Chapter 16 - Bailey

As my eyes flicker open, I have no idea where I am. Bright orange light flickers across my vision, patterning against deep shadows and open wooden beams.

Unfamiliar ceiling. A cabin?

As soon as I try to move, my injuries scream at me, and I remember most of what happened, but not enough to know where I am or how I got here.

Gina!

I sit up quickly, making my head spin, but quickly throwing off the weak feeling. I toss off the blanket and swing my feet to the floor. My eyes adjust quickly, and I see Gina sitting in a chair by the front door.

I look around, slowly scanning the cabin. I have no idea where we are. It’s definitely not a place I’ve been before. It looks like a tiny cottage with small rooms attached to the central one, where the fireplace is.

A tiny, bright fire burns low in the hearth. Gina used old, dry wood so there wouldn’t be much smoke and kept it burning low to hide the light.

How the hell did she get us here?

I stand up carefully and stretch. The worst wounds, like the one on my thigh and under my ribs, are just pale bruises now. I can still feel a bit of a dent in my skull, and my forearm is a little tender. Otherwise, I’m fully healed.

As my senses return, so does my rage. They were going to hurt her.

I clench my fists, breathing deeply to stay calm. The only thing that will comfort me is making sure Gina is alright, so I hurry over to the chair.

She’s slumped to the side, completely passed out. Her long black lashes lay across her cheeks, giving her an angelic appearance. Even in the dull light from the fire, her skin looks like it glows. Her lips are a perfect ruby-red.

She must have been guarding the cabin and fell asleep.

I gently gather her up in my arms and walk over to the bed. She doesn’t stir, and her breathing stays deep and even.

She must be so tired.

I lower her down to the bed as gently as possible, but as I settle her on the mattress, her eyes flick open.

“Bae!” she cries.

I don’t get a chance to answer—she hurls herself at me and wraps her arms around me, squeezing hard enough to hurt.

“It’s okay, Gina,” I say softly, stroking her back. “I’m okay.”

She hugs me even tighter, and I hear her sob against my chest.

“You weren’t,” she whispers. “You were dying.”

I take hold of her shoulders and pull back a little. “Look. Not dead. I promise.”

“Are you sure?” she mumbles, wiping her nose.

“Well,” I say, grinning. “I might need a full examination. You know, real close up, inch by inch. You really should check, just to make sure I’m healed.”

She giggles, trying to wipe away her tears. “Every inch, huh? You mean that?”

“Completely serious,” I answer, giving her a straight face. “Leave no part of me untouched. Stroke me, squeeze me… hell, even use your tongue. Gotta be thorough.”

She cackles out loud, even though tears are still welling in her eyes. I sit back for a moment, and my stomach growls loudly.

“Damn,” I say. “I might need to hunt after healing like that.”

“Oh, there’s a bag just over there. It’s got some candy bars and soda in it.”

I hurry over to where she’s pointing and bring back a Scooby Doo backpack stocked with goodies.

“Wait,” I say, stilling. “I recognize this bag. It was yours, at school.”

“Yeah,” she says, digging around to find a candy bar. “I used to come here a lot back then.”

“Where is ‘here?’”

“It’s neutral territory. Still a decent distance from any official camping grounds, but not owned by any particular pack.”

“Okay,” I mumble, chewing down candy bars and washing them down with lemonade. “How did we get here?”

“Well, we walked, crawled. Swam. I’m not even sure.”

She pauses and takes another bite of chocolate, smearing some on her lip. Without thinking, I reach over and brush it away, then put my finger in my mouth. Gina looks at me in surprise, and I see her eyes flick across my body.

“You do look good,” she whispers. “Healed.”

I grin, barely resisting the urge to pose and flex. “I told you, you better be sure. Check me out. Get close.”

She giggles, shaking her head. I reach over and stroke her hair gently. Even though I’m not kidding about the physical exam I’m sure I desperately need, my stomach is still growling, so I want to inhale a few more candy bars before I tease her more.

“Bae,” she says.

I look up in surprise, licking chocolate off my lip. “Yes?”

“I need to say something.”

The mood in the room has changed dramatically. It feels like she’s going to drop something extremely serious on me, and I’m not going to like it.

Does she want to go back to Denver? Is it the pack? Or me?

“I—” Her voice gets caught in her throat, and she shakes her head before trying again. “I realized something when you were knocked out.”

She sighs, putting aside her candy and taking my hand. When she looks at me, her blue eyes are deep and serious, full of emotions I can’t possibly fathom.

“I realized that I… I love you. I always have. This isn’t a crush or an infatuation… it’s like I knew it, even back in high school. That we were fated.”

“I knew it, too,” I admit, the memories as clear to me as the glaring summer sun. The kind that burns you and leaves no shadows to hide in. “I wanted you, every single day. I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I only pushed you away because I was trying to deny it. God!”

I stand up and turn away from her, running my hands through my hair. When I turn back to the bed, I kneel down beside it so I’m at her eye level.

“I’m so, so sorry,” I whisper, shaking my head. “Please forgive me. And don’t do it for me—I deserve anything you want to throw at me. Just, please, forgive me for yourself, and know that you never did anything wrong. You always were beautiful, strong, smart, and just… magical. And you still are.”

There is a huge smile growing on her face, a kind I’ve never seen before. It’s like I can see confidence glowing in her heart. Wounds being healed before my very eyes.

“I appreciate that, Bae,” she says. “So much, but I have something to say, too.” She looks down and takes a deep breath before meeting my eyes again. “I really did leave town because of you. I’m sorry, I made that fight far worse than it had to be. I was just so scared… scared to expose myself to you again. Afraid to be hurt. Now I know it just doesn’t matter.”

