Chapter Nineteen #3
“It’s not as bad as it looks.” Shane tried to smile through his lie, but the sting of the cotton swab and the numbing relief of the anesthesia had him both flinching and letting out shuddering breaths.
Kimberly stayed in the doorway, transfixed.
Without looking over his shoulder, Nolan went through the same spiel he had already told Shane.
Three shots of the antitoxin a day and total bed rest until everything cleared up.
Nolan would know they were mates, so he likely assumed it would be Kimberly taking care of him.
Shane sure hoped so and was thankful for the way she nodded in understanding.
“I’ll come by in the evening, appointments permitting, to check on the healing process.” Nolan finished coating Shane’s massive wound and put away his kit. “Let that sit for a while in the open air.”
Kimberly finally shifted her gaze to Shane’s face. It was the first time they had locked eyes since she ran off to get help. In her eyes, so clear and green, he saw the storm of emotion. Guilt, relief, sadness, and fear. Through their bond, he felt it too. No hiding. No secrets. Never again.
She slowly made her way to the other side of the bed, where a padded chair waited for her.
While Nolan packed up his bag and left all the medical supplies they would need over the next few days, Kimberly and Shane wordlessly communicated through their bond.
It was strange to him to have someone so close and know him so thoroughly, so candidly.
She couldn’t hide secrets anymore, and neither could he, even if he wanted to.
His fears and wants were laid in the open just as much as hers, and for a second, it made him feel even more naked than he already was, his soul laid bare to the only woman who deserved this level of access to him.
And, in that moment, he had a deeper glimpse of her fear. She was afraid that this would end somehow, that he would take it all back, and they would go back to the way they were before.
He flipped his palm up, and she enveloped his hand between hers. Her fingers shook, but her hold was firm, like he was bound to slip away at any moment. His fingers curled around hers, and he felt her coil of nerves release, little by little.
Nolan stood with his bag. “I’ll leave you two to talk. I’ll be downstairs talking to Dominic.”
Once the doctor was gone and the door closed behind him, Kimberly allowed a single tear to cut a path down her cheek. Through their bond, he could almost feel its wetness on his own skin.
“I’m all right, Kim.”
She nodded and sniffled. “I know … I just hate that any of this happened.”
“It’s not your fault.”
She gripped his hand tighter. “Everyone keeps saying that, but I don’t believe it. I killed a man. He was a hunter, but—”
“You defended yourself. You defended me. You might have protected Tolstone itself by taking the bastard out.”
She squeezed out a second tear. “It doesn’t feel like that when you’re lying here, in so much pain, and Dominic and Cole are having to talk about moving a body and making this …
elaborate scheme to throw off suspicion.
It’s such a mess, and if I hadn’t been so silly to think I could surprise you with a shift, then I wouldn’t have been there, and none of this would have happened. ”
He smirked. “You still surprised me, if that counts for anything.”
She looked like she would have smacked his shoulder if he wasn’t already in such a state, and the chuckle made his ribs ache.
“It doesn’t erase what I’ve done,” Kimberly whispered.
“What you did was incredibly brave. You know what I felt when you shifted and attacked him? Nothing but pride. My girl shifted and didn’t shrink away from what needed to be done.
You did what you had to. And don’t think I didn’t hear your smart-ass comments when he had a gun pointed at you.
That was brave too. You couldn’t have known for sure if there was silver in that gun.
He could have killed you, and you stood there, sassing him.
” Shane grinned. “It was like when you stood up for yourself to me. You’ve got guts and a spine of steel.
You always have. I don’t care what you feel right now.
You proved that a shifter doesn’t need dominance to defend themselves. Just courage.”
Unshed tears glistened in Kimberly’s eyes, and Shane reached up to trail his thumb over the partially dried tears.
She suddenly cracked a tiny smile.
“What’s that smile for?” he asked.
Kimberly composed herself and rubbed her palm into her eyes.
