The night was cool but not cold, thankfully. I cradled her closely so she stayed warm.
“Alice,” I murmured, gently working tangles out of her long hair with my fingers without tugging hard enough to cause pain. “Alice, wake up.”
My only response was her quiet, raspy breathing and her heartbeat, which was finally slowing almost two hours after the last healing spell Malcolm had used.
There were countless things I couldn’t do for her right now, but there were certainly things Icoulddo.
First and foremost, Alice needed water. All she’d had to drink since the accident was that one cup I’d given her at Natalie’s house.
I took out my phone and sent a text to my pack’s third, Ben Cooper, who was also Maclin Security’s installation manager.
Me: Are you available to bring a cup of crushed ice and some bottles of cold water to a house on the east side?
Ben Cooper: Yes. Give me the address and I’ll head out now.
Me: Thank you. Sending the address now.
Since I had my phone out, I also texted Ron to tell him I wouldn’t be in the office today. I had no plans to leave Alice’s side at least until she was healed and able to care for herself.
That done, I went back to cradling Alice’s head to my chest while I rocked the swing very slowly with my feet.
Her street was peaceful in the middle of the night. The only sounds I heard were the buzzing of streetlights, wind in the leaves, and a few dogs barking.
And Alice’s breathing and heartbeat, of course. All my senses and my wolf’s focused on those signs of life to the exclusion of nearly everything else.
Sometimes she whimpered very softly or flinched. Those little sounds and movements dug painfully into my gut like claws. I stroked unburned places on her palm, caressed her hair, and let my body heat and comforting magic seep into her.
She exhaled against my chest with a soft murmur.
“Alice?” I said in my normal voice, hoping to wake her. “Alice, can you hear me?”
She went quiet, a little furrow between her brows. It smoothed when I cradled her hand and started stroking her palm with my thumb again.
Given how much she’d suffered and that I couldn’t get her inside her house, I didn’t want to like how perfect she felt in my lap with her head on my chest.
I could envision sitting like this with her on quiet mornings with cups of coffee, or in the evening after work before going inside to listen to records and then upstairs to bed. Imagining those scenes eased the strain in my shoulders and settled my stomach.
My wolf had gone quiet and watchful—surprisingly so given I hadn’t given in to his demand to take Alice to my home. Maybe he enjoyed the comforting feeling of her in my arms as much as I did.
His contentment evaporated the moment Ben’s SUV pulled into the drive and parked behind Alice’s car.
And when Ben got out and headed in our direction carrying a small cooler, my wolf rose, flattened his ears, and bared his teeth. My skin prickled with the force of his protectiveness and my vision turned golden.
Ben was no threat—the opposite, in fact. But my wolf wasn’t so rational, especially after witnessing hours of Alice’s suffering.
Ben understood, though. His own wolf was fiercely protective of his girlfriend Casey, who was human, and our most vulnerable pack members. Any threat to them was a threat to him. Butunlike my beta, Jack Hastings, Ben didn’t exude menace or barely contained fury in these situations. He was every bit as ferocious of a fighter as Jack, but his instinctual reaction when he encountered someone in distress was always kindness and care. That among many other attributes made him an ideal third, and it was one of the reasons I’d texted him andnotJack, though Jack lived closer.
The other reason I hadn’t texted my beta was that Jack would be angry to see me cradling a human woman like this with my wolf so obviously protective and possessive of her. Ben, on the other hand, looked pleased to see my wolf’s devotion despite the grim circumstances.
Both Jack and his mate Delia wanted me to have a mate who was a werewolf. To that end, Delia had taken it upon herself to try to arrange blind dates for me with female werewolves, all of whom were much less dominant than herself. I hadn’t felt any sparks with anyone I’d met through her, and neither had my wolf, which pissed Delia off to no end.
I’d made it clear more than once that a pack wasn’t a democracy and my relationships, much less my feelings, weren’t subject to votes or anyone’s approval but mine. She hadn’t given up, though.
Frankly, I didn’t give a shit what Delia wanted.
I wanted—Ineeded—someone who fit to me and my wolf like pieces of a puzzle. Someone fierce and strong who’d stand beside me, not behind me. Someone like Alice.
Ben approached slowly, his eyes lowered, and set the cooler on the porch. He slid it within my reach and backed away until my wolf stopped growling.
