21. Sofia

21

Sofia

H ad she just lost her mate because she was worried about Daisy the sheep?

“Please help him,” Sofia begged. She pressed her hand to her chest. The spot where he’d been stabbed burned in her own body. She could feel the fiery pain of the dagger, as if it had sliced through her skin as well.

“Did it hit his heart?” What happened when one of the magical daggers hit a dragon shifter’s heart? Sofia’s lesson had not covered that part. She hadn’t been around long enough to know. Nora had warned her about the blades.

The Irish brothers had used enchanted swords to help fight a horde of demons up in Oregon, and Nora had come up with the spells to make a regular blade pierce a demon’s skin. But they were not the only ones with that knowledge. All over the world, supernatural beings had come up with ways to defend themselves, as well as hurt each other. And the human hunters had their own methods too. Sofia could no longer assume a knife wouldn’t kill her.

Nora didn’t answer but continued to work.

“Sofia,” Nora said. “Put your hand on his forehead. A mate’s touch is a healing balm, no matter what spells are said.”

She didn’t argue about the use of the word mate. She would do anything to save him.

She did as Nora said, not trying to use her magic, but pouring all of her love, admiration, and respect into an intangible wave, and pushing it directly into Levi’s body. She didn’t try to stop the flow of tears, wanting only to focus on Levi.

The thing she’d been most afraid of had happened. Levi almost died because of her. And with a dagger to the chest, from an enchanted blade, he wasn’t out of the woods yet. It could be hours, or even days until they knew the outcome.

Nora remained in the same position, kneeling over Levi, with her hands on his chest. Slowly, the flow of blood went from gushing to a trickle. The wound had closed up, but a deep gouge remained on his chest even as the skin knit back together.

Nora leaned back. Her hands were covered in Levi’s blood. “I’ve done all that I can. The edge of the blade did nick his aorta. It would have killed a human instantly. But he will live, and he will most likely fully heal, but it will take time.” She looked up at Kellan, who’d come to stand nearby. “Make him stay with you, and don’t let him over do it.”

Kellan nodded. “We can handle that.”

Sofia bowed her head. Nora had not given her the instruction. His own mate had been left out of taking care of him, because she was too shallow to commit. She inhaled. She would not show that the comment had bothered her and make all of this about her. It was about Levi, and the focus should remain on him.

“Let’s get him inside,” Nora said.

Kellan moved closer and picked him up, carrying him to one of the downstairs bedrooms that had its own bathroom. Once he was in bed, Sofia hovered in the doorway.

Would they kick her out now that she’d rejected him? Would they want her to leave and never come back? Fallon came through the door with a bowl and a washcloth.

“Should I go?” Sofia asked.

Fallon considered her. “Do you want to go?”

“No. I want to be here with him.”

Fallon cracked a smile. “Then these are for you,” she said, pushing the bowl and cloth into Sofia’s hand.

“I can stay?” She held out her hands and gratefully accepted the bowl and cloth.

“The general consensus is that proximity to your mate when injured is the best medicine any of us have to offer,” Fallon said. She lowered her voice. “Look. You and I haven’t spent a lot of time together. But I’ve heard that you and Levi are mates, that you weren’t ready to commit, and that you were still considering going to live with the motorcycle club.” She waved her hand. “No one in this house is going to hold that against you.” Fallon put her hands on her hips. “Levi isn’t going to hold that against you.”

Relief burst through her veins like water breaking through a dam. She put the bowl down and hugged Fallon. “Thank you,” she whispered. “I wasn’t sure of my welcome here now.”

Fallon’s eyes narrowed. “Did someone say something?”

“No! No. Everyone’s been so nice. I just…” Her throat closed up.

“Hey.” Fallon’s arms came up around her again. “Some of the shifters in this house have a fairy tale love story. They’d be happy to tell you all about it, but some of us don’t. There are a lot of false starts, rejections, and breakups, and that’s just among the guys who live on this land.”

“Really?” Sofia asked. Everyone on the ranch seemed perfect. Yes, they’d had their share of problems, but most of those had been caused by evil forces from the outside. Right?

When she mentioned that to Fallon, Fallon threw her head back and laughed. “Oh, Lord. Do I have some stories for you!” She laughed again. “Oh yeah, a few of us have stories worthy of a reality show.” She sat down on one of the chairs next to Levi’s bedside. “Sit down next to him, and I’ll tell you the story of how Brennan and I got together.”

Sofia sat.

“So, I met Brennan for the first time, and well, we hit it off. We had a one-night stand. Afterward, we parted ways. Then I found out I was pregnant with my oldest, Rowan. I’m Fae, so I knew that Brennan wasn’t human, and I knew my baby wouldn’t be either. So, five years go by, and I never tried to look for Brennan. Then one day, out of the blue, guess who shows up on the front lawn of the house where I’m freaking working ?”

Wow. Sofia had never heard any of the shifters talk in such plain terms about themselves. “Brennan?”

“You got it.”

