Kieran carried her the entire time, walking past familiar trees and landmarks, past the forest she had ceased calling home the day Felix killed her father.
Rain wove in and out of consciousness. She didn’t know if Kieran faced any more obstacles, because the next time she woke, she lay in a bundle of blankets, her head supported on someone’s warm lap. Kieran.
She tried turning her head, but he rested one large and callused hand on her forehead. The mind-numbing pain she felt earlier was gone. She wondered if he dosed her with painkillers because she felt a little high.
“Don’t move,” he told her. His eyes glowed gold in his face, like twin sunbursts. She probably imagined the concern there. “You’re safe now, Rain. No one else can touch you, not without facing my wrath.”
“No one but you?” Rain didn’t know where she found the strength to utter those words. At the very least, it got a chuckle out of Kieran. It was wrong, how comfortable she felt with her head in this strange alpha’s lap. Wrong for her to associate him with safety.
“Sleep, Rain,” Kieran said. He must’ve woven some kind of spell over her or his voice of authority simply brooked no argument. She fell into a deep sleep.
The next time she woke, she found herself in an unfamiliar bed, a comforter thrown over her body. Rain felt morning light on her face. She sat slowly up in bed, wincing at the slight flare of pain.
Rain studied her surroundings. She was in a room much bigger than hers back at the Silverbite Pack House. The bed she lay on was soft, the sheets well-worn, and they smelled like lemon fabric softener.
There was a chair next to the bed. A desk on her left, facing an enormous window. Tall trees looked back at her. but it wasn’t the familiar forest she’d grown up in. Felix had probably assumed her dead and had assigned her old room to someone else.
As for clothes, Rain only wore an oversized shirt. Nothing else. She tugged at the shirt and sniffed at it. It took her a second to realize this shirt had belonged to someone whose scent she recognized.
Kieran. Just thinking of the red-haired alpha made her heart race a little faster.
Rain bit her lower lip as everything came flooding back to her. Colin and Dale hunting her. Kieran coming to her rescue. How he easily disposed of Colin and Dale like garbage.
Kieran was dangerous. Did he take her knowing he could? Kieran was a monster, but what scared her even more were her conflicting feelings for the alpha. Her body certainly wanted him. Her inner wolf certainly thought he was a worthy mate, as if that would ever happen.
Rain was an adult. She enjoyed sex as much as any woman, but what if Kieran finally got sick of her? She was the daughter of a traitor. Her own lead alpha wanted her dead. Was there even a place for someone like Rain in Kieran’s pack, or would he kick her out once he was done with her?
Her breaths came out short. The door to her room opened, and a woman in her late forties entered. She had a severe expression on her face, and her gray hair was tied into a long braid.
“You’re finally awake. I didn’t think you’d wake, not after three days of being unconscious,” the woman said.
Rain’s wolf identified the woman as a fellow werewolf, but her scent puzzled her. She neither smelled like the dominant alphas nor betas, nor the submissive omegas.
Wait. Did the woman say she had been unconscious for three days?
The woman started giving her a check-up. When the woman lifted her shirt, Rain tried slapping her hand away, but the woman caught it. She didn’t reprimand Rain, simply looked at the bandages covering her stomach. Rain stared at the wound as the woman peeled the bandages off. The injury looked weeks old.
Stunned, Rain tried to touch the wound, but this time, thewoman batted her fingers away.
“Stay still,” the woman said, finally assessing her. “You’re lucky to be alive at all. When Kieran bought you to me, you were almost dead.”
“How am I still alive?” There were no stitches Rain could see. She then realized what this woman was. A healer. They were rarer than omegas. How was Kieran able to recruit a shifter healer to his pack?
“Kieran used his own life force to accelerate the healing process,” the woman answered. Rain heard the disapproval in her voice. Only then did the healer’s words finally sink in.
“What? Why? A shifter would only share his or her life energy with his or her bonded mate,” Rain said.
“Normally, yes, but Kieran seems to think you’re special,” the woman said. “I can’t see why. You’re not any different from the omegas in our pack.”
“That’s enough, Grace,” said a firm female voice.
A tall woman with model-like looks and long, auburn hair strode in. Rain recognized her. The dominant female wolf who accompanied Kieran. One of his enforcers. Scarlett, Rain remembered.
Despite Grace being older than Scarlett, Grace stepped away from the bed and lowered her head in acknowledgment. That told Rain Scarlett held a higher position than Grace.
Forest-green eyes similar to Kieran’s assessed Rain. “How is she?” Scarlett asked Grace.
“She’ll make a full recovery if that’s what you’re asking, but she’ll have a scar,” Grace replied.