Page 95 of Shackled to the World
When his stomach growled, he could feel Annora smile against his shoulder. She pushed away from him, shoving her hair away from her face, and kissed his chin. “You’re hungry. Let’s get some breakfast.”
Logan rolled onto his back and watched Annora kick away the blankets, her night shirt hiking up dangerously, and he sucked in a sharp breath when his cock sprang to attention in response. After being tortured, nearly every inch of his skin cut and burned, part of him had been afraid that he’d never be able to function completely again.
As Annora fluttered around the room, picking out her clothes, he cupped himself through the sweats, then sucked in a startled breath, quickly dropping his hand away from the almost too-sensitive contact. A second later, a joyous smile spread across his face, ridiculously relieved to know that he was fully functional.
When she slipped into the bathroom, he gingerly hauled himself to his feet, his bones creaking like an old man. It took a good five minutes for his muscles to respond and warm up. By the time he could straighten completely, he was shaking from the exertion.
“It’ll take time for your body to feel like it’s your own again.”
He whirled to find Annora leaning against the doorway of the bathroom, concern darkening her eyes as she tenderly assessed his scars. She didn’t look disgusted, more like sad she couldn’t have prevented them.
He unconsciously ran his hand over the jagged markings. While his body felt familiar, it was different, not so completely under his control anymore, and it disturbed him.
He could live with the marks, but it was harder to deal with the knowledge that she’d survived under that sadistic fuck’s care for nearly ten years. How—he wasn’t sure. He barely survived a week. Bile rose in his throat at the thought of all the pain and horror she endured without hope of rescue.
“How long did it take for you to feel normal?” Logan picked up a discarded shirt and pulled it over his head, feeling suddenly shy about her seeing his body.
She gave him a crooked smile, then leaned down and began straightening their scattered bed. “I never knew what it was like to be normal, not until I met you and the rest of the guys.”
Fuck if his heart didn’t crack right then.
Determination burned in his chest—if it was the last thing he ever did, he would do devote the rest of his life to making her happy.
When she straightened, her arms full of blankets, her eyes sparkling with mischief, he felt the first flash of familiar fire in his chest. He was afraid to move, afraid he might lose the feeling and fall back into the black hole that was his life for the past week.
Needing a distraction, he cocked his head. “What are you thinking?”
“I have a way for us to reclaim your body as your own.” She dropped the blankets at her feet, nearly stumbling over them when she headed toward the stairs. She stopped at the top, then turned back toward him and held out her hand. “Trust me?”
His damned cock jumped at the mention of her claiming his body, and he gave her a crooked smile, knowing she didn’t have a clue what she did to him with her innocent comment. He slipped his hand into hers, a weight lifting off his chest when she didn’t flinch away, and the part of him had been petrified that the bastard had ruined him faded.
He tightened his hold, her touch making him believe that he could be normal and whole again. “With my life.”
* * *
Annora told Mason what she needed—that’s how they ended up in the tiny hole-in-the wall place in the middle of nowhere. The building was rickety, the paint chipped, the sign out front so faded it was hard to read.
Rick’s Tattoos and Piercings.
The guys took formation around her, Logan at her side, as they studied the building.
“We should be back at the house training,” Sadie snipped, pacing while she scowled at them. “The sheer mass of magic you used is going to attract an invading army, and none of you are remotely ready to fight.”
“Enough.” Camden didn’t have to yell for Sadie to shut the fuck up. His voice carried enough command that her mouth snapped shut with an audible click. But it didn’t stop the glares and muttering as they began to walk toward the building.
The guys had agreed to give her a few hours alone as a family without training or worrying about their future.
Time for them to heal.
Terrance and Kevin had returned home that morning bruised, battered, splattered with blood and gore, but they were laughing and talking. They promised to guard the house while the rest of them were gone and call if there was any trouble.
Lionel and Giles were working together to help organize the stray wolves who lost their alpha, so things everywhere across campus were in an uproar. Some of the wolves and shifters fought willingly in order to keep up their drug supply, but most of them had been forced to fight by an alpha who was too strong for them to disobey.
Loulou took charge of the magic users who had begun calling to demand an audience.
It was a fucking mess. Call her a coward, but Annora wanted no part of sorting it out.
As they piled into the building, she was relieved to see the place was neat as a pin, a fire flickering in the entryway to keep them warm. There were a couple of other shifters in the place, watching them warily, and Annora pushed her way to the front.
