“She’s stabilizing,” Eamon explained as he moved closer, checking her pupils, the marks on her skin. “Her fever’s breaking. The wolf inside her is holding.”
“And the lycan venom?” Nox asked quietly from the other side of the partition.
Eamon’s mouth tightened. “It’s still there. But it seems to be contained, at least for now.”
Her fingers twitched in my grip.
“Tam?” I whispered, my voice hopeful.
Her lips parted. A faint sound slipped out, half sigh, half plea.
“My knife,” she breathed, barely audible.
I leaned closer, brushing my thumb gently over her knuckles. “You’ve got it,” I murmured. “It’s with you. I promise.”
Her brow smoothed, tension easing like she’d been searching for that reassurance even in her sleep.
Then she sank deeper into rest.
I stayed there long after, holding her hand like it was the only fixed point left in a world that kept trying to tear her away.
Across the room, Nox resumed sharpening his blade. Bishop finished at the sink and took a deep breath when he thought no one was looking. Eamon patted Tam’s forehead with a wet cloth and she sighed softly.
Elias remained against the wall, watchful and unreadable.
And me?
I stayed exactly where I was.
Because I couldn’t live with myself if I failed her again.
CHAPTER 3
Tamsin
When I woke, I don’t know how much time had passed. It could have been days. It could have been weeks. I had no idea.
For the first time in forever, though, I felt whole.
That alone almost made me cry.
I lay still for a moment, afraid that if I moved too quickly everything would shatter again and send my bones screaming, or my blood boiling, and force the lycan rage to come clawing back to the surface. But none of that came. There was heat, yes, a low steady thrum under my skin, but it wasn’t agony anymore.
It was… a pressure of asort.
Aneed.
I swallowed and drew a slow breath. The air smelled different than before. It was too clean, all antiseptic and metal.
I was still in the med bay.
And I was alone.
My memory came rushing back in jagged pieces. I remembered teeth. A lycan tearing through me with its teeth. Fire. Elias’s bite. Griff’s voice breaking. My own begging and pleading for the rest of them to mark me.
My heart kicked hard against my ribs.
I pushed myself up on my elbows, half-expecting pain to rip through my abdomen. Instead, my hand slid over smooth, scarred skin and faint tenderness where there should have been torn muscle and stitched wounds.
