Chapter 28
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
maverick
For once in my life, I was tired of fighting.
Every time I went back to Harper’s apartment, she and Bloom were doing something else that looked a hell of a lot better than bleeding and making someone bleed.
The first time my mate opened the door, she was dressed in some clothes Harper had brought for her. They were in the middle of a dance party, sweating and laughing through it.
They’d talked the enforcers into joining them. Elise was sitting in a chair off to the side, stony-faced and uncomfortable, but Ryker was busting a move.
I joined them for a few minutes before one of my other enforcers showed up with an army’s worth of food and fortified protein shakes and I forced myself to get in as many calories as I could. The day was just getting started, and I needed to be ready for tomorrow, too.
The second and third time they opened the door, they were pounding popcorn, then ice cream, while watching a dramatic romance movie that made them cry more than once. Ryker was on Harper’s bed with her, holding my mate’s best friend in his arms.
I didn’t give a shit if there was something between him and Harper as long as he didn’t touch my female.
When I noticed how close Bloom was to the potential couple, I dragged the dog bed from my room over and pulled her onto it with me. She fussed over the cut on my arm for a few minutes, but when she accepted that it was healing well, she calmed down.
The movie sucked, but taking a power nap with Bloom in my arms was exactly what the doctor would’ve ordered. If I ever bothered to see one.
After the fourth fight, I video called Rhone for an update, since he was still in Vast City.
I had to meet with a smaller Alpha who was in attendance but not challenging me, after that. His brother was my upcoming fight, and he didn’t want me to kill the guy.
I didn’t make any promises, but when I fought him, I let him live.
Barely.
The other Alpha was so grateful, that he talked my ear off instead of letting me get away, so I didn’t make it back to my mate after that either.
When I threw Harper’s door open after the seventh fight, the women were attempting to make crème br?lée but refusing to wait for it to chill like Elise was telling them to.
Ryker was lounging on the bed on his phone while Elise tried to help them.
I was pretty confident she had gone to culinary school at one point, quitting after she realized she hated cooking under stress.
She looked like she was having fun, though, and I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen her smile.
When Bloom made me taste the dessert, I managed to choke it down.
She, Harper, and Elise all gagged and spat theirs in the trash can, then elected to make chocolate soufflé before starting over, because it was supposedly going to be easier.
I wished them luck, pulled Bloom into the hallway so I could have her lips on mine for a minute, and headed out.
“Don’t die,” she called after me.
“Don’t puke when you taste your soufflé,” I called back.
She flipped me off, but she grinned when she did.
The day continued.
They were still cooking their soufflé when I came by after the eighth fight. I had time to taste it before I left—it was great, but needed cherries.
They were doing handstands up against a wall with both of my enforcers while their crème br?lée redo cooled in some water after the ninth. Apparently, they’d decided to take Elise’s advice and chill it this time.
“Why are you doing random things?” I asked, sitting on the edge of the bed with an ice pack against my head.
“We’re just trying to enjoy your prison,” Harper tossed back. “Come join us!”
“He can’t, he’s icing his head. Probably gave himself a tiny concussion head-butting some jerk,” Bloom said from beside her. Both of them were still upside down. “Right, Mav?”
That was, in fact, what had happened.
I dropped my ice pack on the bed and went over to Bloom, throwing a quick handstand without bothering to use the wall.
“Showoff,” my mate complained, though she was smiling.
“Did you get bored and take gymnastics or something?” Harper asked.
“Pretty much.”
Harper sighed. “Immortality sounds amazing.”
“Humanity sounds terrible.”
Bloom kicked my leg, and managed to lose her balance in the process. She fell sideways, and I couldn’t get back on my feet fast enough to catch her before she crashed into Harper, who crashed into Ryker, who crashed into Elise.
I lifted Bloom to her feet and dusted her off. “Good as new.”
“Why yes, we’re okay down here,” Harper drawled.
Bloom smiled. I noticed something that must’ve been a little dried sugar beneath one of her eyes, and brushed it away.
The women’s timer went off, and they all went into the kitchen.
Ryker’s mind met mine. “Are you cool with me hanging out with Harper?”
“As long as you don’t hurt her or my mate.”
“Neither of us is looking for anything serious. We talked about it.”
“Then knock yourself out.”
