Chapter 32
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
bloom
At some point, the door to my cell opened.
I’d been dozing in and out of sleep, still trembling uncontrollably and crying in random bursts. My chest felt tight, and my mind had all but shut itself down.
A light, sweet scent met my nose.
Vanilla.
My eyes burned all over again.
I’d expected yelling when he arrived. Anger and hatred and betrayal and fury.
What I didn’t expect was for him to gently pick me up, cradling me to his chest as he carried me out of the cell.
When he did exactly that, I braced myself for whatever awful confrontation was coming next.
The yelling.
The betrayal.
The fury.
I thought he’d take me to an interrogation room.
Instead, he carried me to his apartment.
I couldn’t stop myself from inhaling when we got there.
It smelled like us.
Just us.
Nothing and no one else.
Another round of tears escaped. I wasn’t sure exactly why.
Maverick carried me to the bed, sat down, and pulled me under the blankets with him. His arms were still around me, holding me tightly to his chest. “I know you’re awake, Sugar.”
His voice was low, but soft.
“If you’re going to kill me or lecture me or hate me, get on with it,” I whispered against his throat. My arms were trapped between us. I wanted to wrap them around him and hold on for dear life, but I didn’t want to push him any more than I already had.
“I would rather rip my own throat out than hurt you.”
My arms went around his back, and another sob made my entire body arch in pain. Overwhelming fucking pain. “Is she dead?”
“No, Bloom. Harper’s alive. There is no world where we would kill her without letting you say goodbye. She’s alive, and safe.”
I cried harder, in relief.
In loss.
In... so many other things.
I didn’t say anything else as I sobbed in his arms, salty and snotty and absolutely disgusting.
He held me tightly.
Stroked my back.
Tied my hair up, out of my face.
Kissed my forehead. My cheek. My throat.
Eventually, I fell into a fitful sleep.
He didn’t let go.
When I woke up, we were in the exact same position.
My eyes weren’t swollen from crying anymore.
I wished they hurt.
I felt like I deserved that.
Maverick’s hand was still moving slowly over my back. His breath brushed the side of my throat every few seconds.
He wasn’t sleeping.
I wasn’t sure if he had gotten any rest at all, but it felt like at least a few hours had passed.
My throat swelled.
I squeezed my eyes shut tightly, then let out a slow breath.
I couldn’t put it off anymore. It was time to face the music.
“How pissed are you?” My voice cracked when I spoke, the sound barely more than a breath.
“Pissed is the wrong word for what I feel.” His voice was low, but not harsh.
My throat swelled.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what the right word was.
“I need you to tell me everything, Bloom. No secrets. No lies. No hiding anything. I need every fucking detail.”
I let out a shaky breath. Forcing myself to sit up, I met Maverick’s gaze, looking for those emotions I’d expected last night.
Betrayal.
Fury.
I didn’t find them.
He just looked tired. And bloody.
He’d cleaned some of it off his face and hands, but there were splotches he’d missed on his chin and neck. His chest and arms had a lot of dried spots, and there was a puckered wound on his arm that looked like it was still finishing healing.
He hadn’t even showered.
He had to have been exhausted.
I knew I didn’t deserve to be the one who told him to get some rest or wash up. Not now. Maybe not ever again.
That made my eyes sting, so I looked down at my hands.
They were clean, but only physically.
“She was screwing Velour on and off,” I said quietly.
“We’re advised not to do that—take a human partner.
It’s dangerous, and we’re supposed to stay in control, always.
Getting comfortable with someone weaker than you isn’t a good way to do that.
I told her, but she didn’t take it seriously. He didn’t either. I didn’t stop it.”
I gave Maverick a moment to interrupt. To tell me to get to the point. He didn’t.
“I didn’t know what had happened to her when Steven’s body was found.
I’d been at the office all night, focused on paperwork, and I only saw her for a minute in the morning.
You bit me, and I spent the week in that guest apartment.
After your driver dropped me off at home, she told me Velour accidentally drained her.
He panicked afterward, and turned her to save her life.
She came to find me in the office, but ran into Steven.
He was being his normal, difficult self when she lost control and killed him. ”
“What did you do when she told you?”
“I was in shock, mostly. I tried to get information about turned vampires out of my family. From what they told me, I knew we had a few weeks before she devolved, if we had a way to get her blood. I’m sure you’ve put together how we did that.”
“I want you to say it.”
I lifted my gaze back to his. Mine wasn’t apologetic.
Just… sad. “I found myself in possession of an assload of werewolf blood. The Guild doesn’t give out blood bags, so yours were our only option.
I knew I could feed at the gatherings, or starve if I had to.
Harper only had a few weeks, and I obviously hoped we could find a way to avoid her devolving. ”
“That’s why you didn’t want to bite me, and why you asked for extra blood. You needed it for Harper.”
“I didn’t want a mate bond either, but yeah. I felt bad about it, but she was my best friend, and I had no other options.”
Maverick nodded slowly. “So you ignored the note in the bag and went to that gathering, letting me think it was a party. And you drank someone else’s blood.”
“Three humans’. Two were women. One was a man.”
“You didn’t smell like them.”
“I washed my hands afterward, and bought garlic pasta to help hide the scents. Outside of you, I barely touch someone’s arm when I feed from them, so the garlic wasn’t really necessary. I just played it safe.”
His jaw clenched. “And my blood?”
“Sat in the freezer until Harper’s hunger started to flare again. She drank one of the bags every time it did.”
