Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 79382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
"Fuck. Mother fuckers. Who?"
I exhaled hard. "They just figured it out a couple days ago thanks to a mix of Penny and the Grassis. It's the Abruzzo family. No," I hissed, pushing him back down again. "I smell like bombs, remember?" I said, voice low in case there was any chance of someone overhearing. "Reign and Lo conspired to keep me out of the loop because, apparently, I'm so damn fragile."
"Lost weight," he observed, pinching my upper arm.
"So did you," I countered. "Hell of a diet, multiple gunshot wounds and major head trauma."
"Missed me," he said, reaching up to touch the swollen mess that my eyes must have been.
"Of course I fucking missed you, you idiot," I said, smiling. "I haven't been able to sleep right in nine weeks. You don't smell like you and you're cold and," I swallowed as another sob rose up in my throat. So much for thinking I was done. "And I didn't know if you were going to wake back up."
"I'm up," he said, shrugging one of his massive shoulders.
I felt myself smile at that- big, goofy. Because he wouldn't say something sappy like 'I would never leave you' or 'I'll always come back to you'. Because he was a realist. He couldn't make those promises.
"Malcolm is going to be so happy to see you," I smiled. "He's been holding up and being all stalwart, but I know he's been worried. He's been staying at the compound. No, wait," I said when he went to shoot up again. "It's okay. They were at Hailstorm for a long time while they redid the compound. New fences and security and walls and this really nifty DARPA glass room. It's practically impenetrable now. He's as safe as can be. Reign would never bring the kids back if he didn't believe that. You know that."
"He okay?"
"He's... Reign," I offered, knowing he understood. Reign was a lot of things, but above all- he was a man of his people. It didn't matter what went down, he held it together for all of them.
"Hey, Janie, we just want to check... oh!" the nurse started, stopping halfway across the room.
"He woke up," I supplied stupidly, unable to stop the big grin splitting my face.
"I can see that," she said, giving me just as big a smile back. I think the staff, after a while, started to lose hope. Not that I blamed them. It seemed hopeless. And they felt bad for me because I couldn't resign myself to the seemingly inevitable.
She was happy for me.
"Let me just go call for the doctor and tell him the good news. He is going to want to look you over."
She left with that and I turned back to Wolf. "Don't worry. I've been doing most of the... looking over. None of those nurses were going to get to wash you up."
"Washed me up, huh?" he asked, eyes getting a little heated.
"Oh, no you don't," I laughed, shaking my head at him. "You don't want the doctor coming in here to you with a hard-on, do you?"
"Fuck the doctor," was his very typical response and I laughed. God, it felt so good to laugh again. And not the kind of laugh I gave to friends who told a joke or Malc when he tried to lighten the mood- a laugh followed by a bone-deep guilt for feeling even the tiniest bit happy when Wolf's fate was unknown. It was a full, guilt-free laugh. "Didn't know I was gone," he said, his hand sliding to the back of my neck, pulling me forward. "Missed you anyway."
And with that, he pulled me close and sealed his lips to mine.
I wanted to be soft and gentle and keep him from getting too worked up. But the second I felt him beneath me, lips claiming mine again, there was no restraint. I kissed him with every second of uncertainty, every shed tear, every knot my stomach had been twisted in, every bit of fear and defeat and frustration and what was at the root of all those feelings- the seemingly bottomless pool of love I had for him.
"Alright, alright," a voice said from behind us, making me jump, but Wolf held me for a second more, giving me soft for a bit before pulling back. And when he did, my lips felt swollen, sensitive. I pressed them together and turned to see the doctor standing there, smile understanding, eyes as kind as I remembered them. "So, look who finally put his wife out of her misery," he said, coming closer as I slowly climbed off the bed, feeling my heart fly up in my chest when Wolf reached for my hand, held onto it, and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "That is quite the woman you have there. Thought half the staff was going to quit that first week," he added, looking at Wolf's monitors. "Do you have any pain anywhere?"