Page 59

I was so dangerously close to crumbling. To falling against him and letting him carry some of this damn weight. I was so fucking tired. The rush of adrenaline had left me a shell of a body, a fragment of a soul.

“Hey,” Wolf said. “Tell me where his body is, and I’ll take care of it. I want you to wash the blood off yourself and get in bed. You don’t need to worry about this.”

His words came out harsh yet quiet, his hands caressing me in a way that burned the back of my throat.

“He’s in the woods,” I explained. “To the right, just past the tree line.”

Wolf’s thumb brushed my cheekbone once. It was a promise.

He left without saying another word.

I didn’t crumble on the floor like I thought I might. No, I found myself in the bathroom, filling the tub with hot water.

Stripping my bloody clothes off and throwing them into a pile.

Turning the hot water red with blood.

Draining it.

Filling it again.

I had gone through two tub-fulls of water before my skin felt clean. I dipped my head under, letting the water flush over me.

It felt nice underwater. Quiet.

I would have stayed in there all night, actually, if it weren’t for the fact that Wolf would be back soon. The last thing I wanted was for him to come back and find me naked in the bathtub, half-drowned in the dirty depths.

My body ached as I pulled myself from the tub, dressing in my clean clothes and crawling into bed.

I tried to wait up for Wolf but failed miserably, succumbing to the comforting darkness of the night.

Iwoke up in my bed, thirsty as all hells with a splitting headache. After managing to blink my eyes open, I glanced over to Wolf’s bed, expecting it to be empty like it usually was.

Only to be met with beaming eyes.

“Good,” he started. “You’re awake.”

I pushed myself up, my ribs screaming at me from the movement. “I’m awake,” I repeated. “What time is it? Don’t we have training today?”

“I figured you could use the extra sleep.”

“And you?”

He shrugged. “I don’t need the training.”

Arrogant ass.

Memories of last night came rushing back to me. Ryder attacking me, Venom diving into his skin, all that blood…

“Fuck,” I mumbled, rubbing my temples. “People are going to notice Ryder’s gone. And if we’re gone…”

“Don’t worry about Ryder. Nobody will find him, and if they do, no one will care. He should have been expelled for what he did to Maekus. His punishment was fitting. I told your friends you weren’t feeling well this morning. Nobody will suspect a thing. You have nothing to worry about.”

His calmness sent a wave of unease through me. That, plus the way he looked at me…

“I should go,” I said, slipping out of bed. Hells, I couldn’t even remember getting dressed last night, but my boots were exactly where they usually were at the end of my bed. “They’ll be worried about me.”

Wolf’s brows drew together as he watched me pull my boots on.