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It’s not perfect. People are still hurt, dead, or dying, but it’s a start.

It’s hope.

I turn to Ryker, my lips pulled up in a smile that hurts my cheeks. It feels strange to be happy right now with so much sadness surrounding me, but I am. I have to hold on to the little things, the wins we do have, or I’ll lose myself.

He’s already looking at me, his gaze roaming over my face, the tender look in his eyes enough to make me feel like something is fluttering around in my stomach. Our hands still rest together on the back of Storm’s head, and I don’t dare move, afraid the rain will stop. The others are all moving now that the fire is being handled. They run into buildings, pulling anyone alive to safety and steering those who can walk toward the forest with the others. Garrett is healing people left, right, and center, and I wish I could help him; I wish there was more I could do.

Warmth on my cheek pulls me from my thoughts, and I turn my gaze back to Ryker. His thumb rests on my cheek, brushing away the raindrop that felt like a tear as he continues to look at me so intensely that I have to fight the urge to look away.

“Thank you.” I force the word out around the lump in my throat from his proximity, and I know he feels the way my cheeks heat. How could he miss it?

“I wish I could do more,” he says, and I know he means it.

Fuck, I hate his father.

“One day I’ll save you from him, I promise.” I don’t know what makes me say it now, with everything else going on around us, but I know it’s true.

I need him to know it too, to believe I see the good in him.

“You already did.” He ghosts his thumb over my lower lip, and it’s all I can do not to throw myself at him and press my lips to his. The memory of our kiss lives rent-free in my mind, and while I know he wouldn’t push me away, I also know now is not the time.

Before I can think of a good response, a roar vibrates through the air. The sound has all of us turning as Lyle comes charging full speed right toward us with at least half a dozen other chimeras at his back.

“Move!” Ryker shouts.

I do the exact opposite and freeze.

Thankfully, it seems like he was talking to Storm more than me. His arm wraps around my waist, and I feel the shift in the air as his wings unfold behind him. A moment later, we shoot up into the sky enough that it steals the air from my lungs. Storm leaps out of the way, moving to where the others are helping people, ready to defend them.

Lyle’s bear slows to a stop where we’d just been standing as his eyes move to the sky, finding me as if drawn by a magnetic force.

Sinking my teeth into my bottom lip, I hold his gaze instead of looking away the way I so desperately want to.

Ihatehis white eyes, how lifeless they are compared to his usual hazel color. Fuck, I’d take a screaming match right about now. A lecture about my schoolwork or some other dumb argument we used to have that feels pointless now.

We’d fought about so many pointless things, but his soul isn’t one of them.

I’ll never give up on him. So long as he’s here, I’ll continue to fight for him. I can’t even imagine a world where I don’t; it’s not possible.

Lyle opens his mouth, and the sound that comes out of him is enough to turn my stomach. He’s always been big and loud, his growls and roars loud enough to hurt my ears even a mile away, but this hurt more than my ears with the broken, monstrous gurgle mixed in.

“You need to leave. We’ve saved who we can, but if you stay, I’m not sure you and your mates won’t end up hurt, and I can’t see you go through that again,” Ryker tells me, his mouth close enough to my ear that I can feel the heat of it.

Now is not the time to be turned on, but I can’t control the way my body reacts to him.

“I’m not leaving them,” I tell him, pushing my inappropriate thoughts aside to deal with later, or maybe never.

He groans, and I can picture his face, feel his glare on the back of my head.

“Why did I know you were going to say that?”

I’m pretty sure it’s a rhetorical question, but I roll my eyes, anyway. Why even try to make me leave if he knows better? Clearly, he doesn’t yet, but he will.

We watch as the other chimeras spread out. I count eight of them, nine with Lyle.

Thankfully, the guys seem to have gotten most people out now that the fire is out. There are only a few houses left where I can hear anything other than wood shifting and embers smoldering. The chimeras don’t seem to have a destination, instead mindlessly wandering, tearing apart anything that gets in their way, which is mostly half-destroyed houses. It’s loud and sad to watch, but we can rebuild a village.

“Can you make them leave?” I ask Ryker, trying to rack my brain for a way to handle this even as my body screams inprotest. All I want is to curl up into a ball and sleep. Using my powers so much is exhausting.