4

He glanced at Kira’s morbidly pale face, and his expression softened a bit, but not enough for my liking. He shrugged. “Yeah? Fix her. You’re a fae, right? I want to get home,” he said sulkily. Then he winced in disgust. “Gods, she reeks of his scent. I’ll have to give her a bath when we get home to get the stink off her.”

Flaming anger flashed across Zoe’s eyes. I had the sense that if I hadn’t been there as a witness, Jayson Fell might not have made it home alive.

Through clenched teeth, Zoe said, “I’ll do my best, but I don’t know a lot about healing spells. I think I can slow the bleeding.”

Zoe placed her hands on Kira’s shoulder and murmured a few words. Kira’s head lolled to the side, and her breathing became heavy and slow. She’d been put to sleep. The oozing blood had slowed to a trickle, too. I sighed with a relief that settled through my every muscle. My body was exhausted from trying to keep Kira from attacking me.

Jayson, however, looked like he was more concerned with getting out of there.

He glanced at his watch, then back at Zoe. “Is she good now? Can you get us home? I want to watch the game that’s starting soon.”

Zoe sighed and waved her hand in Jayson’s direction. His eyes rolled to the back of his head, and he slumped to the ground, smacking his cheek on the pavement, deeply asleep like Kira. I gaped at his wide-open mouth as he snored like a freight train. When I looked back at Zoe, she gave me an embarrassed smile and shrugged.

“He’s a dick.”

I smiled back at her. I’d always considered Kira’s friend flighty and a bit of a loose cannon. Now I appreciated her. She’d take care of Kira, no matter what. I was certain of that after seeing what she’d done to Jayson.

My earpiece kicked back to life. “Wyatt? You there?”

“I’m here, Douglas. What’s going on?”

“Med team will be at the restaurant in less than three minutes.”

I sighed. “Thank the gods.”

Moments later, the team swooped in. Zoe and I stepped back and let them work. One of the medics glanced at Jayson’s unconscious form on the ground. “What about him? Does he need assistance?”

“Oh no,” Zoe said, waving him off. “He’s suffering from terminal asshole-itis. There’s no cure. But thanks for asking.”

The medic frowned but went back to getting Kira onto a gurney. Zoe looked back and forth at Kira and me before pulling me aside.

“Thanks for helping her. If you hadn’t kept pressure on her wound, she would have lost even more blood. I think she’ll be fine once they get her to a trained healer.”

I shrugged. “No big deal. She would have done the same for me.”

Zoe made a face. “Probably, but she would have bitched about it for weeks after. I know I’m supposed to be on her side all the time, including hating you.” She rolled her eyes. “Gods know she makes that abundantly clear, but I still appreciate all you do to keep her out of trouble. Just remember, I can never say that when she’s conscious. So, if I’m a bitch to you the next time I see you, know that I have to be that way.”

Chuckling, I nodded. It was a good reminder that Kira hated me. It all went back to that one day so long ago. As far as I could remember, that was the last time I’d seen her covered in this much blood. There’d been more that day. I swallowed hard and shook the thought away.

“I understand. Thanks for coming, Zoe,” I said.

My own emotions toward Kira had always been convoluted. I tended to worry about her and acted like an older brother at work. She was constantly in trouble, or so it seemed to me. Any other feelings I might have were kept under wraps, tucked and locked away, never to be pulled out and assessed. I refused to allow that. For one, she was my best friend’s sister. For another, she was already spoken for. And most important of all, she hated me.

She despised me, yes. Still, the feel of her hands and mouth on me a few minutes before was fresh in my mind. The heat of her body, the wetness of her tongue…the things she’d said and asked for…it had almost driven me crazy. I was glad it was over. That drug, whatever it had been, was the only reason she’d behaved that way. I had to remember that if I wanted to stay sane around her.

3

KIRA

My bed was damp with sweat. It was the first thing I noticed when I opened my eyes. Everything from the moment the target had walked into the restaurant until opening my eyes in my bed was one big feverish haze. I had no clue how long I’d been out, but it must have been at least a couple of days. The forced heat I’d been subjected to had drained all the strength from my body, leaving me weak and exhausted.

I’d drifted in and out of a burning sleep for what felt like days. I recalled flashes of fae healers, human doctors, and shifter medics working on me. Whatever had happened must have been bad.

Two IVs were attached to my arm. I glanced up at the bags. One looked to be some basic hydration solution, while the other had a dark purple color—likely some healing potion a fae had cooked up. Careful not to hurt myself, I tugged both tubes out of my arm. I hated seeing those things protruding from me. I could only imagine how I looked with tubes and wires covering my sweaty body as I moaned in my sleep. I despised looking weak. Feeling better than I had since taking that sip of wine, I decided it would be fine to try to look more like myself.

Easing up onto the pillows behind me, I glanced around at the familiar surroundings. I was at my family’s home. Outside the window, the massive forest of the Eastern Wilds stretched beyond my father’s property. The Eleventh Pack’s land wasn’t huge like some of the other packs’, but it was still beautiful. I was glad I was here rather than at a hospital or operative clinic.

A few bottles of water stood on the nightstand next to my bed. Greedily, I snatched one. The room-temperature water was a heavenly elixir sliding down my parched throat. The IV had kept me from dying of dehydration, but nothing was better than a drink of water when you were thirsty.

After drinking my fill, I realized I wasn’t entirely back to normal yet. The healers had fixed me fairly rapidly, and all the painful need from being forced into heat had vanished. My vagina had actually ached to be filled, and not in a good way. The residual effects were still in my body, though. An insistent desire still pulsed through me, and wetness pooled between my legs.