Chapter 59 - The Alpha Dire Wolf

Sylvie, limbs rigid, managed to meet my eyes. “Can you protect me from yourself when it comes around?”

I didn’t shy away from that gaze. It was time I laid some of those cards on the table. Called her out on it to see how she reacted. “If you can tell me you don’t want it, I won’t.”

She was the first to break the stare, looking away before her cheeks could flush pink.

“All we’ve ever done is kiss,” she whispered.

“And you can tell me with complete honesty that kissing is all you’ve ever thought of between us?” I asked, pushing on her walls and testing their strength. “Your mind has never wandered to anything … else? To the idea of more, between us?”

She looked back, sharply, her eyes full of accusation and curiosity, mixed with perhaps a little surprise. “Yours has?”

“All the time,” I said bluntly, not bothering to hide it. “Being around you is intoxicating in ways I don’t understand. The more I do it, Vee, the more it’s all I want. The moreyou’re all I want. I don’t know what’s pulling me to you, but it’s there.”

Licking her lips, she stalled for time. Not that it mattered, I could hear her heart racing from across the six-foot gap between us.

“That’s, um, a strong statement,” she whispered so quietly only my wolf’s hearing picked it up.

I sat forward, or I tried to, and my body screamed at me. I ended up grunting, sitting up halfway and then falling back into the couch. “Normally,” I said, a bit of wry humor slipping in. “I’m a strong man.”

Sylvie’s eyes darted to my arms. I said nothing.

“I should take you to a hospital,” she said, her eyes lingering on me in a way that told me all I needed to know about her internal thoughts. “You’re badly hurt.”

“No.” I said it as gently as I could while leaving no room for compromise or argument.

“You’re covered in wounds. Some of them aren’t even from today. You need proper treatment.”

“Proper treatment?” I stared at her. Waiting for her to think it through. To understand.

Sylvie sensed I was testing her. She looked off into the distance. It took half a minute, but then she nodded. “And if you go, they’ll find out what you aren’t. Won’t they?”

“Yes.”

The worry lines etching into her face didn’t belong there. I wanted to reach out and caress her, to tell her it was all going to be okay. That she didn’t have to worry. Not now, not ever again.

But too much had happened in too short a period of time. Sylvie needed to heal just as much as I did, but in her own way. Accepting the change in her worldview would not be easy. I suspected she could do it, but I wasn’t going to push. I would respect her unspoken but obvious wishes. For now.

“Do any of them know about you? About what you are?” Sylvie asked. “Am I the only one you’ve been hiding from all this time?”

The pain waiting on that question was evident. Being the only one on the outside was not a pleasant feeling.

“No. They don’t. We keep ourselves hidden. The world,your world, doesn’t want to know about mine. They find it a lot easier to live in a world that exists only according to their rigid science. I can’t begin to imagine the panic that the truth would cause. Truth be told, I’m rather impressed at how well you’re adapting and handling it.”

“I’m not,” she said with a brittle laugh. “If you could hear the inside of my head right now, you’d know I’m on the edgeof losing it. Tree-things. Wolf shifters. Vampires. Probably more you aren’t telling me about.”

“Dragons,” I added.

“Dragons.” She grew paler. “Dragons and magic. It’s a lot.”

“You aren’t screaming, or trying to shoot me with silver, or any of a million other things,” I pointed out. “So no, you’re actually doing wonderful. It’s not easy. It’s-argh!”

In my effort, I had twisted, and the wound on my side split open at one point.

“That looksreally bad, Linc,” she said.

I smiled. I liked when she called me Linc, and I wanted her to know it, despite the pain. “In the morning, it will look like these,” I said, pointing at the twin lines from the elk-beast the night before. “I promise. A couple of days and I’ll be like new again.”

“Days?”

“I heal fast like that.”

“I see.” She rubbed at one eye. The adrenaline must be wearing off. She’d be getting tired soon, even if night wasn’t coming on in full force already. “Wheredid you get those other ones?”

It was my turn to see. “Vee. I really am sorry I wasn’t here at sunrise. I am. I meant to be, but … I needed more time to recover.”

Explaining about the Chained was not on today’s list of topics to cover. I didn’t want to overwhelm her more than she already was.

Sylvie clucked. “Youreally need to stop picking fights with things bigger than you.” She was teasing.

“Maybe I’ll learn one day.”

“I doubt it,” she muttered, looking me over once more. “Those really are from just last night?”

I nodded, glad to be able to tell the truth with her. “Like I said, a couple of days of rest and food, and I’ll be fine. You’ll see.”

Sylvie’s look was long and analytical. “The way you say that … you’re talking like you plan to stayhere for those couple of days …”

“I hadn’t made firm plans, but thank you for the offer. That’s very kind of you. I accept.”

“What?” The spluttering went on for several seconds. “That’s not-but I-you can’t just …”

It trailed off into a glare that bounced off me with ease.

“I’ll sleep outside if that makes you more comfortable,” I said. “But thatthing is still out there somewhere, and I am not going to leave you alone, not until we can find out what it was.” I stared at her, driving home my truth. “I will not let you get hurt, Vee.”

Her throat bobbed up and down. “Fine,” she said after some thought. “You can stay here, but you can’t sleep outside. I won’t have you breaking the rules.”

I frowned. “Rules? What rules?”

“City bylaw of course,” she said, staring at me like I was an idiot.

“People can’t sleep outside on their own property anymore?” I had to admit, Ifelt like an idiot.

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