deep breath, then pasted a bright smile on her face. “Do I look convincing? Everything’s great and we’re all going to be fine? I can’t walk into the house without at least looking like my positive, sunshiny self.”
He tried not to smile, instead nodding gravely. “Totally convincing.”
“Great,” she said, then bounced up the stairs. She trilled something about making dinner as she went, giving orders and calling directions when the rest of the pack tried to scatter to avoid work.
Dodge shook his head and eased into one of the battered chairs in the storm cellar, never taking his eyes off Silas as the wolfman searched for a comfortable place to settle down after gorging himself with meat. “I’ll stay down here with him, man. You go on up to your mate. Make sure she’s fine and can figure out how to help him.”
Henry checked his watch; Ophelia had been sleeping for a couple of hours, so hopefully she was ready for some dinner and maybe a little reassure-the-wolf sex. “Right. Call if you need anything.”
“I ain’t gonna need anything,” Dodge muttered, waving him away. “Not from someone with a new mate. I’ll make Todd come down here if anything changes. Go take care of business.”
The wolf didn’t particularly like another male talking about his mate, but Henry wasn’t about to argue with Dodge telling him to skedaddle. He headed upstairs and only paused in the kitchen long enough to find food for Ophelia. The sky had darkened into night while he was in the storm cellar, and though the house was lit up in practically every room, it didn’t feel like enough. That damn sorcerer had brought true darkness into their pack, and it lurked in the basement.
Henry tried to put the grief at Silas’s fate aside as he climbed the stairs and peeked into his room. He found Ophelia sitting on the edge of the bed, still yawning and looking rather rumpled, and she brightened considerably when she saw him.
Well, when she saw the plates he carried. He didn’t take it personally.
“I’m starving,” the witch muttered, and reached for a cheeseburger without hesitation. She chewed a massive bite as she fought to look more awake, rubbing her eyes with a free hand. “How’s everything going? What happened? I kind of remember you bringing me here, and then everything turned all gray and—weird.”
He sat across the room, since getting in bed with her, even during dinner, was a shortcut to his brain ceasing to function. Henry gave her an update on the status across the pack, talking slowly so she could finish inhaling her food before regrouping with more questions. He tried not to smile as he watched her, loving the slight flush of her cheeks and the way her wide eyes flashed as she talked through what happened.
Henry leaned back and folded his arms over his chest. “Want more to eat?”
“I feel like I could eat for the next year,” she muttered, flopping back on the bed while clutching her stomach. “And maybe sleep for a year, too. Alternate between the two.”
He yawned and rubbed his jaw, reaching to turn off the light. “Then you sleep. I’ll keep watch and wake you up if anything—”
“But first,” Ophelia said, swinging her legs over the side of the bed. She fixed him with an intense look, her eyes flinging sparks that had nothing to do with magic and everything to do with... His heart beat a little faster. She eased to her feet and arched an eyebrow. “First, I desperately need a shower.”
“Do you,” he said carefully, not daring to hope. “That would certainly be a good idea.”
The corner of her mouth tipped up. “But, you know, I’m still a little wobbly on my feet. I might need... some help.”
He was halfway in the bathroom and most of the way naked by the time she said “help,” and Ophelia laughed hard enough he almost dropped her and fell himself. Henry pinned her to the wall with a hard kiss as he fumbled with the shower knobs, barely breaking his lips from hers to say, “I thought I lost you. I thought you were… I need you, but I know you’re… This was a rough day so if you don’t want to—”
Ophelia snorted and wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him back just as hard, and he took that as the green light he’d been waiting for.
Chapter 41
Ophelia
After sleeping off the magical hangover that drained all my energy, I was left