Page 20 of The Fate of Black Hearts

“You’re a dream walker.”

Note to self: figure out what that means later.“Tell me how you found me today. Were you watching me?”

He released a sarcasticpfftsound. “I happened to be in the area.”

“You spy on me.” Her belly fluttered with warmth that had nothing to do with him healing her.

He didn’t meet her gaze. “Why aren’t you healing like you should? Your body should have spat out the bullet from the gun by now. You are pure lycan, right?”

“I never heal quickly anymore. Not since I mated Willem.”

“A proper union should make you more powerful. Nothing about that parasite you mated could be called proper.” He frowned. “Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. This might hurt. The bullet must come out.”

“How do you know?”

“I’m good at healing.”

She touched her rounded belly. “My baby… Is it okay?”

His eyes softened as he tenderly put a hand on her belly. “He’s fine.”

“Another boy.” She sighed. “I kind of wanted a girl. Four boys…now five with the new little one you have somewhere safe.” She coughed. Something came up, which she swiped off her lips. Blood? “That can’t be good.”

“I’m going to heal the inside.” He laced the fingers of his left hand with hers. “Hold onto me.”

His right hand hovered above her skin. The sharp pain ripping through her chest made breathing difficult. At first, she bit her lip and squeezed his hand. The pain worsened. She gripped him tighter.I won’t make a noise.But a scream ripped out of herwhen it burned as if someone had set her chest on fire.

“Almost done,” he rasped out.

When it ended, she blinked through a wave of dizziness. She held herself upright when all she wanted to do was curl into a ball on the ground.

They stared at each other in silence.

He had done this for her without asking for anything in return. He saved her.

He grumbled, “Don’t look at me like I’m some sort of hero.”

“I’m no one’s heroine. Yet here we are. I saved you, and now you saved me. Guess we’re even.” She untangled her fingers from his. Quickly, she righted her dress top without the corset and buttoned it. No way she could squeeze back into her corset, not with the residual ache in her chest that rattled with each breath.

“We were even after I got out of the Seine. I stabbed the demon.”

“You would’ve taken care of that anyway. You owed me.” There was blood on his hand. She grabbed it, seeing crescent-shaped marks from her fingernails before they rapid-healed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“It’s nothing.”

She gripped his hand and used the hem of her dress to wipe blood off his palm. “Sorry. So sorry.”

He stilled her hands. “Stop.”

“No, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean?—”

He lifted his hand to look at the now-healed damage.

She ducked in reflex and held up an elbow toblock.

“You think I’d strike you? That lycan did this to you.” His tone gentled. “Look at me.” When she did, he waited for her to take a few breaths. She looked away again. “You’re not looking at me. I’m not him. I don’t want you to apologize. I asked you to hold onto me. So what if it hurt you so much that you accidentally hurt me? It’s already healed.”

“I…I don’t know…” She dropped her head. “If I fight back or do anything to hurt him or irritate him, he punishes me by hurting one of the boys. Or tosses me into the snow to be killed by hunters.”