After making sure Adele was deeply asleep, I slipped out of the room.
I wandered around the house, taking in the sparse décor. Why did Dimitri just happen to have a house in the middle of nowhere?
As I walked further, I noticed a door left slightly ajar, light streaking from it. I made my way toward it and peered inside. It looked like the master bedroom, and Dimitri was inside. He was shirtless, trying to clean the wound on his shoulder. It was worse than I’d thought—a deep graze that had torn through muscle, the edges already showing the telltale darkening of wolfsbane poisoning.
I felt guilt at seeing him wince in pain. But it wasn’t just guilt. It was something more. Fear. Fear of what could have happened if the bullet had hit him anywhere other than his shoulder. If—
I shook my head vehemently, as though to literally shake off the thoughts. The back of my eyelids burned, but I ignored that.
I pushed the door wider, and he looked up, noticing my presence.
“You said it was just a graze,” I said.
He chuckled to himself, dropping a bloodied piece of cotton wool into a steel pan. “Wolfsbane injuries take longer to heal, that’s all. It’s nothing, my love.” He reached for the bandage pile, and Istepped inside.
“Let me.”
His fingers grazed the back of my hand as I took the bandage from him, and it took everything in me not to shiver the way my entire nervous system did. I cut out a piece and slowly started wrapping it around his shoulder.
The silence stretched between us, heavy with unspoken questions and barely contained emotions.
Dimitri’s bare torso was a distraction I didn’t need right now. I’d seen him shirtless before—years ago, in another lifetime—but somehow this felt different. More intimate.
“What happened?” I asked, forcing normalcy into my voice. “And don’t tell me you just happened to be there. I want the truth, Dimitri.”
He was quiet for a long moment, his jaw working like he was trying to decide what to tell me. How much to tell me.
“I was nearby,” he said finally. “I saw the rogue moving toward you and Adele. I reacted.”
“Nearby,” I repeated flatly. “You just happened to be nearby when someone with wolfsbane bullets attacked us.”
“Isabella—”
“No. I don’t believe you.” I crossed my arms, moving to stand in front of him. “You got there too fast. This wasn’t a coincidence, Dimitri. This was—” I paused. “You knew. You knew something like this might happen.”
He didn’t deny it. So, someone was trying to hurt us, and Dimitri knew about it.
“How long?” My voice shook. “How long have you known someone wanted to hurt us?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me!” I moved closer, anger and fear and something dangerously close to hysteria bubbling up inside me. “Someone just tried to kill us, Dimitri. Someone tried to kill our daughter. And you’re standing there acting like—like this is just another Tuesday. Like getting shot is no big deal. Like—”
My voice cracked. The tears I’d been holding back since the attack finally spilled over.
“You could have died,” I whispered. “You threw yourself in front of a bullet for us. You could have died.”
“But I didn’t.” He stood slowly, carefully, wincing slightly at the movement. “You’re safe. Adele’s safe. That’s all that matters.”
“That’s not—” I shook my head, frustration and guilt and fear tangled together until I couldn’t breathe. “Why would you do that? Risk your life like that?”
Dimitri’s expression softened completely. The anger and determination from earlier—gone and replaced by something tender as he stepped closer, lifting his hands to caress my cheeks. Automatically, my eyes closed, and I nuzzled into his touch.
“Because you’re mine, Isabella.” The words came out raw. “You and Adele. Mine to protect. Mine to keep safe. And I don’t care if it costs me my life.”
The intensity in his eyes made something in my chest crack open.
I’d been so angry at him. For five years, I’d nursed that anger, used it as armor against the pain of what we’d lost—what he’d thrown away. But standing here now, looking at him bandaged and hurting because he’d literally taken a bullet meant for me…
