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Damien smirked, darkness brimming in his eyes as he stared at me. “That’s just what I did.”
I wanted to vomit. My stomach churned, bilious and sour. I struggled to hold down the bile that wanted to erupt from my throat.
“Stop playing with her, son,” his father chastised. “Slit the whore’s throat and be done with it. It’s the only way for you to gain her essence.”
My essence?
Damien surged forward, his face a mirror of rage and hatred as he struck out.
I screamed…
“Calm down,” a voice urged me, softly, melodically. I’d heard that voice before. When I’d first woken. “You’re safe here.” Something warm and wet brushed over my forehead. A cloth. “It’s okay.”
But I wasn’t. They’d find me here. I knew they would.
No longer hindered by the tube down my throat, I threw back the blankets that enveloped me, wincing at the sharp sting that radiated from the crook of my arm.
The woman, a nurse by the looks of her scrubs, startled when I flung myself from the bed.
“Wait—” she attempted to soothe me. “Please, it’s okay.”
But it wasn’t.
Reaching down, I ripped the needle from my arm, holding my hand to the wound to stifle the flow of blood. With wild eyes, I searched my surroundings for a way out. Any way out. The small nurse blocked the door, her arms stretched out in front of her, palms forward. Her words were soft and placating, but my mind barely registered them.
“Wh—” I coughed, my throat dry and aching. “Where…am…I?” Shit, why was it so hard to breathe? It felt as if someone was sitting on my chest, each breath heavier than the last.
“Haven Memorial,” the woman answered slowly, as if she was soothing a wild animal. Guess I was.
“Haven…” I rolled the name around in my head a few times.Haven.The nurse shifted slightly, her body relaxing when she saw I was no longer panicking and about to run.Yet.I wouldn’t get out of this room until she thought she could trust me.
“You shouldn’t be out of bed.” She urged me toward the hospital bed. “You came in with some pretty severe injuries. Honestly, you’re lucky to be alive. A human wouldn’t have survived the abuse your body took.”
I stiffened, sniffing the air slightly.
She was human.
My feet froze, halting my advancement toward the bed. The nurse must have sensed my agitation. She shot me a warm smile, her brown eyes soft and reassuring.
“It’s okay.” She continued to urge me. “There are very few humans in Haven who don’t know about shifters. The town is full of your kind.”
Humans living with shifters?
That couldn’t be right. I’d read several texts and heard accounts from many of the elders about the horrors humans inflicted on wolves.
Torture.
Murder.
They hunted our kind like animals.
The thrill of the hunt.
“Don’t get me wrong,” the nurse chirped as she helped me into the bed and tucked the covers around me, “that isn’t the case everywhere, as you probably know.” Her eyes found mine, searching. But for what? “Hell, most humans don’t even know shifters exist anymore.”
“What was…wrong with…me?” It was still hard to get more than a few words out at a time. The nurse’s lips turned down at the corners, her warm eyes hardening, but it wasn’t directed at me.
“Four broken ribs and a collapsed lung. Your left femur was shattered as well,” she listed off the injuries, counting them out on her fingers. “Cuts, bruises…I could go on. The doctor kept you in a medically induced coma for the last week to make sure your injuries healed without interference. You’re a strong little thing, though. Woke up quicker than any of us thought you would. Sorry about that.”
