She paid individual attention to each finger, not saying a word about how he might have gotten blood under his fingernails, just scrubbing it away. Pulling him into a hug that incidentally got him under the spray, she held him close, his chin propped on her head, and let him cry. These were better tears than the shocked ones of his arrival.
He couldn’t understand why everyone that he loved got taken away from him, and he vowed then and there to protect Summer with all of his heart and soul, not wanting her to meet the same unknown fate that the other Betas had. Trembling as he lay slumped against her, he choked on a sob and screwed his eyes tightly shut.
She stroked his back, occasionally making shushing sounds. Eventually the water began to get cold. “Isaac, we need to get out now. You’ll get a chill.”