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Ellie saluted her sister and said, “Aye aye, Mine is all mine.”

Both Cy and Odie grumbled at that, but I thought it was cute. This wasn’t the break I wanted, but hey, beggars and choosers and all that bullshit.

Chapter 20

Mine

I should be more freaked out. Correction, I should one hundred percent be way more freaked out than I am about all of this, but shock or something else was holding all of it back. It would overflow eventually, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it overflowed many times for all of eternity until I eventually died.

Ellie stayed with me, but I was still extremely tired and dizzy, so I tried to take a nap, avoiding my usual adjustments from side to side. Not lying on that shoulder was going to be a pain until it healed. I hated sleeping on my back, and I suffocated on my stomach, so that left two options. Now, that was knocked down to one.

I lay down on my left side, staring at the wall, with Ellie behind me in the bed, reading. I wished there was some sort of distraction like white noise or a terrible move on a TV, but the amount of effort to ask wasn’t worth the end result. There was no guarantee either of those things worked.

Whatever they had given me was wearing off, but the pain was manageable. The dizziness and nausea that came with it was the real kicker, but I figured that was due to the blood loss, and as long as I listened to Odie and chugged those gross drinks, I’d be fine, eventually.

I’d prefer to be out in the living room where I could watch Cy and Odie cook with dusk glimmering through the curtains and the TV playing something we all inevitably ignored.

This whole situation of the last—that made me realize how short of time it had been. I’d only been here for two weeks, Oliver attacked me a mere twelve hours ago, and now I lay here relatively fine two hours after finding out about my arm? That shouldn’t be possible.

My heart rate picked up, and the itchiness started again. Before I knew it, Odie’s door was flying open, and I was scooped up into her arms.

“Ellie, you’re supposed to be helping her.” Odie’s arms trapped me against her, and just as the other times, it was a strange comfort I didn’t know I needed.

“What are you talking about? She was trying to sleep!” Ellie hopped up to her knees and argued with her sister.

“That’s not what—” She cut herself off. “She wasn’t sleeping, and you know it.” Odie was putting a lot of pressure on a seventeen-year-old. I was trying to sleep. I simply sucked at it.

“I said trying for a reason. Did you think she’d magically pass out without you in here? Don’t be ridiculous.” Ellie rolled off the bed with her phone in hand and stomped out of the room.

Odie set me down with a sigh, and I was still trying to piece together everything. I’d accept a lost arm and whatever weird feelings I was having for Odie because, let’s face it, she was attractive and protective and could chuck me across the room if she wanted to, and who didn’t want a person like that? What I couldn’t accept was all the secrecy and how that played into whatever happened after Oliver was shot.

I had completely forgotten about that until now. No one had mentioned cleaning up a body, so I assumed that fuckhead was still alive. Pity really. I had hoped they had removed that thorn in our side after I passed out.

“I’m sorry about all of this.” I looked up at her with a raised brow. “Yes, I know, no shit, right? It’s a lot, and you shouldn’t have to deal with any of this. Not that I can say I’m sorry you were dragged into it, but I am sorry with how it played out. You shouldn’t have gotten this hurt.”

She said it as if getting hurt a little was inevitable but having my entire arm basically ripped off by a Beta in wolf’s clothing was out of the ordinary. My exhaustion grew. Not the physical exhaustion. That had peaked from the moment I woke up, but the mental exhaustion was getting to me.

I was broken enough. I didn’t need more damage on top of it, but it was too late for that wishful thinking.

Odie sat on the edge of the bed next to my legs, and I smelled smoke and apples again, almost like an apple pie baking over an open fire. I wondered if it was Odie who smelled so good, but I refused to mention it.

As she stared down at me, I was thankful for whoever shoved me into some clothes and apparently cleaned me, but knowing they got an eyeful made me blush.

“What are you thinking about?” she asked, placing one hand on my knee and handing me my pad and paper with the other.

I grabbed it with an annoyed sigh. I needed something better than this to work with.

I wrote, How you got a show while cleaning me up.

That made her laugh and blush as well. “We did cover you with a towel, but you had blood everywhere. We couldn’t leave you like that.”

Once again, I asked, We?

“Cy and I. Ellie was in her room until we were done and Cy checked on her. They were asleep and snuggling when I went in to get them.” Odie paused for a second. “Don’t tell Cy I said that. Actually, you probably could get away with it.”

Why?

“I know you have a guess hidden in that pretty little brain of yours. Is the blood loss getting to you?”