“I was thinking about how you look just like you did that one time we went to the fair. We were fifteen, I think. You ate six hotdogs and then we went on one of those spinning rides. You puked everything back up. You looked so pale and sweaty, just like you do now.”
She reached up and brushed her hand over his damp brow, touch so light and tender that he wanted nothing more than to drag her down to the mattress and seize the kiss he’d missed all week. In his condition, he didn’t think it wise.
Yet, the change in her eyes told him that she understood that need through their bond. Kimberly bent down and planted a long, meaningful, but horribly tame kiss on his lips. They were still healing, body and heart, but they could share some intimacy until they were ready again.
When she pulled away, she playfully grazed her nose against his. “You know what else happened at that fair?”
“Before or after I barfed my brains out?”
She giggled. “Before.” She sat back and resumed her hold on his hand.
“You teased me that we would go off together one day. My dad had lectured me the night before, and you took me to the fair to get my mind off it. We hadn’t turned yet.
We were still human, but you told me that an inevitable part of our future would never change.
How you felt for me. You promised we would always be together, as friends or as more. ”
Shane’s chest suddenly felt hollow. “And I broke that promise. Ten years ago, when I didn’t try to find you.”
Kimberly shook her head. “No. I don’t think you did. It sounds like a line from a cheesy after-school cartoon, but I think you were always with me in spirit. Maybe, in a weird way, we already had something of a mating bond, but not as strong. I didn’t really notice it until tonight.”
“What did you mean?”
Kimberly glanced away while she tried to find the words.
“When I dated other shifters and they never called me back for a second date, I assumed it was because of my lack of dominance and that no shifter wanted anything to do with me. Maybe it wasn’t that obvious.
Maybe they could all sense that my heart was already taken.
They didn’t have to know you or hear me talk about you to know that you exist, and I would always be yours.
Same for you. Those other girls you dated, who you didn’t feel a connection with, maybe they knew it, too, and your wolf wouldn’t let you get close to anyone, not when it still wanted me. ”
Shane blinked with sudden understanding. “Then there was that night in Oakfield. I felt the pull to go back to the hotel.”
Kimberly’s nod said she thought about that, too. “We had something, Shane. We always have. The mating bond might as well have been a formality.”
“Fated mates since childhood,” Shane said thoughtfully. “I like it. Checks out.”
Kimberly moved to sit on the edge of the bed, her warmth easing some of his aches. “In a way, you kept your promise, Shane. Despite all the shit we’ve been through, you kept your promise.”
He tightened his hand on hers. “I almost didn’t expect you to accept the bond this time, regardless of the circumstances.”
“I love you. Why wouldn’t I?”
The words swelled and exploded like fireworks between them, the sparks skittering through him to the point he felt no pain anymore. Not a single bit.
Shane couldn’t keep his face from splitting into a ridiculous grin. “Because the asshole alpha who loves you back didn’t treat you the way you deserved.”
She mirrored his grin. “Well, that asshole alpha also saved me from the big bad hunter. I think we’re square.”
“Not when you consider that you saved me too.”
“And then you gave us the mating bond. We could go back and forth like this all night. Let’s stop keeping score.”
“Sounds good to me.” Shane peered at her in feigned suspicion. “Did we just say we love each other?”
Kimberly played along and puckered her lips in contemplation. “I think so. What do we do now?”
Shane hated how this moment came at the worst possible time. Like forming the mating bond, he had imagined this in a far more romantic setting, not in Dominic’s spare room, stuck in a bed with silver poisoning, and unable to take her in any fashion because of his injury.
All he could do was give a steady tug on her arm and pull her down for another kiss.
This one, he pushed to its limits. Lips and tongues played, sensuously tasting one another.
His fingers weaved through her short hair as he gripped the back of her head to hold her until they both teetered on the edge of lustful needs that couldn’t be satisfied just yet.
He released and gave her bottom lip a teasing nip. When they opened their eyes, two golden, wolfish gazes met, and their mating bond effervesced.
“We live happily ever after, of course.”