Page 91 of Healer's Call

My eyes open and I stare into his. “Tell me what, Mav?”

“That I love you.” His words knock the air from my lungs. “I fought it. I fought it so hard, but I never stood a chance.” He gives me the smallest smile, but it fades quickly. “After Julie died,” his voice goes soft, and I hold myself very still. “I told myself I could never love again. Love only hurts. The pain I felt at her loss,” he shakes his head. “I told myself it wasn’t worth loving ever again.” Tears well in my eyes in pain for what he’s endured. “But then you came into my life.” He goes quiet again. “I didn’t realize until tonight that if I lost you, it would tear out my soul. And yet, by not loving you, I was already losing parts of my soul. My heart belongs to you, Rose. It always has.” He gently wipes a tear from my eye. “I’m sorry it took me so long to see it. I’m sorry I’ve been a jerk to you, more than a jerk.”

I swallow the lump in my throat. “I’m sorry about your sister.” More tears drip. My heart squeezes painfully when a tear drips from his eye.

“Me too.” He gives me a small smile. “You would have loved her.”

“I know I would have.” More tears fall. “I’m so sorry, Mav.” My voice shakes, and a sob slips out. He wraps his arms around me and pulls me into his chest. Neither of us say anything. We live in the sorrow of the moment as I cry into his chest. Tears for his sister, the one I never got to meet; tears for the broken childhood he had; tears for my own broken childhood. After a while, I finally compose myself. “I’m so broken, Mav,” I whisper. “I don’t know if I can be for you what you need.”

He pulls back so he can look into my eyes. “Whatever gave you the impression that I wasn’t broken as well?” I shake my head, feeling so uncertain. “What do two broken pieces make when you put them together, Healer?”

I stare into his gorgeous eyes. “What?” I whisper.

“A whole piece. Maybe we’re broken alone, but we can be whole together.”

And then my tears start all over again. When I can finally compose myself, I ask him, “So what’s next?”

“I’m not sure. We have to get to the bottom of what’s going on.” I nod. He stares into my eyes. “I’m gonna need you to stay close to me until we get this all solved.”

“Like that’s going to be a hardship,” I mutter. He gives me the most beautiful smile. “You should smile more often,” I whisper.

“Never had reason to before,” he says just as softly. And then, he does something I thought he would never do. He kisses me. It happens so fast, I’m not prepared for it. And then it’s over and done.

“Wait, I wasn’t ready,” I tell him the instant his lips are gone. He stares at me, and then he laughs. “What? I wasn’t ready. It was my second kiss, and I didn’t even get to enjoy it.”

He blinks. “That was your second kiss?” His voice is low now, and a tremor runs through me.

But I meet his gaze head-on. “Yes. My first one the other day was with you.”

“That one didn’t count,” he says gruffly. “We better make this one memorable then.” And then, he kisses me again. This time, I’m ready for it. His lips meet mine gently. It takes me a moment to get the hang of it, and he lets me get used to it. And then he kisses me once, twice, and then a third time. I sigh at the contact. He’s so gentle and patient with me. He pulls back slightly and looks me in the eye. “Were you ready that time?” he asks, a soft smile on his lips.

“Yes,” I say on a breathy sigh. “That was amazing. We should do that again.”

“That’s only the beginning of what we’re going to do, Healer,” he says, tucking my hair behind my ear.

“More kissing?” I ask hopefully.

“Yes, but not tonight. Tonight, you need to sleep.” Something about the way he says it catches my attention.

“You’re not going to be sleeping, are you?”

“No.”

I stare at him in the dark, unsure how much he’ll let me push. “You need sleep too.”

“Actually, I don’t. Because of my wolf, I can go longer without sleep.” I don’t argue with him. “Enforcers will be right outside the door all night long.”

“There’s so much I don’t understand. Like how shifters are still getting sick when we made everybody switch to bottled water. And why Jacob?” He’s quiet a moment. “Mav, what do you know?”

He stares at me a beat. “Rogue wolves are attracted to your healing power. I know that. Why? I don’t know. But I remember when one of them came after your other healing friend.”

“Samantha?” I ask.

He nods. “Cade thinks it’s all related. The strychnine poisoning in our water sources, the attempted kidnapping.”

“But why?”

He stares at me intently. “We think,” he pauses a moment. “We think they think a healer’s power can heal them.”

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