Page 45 of Midnight Hunt

Knowing there was no way to shelter him from the pain to come, I replied, “Make it through this alive, and you can have all the kisses you want.”

“Promise?”

At the change in his tone, I let my eyes meet his. The usual chocolate brown was now a bright yellow, and I swallowed hard at the sight. Firming my grip on him, I nodded.

“Cross my heart,” I promised, then gritted my teeth and pulled.

14

GRIFF

Fire. Everything wasfire.

I thought for sure I would pass out from the pain, but I felt every agonizing second as Vi pulled me off the jagged tree stump.

A muffled scream escaped my clenched teeth, my body trembling from the effort of holding still. The entire time, Whiskey kept howling inside my head. Not from the fiery pain, but from the fact that I’d kissed Vi. He was ecstatic, and a little pain wasn’t going to rain on his parade.

Truthfully, I was equally elated. Not wanting to spook her, I’d played off the kiss as a simple way to calm her down, but that hadn’t been the real reason why I’d kissed her. I’d expected her to push me away, especially after everything that had happened between us this week—not to mention Reid breaking up with her. Instead, she’d done something I’d been entirely unprepared for.

She’d kissed me back.

Not softly either.Feverishly. Like she’d been missing me as much as I’d been missing her.

By thunder, yer back in the game, laddy!Whiskey crowed like a pirate.Aye, yer little wench is thirsty for ya, that’s for bloody sure. She practically sucked yer bleedin’ face off.

Despite the derogatory comment, I couldn’t help but laugh. The movement sent fresh pain ripping through me, but I only laughed harder.

“Idiot. Would you stop laughing?” Vi growled, and I tried my best to stop. A second later, I burst out laughing again. “Griffin Hayes O’Neal, I swear I’m going to kill you after this!”

Hearing the fear in her voice did the trick, and my laughter quickly faded.

Moments later, she pulled me free of the stump and helped me stand. When I listed sideways, she kept her arms around me and held me upright.

“Easy. You lost a lot of blood,” she said, nearly my height in her half-shifted state. I gratefully leaned against her, not the least bit embarrassed by her help. She was a capable alpha female, and any male intimidated by that was simply weak.

As we stood together by the stream, thoroughly soaked by the falling rain, I folded my arms around her and buried my face in the crook of her neck. We didn’t move for several long moments, allowing our bodies to heal from the devastating plane crash.

Finally, she started to shrink in my arms, reverting back to her human form. When the transformation was complete, she pulled back, and I reluctantly let her go.

Through the rain and gloom, I watched her eyes flit up to my face, then down to my chest. Pursing her lips, she murmured, “Let me see.”

“It’s fine, Vi. Already healing,” I said, but I didn’t stop her from grasping the hem of my ruined shirt and lifting it. She hiked the material all the way up to my collarbone, gasping softly when she caught sight of my bare chest. At her reaction, I couldn’t resist drawling, “I mean, I know my pecs are awesome, but you’ve seen them hundreds of times.”

“Shut up, Griff,” she tightly replied, reaching up to gently prod at my skin. I flinched at the contact, and her eyes immediately flew up to mine. “Did I hurt you?”

I shook my head, silently watching as she resumed her poking and prodding. For a brief second, I glimpsed the gnarly half-healed hole in my chest, then firmly returned my gaze to Vi.

“What’s the prognosis, Doc?” I asked her, grimacing when I felt my sternum snap back into place.

She stopped poking to glance up at me again. “You’ll live. Your breathing and heart rate have returned to normal. You’re still bleeding a bit, though, so you’ll want to take it easy until the wound is fully closed.”

A grin tugged at my mouth.

Seeing it, she rolled her eyes and huffed out, “What now?”

“You’re just cute when you play caretaker.”

“Really, Griff? Do you takeanythingseriously? You almostdied. I nearly lost you, and . . . and how did this even happen? That jet was in mint condition. Randy always took such good care of her, and—” Her hand suddenly flew to her mouth. “Oh, God.Randy. I can’t believe he’s dead. We’d probably be dead too if we were human. I can’t . . . I just can’t . . .”

---