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Stone followed me into the exam room and lounged against the wall as Melissa took my blood pressure and temperature. She asked if I was taking any vitamins or medications, the date of my last period–so long I didn’t remember–and a dozen other questions that made me uncomfortable with an audience. Stone leaned against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. Even from a few feet away, Stone seemed to tower over me.
Melissa gave a long look at the bruises, then walked out. A few minutes later, Doc bustled in, wiping her just-washed hands on a paper towel.
“Wait in the hall please,” she told Stone. He peeled himself off the wall and stepped out, and she closed the door. I stared after him. Was it really that easy?
She checked me over, pressing her palms into the bruises on my side in a way that made me wince before she stepped back. “You’re badly bruised, but lucky enough to have no broken ribs or internal bleeding.”
“This time,” I said lightly.
She gave me a long look. “Your wolf’s power will help you heal. You should shift any chance you have.”
“I’m not sure if I’m allowed.”
She let out a huff at that thought. “You’ll be allowed.”
She followed me out into the hall, where Stone waited with a grumpy expression on his face. I wondered why he was so grouchy. It wasn’t as if I’d asked him to babysit me.
“Make sure she gets the chance to run,” she told Stone. “It’s good for healing.”
“Fine.”
When we got outside, I told him, “Thank you. That’s . . . not what I expected.”
He scoffed. “If Nathan is alive, I assume he’ll come to find you.”
The thought was chilling. “Yes. He will.”
“Then I need you alive and well to lure him in.”
I stared at him, finding it hard to believe he’d really taken me to the doctor to make sure his bait was healthy before he squeezed the worm onto the hook. “Well. Thanks.”
“Mm.”
He walked me back to the house in that same stony silence.
On the green lawn that spread in front of the house, Cole and some other fighters were training in hand-to-hand, grappling and throwing each other. Cole was shirtless again, leading the training with his muscles rippling under his smooth, dark skin. For a second, I stared at him, until he turned and his gaze met mine. My stomach flip-flopped and I quickly walked toward the house.
When I headed up the stairs to the front porch, Stone stopped behind me.
“Did you know Nathan was coming that night?” he demanded. “The night he killed my brother?”
I turned to face him. Since I was standing on the porch and he hadn’t started up the steps yet, I looked down at him for once. “No!”
His gaze swept over me, measuring. “I wish I could believe you.”
“And I wish you weren’t a kidnapping sociopath, but here we are.” The words surprised me, as did the sudden flare of anger that accompanied them.
The two of us glared at each other. Stone watched me with something dark and intense in his gaze, as if he wasn’t sure whether he wanted to kiss me or punish me. The way he looked at me made my knees go weak and the space between my thighs hollow, even though I was furious at him.
And for one crazy, wild second, part of me wanted him to kiss me.
My chin rose. “I need a way to get in touch with my family. To know if they’re safe.”
A disbelieving smirk spread across his face. “No. You are not making demands.”
“Bait or not, I deserve to know who’s alive or dead in my pack, myfamily.”
“Your family?” he scoffed. “You have a family, and they let someone do this to you?” His hand rose, his fingers almost brushing my face, but he seemed to hold himself back. Rage dilated his pupils, and I took a step back before I realized his anger wasn’t for me. “If I saw someone hurt you like that, I would break them into a thousand pieces.”
