And then... she whimpered. Made a sad sound, a hurt sound, that cut through all the other noise and straight to his heart. She’d been afraid. Ofhim. He felt lower than the worst asshole he’d ever beaten the shit out of.
But he needed to see her, to explain to her. Dodge tested the strength of the chains. He had to find her. He could make her understand.
Evershaw sat on his heels, near the stairs to freedom, and fixed Dodge with a dark look, filled with the alpha’s power. It knocked Dodge back and stole his ability to move. “Listen to me. She is afraid. She is still weak but she is getting stronger. The doctors say she should make a full recovery.”
“She’s getting stronger,” he repeated in a whisper. It was the only thought the wolf and the man alike could hold onto.
“Yeah.” Evershaw poured himself a glass of whiskey from the bottle that remained on the shelf, next to the cigar humidor. The alpha took a deep gulp and tilted his head back to stare up at the darkened beams of the ceiling. “But she’s afraid and she doesn’t understand this. You fucking scared the shit out of her. So this is what we’re going to do.Youare going to stay here until I’m confident you can keep your shit together.”
Dodge growled.
“You’re not making your case, dude.”
He didn’t care. Neither did the wolf. The only thing on his mind was Persephone.
Evershaw poured more whiskey and slowly moved to hand it to Dodge. “They’re releasing her from the hospital in a few days. Deirdre and I will move her back to her apartment so she can continue to recuperate. The O’Sheas have already agreed to set up rotating guards on the building to make sure she’s safe. Rafe managed to rent most of the apartments on her floor so she won’t have to worry about neighbors.”
Dodge swallowed irritation. He didn’t want to be indebted to the O’Shea pack, particularly that asshole Rafe, but he had to grudgingly admit he would have been grateful for the additional protection afforded to his mate. If he’d had any intention of letting Persephone go back to that shithole of a building. “No.”
“The fuck you mean, ‘no’?” the alpha snapped.
“She’s not going back there.” Dodge threw back the whiskey, ignoring the weight of the chains and shackles on his arms, and held the glass up for more. “A new place. Safer. Better neighborhood. Concierge and guards. I’ll buy it.”
“Dodge...”
“Doesn’t matter how much it costs.” He scowled at the alpha, holding onto the wolf with the last edge of his control. Dodge knew Evershaw wouldn’t take him seriously if he let the wolf out even for a moment. Dodge stared into the whiskey after the alpha grudgingly poured more into the glass. “The money’s in the bank. Make sure it’s one of the new buildings, maybe the one where those fucking lions live. Buy whatever she needs for it – new furniture, kitchen shit, fill it up with food and nice things.”
He would have preferred to purchase it all with her, or at least on his ownforher, but part of him knew that he couldn’t control himself around her yet, particularly if she remained weak. The moment someone looked at her wrong or she felt a twinge of pain, he’d be out of his mind again. Not that he’d ever admit it to the alpha or anyone else.
Dodge stared at the glass in his hand. There wasn’t enough whiskey in the city to dull the pain of being separated from Persephone. She was a ghost beside him. Memories of her haunted him both asleep and awake. Sometimes he thought he could smell her hair.
Evershaw watched him warily. “You’re talking at least a million for one of the places in that building, Dodge. You sure –“
“Yeah.” Dodge didn’t take his eyes off the glass. Staying drunk might take the edge off until he forgot to be crazy with grief that his mate wasn’t at his side. He could be drunk the rest of his life. It might be the only way he’d survive not being with her. “Bank account information is in the black book in the top drawer of the bedside table upstairs. There’s enough liquid to cover whatever.”
Evershaw didn’t look convinced. “You gotta take things slow, Dodge. She’s still freaked out by all of this. Your meltdown at the hospital didn’t help. These have been the worst weeks of her life. Deirdre is staying with her to help her figure things out, but it will take time. You gotta get your shit together. You and Silas chill down here for another day or so, then we can revisit the plan going forward.”
“She’s mine,” Dodge said, staring at the darkness in the corner of the cellar.
“She’s her own first, man. Remember that.” Evershaw folded his arms over his chest. “I don’t want to keep you from her. I don’t. It’s gotta be fucking torture, and I know that. I sympathize. But I cannot let you terrify that girl any more than she already is. She needs to heal. And I know you think you’d be the best thing for her, but right now, that’s not the case.”
A growl worked its way up his throat. The alpha didn’t know what he was talking about. Dodge would take care of her. He was the only one. He would keep her safe, he would protect her from the rest of the city. Being apart from her just meant that she was more vulnerable, even with a safe new apartment with a concierge and 24-hour security.
Evershaw shook his head and turned toward the stairs. “That’s what I thought. Get it together, Dodge. If you don’t have more control in two days, we’ll have a talk about what happens next. I can’t have two crazy wolves in my pack. We’ll start to get a reputation.”
Silas snorted loudly enough they both looked at him, then the wolf rolled his eyes and flopped on his back near the expensive space heater. Dodge shook himself and jerked his chin at the whiskey bottle, still on the shelf. “Then leave that where I can reach it.”
“I don’t need a bunch of drunks in my pack, either,” Evershaw said.
But before he left, he took the whiskey down and handed the bottle to Dodge. “Don’t drink it all tonight. You won’t get another one, so pace yourself.”
Then he strode back up the stairs and left Dodge and Silas in the dim half-light of the cellar. Dodge studied the liquor and took a deep breath. Tomorrow he would get himself together and figure out how to help Persephone. Tonight, though... He unstoppered the bottle and closed his eyes. Tonight he would focus on dulling the pain. Tonight he would let the ghosts and Persephone’s scent tangle around him until he could believe that she was right there next to him.
Chapter 45
Percy
Iknew I looked awful because no one let me use a mirror. I could see enough of the bruises all over the rest of me to know that my face had to be in the same condition. Deirdre stayed with me at the hospital most of the time, with Mercy and Todd taking turns, and answered a lot of my questions – but not all of them. She danced around the details of what happened after they found me at the sanctuary, and wouldn’t say anything about Dodge except to say that he was safe and at her house.
