Page 154 of Her Wolf

Someone to protect her

Finn started awake. He opened his eyes to an unfamiliar place; satin wallpaper he wouldn’t be surprised had flecks of actual gold inside. When his fingertips twitched, they brushed Egyptian cotton. The air was tempered; not too hot, not too cold. Orchids scented the air and, when he turned a stiff neck, he saw a slender pot in one corner of the massive room.

He took a moment to realize he was hearing music; he’d assumed the steady thump he’d been feeling had been his heart, but it was a bass line. It had to be loud if he was hearing it through the walls.

A headache pulsed sullenly in his head, but it felt more familiar than the room or the strange bed he lay in.

Maybe he’d had it for a while.

A fragment of memory; Cora’s body ricocheting backward, her mouth an ‘o’ of shock. Eyes drilling into him, demanding to know what she’d done to deserve his bullet.

Finn blinked, squeezing moisture from his eyes so it would stop stinging him.

Where in the name of fuck was he?

He pushed himself into a sit, wincing as that did something painful to one of his ribs. His breathing came with difficulty, and several stripes of pain lashed out across his body when he swung his legs over the side of the bed.

He wore bandages on each leg. More around his waist. Three on one arm, and one on the other. An IV drip speared into the crook of his elbow, although the pain of jerking it out was insignificant compared with the whole-body ache he had to contend with.

As if summoned by his waking, he heard a door open and turned to face it.

Fuck. He was hallucinating, wasn’t he? Or was this another of those crazy dreams he kept having?

Cora stood in the doorway, radiant as an angel.

The same Cora he knew and loved, but different. Her hair cropped just below her ears, sleek and shiny how it lay against her scalp. Her neck, now swan-like, curved delicately into narrow shoulders. She wore a strappy dress that came just above her knees, showing off a round scar that marred the skin just below the curve of her deltoid.

They stared at each other, Cora with a hopeful smile, him with what he assumed was resignation.

The dream was always the same. She came to him. Whispered loving words in his ear. And was torn away seconds later by soot covered hands.

Like always, he couldn’t look away. He was forced to watch her step tentatively closer.

He tentatively lifted his hand. Fingers touched uneven flesh on his jaw, his neck. He’d thought it was just his blurry vision, but now he knew he was covered in burn marks.

Confusion and wonderment warred in Cora’s golden eyes the closer she came.

And no wonder; he truly was a beast now.

“You’re awake.”

Her voice was as he remembered. Perhaps a little huskier, as if she was fighting back emotion.

It could only be disgust.

He turned away, pressing his eyes closed in an effort to make the nightmare end, to suffocate it with his despair.

When cool fingertips touched the back of his hand, Finn flinched. His eyes flew open, darting to Cora where she stood by his side.

“Lars wants to see you,” Cora murmured, tears brimming in her eyes. “Can I send for him?”

This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. Cora was meant to kiss him, whisper something sweet in his ear, give him hope before being torn away by an anonymous evil.

But the touch to his hand was real.

The love in her eyes was real.

She caressed the bridge of his nose with a fingertip, her eyes darting over his face. “You’re magnificent, you know that?”

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