Hunter
Willow sleeps,but it’s not restful. Her face is pale, damp with sweat, her breathing shallow. Every now and then, her fingers twitch as though she’s still lost in the nightmare of whatever hell her body just put her through.
I sit beside the bed, my forearms braced against my knees, watching. Waiting.
She doesn’t know it yet, but she’s not going through this alone. Not anymore.
Graham and Carson talk in low voices near the door, their presence grounding, but my attention never wavers from Willow. I can still hear her begging us to make it stop. The raw desperation burrowed under my skin, locked itself inside my ribcage. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the sound.
Because I’ve heard it before.
Years ago.
My mother.
She thought she’d found her mate, let him mark her, trusting that he wouldn’t abandon her. But he did. And when the mark started to fade, when the bond started tearing itself from her body, she collapsed right in front of me. I was only akid, too young to understand, but old enough to know something was wrong.
She never recovered. She couldn’t even come to her senses enough to take care of me and my sister, Jasmine. The pain weakened her, made her sick. The doctors said it was rare, but it happened. Some omegas don’t survive a fading bond. Some bonds are too deep to sever cleanly.
That’s not going to happen to Willow. I’m going to make sure of it.
I tighten my grip on my knees, jaw clenching. No one is touching her. No one is leaving her like that bastard left my mother.
“—he’s still watching her.”
Carson’s words pull me back into the moment. Back to the reason we are even here in her apartment. Finn Reed. He is obsessed. I'll give Graham that, but I’m not positive he’s dangerous. His file seems to indicate that he goes after shit alphas. Which is understandable, at least to me.
Graham folds his arms. “Then we escalate security. More eyes, more surveillance. No one gets near her.”
I exhale sharply. “She’s not leaving our sight. Not for a second. We don’t need more eyes, we can do this.”
Carson tilts his head, gaze dissecting me, peeling at layers I’d rather keep hidden. “You’re taking this personally.”
I meet his gaze, unflinching. “Yeah.”
Graham exhales through his nose, nodding. “Good.”
I glance back at Willow, at the way her lips part slightly as she exhales, at the flutter of her lashes, caught in the space between dreams and waking. Fragile. Too soft. But she’s stronger than she knows. She survived the bond breaking. She survived him. And I’ll make damn sure she never has to fight alone again.
“We need to consider our next steps,” Graham says, voicelevel. “When she wakes up, she’s going to have questions. And she’s not going to like the answers.”
“She doesn’t have to like them,” I mutter. “She just has to accept that this isn’t optional. She’s ours to protect now.”
Carson hums, a low, knowing sound. “Not just the job anymore, huh?”
I don’t answer. Because we all know the truth. The second I climbed into her bed and pulled her to my chest, it was more than a job.
Silence settles between us, heavy. Too heavy. My pulse thrums in my ears, my skin too tight. I need to move. To do something. Sitting here, watching her this way, helpless, makes my chest tighten until I can’t breathe.
I scrub a hand down my face, exhaling sharply. “I swear to god, if he ever comes near her again—” My voice cuts off, my throat locking up before I can finish the sentence. I’m not talking about her stalker, I’m talking about the alpha who bit her and then let her go through that. I swallow hard, pushing down the raw, furious ache clawing at my chest. Maybe her stalker should take care of him.
I shake my head, a silent laugh moving my shoulders. Yeah, lets team up with the stalker to take out the fucker that put her through that. Graham would veto that in a heartbeat.
Carson watches me carefully. Graham doesn’t react, just nods once, a silent promise.
I flex my hands, trying to shake the tension from my fingers, but the anger is still there, smoldering. This is different. This is personal. I look back at Willow, my jaw tightening. The need to protect her is more alpha instinct now than being hired for a job to do it.
A soft sound pulls my attention back to the bed.
