I make a little grunt of protest, but don’t bother to argue with her. I fill the sink and get her to soak her arm, cleaning it with gauze. She flinches as I dab at the torn skin.
“Ouch,” she murmurs.
“I told you,” I say, a little annoyed. “It would be better to go to a hospital—or a healer.”
“You can’t spare any healers,” she says. “That’s why I didn’t say anything at the infirmary.”
Grudgingly, I inwardly admit that’s also why I didn’t stay there to treat her wound.
I gently take her arm out of the water and dry her skin, trying not to make the cut bleed more. After putting on some antiseptic spray, I carefully wrap up her wound and fix it with a sticky bandage.
“There,” I say. “All fixed.”
“Still hurts like a bitch,” she laughs.
“Did you want something for the pain?”
“No,” she answers. “I just want to go to bed.”
“Okay.”
I walk her to her room, and when we get there, I’m surprised to see a pensive look on her face.
“Thank you,” Trina says, almost clinically. “Good night.”
She starts to shut the door in my face, and I put my hand on it, almost pushing my way into the room.
“Trina, what the fuck?”
“Don’t argue with me, Owen. I’m really tired now.”
“Of course you are,” I reply. “But if you think I’m leaving you alone, then you’ve got to be delirious.”
“Maybe,” she laughs a little. “But I’m still determined.”
She won’t move out of the doorway or let go of the door. And I won’t leave, so we just stand there staring at each other.
“Trina,” I say, urgency rising in my blood. “I can’t leave you alone.”
“I’m fine,” she says, too flippantly. “We should be keeping this whole thing objective, though, don’t you think? It’s getting really complicated.”
It was from the beginning, wasn’t it?
“Trina,” I say, trying to put meaning into my words. “I get that you’re shaken up. A lot has happened tonight. But that’s exactly why I want to be with you.”
I can feel her emotionally withdrawing, and her eyes seem to bring down shutters that lock me out.
What’s wrong with her?
“It’s not just me,” I say quickly. “It’s my wolf.”
“Oh?” she asks, her expression softening.
“I reacted really strongly to your injury,” I say, not lying even slightly. “And my wolf won’t settle down unless I’m with you.”
Trina gives me a long look. I’m telling the absolute truth, but I’m overstating it a bit about how present my wolf is.
I need you right now. My heart and soul as a man… God, Trina. I thought I was going to see you get killed.
