck as goosebumps erupted over my body.

“Promise?” I whispered.

He’d seen me splayed out in front of him more than once, but this was more intimate, more charged. I wanted to taste him on my tongue. To see if his promise was as sweet as his lips, as solid as his muscular body.