Chapter 34

Chapter 34

“God, what a short life the bullet has compared to the wound.”

Clementine von Radics

There was blood on my face.

I could feel it.

The hunter’s blood or Enzo’s, I wasn’t sure – though the latter option certainly made my stomach roll.

Or maybe that was the sight of what *used* to be the hunter, lying only feet away from me and coloring the forest floor red. Looking at him only made me nauseous – and I had other priorities anyway.

The wolves positioned Enzo upright against one of the trees. They’d shifted back into their human forms just as soon as they’d killed the hunter, revealing an unfamiliar man and woman. The man went to work immediately on Enzo, using a single claw to cut through his shirt, but the woman turned to me.

“Luna,” the woman, petite with chestnut skin and eyes, said. “Are you injured anywhere?” Her eyes wandered to the right side of my head, where I was sure a nasty bruise was forming.

“I’m fine –”

“She’s not fine,” Enzo cut in, his teeth gritted in pain. “I can smell the bleeding from here.”

It was a wonder he was still talking.

“You’re one to talk,” I shot back. “This is just a flesh wound. You took a silver bullet. And so did she.” I jutted my chin toward Scarlett, who’d managed to stabilize herself on her knees. “Please look after my friend first.”

The woman looked a little unsure, as if she might be disobeying orders to leave me like this, but eventually nodded and made her way to Scarlett.

“How bad is it?” I asked, scooting closer to the man examining Enzo. The sight of him, bloody and painful, made my chest throb like I’d been the one to take the bullet.

Whether it was guilt or something else, I had no idea.

The wolf – bulky and tanned with a buzzcut – barely looked at me. “It was silver buckshot,” he explained, “From the bruising, it looks like several pieces perforated his abdomen.” He’d torn open Enzo’s shirt, revealing every inch of sculpted muscle – as well as the nasty wound situated right under his sternum.

My fingers itched to touch it, to feel the gaping hole he’d gotten because of me, but I didn’t.

“Well, the wound isn’t bleeding a lot,” I said. “That’s good, right?”

He shook his head. “Not necessarily. It’s internal bleeding I’m worried about. I’m going to need to pull those pieces out so you can heal.”

Enzo nodded. “Fine. Whatever you need, Ridock.”

The man, Ridock apparently, glanced at me. “This is going to hurt like hell. You might want to hold his hand or something, Luna.”

“Right. Yes, of course.” I didn’t hesitate to grab Enzo’s hand. Despite the pain, he responded immediately, intertwining his fingers with mine.

And then Ridock got to work.

I couldn’t bear to look as Ridock sliced through my mate, but the sound made me just as queasy. At one particular point, Enzo’s grip tightened as Ridock dug through his abdomen and he managed to say, “Distract me. Say something to distract me from the pain.”

I swallowed, my head suddenly feeling more empty than it ever had.

“Uh…”

*I might as well be one of these tree roots. That’s how useless I feel right now.*

“Your family,” he grunted. “Tell me about your family.”

Although this seemed like the worst place for a get-to-know-you conversation, Enzo was the one with the bullet hole, so I indulged him.

“I’m an only child. No siblings. My parents are still alive. That’s about it.”

He raised a sweaty eyebrow. “And your parents? What are they like?”

“They’re like two people who only had a child because of a few missed birth control pills,” I said, “And couldn’t stand when that child was anything less than perfect.”

I turned away, but I could feel his gaze boring into the side of my head.

“Sorry if that’s not the cookie-cutter family you were expecting,” I finished sarcastically.

Maybe harsh but it was true.

Since I’d fallen into this new world, I’d missed my friends, my apartment, even my office job…but my parents? Not so much. It’s not like I was yearning for the monthly phone calls where my dad berated me for never getting more than a high school diploma or mom wanted to know if I’d finally met someone worthy of sharing with her friends.

*Mom always wanted me to bring home a doctor…wonder how she’d feel about a villainous Alpha who wants to take over the world.*

*Not that I’m bringing him home to anyone.*

“I wasn’t expecting cookie cutter,” Enzo responded, and there was something new in his eyes when he looked at me.

Understanding.

“And your family?” I asked.

Something dark passed over his expression. “Another time. I need talk that’ll make the bullets less painful – not more.”

*Well, I can’t argue with that logic.*

He let out another grunt of pain when Ridock pulled out another silver pellet and I took that as my cue to continue distracting him.

“When I was little,” I told him. “My parents enrolled me in all these gifted programs, all this special tutoring to bring out my full potential. Turn me into some sort of prodigy they could happily call their legacy.”

“Did it?”

I shook my head. “I mean, I lived up to my full potential, I just wasn’t the Einstein my parents wanted me to be. Plus, it kind of just burned me out academically. By the time I graduated high school, I was done sitting in classrooms.”

It felt strangely vulnerable to share these thoughts with someone who wasn’t Ava, but it was…nice. Almost comforting.

“Well, that’s the last of it,” Ridock confirmed, sitting back on heels. “You should still have Dr. Li check you out when we return, Alpha, but I think you’re in the clear.”

His hand still in mine, Enzo pulled himself up from the ground, taking me with him.

I watched in amazement as the wound, raw and gaping only moments before, shrunk and disappeared before my eyes. Werewolf healing was cool, even I could admit that.

He let out a sigh of relief and then pressed his lips to my forehead, his mouth lingering against my skin. “You have no idea how happy I am that you’re okay, sweetheart. If I would’ve lost you…” Something that sounded like a growl rumbled in his chest.

“I’m sorry.” The words came out in a rush. “I’m sorry that you took a bullet for me, and…you know. The other stuff.” Although a logical part of my mind screamed that I wasn’t sorry about the other stuff – namely running away – the guilt was consuming.

I needed to say something to try and make it better.

“It’s okay,” he murmured against my skin. “As long as you’re alive and in my arms, it’ll always be okay.”

“You’re not mad?”

There was a pause before he answered. “I didn’t say that.”

And though he didn’t elaborate any further, I had a feeling I was in deep shit as soon as we got back to his home.