He nodded at me.
Another one of my enforcers showed up with food. I loaded up again before heading out.
And we repeated the process.
Over.
And.
Over.
By the time the last fight of the day was finished, I was dragging. I texted Bloom as I staggered back into the estate. A few of my enforcers were trying to say something through the link, but I shut it down.
I couldn’t handle anything else. The only voice I wanted to hear out loud or in my head was my mate’s.
Our room was too fucking far from the field where we held our challenges.
Me
OMW
Be ready to go pls
Bloom
I’m already in your room
Me
Our room
I shoved my phone in my pocket, but missed.
It hit the floor.
I left it.
Someone else would grab it. I’d thank them later. Right now, I needed to fucking sleep.
The door was cracked open and the next shift of enforcers were sitting outside when I got there.
“Don’t yell at them,” Bloom called from inside. “I talked Elise into giving me the code.”
I didn’t have the energy to care, stepping past them without so much as a nod.
They all knew me well enough not to be offended. Or surprised, after everything that had gone down that day.
I kicked the door shut, listening for the sound of the automatic lock as my gaze zeroed in on my mate. She was lounging on top of the bed, dressed in nothing but a t-shirt she’d pulled out of my closet.
Every part of me relaxed as she lifted a hand in greeting, the ring on her finger sparkling with the movement.
My eyes raked over her face, dragging down those sexy bare legs sprawled on the blankets.
Her laptop was perched on her lap, and when she slid it to the side, I got a glimpse of the screen. For once, it didn’t look like she was working.
My legs carried me to the bed without thinking. Bloom was off of it faster than I could see, sliding her arm around my waist as she dipped beneath my arm to help me stay upright. I didn’t let her take much of my weight, but it was still helpful.
“You’re bleeding again.” She dragged me to the bathroom.
“Don’t think I’ve stopped since noon,” I mumbled. Some of the words slurred a little.
“Is someone coming with food?”
“Dunno.”
She closed the lid of the toilet and helped me sit down on it like it was just a fucking chair. My eyes closed the moment I was seated, relief making a nonsensical sound escape me.
“Don’t fall,” she warned.
Then disappeared.
I heard the door open. She said something. It shut a moment later, and she was at my side again with a fortified protein shake in her hands.
Bloom placed the straw in my mouth, and I sucked until the cup was empty. She set it on the floor, then stepped past me.
My fingers brushed her hip as she went, and my eyelids lowered a little more.
“Fuck, I love you,” I mumbled, barely conscious
“Sure, Mav.” She sounded amused.
The water turned on. It might’ve been the bathtub. I was pretty sure I had one, but I hadn’t taken a bath in a century. Maybe longer.
“You’re so hot.” The compliment was unimpressive, but true.
“You’ve told me.”
“I was wrong about the soufflé.”
“You were. It was delicious. The crème br?lée was too.” She plugged the drain on the tub.
“Don’t remember it.”
“You were barely conscious. This is too many fights.”
“It’s fine.”
“It’s not.” Her arm went around my waist again. “You’re going to have to help me get you to your feet. I’m not quite that strong.”
I nodded. My head bobbed one too many times. Maybe two.
It took a few minutes, but I got to my feet. Bloom did most of the work.
My nose was in her hair as she dragged me to the tub. A damp strand clung to my face. It must’ve been wet from the bath.
“You’re salty.” My words were sounding garbled. Did that even make sense?”
“Must’ve been the popcorn earlier.”
I nodded again. Bobbed even more that time.
She put my hands on the edge of the tub. “Don’t fall over.”
“’Kay.”
She pushed my sweats down my thighs. I wasn’t wearing anything under them. That would be too much of a pain when I needed to shift so many times.
My skin was itching the way it did when my body wanted to change again. Wounds we got in wolf form tended to heal better in that form.
Bloom and I hadn’t really discussed how comfortable she was with that side of me, so I hadn’t stayed a wolf after the fight.
Getting back to her had been my first priority, and still was.
“I don’t know how you can manage to have an erection when you’re in this bad of shape, Mav,” she said.
“Dunno.” Definitely wasn’t about to fuck her. I’d probably pass out in the middle if I tried.
Who was I kidding? I wasn’t making it to the middle.
She kneeled at my feet and legitimately lifted my leg to get my pant leg over my foot.
