How did it come to this

He wanted to wrap her up in his embrace and drink the pain away, but he couldn't. They had a different path to follow. He didn't know what it would be like, or how much more difficult this promise would be to keep. Rhyme hated he'd put himself in the situation, even more so what it did to Shaye. He'd try to keep his attention on the words they spoke to each other and not what remained unspoken. Shaye was merciful enough to comment on the way his name sounded instead of the story that went with it.

She sighed softly, and he could see the turmoil within projected through her features as she struggled. He regretted again what this was doing to their relationship. They should have been enjoying each other's company, but it had become so much more complicated. Rhyme tried to relax though, he wanted to soothe himself and be at ease in her presence. He had to force himself to focus. She made it a little easier with her diversion towards pack related thoughts.

"We might be run a little more thin, but you could send Winter with one of the hunters to help. Same with the ones who take up more patrols." He offered, silently hoping he wasn't about to be eaten out of house and home by his own offspring. None of which had been expected. He tried to bring his mood up, and began pushing his pain deeper down. He had to think of more than himself, and moping wasn't going to help anything. "I'll take the tasks on personally if I have to." Rhyme added, Shaye and Tana had the difficult job of growing his children and he would work overtime to feed and protect them.