“He found you?”

“He had no clue. He randomly had a sheriff’s conference in my part of Florida.” She propped her head on her hand. “Which makes me really sad to think about. If he had never attended that conference, then my son and I would still be living there. Rowan would be without his father, and I’d without my mate. And I wouldn’t have my youngest, either.” She sniffed and took a second to wipe her eyes. “I felt a lot of guilt for a long time for not trying to search for him. He didn’t know I was a Fae. But I knew he was a shifter. I could have tried.”

“Hey, you were raising a baby. I’m sure you had a lot on your mind.” Sofia smiled. “Maybe you two were destined for each other, and you’d have found him no matter what.” It was a sobering thought. Who was she to try and thwart destiny?

Fallon smiled back. “Maybe so.” Then she huffed a laugh. “Oh yes. Rowan was a mess, even for a shifter. He was so high- energy and so strong that I couldn’t let him play with human children, which made life interesting. Needless to say, him finding his shifter cousins was a very happy day for him.” She rubbed her face and then exhaled. “Anyway! This was supposed to be a fun story to remind you that you’re just like the rest of us.”

“I’m glad to know all of the rough parts too,” Sofia said.

Fallon smiled at her. “Thank you. I haven’t talked about it in a long time. Sometimes I need to. So, before all of the good stuff happened, I lost my mind and thought Brennan was going to take Rowan from me. So, I grabbed my son, and we chartered a boat to Cuba, thinking I could hide from Brennan.”

“Oh wow. So, you ran away too.”

“Yes. When I say many of us have done over the top stuff, I was not exaggerating.”

“But he obviously found you?”

“Yep. He was right behind us. So, he dives in the ocean, transforms into his dragon, and just swims after the damned boat!”

That made Sofia smile. Fallon patted her leg. “So, you see, one day you will look back and be able to tell this story, and it will make you laugh.”

Sofia did not want to burst Fallon’s bubble, but it was the fact that Brennan and Fallon were so happy together now that made the story funny. If she and Levi did not end up together, then the story would not be nearly as amusing.

Fallon stood up. “I’ll let you have some time with him now. Nora said you can use that water to wipe off the blood, but it’s not necessary if it seems to bother him.”

“Thank you,” Sofia said, still wiping tears from her eyes. “Your visit means more than you’ll ever know.”

She stood over Levi’s bedside. He looked much more peaceful than he had earlier. “I’m really sorry about this. I know if you were awake that you would say it wasn’t my fault. But I’m still sorry. I hate that it happened to you, because you’re the best guy that I’ve ever met, and you don’t deserve anything like this ever. Not that most people deserve it, but maybe some do.” She took a deep breath. “And thank you. You saved me. Not once, but twice, probably actually three times if we’re keeping score.” She held up the washcloth. “Nora said I can clean the blood off. I hope it doesn’t bother you, because seeing all this red is taking me right back to the moment when you were stabbed. I think I’ll be seeing it in my mind forever.”

She got to work, dipping the cloth in the water, and then wiping it gently over his chest. She didn’t get too close to the wound but wiped the blood off around it, then she washed his hands, his face, and his neck. His hair still looked clean but there were a few leaves in it, so she brushed it and got the grass and leaves out.

His expression remained peaceful, so she assumed that it wasn’t painful for him.

Once all his skin was clean and she made sure it was dry, she put the bowl and cloth away and then sat back down beside him. Eventually her eyes grew heavy.

“I hope you don’t mind if I sleep here. I really don’t think that I can stand to leave. So, until you’re able to kick me out, this is my room too.”

She nodded off letting her head rest on the mattress next to his hand.

She slept through the night and so did Levi. When the light of the morning filtered through the window, other shifters began to drop by. All of them wanted to check on her, which surprised her, and of course, all of them wanted to check on Levi and wish him well, which did not surprise her at all.

She loathed that Levi was injured, but there was one perk. In the aftermath of the battle, she was able to spend some time with the dragon shifters. Most of them came to sit with her at Levi’s bedside. Like Fallon, most of the other shifters assured her that her feelings were normal. None of them blamed her for being conflicted about having a mate.

A fierce female shifter from Portugal named Carolina stopped by. Her and her mate, Davi, had a heart wrenching story of being separated for five long years after their clan was destroyed. She’d believed him to be dead and moved to the States. But he wasn’t dead after all. He’d lost his memory and was serving in the Macedonian army. Against all odds, just like Fallon and Brennan, they found each other again.

It gave her a lot to think about. So far, not one single person had pressured her to accept him as her mate. That seemed pretty remarkable to her, because it was clear how much this group loved Levi.

When a sweet human named Holly stopped by, she told Sofia about her rough start with her mate, Mason, a cowboy who ran a ranch up in Wyoming. Holly and Mason’s story involved his first wife dying, and her first husband being abusive. Their story was full of ups and downs, and she’d almost left him for good when he kept it a secret that he was a dragon.

It was really eye-opening for Sofia.