Page 18 of Crave

I was beside him in an instant. “Shh, it’s okay. You’re at the doctor’s. You’re okay.”

“Hurts,” he moaned, and I felt physically sick. This was my fault. No, it was fuckingWilkie’sfault.

“I’m going to kill him, Quinn. I’m going to put him in the ground, then I’ll shit on his grave. I promise. Somehow, it will happen.”

Tanner cleared his throat. “I’m just going to take some X-rays of his ribs. I’m also a little worried that given the amount of bruising, he might have fractures in the cartilage around his larynx and trachea.” He looked down at Quinn. “Sorry, Q. This might hurt a little.” He prodded around Quinn’s throat, his face filled with professional concern. “Let me know if you feel any crackling or popping sensations, okay?”

In the end, Quinn had two broken ribs, but thankfully only soft tissue damage to his throat. Given the rate we healed, Tanner thought he’d be as good as new in three to four days. Well, on the outside.

The terror Wilkie had inflicted on us for so long would take an age to heal, if it ever did at all. Because how could you heal from your wounds if the monster was hiding in the shadows, ready to cut you open all over again?

11

QUINN

Susannah hadn’t left my side in days playing nursemaid. My injuries were slowly healing, but I wasn’t sure she’d ever forget the terror of watching me go down anytime soon. She’d told me everything that happened, her voice breaking toward the end, and that hurt me more than anything.

Susannah was strong; she didn’t cry, even when she needed to. She didn’t break, even if sometimes she bent beyond what she should. As she hovered, I wished I was an Alpha. Bigger and stronger so I could protect her against men like Wilkie, instead of just being another liability.

When she’d told me about Tanner coming to our rescue, I knew I owed a debt to the vampire. None of our own kind had come, but a near-stranger—a “vicious predator” if you listened to some of the gossip—had rushed to help.

I had my follow-up appointment today, and I didn’t know if I should bake him a cake or give him a year’s worth of blowjobs for saving me. Saving us. Shaking my head, I gently nudged Susannah awake. I’d leave her asleep if I didn’t think she’d panic when she woke up and saw me gone. This was our life now. He’d filled our moments with terror.

“Babe, wake up. We’re going to be late.”

She nuzzled closer to me, and I breathed in the scent that was so quintessentially her. Kinda sweet and spicy, like gingerbread or Christmas.

“It's too early,” she grumbled.

I kissed her soft cheek. “It’s almost ten. We have to be there in fifteen minutes.”

Her eyes snapped open. Her dad was a literal General, and he’d drilled into his kids that if you weren’t fifteen minutes early, you were late. “Why did you wait so long? Get up, get up!” she insisted, nudging me gently out of bed. We had the world’s quickest shower, where I only groped her slippery boob once—okay, twice—and then we were dressed and downstairs with five minutes to get across town.

My feet stilled at the front door. Merrick and Murphy stood there in their Legion uniforms, lazing on the front porch, talking to Susannah’s father. When we appeared, they straightened. Murphy nodded a greeting. “Quinn, Susannah. The Alpha General thought it would be best if you had an escort for a little while, until things calm down.”

I frowned. “Isn’t Wilkie in the cells beneath the Legion building? How much more calming should he need?” That was where Tanner had said they were going to take him when I’d asked what happened to him.

Every Alpha on that porch frowned, and the stink of anger burned my nose. “No. Someone let him out,” Susannah’s father, Joshua, growled.

I felt sick. I gripped Susannah closer to me, like a security blanket. I could still feel his fingers around my throat, choking me, like he enjoyed watching the life leave my eyes.

There was a rumbling noise from Merrick, which was somewhere between a purr and a growl. Like he was swallowing down his anger and trying to soothe me all at once. “You’re safe here, and we’ll make sure you’re safe out there as well, until I can track that fucker down and rip his other ear off.”

That made Susannah laugh, but it was a wild, hysterical sound. I had to push my own panic down, for her. Steeling my spine, I wrapped my arm across her shoulders. “Thanks. We better get going or we’ll be late.”

And just like that, we had a military escort to town. My bruises had faded to a disgusting yellow color that made me look like I had jaundice and not that I’d had the shit beaten out of me. I kept it all covered in a long-sleeve crew-neck shirt, refusing to be fodder for the gossipmongers.

We climbed into Merrick’s ATV, and I wrapped my arm around Susannah’s waist, holding her tightly to me as we drove down the dirt tracks that made up most of the roads in Maxton. Paving anything but the road in and out would raise too many questions.

I watched the trees, and with every slight movement I wondered if it was Wilkie. I hated this. Every bump made my ribs ache. Jumping at shadows. The acrid smell of Susannah’s fear.

Finally, we were outside the clinic. “We’ll be fine from here. Tanner will keep us safe.”

I watched the play of emotions that raced over Merrick’s face at Susannah’s words. Murphy merely raised his eyebrows. “Tanner, is it? Sounds comfortable.”

Now it was my turn to frown. “When he saves you from being strangled to death, you’re allowed to be on a first-name basis.”

Merrick dipped his chin. “Of course.”

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