Page 155

Four

Never say goodbye

“ O i, you stubborn bitch, can you hear me?” The voice is insistent, making me groan.

“Fuck off, Doc,” I slur, and I hear him laugh. It’s a bark and almost choked.

“Baby girl?”

“Angel!”

“Babe!”

“Soulmate!”

“Ma queen!”

It all comes at once, and I groan at the onslaught. It’s suddenly quiet as I just breathe, trying to figure out what happened. I smell copper, blood. I’m used to that scent, but there is a sweet odour as well. It’s warm, like always, and I’m lying on something soft.

The last thing I remember was killing Regina and then—

Fuck, I was stabbed.

My eyes open again, and I blink away the blurriness to see faces crowded above me. “That was fun,” I croak, my voice rough, and Dray laughs as the others watch me worriedly. “Did we win?”

“ Mi Alma ,” Maxen starts, but I narrow my eyes and he grins. “We won. When you killed Regina, it turned the tide, and once we started winning again, they stood down.”

I nod but groan when it causes pain. “So I didn’t die?”

“Oh, you did for almost five minutes, and it’s been touch-and-go ever since,” Doc answers next to me.

I try to lift my head, but it’s heavy. Then Jax is there, his grey eyes haunted and his lips thin as he helps raise me slowly so I can look down at my own body.

He’s silent, which is not a huge change from normal, but I can feel the tremor in his hands.

It makes sense if they almost lost me. In fact, Dray looks surprisingly calm, considering I died.

I blink down at the bandage covering my stomach. “You’ll have a scar.” Doc shrugs. “I did the best I could to stitch you up and stop the bleeding, but you will be weak for a while and need to stay in bed and recover.”

“Yeah, fuck that, I have shit to do,” I snap, making him chuckle as he presses another bit of tape to the bandage.

“I figured, which is why I’ve taped it a lot to keep it still as you move.” He snorts and stands, looking at the men around me. We appear to be in a tent of some kind. “No sex, not unless you want her to bleed to death, and try to keep her in bed if you can.”

“Without using sex?” Drax laughs. “Hard to do.” He winks over at me, and I grin, wincing when pain flows through me, making him sober.

“Babe, what can I do?” he begs.

“I’m fine.” I wave it away. “Tell me everything.”

Maxen slips behind me, propping me up and restraining me like he knew I was going to try and stand to head out and sort things. “ Mi Alma , we almost lost you.”

The atmosphere of the tent becomes somber as they all stare at me with various stages of anger and hurt. “I’m sorry. I had to, okay?”

“We know, baby girl,” Thorn whispers. “But we will never forgive ourselves for not being there to watch your back.”

“No, no regrets. We’ve had enough of them for a lifetime, and I’m here, I’m fine,” I order.

“But you weren’t, soulmate,” Dray snarls, and when I look over, his cold eyes are locked on me.

His chest is still covered in blood, but it’s dried.

How long was I asleep? I need to ask, but we need to get all this out of the way first. They are hurting and angry and need to reassure themselves I’m still here.

“Surprised you didn’t lose it.” I laugh and then wince when it pulls on the wound, making me hiss out a breath.

He presses closer, uncaring about Maxen, and rests his forehead against mine, his cold, predatory eyes holding mine. There is a gleam there of anger, hurt, and love. The usual Dray.

His hand covers the bandage, leaving a bloody handprint as he presses on it slightly, making me whimper. “Oh, I did. They surrendered, but I killed them all. Every single fucking one, and I carved your name into their chests and sent them back to The Cities in pieces.”

“How romantic,” I grumble, and he smirks as he presses harder .

“You try and leave me again, and I will kill everyone, friend or foe. Understood, soulmate?” he snaps.

I lean into him and kiss him. “Understood,” I murmur.

“Seriously, he isn’t joking. We thought we were going to have to knock him out. It took Bern, Archel, Erik, and us to restrain him,” Maxen murmurs in my ear, making me grin wider.

That’s my crazy man.

I drop a kiss on the brand on his chest above his heart just as I hear a noise. I turn my head to the front of the tent to see Bern there.

Bern ducks as he enters, and when he sees me, he grins. He has a black eye, though, and a busted lip. I narrow my eyes on Dray, but he just winks at me, the crazy bastard. Bern crouches at the entrance. “Ma queen, good to see you awake.”

“Thanks. Death count?”

“Over a thousand, both sides.”

I nod, even as my heart drops. “Who did we lose?”

He winces and glances briefly outside. “Reeves took a bullet to the chest for Nan. Henry is also dead, among a few others you knew.”

“Henry…fuck and shit, Reeves?” I groan as I try to stand. I remember seeing it now, fuck. “How’s Nan?”

“Erm…she’s currently yelling at some mountain man, he looks terrified,” he offers, and then sobers. “We are getting ready to bury the dead.”

“Yeah, we need to before they rot in the sun. Help me up,” I demand, and Maxen sighs. I turn my head and meet his gaze. “I have to be there. These people died for me, with me, I need to help them.”

The burden of those deaths already weighs heavily on me.

I can’t be in here lying around when those who fought for me are out there burying their friends.

I can’t. He searches my eyes before nodding, and the others help me stand.

I have to lean against Thorn. He keeps his arm wrapped around me, especially when agony rips through my stomach, making me grit my teeth.

The pain reminds me I’m alive, but sands below, what I wouldn’t do for some booze right now.