She still hadn’t looked at me. She hadn’t moved away, and I didn’t sense animosity, but I couldn’t tell how she felt about my presence. Maybe she was still struggling to process everything.
“Water?” she asked, her voice hopeful. So she knew I was here at least.
I didn’t want to leave her side, but now that she was awake, she needed liquids desperately.
Slowly and gently, so I didn’t brush against her skin or jostle her too much, I slid from the bed and headed down the hall.
In the kitchen, I found a plastic cup in the back of a cupboard and a package of drinking straws in a drawer. Over the soft sound of the faucet filling the cup with room-temperature water, my werewolf ears listened to the conversation going on in the back bedroom.
Malcolm told Alice what had happened between when Natalie had nulled her and my arrival. His tone was surprisingly matter-of-fact considering how close Alice had come to dying,but maybe he thought that would make it easier for her to hear the details.
The long silence that stretched out after he finishing talking made my wolf start pacing again. I finished filling the cup and hurried back to the bedroom.
When I returned, Alice’s eyes were closed. My stomach clenched. Had she passed out again?
No, she wasn’t unconscious, but she was in terrible pain and distraught.
Malcolm’s chilly presence moved aside when I approached the bed. “Alice, here’s some water,” I said.
Tears escaped from under her lids. They must have hurt because she flinched.
I bent and very gently tried to wipe away the tears. Her jaw clenched to hold in a whimper, she rolled over, put her back to me, and pulled the blankets up almost to her nose. And she was trembling again.
“Damn it,” I swore at myself under my breath. I circled the bed. “Alice, you have to drink some water.”
“Leave me alone,” she said, her voice unsteady and full of pain and…shame? Why would she feel ashamed? Did she blame herself for the accident? For needing help?
Very possibly both.
How could I get her to drink the water she desperately needed? A plea wasn’t likely to work right now.
I lifted the covers and slid into the bed. I took a deep breath, drew on my alpha magic, and added authority to my tone when I said, “Drink the water, Alice.”
Her eyes snapped open, full of anger instead of grief and pain. “Don’t order me around,” she said.
I immediately softened my expression. “I’m sorry. I know you’re hurting.” I held out the cup and moved the straw so it was close to her lips. “Will you please drink some water?”
She took a few tentative sips, and then began drinking in earnest. I worried the water would come back up if she drank too much too fast.
“Easy,” I cautioned her. “Don’t make yourself sick.”
She finished the entire cup of water slowly as Malcolm waited quietly. When she was done, I set the cup aside, settled in facing her, and drew her close with her forehead against my chest so I could warm her and ease her shivering.
She didn’t resist, but she felt tense and didn’t snuggle against me. “How did you find me?” she asked, her tone accusatory.
I explained that I’d gotten her call at work and that I’d asked someone to track the location of her phone. Then I filled in the rest of what I’d done, from changing her clothes to letting Malcolm use my energy and magic for healing spells.
Alice went quiet, as if processing that information took some time. “You came in through the house wards?” she asked, sounding confused and grudgingly impressed in equal amounts.
Malcolm spoke up before I could reply. “Yeah, he got a good zap. He was bleeding from the nose and ears for a while.”
She raised her head. Her gaze went to my collar, as well as my ears and neck, where blood had dried on my shirt and skin. She grimaced.
Damn it, I should have taken a minute to clean myself up so she didn’t feel guilty for what I’d done to help her.
I didn’t want her to think she owed me anything. She struck me very much as someone who didn’t like to be in anyone’s debt. And if her life before now had been half as hard as I suspected, she probably thought all acts of kindness were traps, or at the very least came with expectations of aquid pro quo.
The very thought of her believing that of me made me sick to my stomach.
