“Malik, I will break your other arm. Don’t play with me.”
Malik shook locs from his face, turning to Li with newfound energy. “I’m a hunter. I’m O-negative. What else do I need?”
“A few more years, son.”
The last time I saw James Cooper, he looked like a ghost. Now, he marched toward us with his head held high.
In the corner of my eye, Joanna’s face paled, and I realized I couldn’t discern if it were because of the Bite or the man.
“Detective Cooper,” Li greeted him with a nod. “Do you volunteer?”
Malik stomped his foot. “I’m auniversaldonor!”
“And Joey’s a universal recipient, Malik.” James took off his shirt and signaled for Malik to lower his head so he could help him into it. His hunter’s mark was a dark red tattoo on theleft side of his chest. “You’re one of the best hunters I know.” James pulled Malik’s locs free from the shirt. “And even a better man.”
A few grunts later, James had used his shirt to make Malik a DIY sling.
I don’t think I’d even seen James smile before. But he was smiling now.
He turned to Joanna, who’d been shaking her head in disapproval from the time Li said the old hunter’s name.
He walked up to her and cupped her face in his hands. “I’ve made many mistakes in my life, Joanna. But nothing compares to how badly I’ve let you down.” He brushed her cheeks with his thumbs. “And I’m terrified that I might do it again.”
Grace’s tail stiffened.
I shook my head, assuring her there was no immediate threat.
James kissed Joanna’s forehead. “I can give you a million apologies, but none of them will feel as worthy as this. None of them can give you what I’ve attempted to take from you.” His gaze shifted to me. “A chance.”
We waited for ten minutes until a woman with a snake tattoo on her neck parked beside us in her black Chevy. Director Li stepped up into the front passenger seat while Agent Hill and James helped Joanna into the rear.
They were hesitant about letting me accompany them, but by either four wheels or four paws, I was going. Through a quiver of pain, Joanna spoke on my behalf, and James advised the agents to submit to our demands.
Hill’s one requirement was for me to wear pants. And a black hood that my wolf wanted to shred to pieces after a second of it on my head. The only reason I complied was because Joanna’s fingers were interlaced with mine—the way they hadbeen since I’d sat down next to her, and she’d reached over for my hand.
But I’d pulled off the damn hood the moment Joanna’s fingers fell from mine.
The lights burned, as if I’d stared directly at the sun. Sweat, sex, death all violated my nose at once, making me gag. Even the pencil being sharpened nearby clawed at my ear drums.
I’d lost Joanna during the onslaught of my senses.
The agents made me wait in a small room with stark white walls. Next to the wooden chair was a white nightstand with a lamp and a box of tissues atop it. The room had only one window: thin and rectangular like in a county jail cell, and it didn’t face the Moon.
I would need an escort to go to the bathroom and was told the door would be locked from the outside overnight.
I was given a roll of bandages and a basin with some warm water to wash my wounds.
I chuckled in the darkness. I’d forgotten to be in pain.
My wolf was restless. We needed to be outside. We needed the Goddess’s warmth on our face…
We needed our mate.
So, when they rolled her in on a hospital bed the next morning, I dashed forward, not caring that the aides gasped and recoiled when they noticed my glowing eyes. They put the carafe of water down on the table and ran.
The Bureau agents wrapped all of Joanna’s large wounds and placed small adhesive bandages on the superficial ones. Silas’s saliva had sealed his bite, but the agents had taped a bandage to her neck anyway. They’d placed another one over the pit of her elbow, where a spot of blood had bloomed and dried in the gauze.
It smelled of James.
