“Give it some time,” Alice ordered, stomping into the room. “Don’t ruin all my hard work by popping your stitches.”
Rosemary nodded slowly, eyeing my honorary aunt.
“Rosemary, this is my Aunt Alice.”
“You’re a doctor?” Rosemary asked.
“I am.”
“How’s Seamus?”
Aunt Alice glanced at the boy in the bed. “He’ll be fine.”
“Thank God,” Rosemary whispered.
Gary and I stood by while Alice checked Rosemary over, looking under bandages and murmuring to her quietly. When she was finished, she nodded.
“You can take her up to bed,” she told me. “She’ll heal faster with some peace and quiet.”
Rosemary looked worriedly over at Seamus.
“He’s just sleepin’, Flower,” Gary told her, patting her foot.
Alice settled Rosemary’s bad arm into a sling, and I helped her to her feet while Gary looked away, so I could wrap the blanket all the way around her bare body before I lifted her into my arms. We’d had to cut all of her clothes off the night before. There wasn’t a piece that had been salvageable.
The house was quiet as I carried her to the stairs and up to my room. I wasn’t sure where everyone had gone, but I was thankful that we didn’t run into anyone. When we stepped inside my small apartment, Rosemary lifted her head from my shoulder and looked around.
“So this is your place,” she mused quietly.
“I haven’t been here much,” I replied apologetically, looking around. The space was pretty sparse. I’d never really decorated because I didn’t care what it looked like, but now that I was showing it to my mate, I was a bit embarrassed. While fully furnished, it lacked any kind of personality whatsoever.
“I wasn’t at the townhouse much either,” she mused as I carried her into the bedroom. “But it still looked like someone lived there.”
“You can do whatever you want with it,” I offered. “Consider it a blank slate.”
“Oh, yeah,” she groaned as I lowered her onto the bed. “I just love to decorate. It’s my thing.” The sarcasm was thick.
I smiled half-heartedly at the joke and turned to my dresser to get her a shirt.
“Danny?” she called. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing. What do you mean?”
When I turned back toward her with a T-shirt in my hands, I froze.
With one arm, she held the thin sheet to her chest. Her entire body was coiled like a spring as she watched me warily.
It was the moment that I’d dreaded all my life. I’d always known it would come. I hadn’t been delusional enough to believe that I would be able to hide it forever, but I’d hoped that we’d be further into our lives before my mate became aware.
The knowledge that Rosemary had leaned into the mating bond so easily, had accepted it all so calmly, had only intensified my fear of her learning the truth. Our relationship had started so effortlessly. Part of me had taken that as my due because everything around us had been so fucked up. Like it was the Gods’ way of giving me a win when everything else was going to shit.
“Tell me,” she said quietly.
I opened my mouth and closed it again, unsure how to begin.
“I know Vampires,” she said slowly, her gaze searching my face. “I’ve seen them in action.” She paused and swallowed like she was carefully considering her next words. “I’ve never seen a Vampire like you were last night.”
Every wall that I’d built up, every emotion that I’d pushed away, every memory of a time when I’d laughed something off instead of being angry, every deep breath I’d paused to take, every warning word or touch that my brothers had given me, every worried look that my parents had shot me or each other, every time I’d deliberately blinked the red out of my eyes as I fought to center myself—it all rushed through me with the force of a tsunami.
