Page 88 of Wolf

After everything with Ash, mine and Wolf’s issues were just too raw for me to deal with right now. I had too many things weighing on my shoulders, and facing Wolf was just not in mycards.

“I feel bad hiding it,” Jax confessed softly, his eyes gazing down at our hands. He looked like he was confused that he was still holding it, but his hand didn’t move away. “You should come back andtellhim.”

And that was the epitome of their unease. They all looked at me, not wondering when, but wonderingifI would come back to the club. I had come back to the club only for the small service we held for Sweets; she didn’t have family beyond the club, and even if she was one of the club whores, she was still a person, so when Baby asked me to attend, I couldn’t say no. I liked Sweets, even if I didn’t go out of my way to know her, and losing her had been hard on the club, knowing we couldn’t protect her. But aside from paying my dues to Sweets, I hadn’t stepped back onto compound grounds since. If you asked me if heartbreak would keep me from coming to the club a few years ago, I would have told you that I wasn’tthatweak.

But I guess I was more fragile than Ithought.

“Not yet,” I said softly, feeling Jax’s hand flinch around mine. Every time I met with one of the brothers, and every time I didn’t address the silent question of my return, they all held the same, guarded, and secretly hurtexpression.

It was one of those times in your life when you realized how much you’re treasured. And it was sweet, it really was. But despite how much I loved the club, I just... I couldn’t.Notyet.

Jax nodded, and that was the end of our conversation. We sat for a few more minutes in the comfort of each other’s company before a nurse came to tell me what I knew already. Her condition hadn’t changed. That she was recovering nicely. That they didn’t know when she wouldwakeup.

That being in a coma wasnormal.

And every time I looked at them, listening to their words, it only reminded me that all nurses and doctors lied to make people feelbetter.

It didn’t make me feelbetter.

* * *

It was onlya few more days before I saw Jax again, but this time he didn’t comealone.

“Anna!” Jax yelled as the door bounced off the wall, his dark hair in a tangled mess in front of his face, eyes wide and chest heaving as he struggled for breath. “I didn’t tell him on purpose, Iswear!I—”

That was all Jax got out before a huge hand tore him out of the doorway with enough force to send him staggering backward, ass slamming onto the floor and head cracking against theoppositewall.

“Jax” I yelled but barely made it a step forward before a huge, thick wall filled thedoorway.

My head snapped upward, eyes meeting Wolf’s eyes, and as much as I wanted to scream at him for what he just did, I couldn’t. Not when I sawhisface.

It wasn’t angry. It wasn’t confused. It was...devastated.

“Wo—”

“Is it true?” Wolf choked, his voice a deep baritone of grief, upset and everything else, the noise strangled as it came out of his tight throat that was bobbing over and over again as he tried to swallow down the emotion I knew was rising in my ownvoice.

“I—” I took a deep, shakybreath. “Yes.”

Wolf’s arm shot out to the doorframe, supporting his body as he practically keeled over. On instinct, I reached out to touch him as he sank lower, but the second my skin touched his, he leaped back from me as if I hadstunghim.

His face whirled on mine, the color drained from it, eyes ringed in white, head shaking. For the first time, I noticed the dark circle under his eyes and the slight hollow of his cheeks. His beard, the one that had been steadily growing on his face the last few months, had become a wiry mess, his hair the same as it hung low down at his jaw, strands falling over his hollowed cheeks. He looked... older. So much older in only a few weeks since I’d lastseenhim.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” his cracked voice growled, the hoarseness of it beyond that of his declined health. His eyes were pointed at mine, but I could see his gaze going way beyond me. “Why didn’t you tell me you were pregnant!” he roared, the anger seepingthrough.

I looked at him, completely stunned, as his chest heaved with heavy breathing, eyes wild with rage as they glared downatme.

“How dare you?” I snapped, a deep, thick burn growing in the depths of my chest and slowly rising. “Why didn’t I tell you?” I retorted, my eyebrows rising to my hairline. “HowcouldI?”

“It’s not fucking hard, Anna!” Wolf snapped, stepping into the room, forcing me back a step. “It’s two fucking words. If you even had the fucking decency to come look at my face these past fewweeks—”

“And whose fault is that?” I screeched, my hands moving to shove him, his huge chest not even budging an inch. I raised my fist again, furious at the bastard for even suggesting this was anywhere near my fault, but I barely had an inch to move before his hand lunged out, circling my wrist as his body charged forward, shoving me hard enough into the wall that a startled breath was forced out of mylungs.

“Wolf!” Jax yelled from behind him, but Wolf wasn’tlistening.

“I had a fucking choice to make, Anna!” Wolf yelled into my face, the whiskey heavy on his breath. “Why can’t you understand that I never wanted any of this tohappen!”

“Because my best friend is in a fucking coma she might never wake up from!”” I screeched. The words were torn from my throat, the sting and burn making it hard to breathe as I tried and struggled to break free. “You sacrificed her! You nearlykilledher!”

---