Page 9 of Pack Kasen: Part 3
I swallow the lump in my throat. “I’ve been better.”
I’m naked beneath these sheets, and thankfully, my belly no longer hurts. When I run my fingers over it, there’s not even a hint of a wound. I’m all healed up. “How long have I been out?”
“Two days.” His voice is quiet.
Tooquiet.
Like the silence before a thunderclap splits the sky.
“Oh.”
“You lost a lot of blood. Gregor had to stitch you up when we brought you home so you’d heal faster.”
“Home?”
“Home,” he repeats firmly.
“I had a metal chain around my ankle.”
“I broke it,” he says simply.
Of course he did. I eye his muscled arms. I bet he barely had to strain.
“It was Cristofer, one of my friends who worked in the library on campus,” I tell him, sitting up. “He killed my exes, and he seemed to want me for some reason.”
“It’s no mystery why someone would want you, Kitty cat.”
It is utterly bizarre to me that I've become so accepting of a nickname I swear he only gave me to push my buttons. It would feel odd now not to hear him say it.
“How did you find me?”
“Tracked all the old mines in the area. There were a few. We paired up and searched each one.”
I pluck at the soft cotton sheets. “I guess I ruined Joy and Emilio’s party, huh?”
He blinks. “Are you saying that to drive me crazy?”
“Why would that drive you crazy?”
“You say that like you think you’re not worth saving. Like we should have kept partying and forgotten all about you.”
For a girl who grew up in the foster care system, that’s what I’m used to.
Thought of last or not thought of at all.
I don’t say any of that, though. There’s an intense look in Aren’s eyes that makes me nervous. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I was nearly too late,” he says softly. “When I got you back and rushed you to the infirmary, you’d lost so much blood that Gregor didn’t think you’d make it.”
My heart clenches. “I’m a shifter. It takes more than a crossbow bolt to kill me.”
“The silver meant you weren’t healing. All you were doing was bleeding out. You didn’tstarthealing until I got the chain off you.”
Shit.
I lick my dry lips. “What happened to Cristofer?”
His jaw hardens. “Got away.”
