the top drawer of the bedside table upstairs. There’s enough liquid to cover whatever.”
Evershaw didn’t look convinced. “You gotta take things slow, Dodge. She’s still freaked out by all of this. Your meltdown at the hospital didn’t help. These have been the worst weeks of her life. Deirdre is staying with her to help her figure things out, but it will take time. You gotta get your shit together. You and Silas chill down here for another day or so, then we can revisit the plan going forward.”
“She’s mine,” Dodge said, staring at the darkness in the corner of the cellar.
“She’s her own first, man. Remember that.” Evershaw folded his arms over his chest. “I don’t want to keep you from her. I don’t. It’s gotta be fucking torture, and I know that. I sympathize. But I cannot let you terrify that girl any more than she already is. She needs to heal. And I know you think you’d be the best thing for her, but right now, that’s not the case.”
A growl worked its way up his throat. The alpha didn’t know what he was talking about. Dodge would take care of her. He was the only one. He would keep her safe, he would protect her from the rest of the city. Being apart from her just meant that she was more vulnerable, even with a safe new apartment with a concierge and 24-hour security.
Evershaw shook his head and turned toward the stairs. “That’s what I thought. Get it together, Dodge. If you don’t have more control in two days, we’ll have a talk about what happens next. I can’t have two crazy wolves in my pack. We’ll start to get a reputation.”
Silas snorted loudly enough they both looked at him, then the wolf rolled his eyes and flopped on his back near the expensive space heater. Dodge shook himself and jerked his chin at the whiskey bottle, still on the shelf. “Then leave that where I can reach it.”
“I don’t need a bunch of drunks in my pack, either,” Evershaw said.
But before he left, he took the whiskey down and handed the bottle to Dodge. “Don’t drink it all tonight. You won’t get another one, so pace yourself.”
Then he strode back up the stairs and left Dodge and Silas in the dim half-light of the cellar. Dodge studied the liquor and took a deep breath. Tomorrow he would get himself together and figure out how to help Persephone. Tonight, though... He unstoppered the bottle and closed his eyes. Tonight he would focus on dulling the pain. Tonight he would let the ghosts and Persephone’s scent tangle around him until he could believe that she was right there next to him.
Chapter 45
Percy
I knew I looked awful because no one let me use a mirror. I could see enough of the bruises all over the rest of me to know that my face had to be in the same condition. Deirdre stayed with me at the hospital most of the time, with Mercy and Todd taking turns, and answered a lot of my questions – but not all of them. She danced around the details of what happened after they found me at the sanctuary, and wouldn’t say anything about Dodge except to say that he was safe and at her house.
Moving grew easier with each day, though if I thought about it for too long, none of it made sense. I should have been lingering on the edge of death for far longer, or at least laid up in traction with broken bones, but instead there was just a lot of discomfort and the occasional sharp pain. They brought in a physical therapist to help me move around and walk and stretch. It was probably a good thing Dodge wasn’t there because I always ended up crying. Most of the time it was frustration more than pain, but the end result was the same: collapsing in bed, exhausted, and sleeping for at least half a day.
At least the nurses were generous with the pain medication, which made it easier to accept that Dodge didn’t visit me at all. I didn’t know how I felt about his disappearing act. He’d been terrifying in his wolf form as he fought everyone in the entire hospital. Every time I imagined the weight of his gold gaze on me, no hint of the man in its depths, my heart sped up and my palms grew sweaty and clammy.
And yet my mind always