Chapter 24

Chapter 24

“Do you have any fucking idea how lucky you are?” came the softly drawled words as Kale opened his eyes and-

“Oh, fuck!” Kale bit out on a groan while he was forced to press his hand against his side as he turned over onto his other side as he tried to breathe through the pain that felt like it was tearing him apart.

Fuck that hurt, Kale thought, releasing a shaky breath as he opened his eyes and-

Ashley.

“You’re lucky to be alive,” Jacob murmured as Kale swallowed hard, taking in the small woman fast asleep on the bed next to him. Before he realized what he was doing, Kale was reaching over with a trembling hand only to drop it away and clenched his hand into a fist as he ran a hungry gaze over her and felt his stomach drop.

“What happened?” Kale demanded as he took in the headphones that she was wearing again, the bags beneath Ashley’s eyes, how fucking pale she was, and…

God, her fucking hands and arms.

They were covered in bruises, burns, and cuts.

“That’s what I want to know,” Jacob said, sighing heavily as he dropped down on the end of the bed. “She’s stubborn.”

“When’s the last time she ate?” Kale asked, moving to shift closer to her only to stop with a groan when pain tore through his side. Pressing his hand against the white gauze wrapped around his torso, he brought his other wrist to his mouth as his fangs slid down, not bothering to wait for an answer.

“Two weeks ago. Like I said, she’s stubborn,” Jacob said as Kale gently placed his bleeding wrist against Ashley’s mouth and fucking sighed when the stubborn woman reached up and pushed his hand away only to whimper when the move hurt her hand.

Grinding his jaw, Kale moved so that he was sitting up and leaned back against the headboard before reaching down and carefully pulled Ashley into his arms and-

Felt something deep inside of him break. There was no other way to describe it. When she curled up in his arms and laid her head against his chest, he found himself wrapping his arm around her and holding her close as he pressed his wrist against her lips. It took her a moment before she opened her mouth over his wrist with a soft moan and began gently suckling on his wrist as Kale held her, realizing just how fucking stupid he’d been.

If they’d followed him…

His eyes shifted to silver as he remembered every fucking promise the demon made. The demon barely had a chance to tell him what he planned on doing with Ashley’s pretty little mouth before Kale finally lost it. At that moment, he hadn’t fucking cared about Vane, the twenty million dollars, or all the rules that he’d lived by that had kept him alive for almost a thousand years. He tore the demon apart with his bare hands when he should have taken the kill from a distance to make sure that the demon’s blood didn’t touch him, but at that moment, he hadn’t fucking cared.

The only thing that mattered to him was keeping Ashley safe.

“Any news?” Kale asked, watching as Ashley’s arms began healing.

“There’s a bounty on your head,” Jacob said as Ashley finished drinking with a sleepy little sigh.

“How much?” Kale asked, gently pulling her headphones off as he sat there, wondering what the hell he was going to do with her.

“Ten million,” Jacob said, sounding bored as he stood up and walked around the bed so that he could drop down on the bed next to Kale with a heartfelt sigh.

“Dead or alive?” Kale asked, carefully pulling the blankets free from underneath Ashley so that he could tuck her in.

“Dead,” Jacob mumbled absently as he reached over and helped Kale.

“Are you going to take it?” Kale asked as his gaze flickered to the other shifter to find Jacob helping himself to the bag of peanut butter cups that he’d placed in his nightstand the last time he was here.

“No,” Jacob said, shrugging it off as he tore open the bag and stuffed a peanut butter cup in his mouth with a satisfied sigh as Kale shifted his attention back to the woman in his arms.

“Any problems with the Council?” Kale asked, holding his mate close, not giving a damn if the other shifter thought it was odd that he was holding a client at the fucking moment, not when he thought that he would never see her again.

“They lost interest at the moment. Seems they have bigger problems to deal with than a few odd blood deliveries,” Jacob said, shoving another peanut butter cup in his mouth.

Nodding absently, Kale traced the curve of Ashley’s jaw, noting that the color had come back to her face. She looked so fucking peaceful, Kale thought as he ran his fingertips over her jaw, watching her as she continued to sleep in his arms and-

“Do you have any idea what she went through to save you?” Jacob asked as he climbed off the bed and headed for the door after tossing the bag of chocolate back on Kale’s nightstand.

“She shouldn’t have done it,” Kale said, shifting his attention back to his mate, wishing like hell that she hadn’t seen him like that.

Christ, he wished that she hadn’t touched him. Watching her suffer while she’d tried to save him had fucking destroyed him. She’d been in so much fucking pain. He saw it in her eyes every time she’d touched him. He also saw the determination that forced her to keep going, putting herself through that kind of excruciating pain for him, and he was…

He had no fucking idea what he was right now. The only thing that he knew was that she was too fucking kind, and in their world, that was a problem.

“No, she shouldn’t have,” Jacob murmured in agreement. “I don’t care who her mate is or how much fucking money he’s giving you, the next time that you treat her like shit will be the last fucking time,” Jacob said, heading for the door only to add, “Next time, fucking shift.”

“There won’t be a next time,” Kale said since he never made the same mistake twice.