She was alive.
Ramon lifted Saffy’s body and cradled her against his chest, rocking slightly.
“Baby, wake up,” he said gently, stroking the side of her face and the top of her head. “I’ve got you. Wake up.”
When she failed to open her eyes, Ramon kept murmuring to her softly, running his hands down her cheek and neck. A tear slid down his cheek as he pleaded with her and urged her to wake, to look at him, to come back to him. It was several long moments of pure agony and terror before her eyelashes flickered and she slowly opened her eyes, blinking and trying to focus on Ramon’s face. She was evidently disoriented, but his heart swelled with pride to see her doing her best to shake it off.
“Ramon? What happened?” she asked at last.
Ramon frowned. “You don’t remember?”
She tried to get up into a sitting position and look around to get her bearings. Her eyes widened when she caught sight of Jason and Leon lying on the living room floor just a few feet away from her. She lifted her gaze to Ramon’s.
“Did you do all that?” she asked.
Ramon nodded.
“My hero,” she said, making him smile. “You came for me.”
Ramon stroked her hair away from the side of her face, near to where a large purple bruise was forming. “Of course I came for you. You’re my mate—I’ll always come for you. I only wish I could have got to you sooner. Can you ever forgive me?”
She shook her head then winced. “There’s nothing to forgive. This wasn’t your fault.”
Ramon glared at Mason who was standing quietly nearby with his father, all the fight seeming to have left him. “No,” he said. “We know whose fault it was.”
It in no way made up for what he’d done, but Mason looked contrite, his gaze shifting between Ramon and Saffy.
“I’m sorry,” he breathed. “I never wanted you to get hurt.”
Ramon simply stared at him, unwilling at that moment in time to accept the apology. His actions had caused all of this, caused his mate to be terrified and hurt, and there were no words that could make up for it.
Saffy followed Ramon’s gaze and her eyes widened again. “Dad?”
Owen opened his mouth to say something when movement from the floor near them caught their attention. Leon groaned and Jason pushed himself up into a sitting position. Owen walked over to them, looming above them menacingly.
“You’re out of the pride,” he said, his voice cold and detached as Ramon had ever heard it. “Banished. After today, I never want to see either of your faces again.”
Jason let out a surprised gasp, but Leon didn’t utter a single word, not that there was anything he could have said after everything he had done. Owen rounded on his son.
“I should banish you too, after pulling a stunt like this, but you can count this as your final warning. You’re on probation. If you don’t stop drinking, clean up your act, and find a job in the next three months, you’re gone too.”
The fear that bled into Mason’s expression seemed genuine enough, but Ramon couldn’t help but wonder if the dominant he would make good on his threat if Mason didn’t do what was required of him.
Owen looked down at Saffy and Ramon and a tiny little bit of compassion stole over his face.
“My deepest apologies,” he said to Saffy. “To you and your mate. This is my fault and I take full responsibility. If I hadn’t reacted to your mating the way I had and thrown you out of the house, none of this would have happened. I’m very sorry. I hope one day you can find it in your heart to forgive me.”
Ramon nearly choked on his surprise, but he hid it from Owen and from his mate.
Saffy looked as if she was trying to hold back her tears. “I forgive you, Daddy.”
She didn’t say a word to her brother, which made Ramon wonder what had gone on between them before he got there. He looked down at her.
“Do you think you can stand?”
When she nodded, he helped her get to her feet and as he led her from the house, he didn’t spare a backwards glance at any of them. Saffy might have forgiven her father, but Ramon couldn’t find it in his heart to do the same. Not yet, anyway, but perhaps he would be able to forgive him in the future.
He put his arms around Saffy’s shoulder.
