and the kaleidoscope of bruises and cuts that decorated most of it. I could have sworn at least two of those fingers were broken by the goons. It didn’t seem possible that they could have healed already, unless I’d been in a coma or something. I tensed, staring at my feet where they were hidden by blankets and sheets and Dodge’s arm.
Could I have been in a coma for weeks or months? My heart stuttered and started to beat faster as I looked around. Dodge definitely looked worse for wear: his beard shaggy and unkempt, his hair standing out in wild tufts, and even his eyebrows looked like they needed a weedwacker to be brought under control. My eyes burned. If it had been weeks or months, he was still there beside me and hadn’t been taking care of himself.
I couldn’t breathe and my fingers tightened in his hair. I’d almost gotten him killed and he was still there with me. Maybe he just wanted to tell me to my face that he didn’t want anything to do with me, that he hated me for the trouble I’d caused. The machines clicked and one beeped, a warning sound as something else switched on. A light flashed near the door.
Dodge tensed, then lifted his head. He blinked sleep from his eyes and looked disoriented for just a second. Then all of his attention went immediately to me. I couldn’t look away.
A blinding hope filled his face. Both hands captured mine with infinite gentleness. Dodge’s voice emerged as a rusty shadow of his previous deep, commanding tone. “Am I dreaming?”
“I don’t think so,” I whispered, and it sounded just as hoarse.
Dodge tried to get closer, almost climbing into the bed next to me. “You’re here. You’re alive. Talk to me more. Persephone. Are you okay? How do you feel?”
My cheeks burned with tears and grief, and the overwhelming hope that he wasn’t furious with me and didn’t resent me.
But the tears agitated him. He sat on the bed and tried to gather me close, squeezing my hands. “Don’t cry. Please don’t cry. I’ll get you whatever you need. Are you in pain?”
I shook my head but froze and swallowed a cry as his knee bumped against my hip. Something that still hurt with a bone-deep agony that set my heart racing and lit up with the movement. The monitors and machines switched into alarm mode, blaring warnings, and activity erupted in the hallway. Dodge growled deep in his chest as the door opened, and leaned over me to brace on the other side of the mattress. He created a massive, muscular barrier over me.
A familiar voice called from the hallway, “Don’t move, Percy. Just stay still. We’ll deal with him. He won’t hurt you.”
Deirdre stayed near the door as her husband and Todd and half a dozen other guys I didn’t recognize slid into the room. Doctors and nurses tried to crowd in with them, but with every new person through the door, Dodge growled and snarled louder. His fingers bit into the mattress, his nails dark and sharp and hair sprouting on his arms and fingers. My breath caught. What was happening?
I tried to lift my arms to push him away or try to draw the sheets up closer to my chest, but it just hurt more and sparked more tears. Which in turn sent Dodge into some kind of rage.
Static charged the air as Deirdre moved her hands. Evershaw growled and advanced. “Cut it the fuck out, Dodge. Get your shit together. You’re scaring your mate.”
I stared at him, trying to understand the words that definitely meant something more than what I expected. Mate? What the hell was a mate, and did he mean me? Did he think... Was I something to Dodge after all? But was he about to… was he going to lose control and go rampaging through the room as a wolf? What happened to me if he flipped out?
My breath caught and another machine cheeped rapidly. A nurse moved around the perimeter of the room, trying to reach the machines, and Dodge growled more. When Evershaw jumped forward to protect her, Dodge leapt to meet him. Dodge changed mid-leap. His body twisted and turned and then he dropped to the floor on all fours as a wolf. A giant, furious wolf. He charged the people who tried to come in the room, including his friends, and the doctors and nurses scattered. Evershaw pushed my bed into