Chapter 9
Faye
Faye sat on the couch with her arms wrapped around her knees, staring out the open door.
There was no way in hell she’d just seen what she thought she had.
No fucking way.
Because if she had, then she’d just watched the man who’d spent the night before in her bed turn from a man to a wolf between one blink and the next.
And then she’d seen the man who’d coerced his way into her home under the guise of apologizing for his behavior of late and then attacked her, a man she’d known most of her life, change halfway into the same animal.
No. There’s no fucking way she’d just seen that.
There was a noise at the door, and Faye jumped when she saw a large white head poke inside and look around. Spotting her, it came inside with a soft whine and eased up beside her.
Rocky. It was just Rocky.
He planted himself in front of her and growled in the direction of the door.
She didn’t know how long they sat there like that, but eventually, she got herself together enough to try to button her shirt. However, most of the buttons had broken off, so she grabbed the ends of the shirt and tied it together. At least it kept her covered.
Rocky only looked over his shoulder at her and then sat down, his eyes going back to the door.
“Are you one of those things, too?” she asked him.
This time, he didn’t even glance at her. He was too hyper-focused on his guard duties.
She should get up and see if she could close the door, but Faye was frozen to her spot on the couch.
Minutes or maybe hours later, she honestly couldn’t have said, Rocky whined and stood up. Faye straightened too, her eyes going to the door.
A very bloody, and very naked, Adam appeared at the top of her steps. One arm was wrapped around his torso and his eyes were wild as they flew around the room, searching for her. As soon as he spotted her on the couch with Rocky standing guard, he moaned and fell to the floor.
Faye jumped off the couch and ran to him, the bewilderment and fear she’d felt just seconds before diminishing at the sight of him wounded and passed out on her floor.
Faye fell to her knees beside him and grabbed his shoulders. “Adam?”
“Adam!” she called again. His skin was way too pale, and there were beads of sweat dripping down his temple.
She tried to see where all of the blood was coming from, but she was afraid to touch him anywhere.
Her throat thick with tears, she said, “Hold on, Adam. Just hold on. I’m calling an ambulance. ”
His hand shot out and grabbed her wrist, scaring her. “No.” His voice was raw. “No ambulance.”
“I have to call,” she told him. “I can’t get you to a hospital by myself.”
“No doctors,” he insisted.
“You’ll die if I don’t get you to a hospital!”
“I won’t,” he told her. “I won’t.”
Faye crouched beside him, undecided. He was bleeding out all over her floor.
How could he possibly think he’d be fine?
She tried to tug her wrist out of his grip, but he was stronger than she expected for someone in his condition.
Finally, she dropped back down to her knees beside him and took his face in her palms. There was some swelling and redness on his jaw and near his eye and mouth, but nothing looked broken.
“Adam, please. Let me help you. I can’t just sit here and let you die on my floor. ”
A small smile turned up one corner of his mouth. “I won’t die. I promise.” Then he turned his head and kissed the inside of her thumb. “I’m sorry I scared you.”
“Why won’t you let me help you?” she cried.
His green eyes were tight with pain, but clear, when they shot to hers. He reached out for her with his free hand. “Faye, I need to tell you about what just happened.”
“The only thing I want to hear coming out of your mouth is that you’re going to let go of me and let me go get my phone.” That she’d left in her bedroom. Dammit.
“No phone. No ambulance. No doctors. I’ll heal on my own.”
“But there’s so much blood…”
“I’ll heal on my own,” he told her again.
Sitting back, she twisted around and grabbed the towel that was hanging from the dishwasher, then started trying to clean him up enough to see where the worst of the bleeding was coming from.
He had multiple wounds on his stomach, like he’d been stabbed with a wide knife. “Are these knife wounds?” she asked.
“Yeah, but that’s not important.” He winced as she pressed on the wounds as best she could. “Faye, honey, please stop and listen to me.” Placing his hand over hers, he stopped her frantic movements. “I will heal, and I’ll heal quick. I just need an hour or two.”
She frowned down at him. “What the hell are you talking about? You won’t. You need a doctor. You probably have internal damage.”
“Probably. But that’ll heal too.”
“You’re wrong, Adam. I think you’re hurt worse than you think.”
“Faye, I’m a shifter. I’ll heal.”
She heard the words, but she was so caught up in keeping the idiot alive that they didn’t register at first.
“Faye.” His voice was stronger, more insistent. His grip stronger. “Faye!”
He finally cut through the state of panic. Her eyes flashed up to his face.
“I’m a shifter,” he repeated. “What you just saw. I’m a shifter. I’ll heal. I’m not going to die.”
“I don’t understand.” And she didn’t. It all felt like some kind of weird dream.
He struggled to sit up more, and she quickly reached out to help him.
