“This is your home, August. You shouldn’t have to leave it because ofme.”
His thick eyebrows slanted over his greeneyes.
“Instead of going to UCB, I could attend college in some other state. I hear New England’snice.”
Would the pack pay for a school that wasn’t in Boulder, or did they only foot the bill when their wolves stayed on packterritory?
I gripped the thermos of coffee and tipped it up to my lips, then set it on the blanket and lay down next toAugust.
He hadn’t opposed my decision to go to some faraway college, and my navel wasn’t pulsing with any repressed emotion on his part. Whatever I was feeling for him was one-sided.
Could he sensemydisappointment? I hopednot.
I balled my fingers into fists, then flexed them back out, damning Matt for planting ideas inside my head and damning myself for letting them takeroot.
28
Isobel’s surgery went smoothly,so I got to see her that veryafternoon.
Although she was hooked to an EKG machine, and there were drainage tubes sticking out from underneath her powder-blue hospital gown, she was smiling and sported a way better complexion than I did. I kissed her forehead, nose prickling from the strong odor of antiseptic and infected blood, then sat in the chair August had occupied but freed up forme.
We talked about everything and nothing: the weather, college, doctors, even her work which I was supposed to take over the following day. Greg stopped by to see her at some point. Although the pack doctor hadn’t been the one to operate on her, he’d been the one to choose the surgeon. Isobel laughed at something he told her, something I didn’t catch because of who’d just walked into theroom.
As our gazes collided, the room and all of the noise—the steady beeping of the heart monitor, Isobel’s tinkling laughter, August and Nelson’s quiet conversation—it all faded out for a moment. It had been eleven days since I’d seen Liam, but it felt like amonth.
I jerked my gaze down to my lap, and then I jerked to my feet. “I’m going to grab something to eat from the cafeteria. Does anyone wantanything?”
I was still looking at my feet when everyone answeredno.
I walked around Isobel’s bed and passed by Liam, sensing him everywhere. It was as though hisalpha-nesshad grown. Was thatpossible?
In the hospital hallway, I took a deep breath. The myriad of chemical smells and human diseases made my nose itch and my eyes water. Blinking repeatedly, I plucked a tissue from the box on the nurse’s station to dab at themoisture.
The cafeteria was full of visitors, and the hubbub made my head throb. I needed sleep. A lot of it. Hopefully I wouldn’t wake at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning. I bought an overpriced ham sandwich before returning to the wing where Isobel would spend the next two nights. As I ate my sandwich, a chill swept over my arms, and not from any AC vent; I sensed a presence. An unwelcome one. Through narrowed eyes, I took in every inch of the hallway, coming to a stop on a closed door. I strode over to it and squinted through the inset glass. The room was dark. I listened for a sound—a breath, a pulse—but was met with silence. Yet my uneasiness grew. I inhaled deeply, and layered over the unpleasant reek of the medical facility was a cloying, distinctive cologne:AidanMichaels’s.
I turned the doorknob and barged inside, hoping the reason I smelled him but didn’t see him was because he lay dead in his hospital bed. No such luck. The bed was made with crisp, papery sheets, the adjustable overbed table wiped clean, and the blindsshut.
This must’ve been the room he’d recoveredin.
As I turned to leave, I smacked into a large body. Heart battering, I lurched backward and flung my gaze up. Liam stared down at me, jaw set, eyesdark.
I clapped a palm over my frantic heart. “You just gave me a heartattack.”
His expression softened the teeniest bit. “Good thing we’re in a hospitalthen.”
For a moment, neither of usspoke.
Then, Liam asked, “How have you been?” at the same time as I asked, “Did you find the owner of the yellowcar?”
Liam pressed his lips together. “Straight tobusiness.”
He was right. That wasn’t very nice. “I’ve been okay. And you?” The intensity with which he observed me dampened my palms. I wiped them on myleggings.
“I’ve beenbetter.”
Silence stretched betweenus.
“Cole matched it to a yellow Hummer. He saw the car on a traffic lightmonitor.”
