Page 83 of Fated to the Alpha

Erica offered Kimberly assistance in getting up the stairs, but she turned her down.

“I’m not that helpless,” she muttered, a surprising note of bitterness in the way she said it that made her instantly apologetic. “Sorry. I’m a little touchy right now.”

Erica didn’t seem the least bit offended. “It’s all right. Go see your guy … You two are still together, right?”

“Oh, yeah.” Dominic’s answer was edged with a laugh. “They are. About time, too, right?”

Both of the men in the room shared the same knowing grin. All other shifters would be able to sense the mating bond between her and Shane. There was no hiding it, no denying it. They would all know that she, a shifter with no dominance, was mated with an alpha. But, just like Shane predicted, no one seemed to care.

She set aside her mug on the coffee table and tenderly made her way out of the parlor and up the stairs. She shouldn’t have felt so nervous and tried to beat down the butterflies in her stomach. They were mated. They made love. She killed for him. She saved his life. Nerves should have been steady, but they had so much to discuss. Though the authenticity in their mating bond told her otherwise, she was afraid he’d want to take it back somehow; to say it was just a tool in the moment and they should sever the bond. Kimberly didn’t want to. Maybe that was why she was so scared.

Funny, she thought. I can rip out an armed hunter’s throat with my teeth, but I’m scared to face rejection from the man I love.

*

Shane let Nolan peek under the covers at his bare, wounded hip. The flesh still throbbed with a pain he didn’t think was possible. The necrotic tissue didn’t look so blackened and shriveled as it had even half an hour ago. The damage inflicted by the silver stretched from just below his lower rib to halfway down his thigh, and almost to his midline around the front and back of his lower torso. His muscles ached like they were stuck in a tight seizure, and his skin burned like he had been roasted over an open fire. He wasn’t a stranger to pain, but never for this long and this intense.

The doctor gave an approving nod. “The antitoxin seems to be working. It’s going to take time and a lot of rest. I don’t recommend moving for a few days, and don’t cover the open bullet wound with clothes or anything too abrasive. Just a light bandage until the hole closes up. Your healing should kick in and take care of most of the work over time.”

Bandages. Shane didn’t even own a first aid kit. Shifters never needed one. Yet, in the span of one evening, he became a bedridden invalid.

“Anything for the pain?” he asked as Nolan lowered the blanket.

Just the weight of the fabric felt like a thousand needles jammed into his flesh. He had a hard time hiding his wince from the doctor.

“I can apply a local anesthetic, but I don’t know what good it will do for the deeper pain. It may just take the edge off.”

Shane gritted his teeth. “I hate to sound like a wimp, but I’ll take anything you’ve got.”

Nolan chuckled and reached down to the medical bag he brought with him. The weathered, beaten leather told him that this wasn’t the first house call he had to make for an ailing shifter.

Footsteps sounded down the hall, and he felt Kimberly’s approach through their bond. His heart, already racing from the adrenaline caused by his pain, beat even faster. Mostly, it was residual nervousness coming directly from her down the bond. She was afraid, but of what exactly? The bond was good to tell him what she felt and some nuances, but not always the reasons.

She stopped just outside the cracked door, as if waiting to be granted permission to enter.

He only had to whisper her name, and she shyly stepped through just as Nolan had pulled out his anesthetic tools. In one hand, he held a wand with a heavy cotton swab on the end, and a tub of some pungent golden liquid in the other.

Kimberly watched as the doctor lifted the blanket to reveal the wound, careful to cover Shane’s more private regions. Still, the sight of what the silver had done to him made her gasp. Her hands flew to her mouth and nose, her stare fixed and wide as Nolan applied the medicine.

“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.