Page 45 of Love Bites (Timber Creek #2)

I let out a shuddering breath as Grigor’s body fell to the ground and Leif wrapped Quentin in a hug. Someone had me in their grasp, holding me upright, keeping me steady, but my brain felt like scrambled mush.

Grigor had been vanishing us all over the place for the better part of a day. Once was enough to set off vertigo; all day? I kept pressing my eyes shut, hoping when I opened them again, my surroundings would stop spinning.

Still, they’d come for me. Max, and even Quentin.

I’d expected the pack, sooner or later. I knew eventually they would figure out how to find me.

But Quentin? I knew he and Leif were friends, or something like it. But enough to put himself between Grigor and me?

I stumbled forward, my legs still shaky, and let my knees give out as soon as I reached Leif and Quentin, shoving myself into their hug with zero shame.

Pressing my forehead to Quentin’s, I whispered, “Thank you.”

He shuddered a sob, but nodded and wiped his eyes, offering a tentative smile. “Y-you did me a favor, really. I’ve f-fantasized about doing that for years.”

I smiled back, rubbing a hand over his shoulder. “Well then — you did it.”

His smile gained a little more strength. “Yeah. Yeah, I fucking did.” He chuckled, glancing sheepishly at Leif, like he was worried what Leif would think of him for that.

Leif positively gleamed with pride.

I eased back to my feet, leaving them to it, and turned back to face Max.

Nope, actually, about-face. I pivoted on my heel. I’d deal with my family first.

My brothers and Aspen rushed forward, wrapping me in a giant group hug.

“Did he bite you?”

“Are you okay?”

“Was anyone else with him?”

“Where’s the Jeep?”

I gave Coop a half-hearted punch in the shoulder for that last one, but the move jostled my broken ribs and I let out a gasp of pain.

“Almost forgot about those,” I wheezed, wrapping an arm around my side.

West shoved the others out of the way, checking me over carefully. “You’re not healing?”

I tried to bat his hands away, but gasped again and closed my eyes on a wince. “I am, it’s just taking time. Believe me, this is an improvement.” I waved a hand to encompass my whole body, which elicited a series of growls from my family.

It seemed safer to return to the questions. “It was just him, I think. I didn’t see anyone else. He didn’t bite me, thanks to Quentin. And the Jeep, well” — I scrunched my nose — “the Jeep might be a goner. I went off the road; it’s probably at the bottom of the ravine by now.”

Just the memory of that crash had me hissing in pain. The way I’d held my breath as the car went airborne, then crashed and crumpled through the trees and down the hillside. I wasn’t lying — I was healing, but my body had had its work cut out for it after the fall. Broken bones, cuts and gashes from the glass, one or two punctured organs.

Grigor whisking me all over the state all day hadn’t helped, either.

“You didn’t answer my question,” Aspen said. “Are you okay?”

I pressed my forehead to hers. “Yes. I’m a bit bruised up but I’ll be okay.”

Physically, at least. Emotionally — that might take a bit longer. I wasn’t sure I wanted to see the inside of a car anytime soon.

On that note — “Where are we?”

“Just southwest of town,” Coop answered, jaw tight as his gaze roamed the space. “This is the LeBlanc’s old cabin. Practically in our own fucking backyard. Only about a half-hour drive home.”

My eyes shot wide. “No — no cars.”

Coop, Terran, and West all exchanged a look.

Terran lifted a shoulder. “Run home?”

Coop scoffed. “She’s dead on her feet.”

“She said no cars!”

“What about a plane?”

“How do you plan to land a plane in this terrain?”

“Okay, Cruz then.”

“She’s sick from vanishing all day, and you want her to flicker?”

“I‘ll take her.”

Everyone’s head swiveled at Max’s voice cutting through their bickering.

He’d have been better off keeping quiet. Immediately, my family made a ring around me, teeth bared at Max.

“I think you’ve done enough.” West’s tone was lethal, and I winced on Max’s behalf.

A muscle in Max’s jaw flexed with his frustration, tangible through our bond. “She said no cars. You can’t get a plane in here. I promised you all your pound of flesh, but let me get her home first.”

What did he mean by that, their pound of flesh?

Wait.

“Boys. Tell me you’re not planning to beat up Max for something Grigor, an entirely different vampire , did to me.” I shoved my way through their barricade, spinning with my hands on my hips to glare at them. My ribs protested, but I ignored them. “Secret’s out now, bat boy. Nice wings, by the way.”

None of my brothers met my eye. Terran kicked a splintered floorboard at his feet.

Finally, Coop jabbed a thumb at Max. “Hey, he offered —”

“Unbelievable,” I bit out, shaking my head at them. “Get yourselves home, and take care of Quentin. I’ll make my own way.”

West took a step, Alpha energy radiating off him. “Sum?—”

“No,” I cut him off before he could get out the command laced with the magic that would make me comply. “I mean it.”

I held up my chin, meeting his eye, daring him to do it.

His wolf flashed at me, pushing him to take charge and get this — me — handled quickly and safely. But West was able to keep a handle on himself, not breaking eye contact but nodding.

Leaving my pack, I strode over to Max. Was I ready to face him? Absolutely not. But I could get a ride home from him at least. He owed me that much.

His sandalwood and copper scent hit me as I reached him, and it took all my effort not to fold into his embrace. But I had to stay strong. Just because he’d found me here didn’t mean he deserved my forgiveness.

Hell, it didn’t even mean he wanted it. Maybe he was just here because he felt guilty.

Max’s face was unreadable as I met his deep blue eyes, his gaze scanning me carefully.

He held out his hand. “Ready?”

