Page 51 of The Alpha Wolf Defying Fate

I nodded and took a seat near the bed. I brushed his hand gently with my thumb and stared down at his closed eyes.

“I’ll stay here until he does.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Ayden

Painburnedacrossmyback as I felt the darkness begin to fade. My body felt so stiff, as if I hadn’t moved for days.

‘That’s because you haven’t,’my wolf said with a growl.‘It took longer than normal for me to heal you. There was something in the griffin’s claws that slowed our healing. Had you been a normal human you would have bled out and died.’

I fought a dark chuckle at his words.‘Well thank the gods that I have you then.’

“Ayden?”

My eyes opened slightly at the sound of Sasha’s voice. My wolf pressed forward to see her himself. Both of us were eager to see what damage to our mate we might find as we looked up at her.

To both our relief, she was unharmed. Not even a speck of dirt sat on her skin as she smiled with her own relief back at me. But then came the question.

Why hadn’t she fought back?

She had frozen there. I could see her hand twitch with the desire to react, but she didn’t. She may as well have been a statue alongside the fountain figure in the square. The only time she moved was when the damned griffin took a step towards her.

I was about to ask her what had happened, but a large male frame from the corner of my eye appeared then and smiled down at me as he saw my eyes opened.

“Well, there you are, Buddy,” Baer said. “I was wondering if you’d ever open those pretty moonbeam eyes of yours.”

I growled at him, though there wasn’t as much of a bite to it as I had wanted. My wolf had grown soft on the other alpha king.

‘So have you,’my wolf inserted.

I rolled my eyes and groaned as I tried to sit up.

“Not so fast!” Aurora called out as she joined the others in the cramped room they had laid me down in. “You may be awake, but you are not healed enough for that. Sit still while I check your bandages.”

As Aurora unwrapped my back, the sting of the injury made my skin heat up and I clenched my jaw. My eyes were set on Sasha as the other two worked together.

They would ask me what hurt occasionally, and I’d answer honestly, but my gaze stayed on my mate’s. The question burning in my eyes as she stared right back at me with a flash of the stubborn girl I had always loved.

“What’s the final consensus?” Sasha asked as she continued to hold my stare.

“Two more days,” Aurora answered. “He should be good to resume travel by then. I’ll admit, we were wrong about how long it would take him to wake up, but I’m pretty sure his wolf has it from here. Whatever was keeping him from healing is gone now.”

I watched the relief wash over Sasha’s face at her cousin’s words.

“Wait! Just how long was I out?” I asked then, suddenly curious as to exactly how long it had taken my wolf to get this far into healing my wounds from the griffin.

Everyone stood silently as they exchanged glances. Each seeming to question the others who was going to answer this simple question.

Baer sighed then and shook his head. “You were unconscious for a little over a week.”

I growled again and pushed myself against the bed to try to sit up.

“What?” I demanded. “How in the hell can that be? What about the witch? Why did nobody continue chasing after her?”

Sasha pushed me back down against the bed and pointed her finger at me. “If you think for one second that any of us would have been willing to leave you behind to chase after Minerva then you’re a gods damned idiot, Ayden Fairchild!”

“Hey,” Baer said as he put himself between myself and Sasha. “Go easy on him, will ya. I’d be reacting the same way in his place, and so would you.”

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