Marked (Primal Obsessions #2) - Cara Wylde Page 0,47

and I wiped the sweat off my brow. During the next few minutes, I worked on Colt, and Lincoln gave me space. I could tell he felt much better. Since that night in the woods, he’d carried this burden on his chest. It was good that it was out of the way now.

Once I was done, I slid off Colt, and Lincoln and Brooks helped him up. Lincoln’s wounds were already turning into fading scars.

“Wow, you do heal fast,” I exhaled.

Both Lincoln and Colt plopped onto the only bed in the motel room. They were exhausted. Brooks made sure that they were fine, then he came back into the bathroom. I was just washing my hands for the dozenth time. He closed the door behind him. The space instantly felt smaller, crowded, even though it was just us. I clutched the bottle of whiskey and took a long sip, then another. I couldn’t even look at the bear. From what I could tell, he only had one bullet wound. Besides that, all I needed to do was clean him and maybe patch him up a little. But first, I needed to make him understand a few things.

“I have something to tell you,” I began, looking at the floor and counting the dirty tiles. “I didn’t mean to run away. I know how it must have looked to see me gone. I was just… My head was clouded. But I adore Milo. He’s like my own son, and I want you to know that I took good care of him. I still will, I mean, if you still want me to, that is. Fuck, I’m rambling,” I growled in frustration.

I brought the bottle to my lips, but Brooks snatched it away.

“I need you sober, Rosalie,” he said, and I watched him gulp down half of the contents. Hypocrite. “I also need you.”

The words stunned me, but then I realized what he must’ve meant.

“Yes, the bullet, of course. Shoulder, right?”

He nodded and knelt beside me. I started to work on him the same way I did with the others, but my hands were shaking under the weight of his gaze.

“I do mean it,” I continued, “I really wasn’t going to run. I don’t have anywhere else to go. I don’t have a family. I don’t have… I wouldn’t have gone back to Jack.”

“I wouldn’t have let you. I would’ve come after you, anyway, killed him, and gotten you back. This way… It was better. The way it happened, the bastard got what he deserved.”

I nodded. “I don’t even know how to thank you.”

“Remove the bullet,” he laughed.

With renewed purpose, I cut into his flesh, clean and straight, and removed the nuisance. He kept entirely silent, as if unaffected by practicalities. He was still so different from the others. Much stronger. Much broodier. So stealthily silent.

I cauterized his cut and let him rejoin the others. He called out to me from the doorway. “Clean this up, please. It can’t look like a crime scene.”

I gathered a few of the towels, feeling sorry for ruining good items like this, but I needed to wipe down every surface. Brooks was right. I couldn’t leave evidence of our presence here. Men had died tonight. I bleached and hand-wiped the floor, scrubbing as well as I could. I finished by throwing the bloodied rags into a plastic bag, along with the bullets.

Finally, I washed my red hands, up to my elbows, where the blood had dried and caked on my skin. It felt odd… seeing the pink-tinted water swirl down the drain, in that pure white sink.

My hands.

Stained with blood.

But this was life-giving blood.

I hadn’t committed any crime.

And it wasn’t my own blood either, after a particularly brutal beating, the way it used to be, when Jack had one of his fixed ideas, paranoid about me having cheated.

It was bear blood, and it was on me because I had helped three male bears I had grown to feel something for live another day. I could… I should be proud of this blood. It united us. They trusted me to help them get better. It signified our new beginning. Blood was shed to rid me of Jack and every one of his evil friends.

A knock on the door startled me. “You okay in there, Ro?” Colt asked.

“Yeah. I lost myself in thought for a minute.”

“Hurry up. Once we get home, you can lose yourself in sucking my cock all you want,” he joked.

“Look who’s feeling better,” I laughed.

I