AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I park the truck in front, where her car stood for so long, and dip my head to brush my lips over her cheek. “Wake up, Beauty. We’re home.”
Groaning lightly, she rolls onto her back, and her eyes flicker open, half-lidded. “We are?”
I nod, brushing her hair back from her face. “Let’s get you cleaned up and to bed.”
“No—” She shakes her head and winces, gritting her teeth at the pain that must be attacking her right now.
The desire to drive back down the mountain and slaughter anyone who played any role in what happened to her burns through me so strongly I almost do it.
Anyone who is left…
But those people will be harder to reach and the consequences far greater than merely wiping out the men at the safe house.
You need to stay with her, protect her.
Only that little voice prevents me from returning to Helena tonight.
I slide out from under her and close my door as softly as I can so the noise doesn’t startle her or make her headache any worse, then make my way around the truck.
Yellow eyes watch me from the trees, Gray maintaining his vigil over the property as instructed.
A modicum of peace should come with that knowledge, but I know what’s coming for me—for us—which makes it impossible to find solace in even the most loyal of friends.
I open the passenger door and scoop her up easily, supporting her neck and head as it bobs to the side listlessly. She hums contently and snuggles against me immediately, like my touch is the only thing she’s needed this whole time.
Definitely a sentiment I share.
The moment I pulled her into my arms in that awful place, it felt like I could finally breathe again. And now, her warm breath fluttering over my neck, the steady beat of her heart pressed to my chest, hands clutching my shirt, clinging to me like a lifeline, are the only things keeping me from completely losing the tiny slice of humanity I have left.
Gray steps from the trees as I approach the house with her. He tilts his head to the side, examining Callista and me, watching, waiting for a command.
“Stay near the house. Watch for anyone who shouldn’t be here.”
He backs away into the trees, prepared to do his job if needed or called upon. That wolf may be somewhat tame when it comes to me, but if anyone he doesn’t know comes onto the mountain, they’ll regret it, just like those men who took Callista did.
I glance at my hands wrapped around her, the bloodstains a mix of hers and theirs. Bile rises in my throat, and I stagger on the steps, the memory of ending their lives as crystal clear as the ones thirty years ago.
Those ghosts haunt me well enough.
I swore I’d never do it again.
Made it crystal clear to that God I’m not sure I believe in and anyone who needed to hear it that I might have to deal with the bodies, but I’d never be the one to take another life.
But this is different.
I had to.
There was no other way to save her from that place. If I hadn’t acted, who knows what they would’ve done to her…
A shudder rolls down my spine as I reach the front door and twist it open.
Dark as a grave.
The quiet stillness of the house embraces us in the foyer, and I kick the heavy wood slab closed behind me, sealing us into the place I once thought of as a prison but this woman in my arms has somehow made a home.
She breathed life into something that was dead and not just the building.
Me, too.
