Chapter 19 19.Scary
Tabitha’s POV
Pain blooms across my shoulder like fire under the skin. I try to move but glass grates beneath me, cutting deeper. My arm screams with every inch I drag myself back.
“Fuck—don’t move,” Jace says as he drops beside me. I flinch when his hand touches my arm.
“Don’t,” I hiss. “Don’t touch me.”
“You’re bleeding!” He runs his fingers over his hair, looking frustrated.. “If you keep crawling, you’re going to make it worse. Let me carry you.”
“No! I don’t care. Just leave me alone!” I say through gritted teeth.
Jace takes a deep breath as if trying to channel every last ounce of patience he has. Usually, his temper is only a little shy away from Reed’s explosive fuse. Under normal circumstances, he should already be blowing hell at me right now. But strangely enough, he still appears to be calm—at least to his standards. He looks at me as a frown creases his forehead.
“You hit the glass full force, Tabitha. There’s a long sharp piece stuck in your shoulder.” He points at the glass shard digging into my skin and I wince at the sight of it. The thing is halfway lodged into my shoulder and I shudder at the thought of having to remove that myself. “You move around like that again and you’ll tear more muscle. We need to remove that before it can cause infection.”
“B-But it’ll bleed more if you pull it out!” I whine. I already feel light-headed from the blood
“We’ll patch this up. You need to trust me.” Jace’s gaze screams nothing but genuine intention as he stares straight into my eyes.
I want to laugh at myself for even putting genuine and Jace in the same sentence. But he does look truthful right now. Come to think of it, the Aldair brothers may be complete assholes but they are the navy commander’s son, and they are raised in the way of the navy and of an alpha. If anyone should know injuries, it should be them.
I hate that it makes sense, and I hate it more that I have to trust him.
I grit my teeth as the pain surges once again. The little movement that I do the little movement that I do shoots lightning up my neck and down my arm. I suck in a sharp breath, my vision going white for a second.
I clamp my mouth shut, swallowing every protest, because I’m too exhausted to argue and too shattered to keep pretending I don’t need him.
Jace slips one arm under my knees and the other around my back, and lifts me like I weigh nothing. The movement sends a jolt of pain straight to my shoulder, but I bite my lip hard enough to taste blood, refusing to let a sound slip out. I don’t bother complaining anymore. To his credit, his hold is careful and gentle, making sure not to put more pressure onto my injured shoulder. He adjusts me slightly in his arms, and silently starts walking. The shattered glass crunches beneath his boots as he steps out of the greenhouse.
“S-Shouldn’t we fix that mess?” I don’t think Alpha Emery or my mother will be pleased to see the greenhouse’ glass walls shattered like this and with glass fragments littering all over the dirt.
“I’ll handle that later,” Jace says dismissively.
We move through the estate in silence for a few seconds, my body cradled against the bare warmth of his chest. I focus on the rise and fall of his breathing, the faint scent of pine and sweat clinging to his skin, trying to distract myself from the searing fire lodged in my shoulder. For the first time, I am more than happy to appreciate his looks and the undeniable strength in his arms—that I choose to ignore most of the times, rather than dwell on the pain or let pride get the better of me.
“Where are you taking me?” I ask finally, my voice hoarse.
He doesn’t look down. “Where else? The infirmary. We’ve got an available pack doctor on duty.”
“No…” I bury my face against his chest, my voice dropping to a whisper. “I don’t want my mom to know.
He frowns and looks down at me. “Tabi—”
“This is just a stupid accident. It’s my fault. I don’t want her to worry. If the pack doctor sees me, they’ll tell someone, and eventually it’ll get to her,” I mumble.
Jace rolls his eyes and lets out an exasperated sigh.
“You can be really difficult sometimes, you know that?”
I don’t answer. I just press my forehead harder against him and hope he gets it. He does. Instead of turning down the hallway toward the infirmary, he shifts direction. I peek up just enough to see we’re heading toward the west wing. This part is isolated from the other rooms and has no other staff loitering around.
“Where are we going now?” I ask, blinking through the dizziness.
“My room. No one can interrupt or gossip about us there.”
Makes sense. I just nod in silent agreement. The hallway stretches in quiet shadows as we pass, the estate unnervingly silent at this hour. I blink my eyes a few times, taking a deep breath as my shoulder pulses in broken intervals, each throb syncing with my heartbeat, until I can’t tell where the pain ends and I begin. The pain burrows in so deep that numbness spreads from my shoulder to my fingertips.
“We’re here.” Jace flicks the lights in his room open before kicking the door shut behind us.
My eyes are blurred with unshed tears as he carefully puts me down the soft mattress of his bed. This space is undeniably his—I can almost taste the familiarity pressing against my tongue, and I inhale it brazenly. The mattress dips slightly beneath me as he sets me down. I ease forward to sit at the edge of the bed, but the movement sends a spike of pain right through my shoulder once again. Jace’s eyes drop to my shoulder, and I watch the way his expression tightens.
“Fuck, there’s a lot more blood than I thought,” he mutters, mostly to himself.
He turns toward his desk and rifles through a drawer before grabbing a towel, a roll of bandages, and a bottle of alcohol. Then, he briefly disappears into his bathroom and comes back holding a small basin of clear water. He sets everything down on the nightstand, then he kneels in front of me without hesitation.
“You have to take the dress off.
“W-What?” Why does everything that comes out of this man’s mouth surprises me?
“I need to clean your wound and remove the shard from your shoulder. You have to take off your top because I can’t pull the glass out through fabric,” he explains, cocking a brow like he is explaining this to a kid.
I don’t answer right away. My head swims slightly from the pain and blood loss, and part of me just wants to lie down and be unconscious for a few hours. But I also remember what I told him earlier. I didn’t want my mom to find out. The sooner we get this over with, the sooner I can get out of here. I shouldn’t even be in his room in the first place.
“I can stitch you up. Just sit still and let me work,” Jace cajoles, his tone uncharacteristically soft. “Unless you want me to call the pack doctor and go back on my word.” Forget it. He’s still a jerk.
“Fine… whatever. As long as you get it done fast,” I groan and pinch my eyes close, concentrating on how I can numb the pain.
I open my eyes slowly. Jace is still kneeling in front of me, waiting. My shoulder throbs in time with my heartbeat, the wet fabric of my top clinging uncomfortably to my skin. I reach for the hem, trying to lift it, but the second I pull, pain shoots down my arm.
“Ah—” I suck in a breath, wincing hard as the strain cuts deep into my shoulder. My fingers stop moving.
Jace moves in immediately.
“Hold on,” he says, gently brushing my hands away. “Don’t force it.”
His fingers close around the hem of my shirt. He looks at me for a while, as if making sure I won’t stop him. When I don’t move, he starts to help me lift up my shirt.
His knuckles graze against the bare skin of my waist, then rise over my ribs, careful not to bump the wound. His touch is gentle, like I’m something breakable and he’s trying not to shatter me.
I tense, not from pain this time, but from how close he is. I try to steady my breath while his hand rests at the curve of my spine. He peels the top away slowly, guiding it over my head and off my body. The fabric sticks slightly on my skin due to the dried blood before it comes free. I bite the inside of my cheek and sit still, teeth clenched against the cold air rushing in against my skin.
Now, I’m in my freaking bra in front of Jace fucking Aldair.