Between the two of them, they managed to get him propped up against the cabinets.
Rocky whined again and started licking his face.
“It’s okay, boy. I’m okay.” His eyes found hers.
“I’m sorry. This isn’t the way I wanted to tell you. ”
“I know what I saw,” she whispered. “But I feel like I’m going crazy. Am I going crazy?”
“No, honey. You’re not crazy. You saw exactly what you saw. I’m a man who shifts into a wolf.”
She barely managed to keep from laughing hysterically in his face. “But that’s not possible,” she told him uneasily. Because she knew he wasn’t joking at all. She’d seen it with her own eyes. She’d watched him go from a man to a wolf, and now he was a man again.
And he was bleeding to death in her house.
“I’m not going to bleed to death.” He smiled as she gave him a look that told him she didn’t quite believe him. Had she said that out loud? “I’m a shifter, Faye. And I’m not the only one in this town.”
“Why don’t we get you to a doctor?” she suggested shakily. “And then you can tell me more about how you howl at the full moon, huh?”
“Why don’t you lift that towel and see for yourself?” He nodded to where she was still pressing the towel to the worst of his wounds on his stomach. “Go ahead.”
“I can’t. I have to try to stop the bleeding.”
“Faye.”
Something in his tone had her raising her eyes to his.
“Just look.” Placing his hand on top of one of hers, he helped her lift the towel.
Faye begged him with her eyes not to make her do it.
She knew without a doubt that as soon as she lifted the towel away, he was going to bleed out and die right there on her kitchen floor.
And then she would have to sell her RV that she’d worked so hard to make into her home because there was no way in hell she’d be able to keep living there.
“Faye, look.”
She shook her head, her eyes glued to her face. “No. I can’t.”
“Honey. Look.”
Reluctantly, she dropped her eyes down to his stomach.
At first, she couldn’t quite comprehend what she was seeing.
“How is this possible?” The open gashes that were bleeding so profusely just a few minutes before were slowly but surely fusing back together.
Some of the shallower ones looked like wounds that had happened weeks before and were already shiny scars.
“What the hell is happening?” As she watched, the skin on either side of the worst wound pulled together.
Like invisible fingers pressed on either side so an invisible needle could stitch it closed.
Adam didn’t say anything, except to groan when she reached out to touch his newly healed skin. She pulled her hand back, afraid she’d hurt him. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” he told her. “I love the way it feels when you touch me.”
Flashes of the night before flew through her head, heating her blood despite the crazy things she was hearing and seeing.
But the more she thought about it, the more there were things—just little things—that she hadn’t really thought about, but which made sense now.
Like the way he could lift her like she weighed next to nothing.
Not to mention his stamina. Faye hadn’t been with many men, but she’d heard enough stories from her friends to know that most of them were usually snoring the night away after one orgasm.
Maybe two if they were younger. And yet Adam had woken her up throughout the night, taking her over and over again until the sun came up over the horizon and he’d had to leave for work, leaving her to get a few hours of sleep until she had to go to the coffee shop for the afternoon shift. “This isn’t possible.”
“It is. And I am.” He paused. “I’ll explain it all to you. I promise. But right now, I just need you to promise that you won’t say anything about this to anyone. And I mean no one.”
“Why not?”
“Because the livelihood of my pack depends on it. And so does your safety.”
“Your pack?” There was a pack of…what did he call himself? Shifters?…living here in her town?
“Faye.” He waited until she’d raised bewildered eyes up to his. “I need you to promise. Swear you won’t say anything, just for now, until I can explain everything to you.”
Her brain was short-circuiting. Or at least that’s what it felt like. And her heart was racing, a burst of adrenaline rushing through her bloodstream, invoking her flight-or-fight response.
Faye chose flight.
She didn’t know what the hell was going on, or if what she thought she’d just seen was true or not.
But she knew what she was seeing right in front of her eyes now.
Adam was healed enough now that he was pushing himself into more of a sitting position, every muscle rippling with renewed strength.
And she needed to get out of there before he was fully recovered.
Pushing herself to her feet, she slipped in the drying blood and caught herself on the counter.
“Whoa…easy there,” Adam told her. He was on his knees beside her, hanging onto her thighs to keep her upright. She hadn’t even seen him move.
“I’m just going to grab some more towels,” she told him. “To clean up the floor. And for you, if you want one.”
His eyes narrowed. “Faye. Talk to me.”
“I just need to get towels.” Before he could stop her, she turned and slipped out the door and closed it behind her.
Then she ran, her feet cold in her wet socks, heading for her car.
She didn’t know where she was going, but she had to get out of there.
Go somewhere public. Somewhere he couldn’t hurt her.
Strong arms wrapped around her, pulling her back inside and shutting the door. “Don’t run. Please, don’t run.”