“What about you?”
“I will be fine. But I am carrying you there.” I refused to let her walk after the fright she had just endured. My wolf would not allow me to leave her side for even a moment and truthfully I did not want to either.
I carried her to the bedroom and turned my back to give her privacy. Stood there facing the wall while I listened to her moving around. Getting dressed. Packing a bag with essentials.
“You know you can leave the room, right?” she said. “I’m just changing clothes.”
“I cannot leave you alone right now. My wolf will not permit it.”
“Then at least sit down. You’re hurt.”
“I am fine standing.”
I heard her sigh but she did not argue further.
“Okay,” she said after a few minutes. “I’m ready.”
I turned and scooped her up again despite her immediate protests.
“Mal, I can walk! I’m pregnant, not injured!”
“I know you can walk. But I am carrying you anyway. I need to.”
She sighed but settled against my chest and let me carry her out of the ruined apartment, down the stairs and through the streets to Aurion’s building. People stared at us but I did not care.
His penthouse was empty when we arrived. He had given me a key days ago and told me I could use the space whenever needed while he was taking care of a few things in Noctherion.
I set Wen down gently on the expensive couch. “I should go buy us dinner from one of those restaurants you like.”
“I’m not hungry.” She looked exhausted. Her face was still pale.
I nodded and started to move toward the door to give her space but her hand shot out and caught mine.
“Stay,” she said. Her eyes were sad and pleading and full of an emotion that made my chest ache. “Please. Just stay with me.”
I sat down immediately. “Of course. Anything you need.”
She disappeared into Aurion’s bathroom and returned a few minutes later with a first aid kit. The sight of it reminded me of those early days in her bookstore. When everything had been simpler. When she had bandaged my wounds and I had fallen helplessly in love with her careful touch and sarcastic comments.
“Let me see your hands.”
I held them out obediently. The burns were bad but she cleaned them gently with antiseptic that stung. Wrapped them in bandages with the same care she had shown all those weeks ago.
“Does it hurt?” she asked.
“Not much. I have had worse.”
“That’s not reassuring.”
When she finished bandaging my hands, I moved to lie behind her on the bed. Pulled her back against my chest carefully. Wrapped my arms around her and our child growing inside her.
She turned in my arms and pressed herself fully against me. Her face buried in my neck. Her hands fisted in my shirt.
“I’m tired of the distance,” she whispered against my skin. “I don’t forgive you yet for what you did. But tonight I realized I can’t live without you. I love you so much and it terrifies me how much I need you. How it would completely break me if I lose you again, Mal.”
“I love you as well.” I kissed the top of her head and breathed in her scent. “More than anything in any realm. More than my kingdom or my throne or my own life.”
She tilted her face up and I kissed her properly. Soft and tender and full of everything I could not say with words. Pouring all my love and devotion into the press of my lips against hers.
