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He nods, his expression hard.
“That bastard can’t hurt you now.”
Chapter thirty-eight
Amanda
Ipartiallyshiftmythroat to help the bruising heal up faster as I let Jake walk me to his car. My skirt fell back down on its own, but I can feel the blood rolling down the sides of my legs where the gator scratched me up. I partially shift my upper legs to seal those scratches.
I feel a little better after that, but I know I’m going to have nightmares for a long damn time about this awful day.
“Shotgun, or do you need to lie down?” Jake asks, sounding worried.
“I’m okay to sit,” I tell him, even if I’m shaky as hell and I can’t stop the tears that are still trailing down my cheeks. I have that creep’s blood under my fingernails. I can still feel his hand on the back of my neck. I can’t stop crying over what just happened.
Thank Freya and Artemis and all the other Gods and Goddesses for sending Jake to me when they did.
I know I have a higher power to thank for that. I wouldn’t be okay right now, if he hadn’t come when he did. There’s no way I was going to survive whatever that monster was going to do to me.
Jake opens the passenger door to his Jeep and helps me to get inside.
“You’re shaking,” he murmurs, taking off his hoodie and passing it to me. “Here.”
He places it in my arms and puts a hand on my cheek gently.
I hug his hoodie and lean into his touch, taking comfort from it.
“You’re okay now,” he tells me. “I would never let anyone hurt you.”
He sounds so serious. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this side of him.
For as long as I’ve known he was meant for me, this is the first time I’ve really connected that feeling to his actions. He’s acting like we’re mates right now, brushing my tears away and telling me he’ll keep me safe. I can’t believe how good it feels.
I wish it hadn’t taken such an extreme situation for this side of him to come out, but that’s only because it was so damn distressing. I don’t ever want to end up in that kind of situation again.
Jake looks over his shoulder and lets out a relieved sigh. “Ed has Jillian. She’s a little drunk, but she’s okay. He’ll take her home in your car, if that’s okay?”
I nod. “She wasn’t bitten?”
“Bitten?” he asks, frowning at me.
“They’re gators,” I explain, shrugging.
He shakes his head. “It looks like we got here in time. We’re just going to have to leave before someone finds the dead guy. We didn’t break any shifter laws, but the human cops won’t be quite so forgiving. We need to get back to Fallen Pines.”
He closes the door and I lean forward so I can wrap his hoodie around my shoulders.
It feels nice to be wearing something with my mate’s scent on it.
It feels even better that he’s the one taking care of me right now.
I put on my seatbelt. He gets into the driver’s seat and starts the engine before he puts his belt on.
“Can we go to your place?” I ask, not wanting to face my aunt, and not wanting to be parted from him.
I know all I’ll do if I go home is lie awake all night, freaking out about what happened.
At least if I’m with him I might feel a little safer and less likely to have nightmares if I do fall asleep.
