Chapter Thirty-Four #2
My eyes flutter open, and the first things I notice are the brightness and beeping. I struggle to keep them open. I’m able to make out, through squinting, that I am in a hospital room.
A nurse is charting next to me, scribbling notes on a clipboard. I glance at the screen she’s eyeing closely and see my vitals displayed.
Okay, so I’m not dead. I just feel like it.
I move to sit up and groan.
The nurse looks at me. “Miss Jay, it’s good to see you’re awake. How are you feeling?”
“Oh, you know. Could be worse.”
I don’t feel pain from my leg like I did, and it makes me wonder. “Did I lose my leg?”
The nurse finishes charting and directs her attention to my bed.
She makes sure the sheets are tucked properly.
“No. Your leg will be fine. You lost a lot of blood, which required a blood transfusion some stitches . . . but, give it a few hours and your wolf should speed up the healing process for you. It’ll be like it never happened. ”
I check on my wolf. How are you doing?
She yawns. Much better.
With my pain threshold being as high as it is, it’s been a long time since I’ve passed out because of it. Confused as to why I could have healed so fast, I ask the nurse, “Why am I healing so fast?”
“No clue. The doctor couldn’t explain it. Normally, we see this kind of healing when a mate is involved. It helps speed the process—nothing is more healing than feeling loved—but you aren’t mated, so I’m not sure. Perhaps it’s a miracle from our Goddess?”
“I don’t think our Goddess knows I exist.”
“Well, I know one person who does,” she sings. “I notified Caleb you’re awake. He is on his way back now.”
“Back?” Without thinking, I start smoothing my hair but stop when the nurse suppresses a grin.
She knows.
“Yes, ma’am. I finally told him he needed to go home and shower. The boy hadn’t eaten either. He stayed the whole time, holding you close.”
I blink. “He held me?”
I thought I smelled him. I just assumed his scent lingered on me after he carried me here.
“Mm-hmm. The whole night, too.”
I blush.
“Don’t worry, patient-doctor confidentiality. No one else knows.” The nurse winks. She folds a blanket and says, “Caleb was very clear about the importance of protecting your privacy.”
On the brass doorknob is a Do Not Enter sign hanging from it, and the blinds from the windows are drawn. That’s when I notice Tyler is standing guard outside and also checking out any nurse who walks by.
Does she think I’m sleeping with Caleb?
I wish, my wolf says.
The nurse exits.
Tyler, again, checks her out as she walks away.
Caleb appears.
My breath hitches, and my wolf perks up, wagging her tail, her butt wiggling at the sight of him.
“Why did you help me?” I blurt.
I need answers.
His eyes soften with a longing I could almost convince myself I imagined. He quickly averts his gaze.
I shift, and the blanket moves with me.
Caleb’s wolf surfaces. I reach for his arm and immediately his eyes return to their calming blue. He takes my hand, his grip firm but not suffocatingly tight. Safe and secure, just like how I feel around him.
My wolf faints.
Okay, okay, no big deal. Stay calm. Be cool.
To stay grounded, I stim my feet, causing the blanket to move off me. Distracted, he stares down at my leg.
His wolf surfaces, and his voice is low. “Jay . . .”
He’s about to declare something sweet, so I try to calm myself. Here it comes . . .
Instead, he gently grabs my leg, turning it toward him to get a closer look. He growls. Caleb slowly turns his head to me. And when he does, his lip is turned up in a snarl, and his eyes blaze into my soul. “Who did this to you?”
My inner thigh has the word murderer carved into it.
“I–I don’t know their names.”
“Their names? There was more than one?” he bellows.
His nostrils flare. As much as he has shown he hates me, the versions of him I’ve seen are put to shame by the way he looks now.
I gulp. “I don’t want to make it a big deal.”
Because it’s a big deal. And once upon a time, it was to me, but unfortunately, I’m used to it. Their treatment toward me isn’t a surprise. I should’ve known better than to follow them.
“It’s a very big deal. What happened to you? I left the conference room, and you weren’t in the study.”
“A guy told me—”
How do I tell him they lured me out by dangling Caleb in front of me? Hey, I think I’m starting to have feelings for you. I guess they thought I did, too because who wouldn’t have wishful thinking when it comes to the handsome future alpha of a pack?
Could I tell him I was so desperate for time with him that I followed strangers into the woods?
Caleb waits for me to finish my answer.
“I thought I was following your orders.”
“What orders?”
“They told me . . .”
They didn’t really tell me anything. Maybe I made it all up in my head. What he said was ominous, and what I interpreted was out of desire. I feel so stupid. “They told me that you needed to speak to me and planned to meet me in the woods after your meeting ended. That it was important.”
In hindsight, that could’ve been anything.
“Jay, listen to me carefully. I had nothing to do with what happened to you, but I will have everything to do with making sure it never happens again.”
See? He wants to protect us. He cares, my wolf says.
“How? I don’t even know who they were.”
One told me their name. I don’t know if it’s the blood loss, but I can’t remember.
He wraps his hand around my thigh and tugs me gently toward him and leans his face close. His nose grazes my leg as he sniffs for evidence that someone has touched me. He stops at a spot on my shin and drags his tongue across the length of my fresh wound.
He growls, “But I do. And they will pay with their lives.”