My chest aches.
“I’ve got you,” I whisper again, brushing a strand of hair from her cheek with the backs of my knuckles.My voice softens, becoming soothing.“No one’s going to hurt you again.I swear it.”
She sighs as if she believes me, like she already knows.
Christian glances back briefly.“We’ll take her to my place first.Medical check.Fluids.Then?—”
“My house,” I finish.“She’s going home.”
His brow lifts slightly, but he doesn’t argue with me.
“Your house it is.”
The rest of the drive passes in silence, but inside me?It’s anything but.
My wolf curls around her like a blanket, content for the first time in years.
Home, he murmurs.Bring our mate home.
She’s safe,I assure him.With us.Where she belongs.
Always,he answers.
I smile as we turn onto my street.
Always,I agree.
FOUR
Roxie
I floatin and out of awareness, like I’m drifting on the surface of a lake instead of sinking beneath it.
Arms surround me.
Strong ones.
They hold me close to a solid chest that rises and falls steadily beneath my cheek.Every step he takes is careful, measured, like he’s afraid I might break if he moves too fast.The cold night air brushes my skin, but his body blocks most of it, radiating warmth through my thin clothes.
Safe.
The thought slips through my foggy mind, unexpected and strange.
I try to open my eyes, but my lids feel too heavy, glued shut by exhaustion and whatever they pumped into my veins.My head lolls slightly, and I make a soft sound, something between a whimper and a sigh.
“It’s okay,” a deep voice murmurs close to my ear.“I’ve got you.”
I shiver, and this time, it has nothing to do with the wind.Something about his voice, about the low rasp of it, has my body reacting.
Where am I?Where are we going?
My brain is a jumbled mess, and I try to clear it so I can think about what I need to do now.
Fern.I need to get to Fern.
I try to say Fern’s name.My lips part, but the word comes out slurred and broken.“F’n…”
Panic flares, hot and sharp, for half a second.Fern.I need to tell him about Fern.She’ll be worried.She’ll be looking for me.She?—