Who the fuck was this woman?
“I’m keeping you,” I said.
“So you’ve said.”
“I’m irresistible too.”
She murmured something that sounded like, “You’re not wrong.” And lifted my other leg too, freeing me from the sweats entirely.
Standing up, she grabbed one of my thighs with both hands.
My cock jerked.
“Hold on to the tub,” she warned me, before heaving one of my legs over.
My foot landed in water. Gloriously hot water.
I plopped down on my ass, and she helped toss my other leg over as I went.
“Thanks,” I mumbled. “I’ll take it from here.” My head tilted back to rest on the ledge of the freestanding tub, my eyes closing.
Baths were bliss. What had I been thinking, avoiding them for the last century?
“Sure you will.”
I loved the smile in her voice.
“You should bite me.”
“Fantastic idea. More blood loss is exactly what you need right now.” The scent of soap made my nose twitch. Her hand glided smoothly up my arm, and I groaned.
“It’d feel good.”
“Sleep will feel better.”
“Maybe,” I conceded.
“Definitely.”
An itch had me leaning sideways, smacking my shoulder. The wound there was acting up all the sudden.
“What’s wrong? Let me see.” Bloom moved my hand away, looking at the cut. It wasn’t deep. None of my injuries were. I was the Alpha for a reason. “Geez, how many cuts do you have?”
“A few.”
“Bullshit.”
“It was sixteen fights. Gonna have some blood. One of them was bad.”
“Bad? Tell me what happened,” she ordered.
Her hands were moving over my chest now, scrubbing dried blood away. There was a lot of it. Most wasn’t mine.
I was hopeless to her demands. Especially this incapacitated.
“Fought two of the stronger fuckers. Should’ve spread them apart more. Been a while since I fought this much.”
“How long is a while?”
“Ninety years or so?”
“Maverick.” Bloom’s scrubbing grew slightly more violent. Felt even better that way. “You said you can stagger them out one a day. You need to do that. This isn’t safe.”
“It’s fine.”
“If you get yourself killed, I’m going to have to mate with Timber.”
“I’ll kill him from the grave. Twice.”
She rolled her eyes. “How do you kill someone twice? Or from the grave?”
“I’ll figure it out.”
“You really need to sleep.”
Someone knocked on our door once.
Bloom rinsed her hands in the tub and vanished. Came back with a mountain of food on some sort of long wooden thing. When she put it across the top of the tub like a table without legs, I understood.
She forced me to eat, both scrubbing and poking me to keep me awake until I was clean and the food was gone.
When I was deliriously full, I scratched my leg. Another damn cut was bugging me.
“What’s wrong with you? You never itch like this.”
“Need to shift to heal better.”
“Then why aren’t you furry right now?” she asked.
“Didn’t want to weird you out.”
“It’s not weird for me when you shift. You’re a werewolf. That’s part of who you are. Would you even be telling me all of these things if you weren’t barely conscious?” she wondered.
She’d already scrubbed my throat, and was now starting to work on my face with a new round of soap.
“Probably.” Some of the soap got in my mouth, so I closed it.
After she scrubbed my hair too, she disappeared again. She was back a heartbeat later, with a big cup in her hand. After a warning to hold my breath, she dumped it unceremoniously over my head.
I felt slightly better when the soap was gone a few minutes later, and the blood along with it.
The rest of me took less time to clean. I tried to swat her hands away and do it myself, but I drifted in and out of sleep too often to actually put up a fight.
I only really woke up to scratch my healing wounds.
She smacked my hands away with a lot more force than I did hers every time I tried that.
When I was clean, she drained the tub. It took a lot of poking and prodding, but she got me conscious enough to climb out of the water and shift. She dried me off in my wolf form before herding my stumbling ass to our bed.
She tied her damp hair up on top of her head and tossed her now-soaked t-shirt aside, climbing into bed with me in nothing but her thong.
If I’d been aware enough, I would’ve pulled that off her too.
I wasn’t, though.
She wrapped her arms around my gigantic, furry form and carefully slipped one of her legs over a mostly-unmarred part of my flank, cuddling me close.
I realized in that moment that I’d never been in love before.
And that I fit better with a vampire than I ever could’ve with a werewolf.
Then I crashed.