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“Yeah, that’s what happens when you take a goddamn scalpel to the side, you little asshole,” the furious voice snarls. Despite the anger, the large, warm hand that closes around mine is achingly gentle.
Carefully, I open my eyes again. Jacob is glaring down at me, the look of absolute murder in his green eyes only softened by a tinge of relief.
“Where—are we?” I croak.
“Where do you think? The fucking hospital, of course, where idiotic women who get in the way of knives are taken.” Scowling, he grabs a glass of water from my bedside and carefully supports my weight when I try to sit up enough to drink. A sharp stab of pain rips through my side.
Rumbling a slightly softer note, he tips the glass to my lips and allows the cool liquid to fill my parched mouth.
“You’ve been out for a day. The doctor said you were very lucky the blade only nicked your liver.” He helps me back down on the pillow and returns the water to the bedside table. “Half an inch to the right and you’d have bled out before getting on the operating table.”
I grimace as the all too vivid memory of feeling my flesh sliced open returns. “Did AX… Did Jack make it?”
Jacob narrows his eyes at me. “He did.”
“And Dr. Green?”
“Not so much.” There’s a lethal quality to his voice that makes a chill run up my spine. Not that I much care about my former colleague’s fate.
“You haven’t answered my question.” That promise of murder is still evident in Jacob’s voice—and eyes—as he stares down at me.
“Hm? What… What question?”
He bares his teeth at me, the alpha threat so visceral my heart gives a start. “What the fuck did you think was gonna happen, Addie? Letting yourself get fuckingstabbed.Did you give even a second’s thought to what it was like for me to see my mate nearly die?”
Oh. I swallow, my throat tight despite the drink of water.
“What if he’d gotten that scalpel in half an inch to the right, huh? What if you’ddied in my arms?”His nostrils pull up as he lays into me, and if he’d been any other alpha, I’d have been terrified. But I feel the undercurrent of blind panic just below the anger flowing freely through our bond. Even this furious, he would never, ever hurt me.
I look away from his burning green eyes, because I can’t bear to look into them when I whisper, “Then you would have been free.”
He inhales sharply, his angry voice snuffing for a long second. Then, with enough force to shake the windows, he roars,“Free?I would have beenfree? What the fuck is wrong with you?”
Another harsh breath, and then he wraps his hand around my jaw to force me to look back up at him—and not entirely gently.
When our eyes meet, the agony on his strong features isn’t quite masked by his still-burning anger. “If you die, Adelaide, so do I. There is no breathing without you. There is nothing. You, of all people—youknowwhat that feels like! And you tried to do that—to me.”
“You wouldn’t have died,” I whisper, the anguish twisting in our bond making it difficult to breathe. “You would have found someone else—claimed another mate. You could have… picked someone you could… love.”
Pure shock crosses over his face, widening his eyes and softening the fury etched there. For the longest time, he just stares at me. Then he straightens. I feel the loss of his warm fingers when he pulls his hand from my chin.
“It doesn’t work like that for alphas,” he says, voice soft, but not gentle. “There is no replacing our mate bond. There is no replacingyou.And even if there was, I wouldn’t. Addie, you’re my Fated. There is only you, and there will only everbeyou.”
My heart pounds so hard against my ribs it feels like it’s trying to escape. Everything in me aches to let his words soothe the raw pain of everything I’ve lost—to seek comfort in the fact that without my parents and my job, I still have a soft place to land. But this?
Rubbing my stinging eyes with the heels of my hands to keep my tears from spilling over, I shake my head. “I wish I could take it back. I wish I didn’t… I’m so, so sorry. I forced this bond on you, and you don’t deserve a lifetime of… ofme.I… I just want you to be free. After everything I’ve done, you deserve to be free. If I can’t even give you that in death, then I don’t—”
“Adelaide.” My name is harsh on his lips; an admonishment.
I shake my head again and press harder against my eyes, though I’ve long-since lost the battle against my tears. They roll down my cheeks, salty proof of my failure. There’s no fixing what I’ve done, and there never will be.
Strong arms wrap around my back, hoisting me into a seated position despite my groan of agony at the stabbing pain in my wound. Before I can clutch at my bandaged ribs, Jacob pulls me in tight, flattening my body against his. Warmth encompasses me from all sides—warmth andstrength.And then, without ceremony, a deep, rich rumble fills the air.
I blink against his chest as the sound vibrates through my muscles and penetrates deep into my bones, loosening the ache in my heart. Everything feels light. Safe.
“You’re purring,” I mumble dazedly, too stunned by the realization to care that I’m stating the obvious.
Jacob’s only response is to nuzzle against the shell of my ear. Soon the sound of his unwavering purr drags my consciousness into blissful oblivion.
