“You have been unconscious for two days,” Eli answered as he headed out the door. “I’ll send Tegan in with some water for you. If you start hurting, I have pain medication you can take.” With that, Eli was gone, and I was left unsure what to think of him. He had a very brisk bedside manner, something I guessed was typical of a doctor, but he was here, at Alex’s house. My musing ended when Tegan practically skipped into the room with a glass of water.
“Thank goodness you’re awake,” she dropped into a chair that was sitting beside my bed and handed me a glass of water. I took a sip and sighed as it instantly soothed my dry throat. “You have no idea how crazy Alex has been. I finally had to shove him out of the house today so he would stop pacing your room. He’ll be angry that you woke up while he was gone, but really the guy was wearing grooves into the floor.”
“Was it bad?” I asked. I hoped that maybe hearing what happened from Tegan would help to fill in the blanks in my memory.
“It was scary,” Tegan quit smiling as she told me what happened. “You told me the car was speeding up and then there was a crash. Your scream made my blood run cold, and there was this horrible sound of squealing tires. You screamed Alex’s name and then a loud crash, and then nothing. Just horrible silence. I’ve never seen Alex move so fast. He shifted and was gone before anyone else could completely register what we heard.
“When we found you, your car was smashed into a tree on your side. There was so much blood that at first, I thought you had been cut open badly somewhere. It turned out to all be coming from your head wound. While Eli patched you up, Jarren searched for anything from the other car. He found nothing. He went all the way back to the bar. There was a faint scent of the Hunter coming from the bar and parking lot, but then nothing.”
“Why didn’t I go to the hospital?” I questioned. Tegan fidgeted in her seat a little, glancing around the room like she didn’t know how to tell me something. She finally huffed out a sigh and met my gaze.
“Alex was worried for your safety,” Tegan answered. “He thinks the Hunter intended all along to hurt you. He said you’d be safer here where we could protect you.” I let the fact that my life may be in danger settle over me. I couldn’t imagine a reason for someone to want to hurt me. I was just a waitress in a small-town bar. The pack was my only link to anything other than ordinary.
“He’s after me because of you guys, isn’t he?” I asked Tegan point blank. Tegan’s eyes looked sad as she gave a slight nod. Her shoulders sagged as she slumped back in the chair. The perky girl who was happy to see her friend was gone, replaced by a person who knew she was about to lose someone she cared about. I reached out to give her hand a squeeze, and when Tegan looked up, I smiled at her.
“So, who’s Eli?” I asked. Tegan’s face broke into a grin and she was talking a mile a minute about the doctor who is a werewolf. I couldn’t help grinning back at the female werewolf who was gossiping like a middle school girl at a slumber party.
At some point, listening to Tegan talk about what was going on around the house had put me to sleep. Either that, or the cocktail of pain killers that Eli had come to feed me when my pain was getting bad, had knocked me out. When I opened my eyes, the room was dark except for the lights from my heart monitor and the dim glow coming from a small lamp.
“Hey, gorgeous,” Alex’s voice was raspy and low in the dark room. I turned my head to find him sitting in the chair that Tegan had occupied earlier. He looked like he hadn’t shaved in days. His face was lined with worry and his clothes were wrinkled like he’d been sleeping in the chair. If he had been sleeping at all.
“Hi, mountain man,” I grinned slyly. He chuckled and rubbed his hand across his unshaved beard.
“Yeah, I guess it’s getting long,” he scratched at his cheek a moment, his eyes searching my face. “How are you feeling?”
“Like I hit a tree,” I joked, and he narrowed his eyes a bit at me. “I’m sore, and so tired. I feel like I could sleep for a week. I’m hungry, too. I don’t think IV food is all that filling.” I motioned to the IV behind me that was pumping a steady flow of liquid into my body.
“Eli said you could eat. He suggested keeping it light since it’s been a few days,” Alex stood. “Do you want some soup? I’m positive that Mackenzie made a huge pot when she heard Eli say that. That woman looks for any reason to cook something.”
“Soup sounds perfect,” I smiled up at him and he leaned down to brush a brief kiss across my forehead. The moment he left the room, I tried stretching my body a little to ease the discomfort of lying so still for too long. My ribs pretest a little bit, but the pain killers still seemed to be doing their job. Hoping that it would take Alex a few minutes to get the soup, I eased my legs to the side of the bed and tried to push myself up into a sitting position with my good hand. Pain ripped through my ribs and my hips. I gritted my teeth and finally managed to sit on the edge of the bed. I was panting from the effort and the pain.
“I told
