“I have my reasons for keeping my distance from her, you know. I didn’t abandon her for no reason.”
His eyes begged me to understand, and I did. Didn’t mean I agreed, but I knew him by now—he thought it would be better to stay away. Same as he had with me.
“Having your reasons doesn’t make it right, but I can’t judge you. You haven’t told me your side of the story yet.”
Leaning in, I gave him a gentle kiss. His body relaxed into mine.
Mercer got up from the bench seat on my other side, clearing his throat. “When he does tell you his side, just know that Conrad and I did our best to talk him out of that mindset. He’s really fucking stubborn.”
West broke the kiss to growl and glare at his pack lead. Mercer was unfazed, offering me a hand up off the bench.
“Back to Conrad?” he asked.
“Please. I want to see him as soon as he wakes up.”
They both kept one hand on me as we strode down wide hallways, doing their part to keep a tentative smile on my face.
Chapter
Eleven
CONRAD
I felt empty.
There was a black hole where my thoughts should be, and in the depths of that hole…
My omega’s fear. Of me.
I growled quietly, tossing and turning in the thin sheet that draped over my body. She’d been so scared and I hadn’t helped her.
I’d made that terror, nurtured it, and fed off of it. Like some demented form of a vampire. What was wrong with me? How could I make her fear go away when a base part of me wanted it to stay?
Each breath turned into more of a growl, anger at myself merging with this sick version of me—the feral side that wanted control at all costs. I needed to kill that part of me, to make it leave forever so it could never hurt Talia again.
How?
The sheets constrained my limbs, but I thrashed enough that I heard the faint sound of it tearing. I was asleep, but not. I couldn’t wake up, stuck in this waking fucking nightmare.
“Get it out,” I muttered. “Get it out of me!”
A shock of ice cold water had me gasping for air, bolting upright. My eyes blinked to dispel the water, pieces of ice sliding down my chest. I shivered from head to toe, but this was better than the dream state I’d been stuck in.
“Thank you,” I choked out. “Fuck, thank you.”
“I’ve never had a man thank me for pouring a bucket of ice water on them before,” a woman said.
My eyes focused enough to see her. A petite brunette woman in pastel workout clothes stood at the edge of my bed, empty bucket in hand. Three men stood directly behind her, all wearing matching black suits. They looked like bodyguards.
Who the hell was this girl? And where was I?
I coughed up some water, looking down at the ripped sheet that was draped over me. I was only wearing a hospital gown.
That brought some things back.
I’d been shot.
My hand came up to my neck, feeling the thick bandages—now soaked with water. It didn’t hurt as much as I would have thought, considering I’d passed out from the pain and blood loss before we got to the hospital.