“Why?” I ask, almost afraid to hear the answer.

Gina leans forward and puts her hands on my cheeks, smiling. “Because any pain that could come from being close to you is nothing compared to the pain of losing you. I have to be with you. All in, for as long as the fates will let us be.”

I kiss her tenderly, and she kisses me back.

“I thought you might want to go back to Denver,” I mutter with a grin.

She laughs. “Really? I had friends there, and I was on stage, but it wasn’t an easy life.”

“Oh?”

“No wolves,” she says softly. “Not a single one. I couldn’t shift, I couldn’t run, not even on a full moon. That pain… it felt like I had to carry it. I was walking around half alive.”

I wrap my arms around her, squeezing her against my chest. “Never again!” I whisper fiercely. “I will never let you feel that way ever again!”

For a moment, we just hold each other. I get up off the floor and slip onto the bed, pulling one of the blankets over me.

“Cold?” Gina asks, grinning mischievously.

“Yeah, a little. I suppose my clothes got lost in the fight with the other alpha.”

“Uh-huh,” she says coyly. “But there are spare clothes in the bag near the fire.”

I stare at her. “So, you’ve literally been letting me just sit here buck-ass naked this whole time?”

“Uh-huh,” she giggles, twirling her hair in her fingers.

“You imp!” I reach up and grab her, pulling her down to me.

She wrestles with me just a bit, and I tickle her, making her laugh. Finally, I find her lips and kiss her, feeling her whole body relax against me as I start to explore her mouth with my tongue.

“You need to rest,” she whispers breathlessly as she pulls away. “We can’t be doing this.”

“I’m fine,” I gasp, pulling her back down to me. My need for her is rushing through my blood, almost making me tremble. She’s on top of me, pressed right up against me, and my cock feels hard enough to tear right through the blanket and her jeans.

“Stop, stop,” she says, pushing me away and sitting up. “I’m not convinced you’re fully healed. Seriously, Bae, you didn’t see.”

I wink at her. “Check me out, then. I’m all good, I promise.”

The grin she gives me is so sexy, it steals my breath. When she softly bites her bottom lip, I actually let out a strangled gasp.

“Good God, woman, do something,” I beg. “I’ve waited years for this, and I don’t see why either of us should wait any longer.”

“Well, okay,” she says softly. “I’ll give you a close examination in your most tender areas… with my tongue.”

“Oh my fucking God,” I say with a strangled voice.

“I’ll spoil you, just like you spoiled me,” she whispers, leaning down to kiss me on the lips. She makes it brief, then starts sliding down my body, dragging the blanket aside as she does. Her fingers trail slowly across my belly, then my hips, and shivers run through me all the way to my bones.

“Fuck, Gina.” My voice is so soft, it sounds like a prayer.

I hear her gasp as she teases my inner thighs, alternating between soft touches with her fingertips and scratching me lightly with her nails. I close my eyes and lean my head back, giving myself to her.

Then, I feel her hot, soft lips wrap around the head of my cock. A groan builds in my throat, but I smother it down. We can’t make too much noise.

Gina moans low in her throat as she slowly sucks down the shaft, taking her time to reach the end. She grabs my hips and works herself slowly up and down, sliding her tongue along the base of the shaft on every stroke.

Just as I get lost in the rhythm, she pulls back, and I feel her hand wrap firmly around my cock. She starts pumping me slowly but firmly. When her other hand grabs my balls and squeezes them, my hips buck up and down, and I can’t stop the loud moan that rips from my throat.

I look up and see her straddling my thighs, grinning as she works my cock with her hands. She winks at me and bends her head down again.

Instead of swallowing me whole, she wraps her warm, wet lips around the head of my cock and sucks on it while her hand keeps pumping the shaft. She braces against my hip with her other hand as she strokes up and down with the other and gently runs her tongue around the edges of the tip of my cock.

Her hand pumps faster and faster, and her tongue laps at me urgently. When she wraps her lips around me and sucks as hard as she can, tension sings through me. I feel that sweet tingling, and I know I’m about to come.

Then she stops. Her hands let go of me, and her mouth goes away. Before I can even flinch, she grips my hips in both hands and slams her mouth down on my cock, deep-throating me.

“Fuck, fuck, holy goddamn fuck!” The cries rip out of me, and I cover my mouth so I don’t yell.

Gina pulls back just a little, and I hear her chuckle as she teases her tongue up and down the shaft, then sucks my cock all the way down her throat again. Her fingernails dig into my hips as she gets a good grip on me. She starts to bob up and down, using her whole body to move my cock in and out of her mouth. The rhythm is incredibly slow and gentle. My cock is so hard from the teasing and the edging, it’s almost painful.

Then she rocks back and forth, faster and faster. Something inside me lets go, and I stretch out underneath her, letting her own me and devour me.

I’ve never trusted anyone like this before.

The tension sings through me again, and my muscles start to tremble. My body holds back, staying right on the brink as Gina thrusts her mouth up and down.

As my cock swells in her mouth, Gina moans, and a series of sharp cries get caught somewhere between her throat and my cock.

It sounds like she’s coming. Oh my fucking God, she’s coming from sucking my cock.

With a great, ripping cry, my cock blows, jerking and shivering deep in Gina’s throat. She holds on to my hips, keeping her lips wrapped around the shaft and swallowing greedily. As my orgasm begins to die down, she runs her tongue around the swollen head, lapping up any stray drops and mopping them up with her lips.

When she looks up at me, her eyes are glowing, her hair is a wild mess, and she wears the biggest, most satisfied smile I have ever seen. My entire world has narrowed down to one thought.

I fucking love this woman!