Page 2 of To Keep A Wolf
Finally, I exhale.
False alarm.
“How long have you been like this?” Tripp demands.
“Um. What day is it?” I ask, trying to do the math in my fuzzy, sleep-deprived brain.
Instead of answering, he reaches for the hand towel and runs water from the sink over it. When it’s drenched, he wrings it out and then crouches beside me. He lifts the cold, wet towel toward my forehead, and I flinch.
He pauses, his angry look draining away, replaced by a softness that makes me want to curl into a ball and never come out again.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” he says quietly, and I relax.
Slowly, he brings the towel to my forehead and wipes. Then my cheeks, my nose, my chin, my neck. The cool dampness is a balm to my sweaty, sticky skin. I breathe out a sigh of—not relief but something close to it.
“Do you feel as bad as you look?” he asks.
When I glance up, his lips are twitching. I snort. “Worse.”
“Damn, girl.”
He sits back, sizing me up in a different way now.
But I don’t wait for him to come to a conclusion.
“How are you here?” I ask. “I thought you and Jadick were on the outs.”
He gives me a look that says “understatement,” and it really is.
“You could say that.” He shakes his head. Jadick had been beyond pissed to learn Tripp had accused him of drugging my wolf in order to keep me weak while he manipulated me into marriage.
“Grey called me after the announcement. Told me what happened with your wolf.”
“Wait. What do you meanwhat happened with my wolf?”
“The connection. To Levi?” At my confusion, he hesitates. “Your mate bond made you feel what Levi felt…? Did no one explain this to you?”
I shake my head.
He sighs. “Apparently, your mom put it together, and Grey overheard when she said something to Jadick after your … announcement was made the other day.” He frowns at the mention of that particular event but then goes on, “Your bond with Levi was stronger than we all realized, and that made your wolf susceptible to the drugs they gave him while Kari—”
Even though he stops himself, I flinch at the reminder of how Levi was tortured while he’d been held captive here.
“Anyway.” He clears his throat. “As his wolf was muted by the drugs and the torture, yours was too. Because of your mate bond.”
Our mate bond. Right.
I try to take comfort in the fact that no one was poisoning me directly (this time), but all I can think is how much I want that connection with Levi back again. A connection I didn’t even know we shared. One that I severed the moment I publicly accepted Jadick as my fiancé. My future mate.
“Now, I’m back in,” Tripp says with a shrug, “but I’m on bathroom duty for a month. Your bathroom,” he adds, glancing pointedly at the opulent room that currently smells like vomit and B.O. “Evidently, you’ve been making a mess.”
My shoulders sag. “I’m sorry,” I say, but he waves me off.
“Shut up, Mac. Does Jadick know how sick you are?” I simply look at him until he sighs. “Right. Stupid question. And your mom?”
“Haven’t seen her.”
He doesn’t say anything else. The silence between us is like a pressure building.
