Page 51 of Twisted Mates

He whispers heartfelt apologies as he examines my wounds. Every whimper and hiss out of my mouth sends him on a new plea for forgiveness. It hurts when he touches the cuts, but he is also so gentle with me. “The cuts don’t look deep enough for stitches, but they’re bleeding pretty bad.” He grabs a paper towel from the roll and applies pressure as he keeps asking me questions. “Are you having any trouble breathing?”

“No,” I say, running the backs of my hands over my wet eyes.

Xander pulls me into his lap and rocks me back and forth. “Fuck me for leaving you alone. I’m so sorry I lost track of time.”

“It’s not your fault, Xander,” I say, meaning every word. “I’m not upset with you. You didn’t hurt me.”

He brushes my hair out of my face and presses a kiss to my forehead. “Who was it?” he says suddenly as Carrington comes into the room with the supplies in her hands, dropping down next to us. “Who did this to you? Did you recognize him at all?”

“No. I couldn’t see anything. He was wearing a ski mask, covered head to toe and even had white contacts in. He keptsaying I ruined something, that my blood wasn’t worth a damn thing because I’d messed it all up,” I whisper, watching Carrington unpack the first aid kit.

The two of them lock gazes above me and he says, “Only one person feels like she ruined something.”

“Do not start in on Kai. He would never,” she snaps.

“I never thought he would leave this family behind, yet here we are. He had to be angry to leave the way he did. And what changed to make him want to leave? Mating with Alexia.”

She slams the antiseptic cream into Xander’s outstretched hand. “You are crossing a line.”

“Then who was it?” he demands.

“I don’t know. Maybe it was you. Where were you when this all happened? You just happened to reappear after the fact, all sweaty and out of breath?”

He shakes his head as he runs a wet cloth over my neck, cleaning away the blood. Carrington and I watch him, waiting for his reaction. I know I wouldn’t hold it together too well if someone just accused me of attempted murder, especially of someone I care about.

“I got lost in my thoughts on the treadmill,” he finally says.

I’m a little taken aback. Not that I wanted him to start yelling or anything, but I definitely expected him to say something more like, “Are you out of your mind? I would never hurt Alexia.”

Something about the way he’s responding isn’t sitting right with me.

“That’s it? That’s all you have to say?” Carrington says incredulously.

“What do you want me to say? I think we all know it wasn’t me. And I would be outraged that you just accused your own brother of viciously attacking a woman, but to be fair, I just accused our brother of the same thing, so what would that makeme?” he snaps, placing a butterfly bandage over one cut, and then the other. “I should have never left Alexia alone.”

The pain laced in his words hits me hard. I hate seeing him like this. “I told you to go,” I say.

He finishes bandaging me up and sighs. “I had a gut feeling and I should have listened to it. For some reason, someone wants you dead.” He glances at Carrington from the corner of his eye. “I’ll clean this mess up. You get her tucked into bed.”

“Good idea,” she grumbles, helping me to my feet.

Before she leads me out of the room, I look back over my shoulder. “Are you going to?—”

“Yes,” he says, somehow understanding my unspoken question. All I want to know is what he’ll be with me tonight. “Just go get in bed.”

I swallow hard and let Carrington wrap her arm around my waist. I can walk with no trouble, but I am feeling very shaky after that encounter. I’ve never been so scared before, not even during my first shift as a child or when I was being watched in the fitting room.

Carrington’s tucking me into Kai’s bed and is about to turn away to cut out the light when I grab her hand. She looks down at me and says, “You okay?”

“What Xander said, I don’t think it was Kai. I don’t believe he’d do that. Besides, that guy was way too big to be him anyways.”

Carrington sits next to me on the edge of the bed and lets out a sigh. “Yeah, I’d know if it were him, and it wasn’t. And I don’t really think it was Xander either. I was just pissed.”

I can’t help but laugh at the idea of Xander hurting me. “I know it wasn’t Xander. He wasn’t tall enough, and that wasn’t his voice. It was familiar, but... not at the same time.”

She shudders. “I hate knowing someone was in the house like that and we didn’t even know.” She squeezes my forearm and gets to her feet. “Need anything?”

“No, I’m okay.”

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