Chapter 35 Avery
AVERY
Iawoke to kind, dark eyes and the face of an angel.
“Hey, there she is,” Dr. Lee cooed.
An angry hiss sounded somewhere above me.
“Cut it out, Elijah.” That was Heath’s voice. “You know the doctor has to see how she’s healing.”
There was a snort, and the cool, firm body encircling me shifted irritably.
“How are you feeling, Avery?” Dr. Lee asked. He reached over the wall of scales and pressed soft fingers to my side, just below my ribs.
I tried to take stock of myself and my surroundings, which was a challenge because I was so groggy.
I was back in my human body, somehow wearing a baggy T-shirt and underwear.
I didn’t feel any dirt or blood or wraith guts on my body, so someone had managed to get me cleaned up.
I was on the floor, wrapped in a pile of blankets, lying on a pillow that felt like mine.
Elijah’s basilisk was curled around me. Sunlight streamed through the windows.
“Um, I feel okay,” I said. “Tender where you’re pressing. But mostly just… sleepy.”
Dr. Lee hummed. “Good. That’s good.”
Heath’s face appeared. He leaned over Elijah’s body and stroked my hair lovingly.
I smiled at him. “Hi.”
He looked so tired, but he returned my smile. “Hi, Killer.”
“Are we in my cabin?”
“Yes. Elijah carried you five miles through the woods and all the way back here. Your doorframe didn’t survive, unfortunately.”
The warm tingly magic of Dr. Lee’s healing ran up and down my entire right side. I sighed contentedly. “Did Elijah… make me a nest?”
“He sure did. He’s, um, going to be a basilisk for a while longer.”
The events of the night came tumbling back into my foggy brain, and I gasped. “Heath, Elijah ate—”
“I know, baby.” Heath shut his eyes and took a deep breath, his jaw tensing. “Kellan told me.”
“Oh.” I sank into my blankets and reached above my head to stroke Elijah’s scales. “I see.”
“Elijah won’t be able to shift back until he finishes… digesting.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Ah.”
“He should be good in another six to eight hours,” Dr. Lee said lightly. He patted the basilisk on the neck, and Elijah let out a prissy snort. “Fascinating, isn't it?”
I nodded sagely. “So fascinating.” I turned back to Heath, his face framed by the gentle rays of the morning sun. A golden summer prince, watching over me. “Kellan saw my beast,” I murmured.
“He told me that as well. But it appears he is going to treat that information with the appropriate care. He actually finished off Trent before he called me and sent me after you and Elijah.”
“I’m not hearing any of this,” Dr. Lee said in a sing-song voice. “La la la.”
“Mmm,” I said, petting Elijah’s cold, smooth nose as he nuzzled me. “Good.”
Heath’s face crumpled. “I am so sorry, Avery. We failed you again. We somehow managed to let you run through the woods, injured and alone, again, and you were attacked by people I should’ve killed a long fucking time ago.”
“Hey.” I grabbed his hand and squeezed it weakly. “Everything was fucked up last night. I had to leave Aiden with Wyatt, and you weren’t with me because you were saving my brother’s life, remember? How is he?”
Heath rolled his eyes. “Throwing a tantrum in the infirmary because Dr. Lee won’t release him until tonight.”
“He’s healing nicely, Avery,” Dr. Lee added. “But you know I like to keep an eye on my patients.”
“What about Wyatt?” I asked. Horrifying memories flashed like gunshots in my brain. Wyatt laying naked in the creek, battered and trying to hold in his own guts. I began to tremble. “Heath, he was hurt really badly.”
Heath caressed my cheek. “We got to him in time, baby. He’s recovering, sedated and healing. Aiden’s keeping an eye on him. You saved his life, and I know he doesn’t intend to let you down by not pulling through this.”
I nodded, sniffing as I blinked away tears. “Okay. I wish I could see him.”
“Soon, Killer. You have your own recovering to do, okay?”
“Yeah.” My eyelids fluttered. “I feel foggy and tired.”
Heath nodded, looking pained. “Your tiger overextended herself to a dangerous degree, Avery. I can hardly feel her. She has to recharge, and the best way to do that is for you to sleep.”
Dr. Lee stood up and slung his medical bag over his shoulder.
“Like your basilisk, another six to eight hours of rest should be enough to get you and your beast, the nature of whom I am now privy to and will never reveal to anyone, back on your feet. Being in such close proximity to your scaly mate here will be a big help.”
He winked at me, and then he left, strolling out through the hole in the wall that used to be my door.
I shut my eyes and clutched Heath’s hand. “There are other things I need to tell you,” I whispered. “That Cash said.”
The weight of Heath’s wolf filled the nest, surrounding me as protectively as Elijah’s body. Mmm. “You can tell me when you’re better, baby. That’s all I want right now. Just for you to get better.”
“Okay,” I murmured, and then I slipped under again.
Sometime later, I blinked awake once more. The sun was high and blazing outside, and a warm breeze wafted in through the screen windows. Elijah had tucked his big beast head next to me in our nest, and he was sound asleep, slow breaths puffing from his slitted nostrils.
I felt for my tiger. She was also sleeping, the low thrum of her magic a bit stronger than it had been when I’d awoken earlier and talked to Heath.
Heath….
Careful footsteps sounded as someone entered my cabin.
Elijah popped one yellow eye open to examine our visitor. He snorted and went back to sleep.
