Chapter 36

Kira strokes the tattoos on his chest, creating each curve with her fingertip, and checks on the worst of his cuts. 

The wound on his neck is not deep, but the gashes on his leg might take longer to heal. She smooths the blanket back down before standing. 

“I’m going to make you something to eat and drink. You need to keep your strength up. Noel can keep watch over the town for a couple of weeks. I don't want you worrying about anything except for getting better.”

“Yes, Nurse Wilder,” Jayden says with a wheeze of a laugh, then he adds under his breath: 

“You know if you were that into roleplay, you could’ve just told me.”

“Don’t test me, Mr Steele. I’m the one who gets to decide where we stick your thermometer.”

Jayden keeps his mouth shut after that, though Kira can hear his laughter in the short breaths through his nose and she smiles.

During the time that Kira moves around the house and kitchen, Jayden watches her with adoring eyes.

Jayden is up and on his feet in a week, though Kira steers him back to bed whenever she catches him.

They make a game of it. Every morning, when Kira slips out of the house to collect food parcels from Mrs Parker or to run one of the errands that she has picked up, Jayden sneaks from his bed to do everything that Kira thinks is too strenuous for him, which, much to Kira’s horror, has included a kind-of workout the last two days. 

When Kira gets home, she searches the house and the garden and the outskirts of the woods until she finds him. 

Each time, the game ends in kissing.

Sometimes they’re playful kisses. Sometimes Jayden slides his hands down over Kira’s body and kisses her fervently, nipping her lips and rolling his tongue against hers until Kira’s legs turn to jelly, but she always has to put a stop to it because she isn’t sure if Jayden is strong enough to hold her up yet.

Afterward, Jayden slinks back to bed, complaining loudly about his imprisonment.

Kira placates him by feeding him in bed and kissing him some more. It works as a treat. Plus, it’s a treat for Kira too.

“Come on, I can hold a paintbrush,” Jayden bargained one day. 

Their legs are tangled together, Kira squeezed in beside him against the same pillow.

“That isn’t heavy-lifting. My muscles will start to atrophy soon if I don’t get moving.”

“I don’t want you doing yourself any more damage.”

“I’ve had my stitches out, there’s nothing to pull.”

“Doctor Nowen said that you need to be more careful now that your stitches are out because there isn’t anything holding your wounds together. I think you should stay in bed a little longer.”

Jayden sighs theatrically. “Will you make it worth my while?”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Kira grins, kissing him again. If any of her friends could see her now, they’d ask her where she’s hidden the real Kira because she feels like a different person. 

The awkward, tight-laced Kira of before has been replaced by this one, her soft and romantic clone. 

Every morning when she wakes up, her first thought is to check on Jayden. She heard Werewolves heal fast.

That much Kira can now confirm as fact.

Back in the city she had to be cajoled into cooking, usually as Will the sous' chef, but now she’s excited about making breakfast for Jayden, even if lunch and dinner still come courtesy of the town dining hall.

She knows that Jayden has had a good influence on her. She hopes she is having a good influence on him too.

Jayden touches Kira like she is made of glass, even though Kira is sure she’s the less fragile of the two of them at present. 

He traces the lines of her face with his fingertips in between kisses, mapping her brow and cheekbones and lips, even following the lines of her neck to brush along her collarbones.

As he works his way back up, he follows her hairline, then pauses at the jagged scar left there by her father, avoiding it to thread through her hair instead.

“Jayden?” 

“Mm?”

Kira hesitates over a question that has been bothering her.

“What would have happened if you had lost to Liam?”

Wrinkling his nose at the mention of him while they are in bed together, Jayden shrugs before giving an answer.

“I would’ve had to find somewhere to go.”

“What would have happened to me?”

“What do you mean?” Jayden tilts his head to the side.

“Well, I’m your – your mate, aren’t I? I doubt he would have wanted me to stick around.”

Jayden opens his mouth and then closes it, clearly surprised by the question. 

“You aren’t officially my mate. But no, I don’t think he would’ve tolerated having you here. I would have taken you with me, if that’s what you wanted. We could make another life far from here. It would feel like losing my heart, having to leave Woods, but with you, I would keep a portion of it, like bringing home with me. And I would always support you and take care of you.”

Kira rolls her eyes. She doesn’t know whether it’s his Alpha side or just the way he was raised, but Jayden can be so traditional.

“How do you make it official?”

“It will embarrass you if I tell you what we do to seal the deal,” Kira snickered. 

“Tell me.”

“We make love on the eve of the full moon,” Jayden says, then he cringes and pulls a face.

“I mean we sleep together.”

“Interesting.” Kira taps Jayden’s lips as if in thought.

“It’s the full moon this weekend.”

“So I’ve heard.”

Kira smirks. “Does that mean that every other full moon, you have to keep it in your pants in case you accidentally mate with someone?”

“No!” Jayden groans. “It only works if you’re...”

“If you’re what?”

He mumbles something.

Kira catches his face with his hand and turns his head to look at her. “I didn’t hear you.”

“It only works if you’re in love.”

"Oh"