How she made it to the front door without falling, I had no idea. Pure stubbornness, probably. But she couldn’t expect to drive herself home, could she?
We stepped out onto the porch. I shut the front door behind us. The wards would keep Natalie safe.
For a few beats, Alice looked over the quiet street as she swayed on her feet. Was she thinking about what had transpired today in this house? Debating what to do next?
“Alice?” I prompted.
“Yeah?” Her voice was wispy. And when she glanced at me, I didn’t think she really saw me. I rested my hand on her lower back to steady her.
“I’ll drive you home in your car,” I said. “If that’s all right.”
Her reply was barely audible. “Okay.”
“Okay?” I repeated, just be sure I’d heard her right.
Alice swayed again. “I think you’d better?—”
She crumpled.
I scooped her up well before she hit the concrete and cradled her in my arms. She’d exhausted herself walking to the door rather than let me carry her. At least she was breathing normally and her pulse was steady.
“Malcolm?” I asked.
No answer.
Come to think of it, I hadn’t felt his telltale chill since I’d hung up the dirty towels. I’d been too focused on Alice to notice. Where the hell he would have gone, I had no idea, and no one had told me he was leaving.
Den, my wolf growled, his eyes glowing brightly.Mate will be safe in den.
I wanted to take Alice to my home too, but Malcolm had said she needed the healing spells she kept at her house. So that was where we’d go.
Just like with the werewolves who’d joined my pack after escaping abuse in their former pack, I’d need to try to earn her trust slowly, one kind word and act at a time, and show her I expected nothing in return and nothing I did came with strings attached.
For that reason, instead of loading Alice into my car, I unlocked hers and put her in the passenger seat. I belted her in, leaned the seat back, and tucked a rolled-up sweatshirt I found in her trunk under her neck to steady her head. I took off myMaclin Security polo shirt and draped it over her as a makeshift blanket.
In case I needed toiletries and a change of clothes, I grabbed my duffel bag out of my car and tossed it into Alice’s trunk.
And then I drove as fast as I could across town to Alice’s house, playing a classic rock channel quietly on the car stereo and cradling her hand in mine.
Chapter
Six
I couldn’t getinto the damn house.
I had her keys, but even with Alice in my arms, the wards wouldn’t let me pass—a detail I’d forgotten until I reached for the front door handle and got a nasty zap of magic that left my fingers numb and tingly for more than twenty minutes.
Alice hadn’t stirred once during the half-hour drive from Natalie’s home to her own or as I carried her from the car to her little porch. Even the searing power of her house wards and my flinch at getting zapped didn’t wake her.
I wanted to take her to a hospital, but I couldn’t.
I wanted to take her to my home and have members of my pack snuggle around her in wolf form to offer comfort, warmth, and protection, but I couldn’t.
I wanted to get her inside her house, put her in her own bed, and keep her safe until her eyes opened again, but I couldn’t.
I wanted to ask Malcolm if he could drop the wards, but I couldn’t.
Instead of resorting to ripping something apart with my bare hands to take the edge off my rage and frustration, I sat on Alice’s front porch swing, settled her in my lap with her headagainst my chest, and rocked us gently with my nose in her hair until her honey-vanilla scent replaced my anger with something resembling peace.
