Page 67 of Wolf

Anna shook her head at me, her hand gesturing to the ground, emotion beginning to creep into those blue eyes of hers as her voice tightened around the words. “Ash just sat there, next to her body, blood soaked into her clothes. There was a knife sticking out of the bitch’s chest like she had been fucking staked, and Ash was looking into the distance, quiet. When she heard me stop in front of her, she turned to me so slowly, blood running down her cheeks, eyes bloodshot. She was blind, Wolf. And then she turned and looked at me, and she asked, ‘Is she dead?’ She couldn’t see. She wasn’t sure. I told her she didn’t, but she just started to cry. She knew shekilledher.

“The knife went straight through the bone in her chest, the sternum cracking under the force and the blade wedging straight into her heart. She must have heard it. And heard when she finally stoppedscreaming.”

She stood there silent, her eyes still holding mine, as if daring me to punish her, to accuse her, to challenge her part. But I didn’t. I was silent for a long time, waiting for the walls to give just a little, and when they did, the cold ridge of her face relaxing ever so slightly, I finally asked what I’d wanted to know allalong.

“What didyoudo?”

“What else could I do?” Anna said softly. “I got her out of the country. I knew some people who exported abused zoo animals, and they helped me get her out and overseas. I stayed behind. They had nothing to pin on me, and when it was all over, I got outaswell.

“We traveled around for a while. I got her some medicine and even managed a few black-market surgeries for cornea transplants. The damage to her skin healed, but her eyes weren’t the same. She can’t handle bright light, nor can she see very well, but she was doing better... physically. Mentally... she wasn’t the same person after what happened to her. It’s as if she’s not all there anymore, not interested, not... living. I find myself so scared of letting go of her because I’m so scared she won’tcomeback.”

Anna let out a shaky breath then, the emotion clogging her voice as she tried her best to breathe through it, but the sight of my strong, beautiful, and so perfect woman fighting through the pain devastated me. I knew I should sit still, let her continue, but I just couldn’t fight the instinct that had my body dragging hers against mine before I could eventhink.

She didn’t fight me; instead, her hands clung to my back, to the leather cut hanging on my shoulders, as she quietly breathed me in, holding me with her face buried in mychest.

Nothing was said, nothing needed to be. I felt no shame in holding my woman. No shame in knowing that she wasn’t as strong as I thought she was. And that was okay with me. Ash was obviously something precious to her, and to have had that thing hurt in a way that I could see had shredded her, only made me want to hold hercloser.

“I’ve got to protect her, Wolf.” Anna’s voice didn’t hesitate, didn’t crack. Not anymore. Now it was bold, it was steeled, and it had a hint of the darkness I knew she held tight to her when she spoke. “I didn’t protect her then, but now, here, I absolutely will protect her, and I will send to hell anyone whoharmsher.”

That was mywoman.

* * *

After that,I found myself walking into the clubhouse, Anna tucked under my arm, her head lolling into my warmth, and considering she hadn’t bitten my arm off for the possessive gesture, I figured she was too tired to giveashit.

My leg ached, but I ignored it as we stepped into the crowded room. My eyes instantly sought her out above the heads, and thankful to her height, I spotted Ash still sitting at the bar, her eyes looking deep into her half-full glass, her expression contrastinglysober.

She spotted me walking in, and her eyes met mine above thecrowd.

She looked to Anna, who hadn’t noticed her, her eyes focused solely on the hallway door that led to our room on the other side, before they came back to mine. It took less than a second for her eyes to switch from wide to conflicted as she took in my expression. She could tellIknew.

I also knew why she had given me a hard time at the bar, and why she had looked like she wanted to stop me from going outthere.

I knew all of that, but there was one thing I didn’t know. Something I hadtoknow.

I pressed a kiss to the crown of Anna’s hair, making her grumbled drowsily. “Go to bed. I’ll betheresoon.”

She looked up in surprise, her eyes jumping up and then across the room to where Ash was sitting at the bar, looking at us. Her jaw tensed, and I could tell she wanted to stop me or say something. But instead, she just gave me a tug on my cut and said, “Go easy on her.” And with that, she turned and walked through the crowd, parting it like the sea as the sound of her boots gave warning to anyone inherpath.

As I made my way through the crowd, Ash looked me dead in the eye before snatching her bottle off the side of the bar and making her way to the front door. She slipped, almost unnoticed, through the crowd as I struggled to keep track of her. I only spotted her again once she was at the door and made my wayafterher.

I caught eyes with Lamb as I passed the bar where Ash had been, and his eyes leaped from the door to me. His look was stern but cautious as he flickered his eyes back to the door and then to me again, passing me a warning or a look of concern? Ididn’tknow.

As the cool air hit my skin for the second time that night, I found Ash on one of the steel drums outside the door, her boots on a ridge on the side, letting them stay propped up, despite their unordinary length for a girl her size as she took a swig of the whiskeybottle.

“Ask your questions,” Ash said, her voice apathetic compared to the grouchy bitchiness of all the other times I’d talkedtoher.

I found it just as irritating, but considering her background, I alsounderstoodit.

“Why didyoucome?”

The question was simple enough, though it might have seemed vague. But from the way her eyes flashed, and by the way her hand gripped the neck of the bottle, she understood my meaning. And when she answered, I wasn’tsurprised.

“I’m done,” she said on a deep andheavysigh.

“Done?”

“Yeah, done,” she repeated, bringing the whiskey bottle to her lips, her feet dropping limply down onto the side of the barrel, the metal chiming at the contact with her boots. “Justdone.”

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