Sang's Freedom (Original And Rewritten)

Chapter 37: North

-Chapter 37: North Taylor's POV-

"Don't..."

"No...no! No!"

I groggilly opened my eyes, rubbing a hand across the stubble running across my jaw. I must have fallen asleep.

It was still dark.

Where was I? It took me another moment to remember I was at Mr. Blackbourne's house and another still to remember I promised Luke I would watch over Sang. Why the hell wasn't he back yet?

"Please stop! I cant--"

I heard Sang shift noisily on the bed. She was thrashing. For fuck's sake, she talks in her sleep, too?

"I can't breathe! Help--!" She was thrashing louder, and I got to my feet. Seemed like Sang was having a nasty nightmare.

"Help!"

"Please, stop! I'm sorr..."

I gently shook her shoulder. There were tears on her cheeks and she kept trying to thrash before going ghostly still.

Was she breathing?

"Sang?" My voice sounded high. She really didn't look like she was breathing and I took her by both shoulders. "Sang, wake up." I shook her firmly. Nothing.

I patted her cheek.

"Sang? Sang baby, please." My voice broke at the same moment the girl took a sharp inhale. Her green eyes were flickering open in the darkness, but I already had her drawn to my chest. "Fuck. Fucking fuck. You scared the hell out of me!"

I wasn't sure if she was trembling or if it was me.

"North?" She sounded very confused. "Why are you in here?"

"You stopped breathing, Sang. I didn't know what to do." My hands were caught up in her hair, and I felt her soften slightly against me.

"It was just a nightmare, North." Her little hands found my cheeks and she tilted my face so I was looking down at her. Sang looked tired. Exhausted, really. "People get nightmares."

"Not like that! I couldn't wake you up. I--"

She softly covered my mouth with her hand. "You probably couldn't wake me up because I've been so tired, and as for the breathing thing, I clearly started to again. So don't worry so much."

Don't worry so much? Fuck that.

"What was the dream about?" I asked against her hand, but it only came out a mumble. She pulled her hand away and I asked again. "What was the dream about?"

Sang shrugged. "It happened a long time ago."

"What?"

She rubbed her arm nervously. She didn't want to tell me, I realized. I guess that's what I get for being such a dick.

I was just trying to protect our family because I knew the closer she came to my brothers...the more this pain in my chest would grow.

Gabriel had kissed her. Luke was, in a sense, sleeping with her. Silas was whispering sweet Greek nothings in her ear. Victor was fucking playing Beethoven! They were hugging her. They wanted her on their laps. Even Nate was beginning to make some moves. Kota would be next, I was sure.

How could they help themselves? Sang Sorenson was beautiful, inside and out. Hell, she had the courage to stand up to me!

She tackled me into a coffee table, and fuck, I had never been so turned on in my life.

I wanted to kiss her, even now looking down at her pink, full lips as she tried to ignore my question.

That was why I had to push Sang away. I couldn't fall for this girl. Not when all my brothers were falling, too.

Not when they were sneaking affections out from under each other, and all the while Sang was too innocent to understand what was happening around her.

Because what happened at the end?

What happened if Sang meaningfully pressed a kiss to my lips one day, and then kissed Silas the day after because she loved him and not me?

My heart couldn't take that.

I'm sure my brother's hearts couldn't take that either, and when Sang Sorenson chose one of us to love, it was going to destroy everything.

Sang touched my cheek, snapping me out of the darkness I found myself in. Her voice was so quiet, I had to lean forward to hear her. "When I was about ten, we lived in Minnesota a few months. It was during winter and the lakes had frozen over. My sister, Marie, had been giving me the silent treatment, though I'm not sure why.

"Anyhow, when Marie finally did speak to me, it was to ask if I wanted to go out on the frozen lake. I had never gone out on the water like that, and I was so happy Marie was talking to me that I agreed.

"It was beautiful. The trees and bushes were covered in ice and snow and everything sparkled under the sunlight. The ice was frosted and thick, or so we thought, because as soon as we got a few yards out, there was a sickening crack."

I took hold of Sang's arm a moment. "You...don't have to continue...if you don't want."

She smiled, not unkindly. "After scaring you that badly, I think you deserve to know the story."

Sang waited for me to nod my approval before continuing.

"Well, the ice cracked and for this terrible moment I was just floating. Everything slowed down. I saw Marie's surprised expression. I tasted the sweetness of the air. I heard my own sharp intake of breath. And then the ice water washed over me.

"The water is so cold it steals your breath away. It steals your strength, your voice, and it's everything you can do to just stay conscious. Between the panic and the fact my body was shutting down, I couldn't get myself to move upward. Someone was pushing on my head. I...I think Marie tried to force me under, and then my world went black.

"Sometimes the dreams end better. I stay conscious through the drowning and I see the face of this boy. His dark hair is wet with snow crystals and his eyes are cold, but he's carrying me. He tells me to hang on. Just hang on, and then I wake up." Sang paused. "Sometimes I dream of other things, but this is the only one that ever has had a happy ending."

"You getting pulled out of a lake, half frozen to death, that's a happy ending?" I asked and when she flinched, I felt myself sigh. "Sang?"

"North?"

"Do you hate me?"

"No." She paused. "Do you hate me?"

I laughed softly. "No, never."