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“And for you to recover,” Kylie said, giving me a gentle shove. “You were really beat up, Ren. Just because you’re a dragon doesn’t mean you’re immortal, youknow.”
“Believe me, I’ve never been more aware of that than right now.” I stretched one arm and then the other, bracing myself against the twanging aches that shot through mymuscles.
“I should go tell the guys. They’ll want to know you’re awake. They were hanging around looking worried for a really long while, you know, but then they had to get on with whatever alpha business needs taking care of. Maybe you’ll listen to them about getting your rest even if you won’t listen tome.”
She wrinkled her nose at me, and I cracked a smile. Then a low rumble of a voice reached my ears from the bed behindme.
“You don’t have to go far to tellme.”
“Nate!” I threw myself around on the bed, so fast the pain sliced right through me. But seeing those warm brown eyes gazing back at me was worth the extra helping of agony. I scrambled right off the mattress and clambered onto his cot, slowing as I eased myself down beside him. If my body was aching this much after last night’s wounds, I couldn’t imagine how he must be feeling after the beating he’dtaken.
My mate wrapped his brawny arm around my waist and tugged me even closer to him. I cuddled up to him, breathing in his musky, peppery scent. My heart swelled with joy. “I was so worried about you. You’ve been out a wholeday, youknow.”
Nate let out a hoarse chuckle. “Looks like I should have been worried about you too. Throwing yourself into the middle of the battle likeusual?”
“Someone’s got to bring the firepower,” I said. “Anyway, after that fight in the gas station, I don’t think you’re anyone totalk.”
“Hmm. I’m definitely not looking to repeat thatexperience.”
Kylie made an amused sound. “Well, I guess it doesn’t matter which bed you’re lying in as long as you’re lying down. Don’t get too frisky, is all I’m saying. I’ll see if I can track down the otherguys.”
“Thank you,” I called after her. I tipped my head back to kiss Nate and looped my arm around his back. The faint dimpling of his wounds made me hesitate. “I’m not hurting you, amI?”
“Ren,” Nate murmured, “there is absolutely nowhere I want you to be except right here. So don’t you dare budge aninch.”
He pressed a kiss to my forehead and adjusted his body so we fit together even more perfectly. I nestled in his warmth, letting my eyelids slide shut. We both deserved a little reprieve before we had to face whatever the vampires were going to throw at us next, didn’twe?
Chapter 9
West
I studiedmy scar in the mirror as I readied a fresh bandage. This morning, the pulse of the old wound was still threaded with angry red, but mostly its glow shone yellow. A sickly yellow like the twist of anxiety that wound through mychest.
I scowled at the patch of color before I pressed the bandage over it. Damned fae. Trust them to come up with a kind of injury that’d haunt you more than a decadelater.
Granted, at the moment I was feeling even less pleased with the vampires. My scowl deepened as I shrugged on a clean shirt to replace the one I’d been too busy to change since sometime yesterday. I had my kin running around doing everything I could think of to be ready for tonight… but who the hell knew what tonight was going to bring? The bloodsuckers clearly weren’t going to be happy until they’d slaughtered the lot ofus.
Like they’d almost slaughtered Ren lastnight.
My pulse hitched at the memory of her falling, bullet-riddled body. I clenched my jaw and turned toward thedoor.
Just as the woman in question burst past it into myrooms.
My dragon shifter’s eyes were bright with excitement, her face split with a beaming smile. But I could tell from her slight hesitation as she nudged the door shut behind her that she was still in some pain. She had to be. The last time I’d seen her, she’d been slumped unconscious on that healer room bed while her flesh knit itself backtogether.
“Nate’s awake!” she said. “He’s okay. Still a little weak from all the wounds, butokay.”
Her scent reached me then, that fiery sweetness mixed with the bear shifter’s musk. Because of course they’d been all over each other the second he’d cometo.
A twinge of jealousy I knew was ridiculous shivered through me. Sheshouldhave gone right to him. He was her mate, and he’d almost died. I clamped down on the twinge and shoved it aside, along with the half a dozen other emotions I was trying not tofeel.
“And you should be back there in the healer room too, not running around to tell me,” I said. “You’re not fully recovered yeteither.”
“Iwalked,” Ren said. “And I thought you’d want to know, after everything you said yesterday. Kylie found Marco and Aaron, but you must have been off hidingsomewhere.”
“I just got back from making additional preparations farther down the highway,” I said shortly. “I’d have found out soon enough. You should be more concerned about looking afteryourself.”
Was that a wince she’d stifled as she set her hands on her hips? For fuck’s sake, she shouldn’t be walking, or standing, or anything other than lying down rightnow.
