CHAPTERTWENTY-FOUR
Hallie had no idea what the hell had just happened, and at the moment, she couldn’t bring herself to give a single fuck as she finally caught her breath. Both she and Rev had collapsed onto the bed after what seemed like a damn marathon of orgasms.
“That was incredible,” she said as the aftershocks of her climaxes continued to wreak havoc on her body.
“Indeed, love. It was.” Rev rolled over to face her.
It was the first time she had noticed the cluster of angry red lines across his chest.
“Oh, my God! Are you okay? What happened?”
“It’s from the fight earlier.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you were hurt?” she demanded.
“It’s okay. I’m okay, love. I feel fine. I’m mostly healed. The rest of these marks will be gone within the hour.”
“How is that even possible?” she asked. “How can you heal that fast?” None of it made a damn bit of sense to her.
“Shifters have advanced healing, love. It’s one of our many, many perks.”
“Huh.” She let that sink in for a moment.
“Any other questions?” he asked.
“Are you kidding? I have a million, but I need a bit of time to process all this. But you can start by telling me how Sam was when you dropped him off.”
“Sam is safe and has a neighbor there to watch over him. She’ll call for help or take him to the hospital if his situation changes, but he’s so damn stubborn. He won’t go to the doctor unless he’s forced to.”
“He sounds like just about every man on the planet that I’ve ever encountered. But honestly, I’m just glad he’s okay. I thought he was dead. I don’t know how he survived that attack.”
“They make them a little tougher out here in the bayou, love. Sam’s a good man and a good friend. I’m just glad I got there in time to help. Though, none of it should have happened. I need to make a quick call. I have a friend who is a shifter who works for the sheriff. They need to know about the jaguars and what they have been up to.” He pulled his phone from his pocket and punched in a series of digits.
“Hey, Brad. It’s Rev. Listen, I ran into some problems out in Bayou Rouge today.”
Rev listened for a second, then replied. “Yeah, I heard that dude in the bar bragging about hunting a woman out in the bayou. That woman happens to be my mate.”
Another short pause followed by. “Anyway, that’s why I knew where they were. I tracked them down. Sam got hurt pretty badly, but he’s okay now. He’s at home, and Grace is keeping a close eye on him.”
Rev listened for another minute to Brad’s questions before replying. “Yeah, she’s fine, and so am I. I can’t say the same for the jaguars who are out in the bayou cooking up meth.”
Rev pulled the phone away from his ear at the shout that followed from Brad.
“I get it, man. I really do, but you would have done the same damn thing had it been your mate.”
Rev ended the call and turned back to Hallie.
“What do you mean by mate?” she asked. He had never referred to her as such, and she had no idea what the term meant in this context.
“We’ll talk about that later. Right now, I need to know you are okay. That those assholes didn’t hurt you.”
Hallie paced back and forth. The adrenaline surge she had been running on had yet to leave her body. “I’m fine, really. Just freaking out a bit, honestly.”
“I’m sorry, love. I should have told you about myself before we …”
“Yeah, Rev, You really should have.” Hallie had been hoping to hold off on this conversation until she could wrap her mind around the fact the man she had fallen for turned into a fucking tiger at will.
“I know, but can you please try to understand why I didn’t?”