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)
After Charlie got Zeke’s note from his files, he’d been pretty low. He spent most of his time in bed, wrapped in Zeke’s quilt like a burrito. Matilda had kindly urged me not to push him for more than he could give. She spent hours in Charlie’s room, just sitting with him in the quiet. One day, she re-stitched the scar that Zeke had left on the quilt, not even bothering to take it from Charlie. She’d found it down by his feet and neatly repaired it while he was wrapped in it.
Charlie’s depression weighed heavily on me, but I tried to remember that he was surrounded by people who loved him and, eventually, he’d be interested in joining the land of the living again. We made sure he ate and showered and spoke to at least one of us a day, but beyond that, he felt out of reach. It left a hole that I struggled to fill, but I was learning to let go a little. It wasn’t easy.
It helped that Ambrose and I were nearly always together. Even when he pored over Zeke’s documents, he was never very far away. I sat with him while he worked, watching movies, reading books, and doodling on one of the multiple sketchbooks he’d ordered for me. Dinner was always a family affair, but afterward was just for us. We showered together, driving each other crazy until we either gave in and had sex against the wall or stumbled out to the bed or whatever other piece of furniture we bumped into. We’d had sex in every inch of the apartment, and we’d discovered every inch of each other’s bodies. It was a small bright spot during those gloomy days when nothing felt like it was going right.
A pall had fallen over those of us in the house, no matter how we tried to avoid it. Every day seemed closer to some new confrontation, but we had no idea which direction it would come from. Frustration and worry built.
It didn’t help that Sven still hadn’t woken up, and Alice had become a shell of herself. Her mate lay quietly sleeping, but I wasn’t sure if she’d slept more than a few hours since the house had been attacked. She repeated over and over again that he just needed time, but the rest of us had begun to wonder if Sven would be a casualty of Finau’s deception.
Danny seemed to be the only one of us that hadn’t fallen victim to the gloom. He was constantly moving, constantly talking, constantly disappearing. He didn’t mention his mate—ever—but I knew he must’ve been seeing her somehow. I couldn’t imagine how they managed to stay apart as much as they did. We didn’t even know her name.
Something was strange about that whole situation, but I didn’t feel like it was my place to ask about it. With someone out there kidnapping and torturing mates, I didn’t blame him for being cautious. In the darkest parts of my mind, I was glad that he hadn’t introduced us to her. It would be one less person for me to mourn if something bad happened…and it would be information that I wouldn’t be able to give if I was ever taken.
Ambrose had taken me down to the home gym off the garage once I was fully healed. It had everything you could possibly want in terms of exercise machines and weights, but I’d been most glad to see the sparring mats and punching bag. My skills had gotten rusty. It had been pure luck, desperation, and a little muscle memory that enabled me to crawl out from under the man I’d killed, but I wasn’t willing to bet on those things again.
Every morning, we sparred in the gym. Beau and Reese joined us. Reese clearly hadn’t had any professional training, but she was scrappy as hell, and she fought dirty. Both of those things worked in her favor.
Sometimes Reese and I grappled, but not often. Based on what we’d seen so far, the humans we were fighting were male. She needed to know how to fight off an attacker who was larger and stronger than her. I taught her some moves that I thought were a good foundation, but she spent most of her time training with Beau.
Erik, Chance, and Danny joined us too, but because of the mating heat, I rarely sparred with any of them unless I fought a little dirty myself and ambushed them. Ambrose was adamant that I spare myself from the burn, but I figured that if I ended up needing the skills again, I’d need to know how to navigate fighting while I was on fire.
I couldn’t count on the fact that the heat would be secondary to everything else, like it had been the night we’d been attacked. The chances were that they wouldn’t try a full assault the next time, and I’d be caught unaware. Even a split second of hesitation could mean the difference between escape and torture.