Page 50 of Bad Medicine

ChapterTwenty-Four

Once we reached Jared’sbedroom, there wasn’t much talking.

“Sleep?” he asked, his voicelow.

I shook my head. “Not yet.”

And he didn’t have to ask mewhat that meant. He ran his hands up over my arms and to my shoulders, thendipped his head to kiss me, and I swear, every single time I felt his lipsagainst mine it was the best kiss I’d ever had.

My body grew languid and heavyand there was only the alpha. This alpha. There was no room for anything elsein my head, not when I was in his arms. He kissed me like it was the last timehe would, and I knew that deep down, he was afraid for me. But that was onlynatural. Our lives were made up of risks and danger.

We were wolves.

He wrapped my long braid aroundhis fist and held me to him while he devoured me, and I was everything when wetouched, when we connected. I was helpless and I was strong. I was icy cold andscorching hot, raging, happy, secure, scared. Most of all, I was full ofsomething indescribable. Love, I guess.

And God, I was aroused.

He ran his calloused fingertipsover my smooth skin, and I shuddered at the trail of heat and gooseflesh heleft behind. I inhaled and his familiar scent overwhelmed my brain, sending mesomewhere I would only ever be in this man’s arms.

No wonder I was so afraid oflosing him. But not right now. At this moment, he was here, and what we had wasextraordinary. It was enough to chase away the shadows, and it was enough tochase away the fear. It was everything.

He didn’t take us to his bed.He lifted me into his arms, and when I wrapped my legs around him, he pushed meagainst the wall and shoved himself inside me. I shuddered, holding on to himwith everything I had, and when we were both spent, sweating and breathing hardand completely satisfied, he carried me to the bed and there, wrapped in hisarms, I slept.

Once, he groaned, half wakingme, and I turned toward him and pressed my lips against his chest. “Shhh,” Iwhispered. “I’ve got you.”

I would always have him.

But I realized I wasn’t theonly one with fear in her heart. I wasn’t the only one who had shit to dealwith.

“I’ve got you,” I repeated, andwhen his arms tightened around me, I fell once again into my dreams.

I woke instantly andinstinctively as the moon started to lose its hold on the night. Jared wasawake, too. I felt him there, in the darkness, aware. When I tilted my head tolook up at him, he kissed my forehead.

“Be safe, Kait,” he whispered.

“Always.”

I knew he wanted to chain me inthe basement and go kill Adam himself. He wanted to keep me out of danger whilehe faced the enemy wolf pack. But he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t take my kill awayfrom me, either, not unless there were no other choices.

“Let’s go kill some wolves,” Isaid, and my voice was strong, though I, too, was afraid. There was always achance Jared would be killed. There was always a chance I’d lose him. There wasa chance my heart would be broken, my life shattered, my mind overtaken bydespair.

But it was a risk I had totake, because the alternative would be not to love him, and I couldn’t do that.

When we left the house, thewolves were lined up in the moonlight waiting for us. Joe, Zach, Eli, thewarriors, and every single member of the pack who could potentially fight.

They would fight for—andwith—their alpha.

He didn’t tell them to standdown. He stood before them, pride in his eyes, and they straightened theirspines and met his fierce stare with their own.

“We fight,” Eli roared, and thenight rang with their answering roars, female and male alike, all of themmighty, all of them protective, all of them honored to fight for their own.

But not all of them wouldreturn, and they knew that, as well.

I felt something there thatcold, dark morning that I’d never felt before, because I’d never really had apack before. Energy and emotion swept through me, and I thought my heart wouldburst with the hugeness of it all.

“We fight,” I yelled, my voicetangling with theirs.

And suddenly, there was simplyno more fear.