47

“You’re a human. What can you possibly do to help her?” Suddenly, I realize I may have made a mistake. I should have taken her to Healer Pat at the hotel.

“I deal with injuries like this regularly!” Maya says fiercely. “Believe me, I’m more than capable of helping Leanna. And who even are you? Why were you with her?”

“That’s none of your business. If you can’t get in touch with her healer, then I need to contact mine.”

The woman hands me her phone. “Call him.”

I stare at the contraption. “How?”

“What do you mean how?” She glares at me. “Dial his number and give him a call!”

“I—” I’m beginning to feel a little humbled now. “I don’t know his number.”

She stares at me for a brief second. “You—” She’s about to say something nasty. I can see it on her face. But her expression flickers for a second. “Who are you?”

“Is that important?”

She brings the car to a screeching halt. “You’re not from here, are you?” Fear floods her face now. “No. How did I not see it before? You look just like him.”

My jaw tightens, something tingling in my brain. “Like whom?”

She refuses to answer. “Get out of my car.”

I narrow my eyes. “I’m not leaving Leanna alone with you. I don’t trust you with her.”

“And I’m not taking you to her home,” she retorts harshly. “You’re Cedric, aren’t you?”

So, this human is aware of who I am. Leanna must have told her about me. “If you know who I am, then you know how easily I can kill you,” I snarl at her. “Start driving. I’m not going to have Leanna die because of your carelessness!”

“I’m not bringing you to her house.” Maya grips the steering wheel tightly, her knuckles turning white.

I’m not about to waste any more time. Unsheathing my claws, I press the tips of them against her neck. “Drive.”

I can hear her heart start to race, her fear giving an acrid edge to her scent. “No!”

My claws bear down against her skin, breaking it slightly. When she realizes I mean business, she starts the car.

I don’t remove my hand throughout the ten-minute drive. By the time she pulls up in front of a house, her face is white as a sheet.

When she doesn’t move, I snarl, “Unless the healer has arrived, let’s go!”

She seems so hesitant to save Leanna, and that makes me want to kill this insignificant human. But she flinches and gets out of the car. I follow suit, proceeding to carry Leanna up the steps of the small house.

This is where my mate has been living all these years? In this tiny little hut? How could she possibly be comfortable?

When the door doesn’t open, I kick it. My foot splinters the wood.

Even the door is weak, I think in disgust.

“What are you doing?!” Maya cries out in alarm. “I have a key! You brute!”

She shoves past me and inserts a key into the lock. I refuse to feel bad and enter the tiny house with long strides. “Where do I put her?”

“Down the hall, first door to the right.”

I follow her instructions, bumping into the furniture as I walk through the front room. For a man of my size, this place is highly inconvenient. I am used to large spaces where I can move about with ease. This tiny house is cramped and uncomfortable.

“Stop breaking stuff!” Maya says, her voice distressed. “All these things are important to Leanna!”

Hearing her say that, I try to step more carefully. The first door on the right leads to a bedroom. It’s much smaller than the one I used to share with my mate. In fact, the bathroom alone back at the castle is twice this size. But as I lay Leanna down on the bed, I realize this whole house smells like her.

Maya follows me, carrying a black bag now. After putting on gloves, she touches the hem of Leanna’s shirt before glaring at me. “Would you leave the room so I can undress her?”

“Go ahead.” I cross my arms over my chest. “It’s nothing I haven’t seen before.”

“Get out.” She stands up, facing me. “I’m not letting you take away her dignity.”

I look at my mate, and my jaw tightens. “Fine.”

As I walk out of the room, Maya says out of the blue, “Just stay out there in the hallway. Don’t go opening any other doors.”

I shut the door to the bedroom and park myself outside it. Where else would I even go in this cramped space?

However, curiosity gets the better of me, and I look around. There are small things littered everywhere.

I recall how reluctant Leanna was to decorate her room in the castle, or even our room during the time she was with me. But here, she’s made this place her own.

I don’t know what this strange ache is in my chest as I rub it. What does this tiny hut have that the castle didn’t?

I hear soft footfalls from down the hall and then the sound of a toilet flushing. A door opens, and a young boy walks out, rubbing his eyes. “Mom? Why are you making so much noise?”

That must be Finn, the young wolf pup. In his human form, he looks to be around seven to eight years old. When he lowers his hand from his face, I get a jolt. Those eyes!

It can’t be. Amber eyes?

Erik said this child was his. But Erik’s eyes are green, and Leanna’s are brown. This child’s eyes are amber. Like mine. And he has dark curls, the same color as mine.

“Boy, come here.”

The child focuses on me and freezes, terror written all over his face. He takes a step back. “M–Mom?”

I see the fear and panic in his expression, and I know that he’s about to make a run for it. Before he can, I grab him by the front of his shirt and lift him in the air till we are nose to nose. “Who’s your father?”

Tears well up in his eyes. “I don’t like you!”

“I asked you a question!”

“I want my mom!” he whimpers.

I give him a little shake. “Men don’t cry like this!” Exasperation fills me. “When I was your age, I was out in the battlefield, not whining for my mother. Are you a suckling fool?”

He sniffles. “W–What? What’s that?”

“You, apparently,” I say gruffly. “A boy your age should be protecting his mother, not calling out for her to protect him.”

He wipes his eyes. “I can protect my mom.”

“You don’t look like it,” I comment. “Scraggly little thing like you.”

“I’m not scraggly!” he protests, and this time I see the fire in his eyes. “Let me go!”

“Why?” I raise one brow. “So you can go crying to your mother?”