7
NESS
Iwoke with drool on my chin and a thin blanket over my body. The tight interior of the car sent me into a panic. My hound scratched at me from the inside. She howled to break free, but my body protested. Every inch of my skin screamed in pain while my heart raced. My back arched as I hissed.
The best I could do was wait for the wave of pain to pass by. It hurt so bad I thought my skin would burn away. Any moment now, I would crumble to ash and vanish from this world. That wouldn’t be so bad. Would it?
I’d finally escape the trouble always on my heels. I would be able to rest once and for all. The promise of peace tugged at me, but I pushed back. I wasn’t ready to give up. That resolve sent me rocketing back to the present. The world came into sharp focus as I gasped.
“Fucking hell,” Ryder groaned.
He stared at me with his brows arched in the middle.
I forced myself back into the seat even though every inch of my body screamed in protest. The wave of pain subsided, leaving behind the dull throb of wounds that were struggling to heal. Adrenaline from my sudden panic faded, too. As it washed away, exhaustion set in and turned my limbs heavy.
I stared past the windshield at the front door ahead and wished I could stumble inside. I wanted nothing more than a soft pillow under my cheek. Instead, I said:
“This isn’t my house.”
Ryder made a sound of acknowledgement. “I didn’t think you’d be safe if I took you back to Lakesedge.”
Lakesedge. My home. The place that I should have been safe.
I couldn’t go back there yet. Ryder had interrupted Alvin’s hunt. Alvin would be pissed that he didn’t get the ending he wanted. Someone would have to pay for this. If I went home, Alvin would hunt me down and take this out on me. Ryder was the one who’d crash-landed in the middle of the chase, but I would be the one to take the blame.
Now there was no way I could deny my involvement with Ryder. Word would get around that I had an outsider working for me. They would inevitably call me his whore. They would call me a traitor.
I was neck deep in shit. I’d already betrayed Alvin, though. I’d asked Ryder to kill the Alpha before any of this happened. Maybe I deserved the names they would call me. This is what happened when one fought against fate for too long. Fate would always win out. It would bite back with a vengeance, too.
“Come on,” Ryder said. “Let’s get you inside. Wrap that blanket around yourself, so nothing slips out.”
I laughed. “You don’t want to get a peek at my nipples? You’ve earned it.”
“You’re delirious, Ness. Shut the fuck up and help me get you inside.”
Ryder didn’t make any kind of advances as he helped me out of the passenger seat. He made sure that his hands were always outside the blanket at all times. At first, he tried to get me onto my own feet, but my joints refused to support my weight. Healing had taken too much out of me and left me limp as a noodle. Having Ryder scoop me off my feet and carry me inside like a helpless, stolen bride didn’t make me feel any better.
He caried me to the back of the rental house. The bedroom had a row of windows facing the backyard. No light pierced the sheer curtains from this side. Ryder placed me on the bed where I sank into the plush mattress. The darkness surrounded me and beckoned me back to sleep.
“I’ll keep watch tonight,” Ryder whispered. “Get some rest.”
I shouldn’t have imposed on his home, but I couldn’t fight the pull of sleep any longer. This outsider vowed to protect me. I knew that he needed something from me, so keeping me alive was a priority for that reason alone, but I allowed myself to savor the feeling of being safe and wanted for once.
I didn’t know if I would ever experience this again. The fact that I had to find this feeling in the presence of a stranger wasn’t lost on me, either. I drifted back to sleep while my hound savored Ryder’s faint scent lingering in the air.
Ryder
Ness passedout almost as soon as I set her down. Watching her wake so violently in the car had scared the hell out of me. I still needed her to set things right for me, so I could go back to my old life. I couldn’t have this Barghest woman tapping out now.
Yeah, that’s why her pain scared me. It had nothing to do with the way her curls spilled over the pillows cradling her head. It wasn’t the soft sigh she made as she fell back to sleep while I watched.
She seemed so small and fragile in the dark. I could hardly believe that this woman had the power to change my life. How she possessed the arcana I needed, I would never understand. She hid her fear behind her swagger, but I could see it, nonetheless. If she had the kind of power that the witch hinted at, then shouldn’t Ness have been able to stop her Alpha?
I gripped the doorjamb, my fingers pressing indents into the wood. I had to stop myself and shake my hand to release the tension slowly overtaking me.
Ness would do what I needed her to do. Doubt wouldn’t help me now. I was too close to my goal to run away now.
Turning, I trudged back to the living room. Was Morgan watching storm patterns? Would he see the storm that Ness had conjured and think of me? It seemed like storms followed Ness everywhere she went. A sudden thunderstorm wouldn’t be abnormal for the area. If I was lucky, her arcana would hide me for the time being.