Page 35

THIRTY-FIVE

Fiona

W e were all still reeling from Reed’s revelations and the king’s response when a doctor pushed through the door, blood smears marring her previously white, pressed tunic.

“Pack mates of Elodie?” she asked, and we all nodded.

“She’s alive.” The doctor’s gaze settled on me, and she smiled slightly. “That was a close one, and if you hadn’t applied pressure so quickly, I don’t think even her wolf healing abilities would have saved her. We’ve given her a transfusion and several bags of fluids, as well as disinfecting and sealing the wound with an alginate adhesive dressing in lieu of stitches, because we believe she’ll heal quickly. The troll saliva poses a bit of a risk because of the anticoagulant, but, once she’s awake, if she wants a vitamin K shot to speed her natural healing processes along, we can provide that as well.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” Leigh said, stepping forward to wrap the woman in a hug, bloody tunic and all. “Do you know how much longer she’ll be out or how soon she might be able to travel?”

“Ah, I’m afraid I might have given you a bit of false cheer. We’ve given her what she needs for her body to begin to rebuild, but even for a wolf, this was a grave injury. She’s going to be down for several weeks, and that’s assuming no complications from the troll saliva.”

Weeks? We were going to be stuck underground, surrounded by dwarves who didn’t want us here, for weeks ? My chest went tight, and I suddenly wanted to sit down.

“You think she’ll need to stay here the entire time?” Gael asked, and I was very glad they were clearheaded enough to ask the important questions. After “She’s alive,” my rational brain had pretty much checked out.

Never in my life had I been so terrified, and that included the night I’d been chased by wolves and found out all this was real, right under humanity’s nose. When I’d woken up after my magic had lashed out and then hurt Reed, he was already stabilized and in a bed next to me, so I’d missed out on this part—the waiting, the worry.

I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.

“No, not the entire recovery, but a minimum of five days. I’d prefer seven if you can spare them. A femoral artery wound is nothing to mess around with, and it could reopen if she’s not properly rested and nourished.”

“We understand, thank you, Doctor.”

She bowed formally to each side of our group, then quietly left.

“So what do we do now?” I asked, looking up from my lap with a weariness in my bones that wouldn’t let go now that it had hold of me.

Reed knelt down in front of me, cupping my cheek in his palm. The warmth of the simple touch was so soothing, I could cry. “Tomorrow, we find out what the king wants, and we figure out how to give it to him. But tonight? We rest.”

“We’ll stay here, in case anything changes with Elodie,” Leigh offered. “Why don’t you two go get some sleep, and we’ll trade off in the morning. One of us needs to be sharp to negotiate with King Asshole, and I think that’s you, Reed.”

He snorted at her joke but nodded his agreement. Then he scooped me off the couch and carried me out of the medical center like I weighed no more than a rag doll.

* * *

Our room in the dignitary’s lodging was small but comfortable. It had fine linens, bright lights, and even a few small magical touches to remind you this wasn’t a human hotel room, like the never-low shampoo dispensers in the shower and the fact that when you stepped out of the shower, a gust of warm air blew you dry from seemingly nowhere, and magically stopped when you were perfectly air-dried.

It was just handy enough to make you not feel like it was creepy. Too creepy.

When I stepped out of the bathroom, all shampooed and blown dry from head to toe, Reed was sitting on the edge of the bed, head in his hands.

“Are you okay?” I felt stupid the second the question had slipped from my lips, but somehow I still didn’t want to take it back. I craved connection with this man—wolf—and after the absolutely awful evening we’d had, I was craving it to a level I didn’t know how to handle.

“No.” It was a simple answer, but said without venom. He was tired. I could see it in the lines of his shoulders, the tilt of his lips.

“Me neither. But we can be not okay together for a while.”

He smiled, holding out a hand for me to come closer. “I’d like that. I’d like that very much.”

My hand slid into his like it had been doing the motion for years, not weeks. I stepped into his space, between his spread legs, and hugged him, laying my head on top of his while he wrapped his arms around my middle and rested his head over my heart.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you today.” His words were so quiet, I barely caught them. But they surprised me as if he’d shouted in the quiet, dim space.

“What are you talking about? Reed, I’m just fine. Look at me, not a scratch.” I smiled, trying to ease his mind, but I could tell it wasn’t making a dent in his dark mood. Time to try a different tack.

“Why do you think you didn’t protect me?” I rubbed the stiff muscles of his bare back, knowing now what touch meant to wolves, that it would soothe him maybe more than anything I could say.

“We were attacked by trolls. I should have known something was up. I should have prevented the attack. You should never have been that close to danger. What if he had grabbed you instead of Leigh? I keep seeing it in my mind, her face, that knife against her throat. But every fucking time, it’s your face I see, your fear I taste on the back of my tongue. I failed you, Fiona. And I’m not sure I can forgive myself for that.”

“Reed, no . Look at me, please.” He stubbornly ignored my request, until I grabbed his jaw and tilted his head back. “You did keep me safe. And last I checked, wolves aren’t omniscient, so you had no way of knowing those trolls would attack. Also, it’s super sketchy for the damn queen mother to have hired a hit on us while we were under diplomatic protection. So, again? Not at all your fault. Do you hear me?”

“I hear you. I just disagree. I was leading this mission, therefore, the responsibility falls on my shoulders. Every single thing that went wrong is my fault.”

I blinked in stunned silence as I tried to understand how he could possibly see it that way when I saw it so completely opposite. I saw him protecting me, defending me, risking life and limb against fierce troll warriors to make sure no one touched a hair on my head.

Reed was basically a superhero in fur, and here he thought he was a failure. I couldn’t stand it, but I couldn’t think of any other way to explain to him how I felt. So I kissed him.

I fisted my hands in his hair, leaning down to mold our lips together.

He groaned, his hands flying to my hips like they were magnetized there and pulling me closer to his chest. I expected him to pull away, to push me back after how things had gone last time, but it was like I ignited a fire of need inside him when I initiated the kiss, because a minute later, he was dragging my pajama top over my head, his hands tracking up my sides, tracing over my bare skin and leaving a wake of shivery fire everywhere he touched.

I’m not sure when I climbed into his lap, when it was his hands fisted in my hair, controlling the kiss, taking me deeper. All I knew was that within minutes, I was topless, grinding in his lap against his erection, panting for more.

But instead of giving me more, he was pulling back, a sorrowful look in his eyes that I absolutely hated.

“What’s wrong?” My words were breathless.

“You wanted to take it slow. I’m not sure I have that in me tonight, Fiona. I’m too angry, too… everything.” He gave me a sad grimace that was probably meant to be a smile, but when he tried to slide me off his lap onto the bed next to him, I locked my thighs down tighter around him, refusing to go.

“What if I don’t want to go slow anymore either?”

He froze beneath me, the hunter becoming the hunted.

“What if I say I wore out my magic trying to distract the troll that had Leigh, and now what I want is for you to spread me out on this bed and fuck me until neither one of us remembers the awful night we just had?”

A growl, low and possessive, rumbled in his throat.

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Me helpless, stretched out underneath you, begging for your cock?”

His cock twitched against my core as if to say yes, please .

“Take me, Reed. I don’t want to wait anymore. I want you. I want us . Please?”

I could see the moment his control snapped. His eyes flared brighter blue, his wolf pushing the man’s limits as hard as I was in that moment. When he rose up to capture my lips this time, it was with a primal hunger that sent shivers down my spine, fire licking through my veins.

And I loved every second of it.