Page 90 of Taken By The Wolves

Her eyes search my face. “Reed? Is he… Finn?”

“Finn’s with him. He’s okay. Alive. Ahya’s safe.”

Scarlet.Reed’s mind connection is weak and hoarse, but it’s there.

Reed, baby. I’m okay. You’re okay.

Tears spill over her cheeks, mixing with water. “I thought he was dying… I almost...”

“Don’t,” I growl, holding her tighter. “You were brave, Scarlet. If Gregory had hurt you… taken you…”

My voice breaks. I can’t say it. I won’t. I already saw her bloodied in his arms. I already felt the terror of almost losing her. I knew I’d be nothing without her love.

I kiss her hard and desperately, the kind of kiss that presses a crescendo of emotion into flesh and bone. She shakes in my arms, whether from fear or shock catching upwith her, I don’t know. I know I need to anchor her to this moment. To me. To our lives.

She tries to stand on her own, and I let her, helping her peel off the ruined clothing. I grab a thick towel and wrap it around her shaking frame, rubbing heat into her arms before guiding her to the sink to sit while I dry off and dress. Neither of us speaks, but our eyes hold each other, only breaking the connection when I pull a shirt over her head.

When we return to the main floor, the scent of blood is more potent. The door’s been flung open to allow for incoming wounded. Makeshift cots already line the walls. Finn is hunched over Reed on the kitchen table, his hands slick as he applies pressure to a wound in his side. Cami moves around him with bottles and crushed herbs.

But then Harry and Caleb appear, carrying someone between them, and ice fills my veins. My father.

His face is slack. His body is too still. His scent…

A strangled sound scrapes from my throat as the wrongness of his scent drives a stake into my heart.

Not the sharp copper of fresh injury, but—

Death.

The slow, creeping decay of life, leaving a body.

They lay him on the floor

“No,” I gasp, stepping forward.

Cami rushes to him, fingers pressed to his pulse points, chanting something I don’t understand.

I don’t realize I’m clutching Scarlet’s hand until she squeezes tightly.

My father.

Gone?

The world narrows to the ragged rasp of my own breath and Scarlet’s warmth against my palm.

She’s alive.

Ahya’s safe.

Finn and Reed are wounded, but they’re going to be okay.

But now, I have to face a world without my father.

46

FINN

This is the aftermath. The deep, haunted silence that follows chaos, when the adrenaline drains and you’re left with blood on your hands and a hollow in your chest.