Free Web NovelChapter 57: Chapter FIFTY SEVEN — LOVE?
Ragnor
"Stay with me, Candace," I muttered under my breath as I carried her back into the packhouse. She still felt far too light in my arms and her face was pale and a sheen of sweat clung to her skin.
Ahead of me Reign strode down the corridor with his boots striking the floor in sharp angry beats.
He will pay, Terror snarled. He laid his hands on her. He climbed on top of her. He took those pictures.
My jaw tightened. The motherfucker had the temerity to lay his hands on mine??? He almost made me lose her. Again. Hot fury coursed through my veins pumping fast inside me.
I had left enough of Evan Sanders’ blood on the barracks floor to make my point and yet it wasn’t enough and it would never be enough.
A ruthless part of me still wanted to drag him back out there and keep hitting him until he told me exactly who had sent him.
"I can walk." Candace whispered, her voice came out thin and hoarse.
I glanced down immediately. The antidote had worked and it had to have because it was the only reason she’d woken up at all. "No."
"Ragnor, put me down."
"No." I kept walking. She let out a weak sound of frustration, squirmed in my arms but I tightened my hold instinctively, not enough to hurt her but enough to keep her secure.
The effort exhausted her almost immediately and within seconds she sagged against my chest again. Why was she still trying to push herself?
Terror paced restlessly inside me. Hold her tighter. She mustn’t fall. My arms tightened around her just a little.
Reign reached her bedroom first and shoved the door open and I carried her inside. The fading bruise around her throat caught my eye and instantly the rage came flooding back.
That rope mark should never have existed and she should never have come that close to dying. He thought he could take her from us—from me.
If Candace hadn’t stopped me earlier Evan would have left the barracks in pieces and honestly he would have deserved every bit of it.
Some men deserved a trial and others deserved to become a warning and Evan Sanders belonged firmly in the second category.
A dull ache settled beneath my ribs and it wasn’t anger. It was fear. Fear was worse because I knew how to deal with anger but fear was another thing entirely.
All I could think about was what might have happened. What if we’d all gone to the cinema and no one had found her in time and what if I’d lost her? The thought made my chest tighten so painfully I had to push it away.
Bree rushed into the room carrying Cookie. "Luna! Oh, my lady. How are you feeling?"
A faint smile touched Candace’s lips and her golden eyes softened. "I’m fine, Bree."
"Yeah, and I’m the Moon Goddess," Reign muttered, stepping forward and pulling the blankets over her. "You need rest, Candy. We’ll handle everything else."
"Don’t kill him," she croaked.
I stared at her. "What?"
"Don’t kill him."
My hands curled into fists. "Why are you worried about him even after what he did?" I growled, my nails digging into my skin.
"Because he-" Candace coughed suddenly and blood stained the corner of her mouth and every coherent thought vanished. free𝑤ebnovel.com
Fear slammed into me so hard it nearly stole my breath and I snatched the water pitcher from the bedside table and poured a glass, too fast, and water sloshed over my fingers.
"Ragnor," she rasped. "I’m fine."
The lie would have been funny if it wasn’t so ridiculous. "The two of you can leave. Bree can take care of me."
"Drink, Candace." Her eyelids drooped heavily and she muttered something I couldn’t make out but then she accepted the glass and I watched her drink and watched her throat work with every swallow.
The faint blue tint around her lips was already fading. Thank the goddess.
"Should we call the physician back?" Reign asked quietly.
"I already have." Victor had barely finished speaking through the mind-link when I’d ordered the pack doctor back.
Reign nodded and his gaze lingered on Candace and then softened.
"I’ll check on Ryker." He reached down and took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze and for a moment I found myself wondering if he was also admitting those feelings to himself.
"Ry...ker?" Candace’s voice was barely audible and Reign glanced at me and I shook my head. Ryker had been clear and he didn’t want her knowing he’d gone to the Hollow Forest for her. At least not yet. freeωebnovēl.c૦m
If you say so, Reign replied through the mind-link and a moment later he was gone.
The room grew quieter. Bree strode out with Cookie curled in her hand as Candace lay against the plush pillows fighting sleep. I dragged a chair closer and sat beside her bed. Immediately she narrowed her eyes at me, suspicious as ever.
"You don’t have to stay." Even half-dead she sounded stubborn.
I ignored her and tucked the blankets more securely around her shoulders. The poison’s scent was fading slowly and the foul rotten smell had begun to disappear and beneath it I could smell only her. Daisies and sunlight and Candace.
Ragnor, the pack bursar is here and Dylan is with him as well, Victor’s voice echoed through the mind-link.
Reschedule it.
I wasn’t leaving her side. Not now, not while she looked like this and not while fear still clawed at my chest every time her breathing changed.
Candace’s eyes drifted shut and her body finally relaxed against the mattress. A loose strand of hair had fallen across her face and without thinking I reached out carefully and gently brushed it behind her ear.
Her lashes fluttered but she didn’t wake and the simple act nearly undid me completely.
Three years. Three years of pretending and three years of convincing myself she meant nothing and now here I was, unable to leave her bedside for five minutes.
This must never happen again, Terror growled.
I looked down at her sleeping face, at the woman who had somehow become the center of everything. "Never again," I agreed quietly.
My fingers found her hand and this time she was too deeply asleep to pull away. I lifted her knuckles to my lips and pressed a kiss against them and then another, breathing in her scent and holding her hand carefully between both of mine.
If there was anything this event had taught me, it was that—my brothers and I would never be able to fully get over Candace Sinclair.
Terror went silent for a moment and then he said, and what’s that word called again?
I closed my eyes because I knew immediately where this was going.
It’s love, you idiot.
I ignored him. For the first time in three years I wasn’t entirely sure he was wrong. But what did that mean for me—for us— after everything that had happened?
