Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 92043 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92043 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
“They looked a lot worse before—”
“I don’t care, Charlie,” I snapped.
The kitchen went silent.
“They’re fine. They don’t hurt, okay?”
“Lucy?” Ambrose called questioningly.
I wasn’t sure why I was so angry, but I was. The longer I was awake, the higher the wave of rage built. The large kitchen felt like it was pressing in on all sides.
“Mm,” Matilda said with mock cheerfulness. “Broth. My favorite.”
“Come sit here, Mom,” Charlie said, patting the seat next to him. “You can at least pretend it’s a meal.”
My vision darkened at the edges.
“Do you think Charlie would be offended if I let him know he could call us Mom and Dad?”
My heartbeat thundered in my ears.
“Baby?” Ambrose rounded the island and moved toward me.
“I’m fine,” I said, sliding off the stool. I backed away.
“What’s wrong?”
“I said I’m fine,” I gritted out, still backing up.
“Lucy, stop,” he ordered as I bumped into the kitchen table.
“You stop,” I shot back, making him freeze. “I said I’m fine, all right?”
“You’re clearly not.”
Bang.
Bang.
Bang.
BANG.
My hands were over my ears in an instant.
I could see Ambrose’s mouth moving, but I couldn’t hear him.
“Safe,” he repeated as my ears stopped ringing. “You’re safe, love. You’re safe.”
I started to laugh, my eyes watering.
“Lucy, come here.”
“I’m safe?” I asked doubtfully. “That’s what you want to go with? That’s the big declaration you want to make now?”
“It’s over,” he said softly.
“No, it’s not,” I argued, staring at him in disbelief. “It’ll never be over.”
“We’ll find them,” he assured me.
“Who?” I threw my arms in the air and immediately regretted it. “Because I killed”—my voice cracked—“a lot of them, and they just kept coming. Waves of them. Like frigging zombies.”
“We’ll cut off the head of the snake,” Ambrose replied. “That’s how we’ll stop them.”
“You don’t even know who that is,” I screamed. “You don’t know anything!”
“That’s because we were searching for Charles,” Ambrose countered. “Now that we know he’s safe, we can research. Talk to contacts. Get to the bottom of it.”
“Oh, he’s safe?” I hissed. “Like I was safe?”
Ambrose’s expression fell.
“You left me here unconscious,” I said. “I woke up to Alice telling me that everything had gone to shit and gunshots going off outside. Do you have any idea what that was like? I’d been worried about you, not me!”
“I know,” Ambrose ground out.
“I wasn’t prepared,” I screamed, my hands shaking. “I wasn’t—you said I would be safe here!”
“I know,” he repeated, his eyes darkening.
“I wasn’t safe! None of us were safe!”
“I know,” he croaked, taking a step forward.
“I laid there, burning, thinking that I was keeping you safe, and—”
“What?” Ambrose breathed, his eyes widening in shock.
“Oh, yeah,” I snapped. “That sedation? Couldn’t move. Couldn’t wake up. Still burned from the inside out.”
“No.”
“You didn’t feel it?”
“I—yes,” he sputtered, his brow drawn in confusion. “But it wasn’t so bad that—”
“Well, I’m glad it wasn’t so bad for you,” I shot back. “But it didn’t even work, and you left me here helpless. What if Alice hadn’t been able to wake me up in time? What then? Do you have any idea what that was like?”
“Lucy,” Charlie called in warning as Ambrose’s face lost all color.
I ignored him as the heat inside me roared to life again at the worst possible moment.
“You fucked me, and then you fucked me,” I spat. “I told you to let that asshole find his own mate. I told all of you.”
Ambrose just stared at me in shocked silence.
Suddenly, the rage left me almost as quickly as it had come, and all I was left with was a hollowness. None of it mattered. They’d made a bad call, and things had gone to shit. There was nothing to do about it anymore. We couldn’t change the past.
Matilda set her mug down and moved toward us.
“I watched you die,” I choked out. “I—there was so much blood. You fell down and your feet—”
“Come here, sweetheart,” she said, pulling me into her arms.
I felt like a little kid as she shushed me and smoothed her hand over the back of my head.
“You be angry if you need to,” she said. “Get it all out. He can take it.”
“He left me all alone,” I whispered, squeezing my eyes shut. “It hurt.”
“I know. I know he did.”
“I was supposed to be safe here,” I replied. “If I’d known, I could’ve prepared myself.”
“No one can prepare themselves for that,” she soothed. “But I understand what you mean.”
“You were dead,” I whispered.
“Sorry,” she teased gently. “You’re still stuck with a mother-in-law. You can’t get rid of me that easily.”
I let out a choked laugh.
“I want you to remember three things for me,” she said, rocking me from side to side. “Can you do that?”
I nodded against her shoulder.
“One, there are a lot of things in this world that are unpredictable, but Ambrose is not one of them. He’d protect you with his life, and he’d never willingly put you in danger. That’s not how he was raised, and it’s not how he’s built. He loves you.”