Chapter 57: Chapter Fifty-Seven

“Should have known better… I don't know what I was thinking… Never forgive myself…”

My tongue felt thick and awkward, but I managed to force it into action. “What are you talking about?”

I lifted my head and looked up at Aimes, who I realized was carrying me through the woods, clutching me tightly against his chest as he walked through almost impenetrable darkness.

At the sound of my voice, he came to a sudden stop and stared down at me, relief stark on his face. “Say something else.”

“Something else.”

His laughter was soft, his exhale soothing as it fanned over my cheeks. “I thought for sure you weren’t coming back to me.”

“How long was I out?”

“No way of knowing, really. I sent Mom closer to the city to see if she could pick up a signal on her phone to call for help. I’ve been here ever since you passed out.” He smoothed a loose tendril of hair out of my eyes. “How do you feel?”

“Like I got stabbed in the back.”

“Do you mind if I put you down? I’ll build a small fire, then I can take a look at your back again. I tried to stop the blood with my shirt.”

So he had. I leaned closer to the heat of his chest, which was only slightly covered by his open tux jacket.

I nodded up at him. “I'm sure you could use a rest, too.”

“I'm fine.”

He said with zero tension in his voice. I didn't buy that he was fine for a second.

Instead of saying so, I nuzzled his jaw before kissing his cheek, and his lips brushed against mine. Then he set me down gently by a tree and started gathering kindling.

“I should have known Stride was never going to make it that easy for her,” he said.

“Yeah, it did seem a little convenient, him being sedated that easily.”

“He might have been at first,” Aimes reasoned, dropping an armful of sticks near my feet before going out for more. “But I’m sure once he got his head back on straight, he started sweet-talking the soldiers. In the end, they probably only pretended to drug him.”

“And now they’re his.” A cold shudder rippled across my shoulders.

Like Stride wasn’t bad enough before. Now, he had Annecy’s army at his back.

“Did you see where Annecy went?” he asked.

I thought back, and the memory didn’t make me feel very good. Nauseous, more like. “No. She was still trying to catch up with what was happening when we made our escape. Just standing there, beyond shocked.”

“She’s going to be more dangerous than ever now.”

“But she’s on her own, or at least has fewer people on her side than before. How much damage can she do?”

“The night’s still young. Maybe we’d better not ask questions like that.” Using two rocks, he made a spark that lit the kindling. After he fed it a few more sticks, it blazed brightly enough for me to see the blatant worry in his eyes when he turned to me. “Let's take a look.”

My dress was now stuck to my skin thanks to the dried blood. There was a lot of it, and I could understand now why he seemed so worried.

“To answer your question, no,” I told him.

“No what?”

I winced as he unwound his shirt from my waist, the dried blood making the fabric pull at my wound. “No, it doesn't burn. It never did. I didn't get stabbed with silver, at least I don’t think so.”

He let out a shuddering breath, his head hanging low for a beat. “Thank god,” he whispered.

I covered his hand with mine. “Talk to me, Aimes.”

“I did a lot of bargaining before you woke up.” He met my gaze again, tortured, haunted. “It’s just… If I’d lost you…”

“You didn’t. And you're not going to.” With my free hand, I cupped his cheek, and he leaned into my caress, closing his eyes and sighing.

The moment broke my heart. My mate, worrying so much about me that the thought of losing me had plagued him. I could relate.

Once we finally peeled my dress away, Aimes tore some strips from my skirt and went down to the nearby stream to soak them. When my skin was cleaner, it was clear the wound was already healing—it was very shallow now, getting better all the time.

That wolf shifter healing was really something else.

“I’m just a little weak,” I concluded. “Blood loss and all that. But otherwise, I’ll be fine. Are you okay?”

He snorted before running an arm over his forehead. “Me? Aside from witnessing that massacre back there, seeing my mom’s husband not even glance her way when shit hit the fan, and barely escaping with my mate alive, sure. I’m fine.”

Sighing, I shook my head. “I wish I knew who to root for.”

“You root for us, obviously.” He smiled, a big one that danced with firelight.

I gave him one of my own. “Obviously. Most everybody else sucks.”

