RHYS’ POV
She was shaking.
Not crying. Not talking. Just shaking – wrapped in a blanket on her bed with her eyes unfocused and her hands trembling against her knees and her breath coming in stutters like her lungs had forgotten the rhythm they'd been running for nineteen years.
I didn't know what to do with that.
I know what to do with a lot of things. A body check? Drop the shoulder, absorb, stay on your feet. A fight? Hands up, aim for the jaw, don't swing angry. A girl in my bed? I know what to do there too. But a girl shaking on her bed with her eyes looking at something I couldn't see and her heartbeat visible in her throat, too fast, wrong?
Nothing. No play. No instinct. No training for this.
So I picked her up.
Didn't ask. Didn't announce it. Just slid my arms under her – one
