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Wes’s lion grumbled, but Wes ignored him. They did need the added protection. His earlier failure proved that.
“I’ll take the first shift,” Grayson said.
Boone shook his head. “I’ll do it. Go home and get some rest. Those slashes on your back will heal faster if you’re taking it easy.”
“They’re shallow,” Grayson said. “It’s fine.”
“Go home and get Ryan to pour some alcohol over them,” Boone said with a grin. “Those medicated wipes the paramedics used probably don’t do shit. Who knows what the fuck that dude has in his claws. You really want to get a bacterial infection?”
Gray grimaced as Boone said, “I just need to text Hedra and let her know I won’t be home.” Boone’s face reddened, but Wes didn’t have the spoons to wonder what that was about. He was bone tired and still worried that Eleanor would try to leave him again.
“I’ve just texted Chase,” Cooper said. “He’s on his way over. He and Boone can take the first shift, and then, if he’s feeling up to it, Grayson and Adam will cover overnight.”
Eleanor slid off his lap, and Wes swallowed his lion’s grumble of protest. She carried her tea mug to the sink as Wes stood.
“Thanks, Coop,” Wes said. “I appreciate this.”
Cooper clapped him on the uninjured shoulder. “You know we have your back, man. Always.”
CHAPTER 20
“I could stay at a motel, and Boone and Chase could watch me there,” Eleanor said. Cooper and Grayson had left as soon as Chase arrived, and she and Wes sat silently in the kitchen for nearly five minutes before she couldn’t take the silence anymore.
Wes grimaced. “No, Eleanor. Look, I get that you have your doubts about me protecting you now, but I promise that -”
“What? No, that isn’t it,” she said. “Wes, you saved my life this morning.”
A look of guilt and regret, and anger crossed his face. “If Grayson and Boone hadn’t shown up, we’d both be dead.”
He stood and stalked to the counter, staring moodily out the window over the sink. She joined him and reached up to cup his face, turning it toward hers. “Wes, that guy wasn’t just some crazy big shifter… he was insane too. He wanted the flash drive, yeah, but he also had no control. I could see it in his face. He was about to kill me, just… just choke the life out of me. If you hadn’t come outside…”
She shuddered all over, and Wes pulled her up against him. He showered her face with soft kisses before resting his forehead against hers. “I’m sorry, Butterfly. I’m so fucking sorry.”
“It’s not your fault,” she said.
“I shouldn’t have compared you to Juliet, and I shouldn’t have dismissed your feelings on having kids. I upset you so much that you left the safety of the house,” he said.
“That’s on me,” she said. “I was the stupid asshole who left. I could have just gone to the guest room to pout. I should never have left, and I knew the minute I walked out the door that I was making a too stupid to live move. I only got halfway to my car before I turned around to go back to the house, but the guy was there.”
Wes kissed her forehead again. “When I came outside and saw you dangling in his grip, I…”
“What?” she whispered, staring up at him. Her stomach clenched, and she willed him to say he loved her. She loved him - she knew that now - and even though he’d been clear about what she meant to him, a small part of her couldn’t give up hope that he loved her too.
“What, Wes?” she said.
“I was terrified I would lose you,” he said.
Disappointment crashed over her. She tried to mask it with a smile as she squeezed Wes’s waist and pressed a kiss against his jaw. “You didn’t. I’m safe. But also exhausted. I’m going to lie down in the guest room for a while.”
She pulled away and turned around before he could see her crying. She wouldn’t make him feel bad or guilty for not feeling the same way she felt about him. His lion might think of her as his mate, but Wes didn’t, and he wasn’t going insane over it like Cooper had almost done with Daisy. Wes would convince his lion that she wasn’t his mate and she’d never -
“Eleanor.” Wes’s low voice stopped her in the doorway of the kitchen.
“Yeah?” She scrubbed the tears from her face but didn’t turn around.
“I’m all in.”
Her hand clenched around the door frame, her fingers digging into the wood. “Wh-what did you say?”