“She killed Steven, but not Arthur or Celeste,” he stated.
“Yes.”
“Keep going.”
“I made a plan. Velour was going to find a way around her devolving. They weren’t together, but the Guild would’ve killed him too, for turning her.
I was going to make your company compliant because I had to.
And, I was going to figure out who the murderer was.
I didn’t manage to do any of those things, obviously.
Except a lot of the paperwork. My one and only skill. ”
“You give a mean bath. That makes two.”
He was teasing me, even though there was no playfulness behind it.
Maybe he didn’t hate me completely.
I continued the story.
Maverick asked questions as I did. Mostly to clarify what had happened with Harper when he wasn’t there, and whether I’d bitten anyone else.
When I finished explaining, he studied me.
There was a crease between his eyebrows that I’d never seen before, and he hadn’t looked away for a moment while I spoke.
There was a brief silence before he said, “I understand why you didn’t come to me in the beginning. Why not after the poisoning? Or after I told you I wanted to seal our bond? Or after you heard Velour’s theory?”
“It obviously wasn’t true. She’d been drinking your blood basically from the beginning. It doesn’t get more werewolf than this.” I gestured to all of him. “When it came down to it, we had to choose to let the Guild kill Harper or to let you guys kill her. She needed to say goodbye to her mom, so—”
“It’s true.”
“What is?”
“A steady supply of werewolf blood is the only way to stabilize a turned vampire. It has to be from the vein, and it’s not a cure-all.
Most of them can’t be saved. There are only two stable, turned vampires alive right now.
One’s in hiding with her mate, in close contact with us for monitoring. The other’s mated to my Omega. Oren.”
I stared at him.
He stared at me.
Neither of us said a word for a good, long while.
“She could survive?” My voice wobbled.
“I don’t know. Wolf blood isn’t a guarantee. She has to decide if she wants to live or not, and if she does, she’ll have to fight the bloodlust for the rest of her life to a degree you have never experienced.”
“Are you...” I trailed off, then tried again. “Do you know of any...” I stopped myself again.
“Spit it out.”
“I know I have no right to ask after hiding the truth from you, but is anyone in your pack willing let them bite her, to see if she can fight it?”
“Rhone fed her last night, right after he brought her here. She was lucid for a minute or so.”
My eyes stung. “Is that a good or bad sign?”
“It’s too early to say, but if there was no hope, the blood wouldn’t have done anything at all.”
I nodded, dashing away a few small tears with the back of my hand. My mouth was dry, and I had a headache, but I was okay. “Thank you.”
“I’m not the one who offered her my neck. You can thank my Beta.”
“I will.”
Another moment of silence passed.
I had no idea where we stood. I wanted to ask, but I didn’t want to insinuate to that I expected things between us to be exactly the same.
They were different, now.
Obviously.
And I still needed time to process everything that had happened with Harper.
I also needed to call my family and explain.
And make sure the Guild went after Velour.
Talk to my team at the investment company and double check that things were still running smoothly for Maverick’s sake, too.
I’d messed everything up between us, but I wasn’t going to let that fall apart for him. Especially not if his pack was trying to keep Harper alive for me.
“Thanks.” I stood up, wrapping my arms around my middle. They were terrible support. My legs shook.
I felt like crying again, but wanted to do it in my own bed, without being stared at by someone who probably despised me for lying to him. “I’m going to get out of your hair. I can text whoever I need to about seeing Harper when they think it’s safe. I—“
Maverick rose to his feet too. “I really need a shower.”
I blinked.
Right.
He was definitely ready for me to leave.
I made it one step toward the door before he grabbed me around the waist and tossed me over his shoulder. It knocked the breath out of me, and I stared down at his blood-stained back as he strode toward the bathroom, carrying me with him.
“What are you doing, Mav?”
“You made yourself my official hair-washer a few days ago. Did no one send the memo?”
“Maverick.”
He set me down on my feet in the shower and turned on the water, then took my face in his hands while it fell over us, already warm. “You should’ve trusted that I wasn’t going to kill your best friend if there was any other choice, Bloom.”
My throat constricted.
“I know why you didn’t, but I fucking hate it. I’m furious that you’ve been carrying this alone. That you fucked me and kissed me and bathed me while genuinely believing you couldn’t trust me with your best friend’s life. That you fed her my blood secretly instead of asking for it. That hurts.”
My eyes stung. I closed them, and nodded.
“But I didn’t tell you about Oren, so some of the fault is mine.
Yeah, I’m angry. More than that, I hate that you’re hurting and I haven’t fixed it yet.
” He lowered his forehead to mine. I breathed his scent in deeply, and he took mine too.
“More than any of it, I want to take you to our bed, I want to hold you in my arms, and I want to sleep. Without any interruptions. For as long as possible.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure. You’re it for me, Bloom. I don’t walk away from this.”
“Do you run away from it?” My attempt at a joke was quiet, and mostly neutral.
His lips stretched in a tired grin anyway. “Only if I’m chasing you.”
I rolled my eyes, and he kissed me.
It was gentle.
Soft.
Slow.
And it ended too soon.
He pulled me into his arms when my eyes started watering again as the emotions of everything caught up to me.
Despite what he said earlier, he was the one who washed both of us this time, with one of his arms remaining around my waist to hold me upright.
When he tucked us back into bed, our bare bodies pressed together, but it wasn’t sexual.
It was something else entirely.
Something intimate... and something real.
As I dozed off, I silently accepted the truth I’d been hiding from.
I was in love with Maverick Darkwood.