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“Man, that’s good,” I moaned to myself as I put the cap back on.
Throwing off the covers, I stood and gathered my clothes from around the room. I’d tossed them away with abandon the night before with Wyatt. A ball of heat formed in my stomach at the memory. It was a lovely celebration of being safe.
Once I was dressed, I sat back on the bed and took stock of myself. My lethargy was gone. The wolfsbane burns on my body had faded to almost nothing. As far as I could tell, I wasn’t suffering from any lingering effects of the shit Simon had pumped into me. My shifter biology must have cleared it from my system. I didn’t want to think about what might have happened to me if Wyatt had been even an hour later in rescuing me. An involuntary shiver ran up my back, sending gooseflesh rising along my arms.
I had to get out and about, see some people, get my mind off what I’d been through. I tugged my shoes back on and headed out into the tunnels of Haven.
I wasn’t out of my room for more than thirty seconds when Zoe crashed into me, hugging me so tight, I was afraid my ribs would crack.
“Oh my gosh. I’m so glad you’re back,” Zoe gushed.
Hugging her back, I smiled. “Glad tobeback.”
Zoe held me at arm’s length and looked me over. “Are you all right? I wasliterallycoming to check on you. I was worried. You’ve been asleep for, like, forever.”
“I’m good. I came out to get something for breakfast… or lunch?”
Zoe smirked. “You mean dinner? You slept the entire day. We don’t have a huge selection here. Limited supplies, you know? How about some oatmeal?”
The whole day? Good gods. My stomach gave another warning rumble at the mention of food. “That sounds fucking fantastic,” I said. “Plain food would be fine at this point.”
“We do have some dried fruit and stuff. It won’t be like prison food. Come on.” Zoe pulled me along toward the dining area.
In the little carved-out commissary area, Zoe spoke to a younger witch and asked for a serving of food. It seemed that everyone in Haven pitched in and helped where and when they could. Again, I was impressed with the society Crew had managed to build in such an inhospitable place as Bloodstone Island.
Zoe joined me at a small table with a bowl of oatmeal filled with raisins, chunks of coconut, and a drizzle of honey. It was incredibly basic, but by the gods, nothing had ever looked that good. I ate the whole bowl in about a minute. After finishing, I was still hungry, but it would keep me going for a while.
“How is everyone else?” I asked, tossing my spoon into the empty bowl.
Zoe’s face fell a bit. “Okay, I guess. We lost another guy on the way back to Haven last night.”
“What?” I sat forward. “Besides the guy we lost in the lab?”
She nodded, picking at a spot on the table. “Yeah. Jackson was the guy who got killed there. On the way back, we ran into a few ferals. They weren’t Simon’s, they came out of nowhere. This panther shifter, Terrance, saved Crew in the fight but…well, he didn’t make it.”
“Dammit,” I hissed, that all-too familiar guilt leaching out again. “I’m sorry, Zoe.”
There were only a few dozen people in all of Haven, which meant they were probably a really close-knit group. Any loss would be like a kick to the stomach. Losing two citizens in one night had to cut deep.
Zoe sighed and did her best to put a brave face on. “It’s not been a great day. Crew and Eli were pretty banged up, too, but they mostly healed before you guys got back. Other than that, everyone is okay.”
“What about Abel? Leif?”
At the mention of the other alphas’ names, Zoe chewed her lip nervously. “Abel is in decent condition, though he’s still unconscious and really sick or something. Super strange, since his shifter metabolism should make him pretty much impervious to disease. The healer isn’t sure what the hell is going on with him, but she’s fairly sure whatever experiments Simon put him through weren’t too intense. I think we may have saved him in the nick of time, but we’ll have to wait and see.”
Abel was alive—that was the main thing I needed to remember. Anything else could be dealt with later. We’d been so sure that he had died in the jungle. Having him back with us, safe here in Haven, was nothing short of a miracle. I had to look at the bright side and pray Simon hadn’t done too much damage to him.
“And Leif?”
“That’s a little touchier,” Zoe said. “He woke up, but wassuperferal. Like, for reallyrealpissed off. Crew has him locked up in a holding cell. He had it built while creating Haven on the off-chance they ever needed to imprison anyone or anything.” Zoe glanced toward the door. “Speaking of Crew, he wanted to meet with you whenever you finally woke up. He wants any info you have on Simon’s lab. In case we decide to infiltrate it again later.”
“Again? We all almost died last time. Without you, we wouldn’t have made it out.”
“I know, I know, it’s not in the plans,” Zoe said quickly. “Jeez, calm down. We just want to get a better sense of what’s going on thereifwe end up going back there again.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay. Sorry, I freaked out. That does sound smart. Let’s get that over with, then. While it’s all still fresh in my head.”
Zoe led me to the meeting room, where Crew, Eli, Mika and Wyatt were already seated. Chelsey was also in the room, but she was on a wooden bench as far from Crew as she could get while still being in the room. As soon as he saw me enter, Wyatt rose and hurried over to me.