“They do. I mean, did I kind of want to cheer when Stride turned things around and shocked the hell out of Annecy? Hell yeah, I did.” He kicked dirt over the fire to put it out then sat down beside me, and I rested my head against his shoulder. A very firm pillow, but very much wanted. “Otherwise, I’m conflicted.”

“Where do you think Connolly would have run off to?”

“No idea.” He growled then, low and lethal. “He completely abandoned my mom in the middle of a massacre and left her totally defenseless, the fucking bastard coward.”

“There’s one good thing though,” I said softly.

“You mean aside from you being all right?”

“Yeah, aside from that. I can feel my wolf again.” I hadn’t lost her, and she was safe.

Amazing how I could feel so attached to something I didn’t know existed for most of my life.

“See? Connolly has to be intimidated by your power, or else it wouldn't have been as important to make sure you couldn’t access your wolf while you were inside the mansion walls.”

“No offense, but that doesn't make me feel much better.”

“Why not?”

“Because what good does it do me if I couldn’t manage to kill him? So what if he’s afraid of me?”

He hummed, a low, thoughtful sound. “So it wasn’t just Annecy’s orders you were following. You wanted to kill him yourself.”

“I don’t know what I want anymore. I really don’t. I guess it’s wrong to want to kill him out of…I don’t know, a need for vengeance or something. But that’s what was going through my head.”

“I’m sure that’s what Annecy wanted you to be thinking about. Like an incentive.”

“I already have enough of an incentive.” I wrapped my arms around him and snuggled close. “You.”

“I’m not what you have to worry about. I don’t want you worrying about me. Not ever.” He took my chin and turned my head so I was looking him in the eye. “Promise me. Promise you are not going to risk yourself for my sake.”

“You risked yourself for my sake. You got us out of there, remember?”

“That’s not the same. I was doing it to save myself and my mom, too.” He lifted my hand and pressed his lips to my palm. “But especially you. I mean nothing compared to you.”

“You’re entitled to your wrong opinion, Your Wrongness.”

He snorted with laughter.

“How do we always end up like this?” I whispered, staring into the night, letting my gaze become unfocused.

“You mean dressed in bloody rags in the woods?”

“Yeah. I want someplace safe and calm for us to go. No shifter drama. Someplace far away from all of this where there’s a promise of safety and a bed every night.”

“Like where?” he murmured.

Considering the answer was so much better than remembering the screaming at the wedding. The panic. The stench of blood filling the air.

“I’m not sure,” I admitted. “Someplace sunny but also snowy. I guess where there’s plenty of nature and stuff. The Rocky Mountains, maybe.”

“That sounds good,” he agreed with a smile in his voice. “What kind of house do you want?”

“Something simple. What about you?”

“Same. Small enough that you can call out whenever you need me, and I’ll hear because I’ll likely be in the same room.”

I chuckled. “Sounds delightful.”

“We’ll have that someday. We’ll have whatever you want. I believe that. Do you?”

“I do.” I just didn’t know how we would ever get there.

Not when we were up against three different foes at this point.

One step at a time. My eyes slid shut, and I didn’t bother fighting them, letting myself drift away in Aimes’s arms with my head against his shoulder and my body curled around his.

* * *

My eyes flew open when a twig snapped.

I didn’t dare move, not wanting to give away the fact that I was awake. Aimes still snored in my arms. Had I dreamed it? That was possible, especially since he hadn’t stirred. I was too jumpy, even in sleep.

I would have closed my eyes again, but something stirred in my chest that wouldn’t let me do it. Tugging at me, tapping at the back of my head.

Another twig snapped, then another, before a warm, familiar presence made me sit up and look around. Was my wolf visiting my dreams again?

“Now you know how I used to feel, moon chaser.”

Aimes bolted upright at the sound of a woman’s voice coming from the shadows. “Who—”

I held him back, shaking my head, staring in disbelief as a figure emerged.

She offered a sad little smile upon reaching the fire.

Tears filled my eyes, tears of relief and sadness and so many other emotions I didn’t have words for. I didn’t know her true name, her true relationship to me, so I used the only name I had ever used before.

“Mom?”