I took a deep breath, preparing for yet another vanishing. With any luck, the last one for a while. Maybe ever.

I set my hand in his, and that same jolt of electricity, of rightness, of home hit me, like it did every time we touched. Max’s hand closed over mine, gently pulling me into his hold until my free hand wrapped around his waist. He held me there, his breath shuddering as he rested his cheek on my forehead, mirroring our dance at the reception.

“Forgive me.” His breath ghosted over the shell of my ear as the world around us faded to black, and I squeezed my eyes shut against the hurtling rush of vanishing. When I reopened them, we stood once again in my rooftop garden, and I pulled back to look up at him.

His blue eyes were streaked with red, earnest and pleading and exhausted as he searched my face.

“Forgive you?” I tried to step out of his grasp, but he wouldn’t let me, only tightening his hold around my waist.

“I was wrong. I thought — Gia, my mother, said something to me,” he said, and he lifted a hand to cup my face. “Gia came to visit my father and told me everything. How she’d never been able to contact me for fear if Osric found out about me, he’d kill me for her betrayal.”

I remembered the manic look in Osric’s eye, the ancient vampire terrifying to behold in his power. It took no stretch of imagination to picture him hunting down both Malachi and Max in a fit of rage.

Max’s thumb brushed over my cheek, his eyes squeezing shut for a moment, and my heart broke for him. “With vampires, there’s this sickness, for lack of a better word. The Fixation. We become obsessed with something, some one, and eventually destroy them. It’s what’s happened to Osric; he Fixated on Gia and his hatred of angels. And I was afraid” — his voice broke, and he swallowed heavily — “fuck, Summer, I was so afraid I would do that to you. That the Fixation was already taking me, and eventually, I’d hurt you.”

I reached up, wrapping my hands around his wrist as I leaned into his touch. He shook his head, then pressed his forehead to mine. “But I’m not just a vampire. Malachi had to remind me I’m an angel, too, and that means I can be stronger than some Fixation. I don’t have to succumb to it. I won’t. ” He pulled me even closer, if that was possible. “I refuse. Because whatever obsession I feel with you, Summer, it’s not a disease. It can’t be. Not when it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me, when the best I’ve ever felt is when I’m with you.”

A shuddering breath left me at his words, my heart squeezing with the honesty I heard there. Max’s thumb rested under my chin, tipping my face up to his. After a tentative glance to make sure I wasn’t going to shove him away, his lips brushed against mine, not quite enough to be a kiss yet, but like he couldn’t help himself.

“So, I’m asking you to forgive me for being an idiot,” he continued, a self-deprecating laugh escaping him. “All that shit I said before — I hoped if I hurt you enough, you’d hate me, and then maybe you’d move on faster. Forget about me.

“But it was all bullshit. I love you, Summer. I want it all. I want every moment you’ll give me for the rest of my life. I know I don’t deserve you, or your forgiveness; that this will be hard because our lives are so different, but I don’t care. I’m asking anyway. Because I can’t go another moment without knowing I laid myself fucking bare to you and did everything I could to win you back.”

My heart beat so loud, I knew he could hear it, and my breath caught in my throat. It’d be so easy to dive right in again, but that was how I always got hurt. And what was that saying about doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result?

“That was a pretty good grovel,” I said. “Maybe you’ve been reading some books after all.”

Max chuckled, his lips tipping up in the hint of a smile, and damn if I didn’t love to see this man happy. “What else was I supposed to do while trapped in a luxurious Italian villa with a control freak invalid for a father? Now I get the whole Shadow Daddy thing.”

I couldn’t help but grin. “Told you.”

“That you did.” His thumb trailed over my cheek again, his eyes soft with adoration.

“I know I should be angry with you, though hate is going a little far,” I started, trying to organize my thoughts. I tended to say the first things that came to my mind, but I wanted to get this right. “And maybe I was at first. But it didn’t take me long to figure out something else was going on. You might be dark and mysterious to other people, Max, but I can see right through your shadows. You can’t hide from me. And it’s about damn time you came to your senses and figured that out.

“So yes, I forgive you. Of course I do. I love you too, Max.” A true grin broke over his face, his eyes dropping to my mouth before he leaned in, but I put a hand up first, covering his lips. “But I don’t want to hear anymore talk about you not deserving me. That’s my damn husband you’re talking about, and he’s the worthiest man I know.”

I leaned up on my tiptoes, pressing a kiss to his neck. “You risk your life to help people who can’t help themselves.” Another kiss to his jaw. “You put me and my safety before your own, time and again. You work in secret, for no accolades, nothing, to make this world a better and safer place for all of us.” A kiss to his cheek. “You’re like our very own superhero.”

He shook his head. “I’m not a superhero.”

I met his eyes, waited until he met mine back. “No, you’re not. Because you’re real . And you’re mine.”

I slammed my lips into his, and he met my kiss with the same desperation I felt. His hand raked through my hair, tilting my head to deepen the angle, plundering my mouth with his tongue.

After what felt like an eon, I pulled back just enough to breathe, “So, does this mean the divorce is off, husband?”

A growl came from his throat. “Never say that word again, wife. I’m not leaving, not now, not ever. Where you go, I go, now and forever. At your back or at your side, however you’ll have me.”

I smiled. “My very own superhero shadow” — I gasped, my mind flooding with images — “Shadowman!”

“I am not a superhero —”

“I can see it now, the whole storybook! Okay, I need a pen —”

Max’s chuckle shook me out my thoughts, and I shoved down the idea of the whole children’s book story arc I’d just come up with. I’d deal with that later.

“By my side, husband. That’s where I’ll have you. By my side, always.”

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