Aiden knelt next to us and peered into my nest. “Hey,” he said softly. “You’re awake.”
I smiled at him. “Mmm. For a minute, maybe. I’m still so sleepy.”
His jaguar caressed me, and I let the energy seep into my center.
“Your tiger feels much stronger than when I checked on you a few hours ago.” He laid a hand on my cheek and tried to smile, but pain filled his hazel eyes.
“Wyatt’s bear is the same. Dr. Lee thinks he’ll be able to discharge him tomorrow, just in time for us to pack up and head home. ”
I sighed in relief. “Thank the Moon.”
“And Ian is up and about and carrying on about whether this is a summer camp or a prison. I left George with him.”
“Oh, good. He’ll make sure Ian stays put.”
Aiden grinned. “Exactly. And I think you just need a few more hours of rest. Heath and I will come back by before dinner.”
“Mmm, okay,” I murmured. “They always feed us well on patrol nights.”
Aiden’s face hardened. “We are not going on the last patrol tonight. I told Commander Moss we’d walk if he tried to make us.”
My empty stomach soured. “Does he, um… know what happened? Aiden, I killed Alex and Jared. And I mostly killed Trent.”
“Yes, he does, and yes, you did. Kellan took Ward, Commander Moss, and me out there at sunrise. We saw the aftermath. Ward and the commander are incensed, to put it mildly. They would’ve killed all four of them again themselves if they could’ve.”
Aw. “Did you find my swords?”
“I did, sweetheart. I cleaned and sharpened them for you.” He grinned, and this one was real and savage. “You gutted those moronic fucking wolves, didn’t you? You didn’t even have to shift.”
My face heated at his jaguar’s glowing pride. “I had to work fast. I couldn’t let them win, Aiden. I had to get back to you.”
His expression softened, and he ran his thumb lightly across my cheekbone.
“I am in awe of you, Avery. You are the most incredible woman I’ve ever met.
” Pain clouded his face. He shut his eyes and dropped his head.
“And yet, I did it again. I sent you away and allowed you to be viciously attacked. Again. I just….” He looked up at me, his eyes shining with tears.
“How could I ever expect you to forgive me?”
“Hey,” I whispered, rubbing the back of his hand where it rested on my cheek. “I do forgive you, Aiden. You would never purposefully endanger me, even back then. I know that now.”
“No,” he said fiercely. “Never. I’m contemplating never leaving your side again, actually.”
I melted into my blankets, feeling floaty and content. “I wish you could lay in my nest with me. But Elijah didn’t really leave much room.”
He chuckled. “No. He’s being very selfish with you, but he’s probably earned it.”
“It’s a good thing he ate Cash,” I whispered. “It forced him to be sluggish and lazy in here with me rather than out on a rampage.”
Elijah snorted and burrowed his big head deeper into my side.
“That’s very true.” Aiden leaned down and kissed my forehead. “Rest now, sweetheart. We need you to get better.”
As I drifted off, he whispered, so softly I almost couldn’t hear it, “We won’t survive without you.”
The next time I awoke, the sun was beginning to set, and my tiger was purring up a storm in my chest.
My scaly cocoon had disappeared.
Instead, I found myself buried in my blankets and wrapped around a warm, naked man.
Elijah was sleeping soundly. I was lying on his chest, the steady beat of his heart under my cheek and the gentle rise and fall of his breathing threatening to lull me back to sleep. Strong arms held me tightly, and our bare legs intertwined.
I lifted my head to study his face. So peaceful, my monster.
Sleep had softened his sharp angles into something almost sweet.
His unruly dark hair fanned out over my pillow, and his thick eyelashes brushed the tops of his cheekbones.
I traced those cheekbones lightly with the pad of my finger, making my way across his rough stubble and over to his ear.
I caressed the shell of his ear and touched each of the thin gold hoops in his lobes, marveling at how those and the one he wore through his septum survived his shifts when the rest of us could only manage that with studs.
I moved to the snake tattoo around his neck, tracing the intricate lines of the head where it was nestled right over his firm chest. He was warm—not as warm as one of the others would’ve been—but just right to keep me comfortable as I was pressed against him.
Only the thin fabric of my panties separated my most intimate parts from the muscle at his hip.
My body was healing. I was still sore, especially where Cash had stabbed me with my own fucking sword, but I couldn’t remember a time when I was able to get such a long or restorative rest, even after a patrol.
My beast was back online, luxuriating in the kills we’d made and the touch of our mate, and it had all awoken a deep ache within me.
A need so intense, I could only cling closer to Elijah, as though touching more of his skin with mine would cure me.
He stirred in my arms. His eyelids fluttered before snapping open.
Rounded pupils in a sea of liquid gold took me in. They constricted into the vertical slits of his beast for a blink and then bounced back to round. He sucked in a shaky breath, licked his lips, and then let out a tortured groan.
I opened my mouth to say something—anything, I didn’t know what—but before I could make a sound, Elijah rolled me onto my back and covered my body with his.
Smoldering eyes searched my face with desperate hunger. His warm skin was a delicious contrast to the chilly tingles of the basilisk now licking up and down my body. He was hard and heavy between my thighs, his cock resting on my lower belly and my dampening panties.
He didn’t speak. The wild and desperate way he looked at me said everything.
Asked me everything.
I stared into those mesmerizing eyes and whispered my answer like a prayer.
“Yes.”