Page 62 of Tangled Fates

“Be careful with their wounds,” I said as my healer began checking my hair, “there’s some sort of salve in them that’s preventing them from healing.”

“Good to know, thank you.”

“Why do you guys smell like smoke?”

“Where were you? Do you know what kind of tincture they used to prevent healing?”

I had no idea how to even begin answering their questions. “Just take care of them for me, okay? I don’t know what to do. I don’t know if there’s anything I can do.”

My personal healer placed her hand on my shoulder. “You got them to us. I don’t know how in the world you did it, but you guys materialized out of thin air. You got them to us. You rest and let us do what we do best.”

And while the idea of resting sounded like music to my ears, I couldn’t help but watch in horror as the men I cared about groaned in pain. Hudson kept blinking back tears while Levi allowed them to streak his face, and I had never heard Dean so silent before. I crawled to each of them, taking their hands within mine and holding them tightly as the healers worked the fastest they could in order to get them back in working order. But the entire time, I couldn’t help but blame myself.

I had no idea what in the hell I’d do if I lost them.

I had no idea where I’d go, what I’d do, or even if I’d be able to go back to my life in L.A. Because that was what would happen. If they died because of me, because of my bullshit antics, I’d never forgive myself.

They’d die with a piece of my heart in the palms of their hands.

And I’d never be whole again, so long as I lived.

21

HUDSON

“Hudson, stay with me. Keep those pretty eyes of yours open.”

I tried clearing the knot in my throat. “Ra—Rav—Alph?—”

“Shh,” a foreign voice said. “Just rest.”

Something warm squeezed my hand. “I’m right here, Hudson. Just hang on.”

The pain was unbearable. My shoulder felt like it was on fucking fire, and every time that cold wet shit dripped against it, I wanted to come up from the floor and burst through the motherfucking roof.

I struggled to breathe through it, choosing shallow breaths instead of deep, fluid ones.

And with each truncated inhale, the world around me grew darker.

“No. No, no, no,” Raven said as something tapped my cheek, “keep those eyes open for me. You need to stay awake.”

“His wound is deep,” someone said.

“He’s got one on his leg as well. Behind his calf.”

I cleared my throat again. “So, that’s why it feels like it’s on?—”

A coughing fit interrupted my words as someone picked up my leg. The room tilted around me, pushing bile up my throat that threatened to drown me in its sour taste. I grimaced as something cold pressed up against the back of my calf, and my eyes rolled into the back of my head.

“Have you gotten it all out yet? That salve shit?” Raven asked.

“Not all of it. It’s already absorbed into their veins. We’re doing the best we can.”

“Hold still, Hudson. This is going to hurt.”

“Hudson!” Raven exclaimed.

Her shouting voice was the last thing I heard before darkness took over my world. It dragged me under, kicking and screaming as the pain finally subsided.

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