Page 55 of Soul Bound

My brave little witch doesn’t usually let things get to her, but what happened in the tunnels is clearly affecting her. And I don’t blame her. It’s hard taking a life. When I’ve gone on rogue hunts in the past with my brothers, killing a rogue—even though they would gladly slit my throat given the chance—isn’t easy. The weight of killing someone weighs on you. Winslow’s life is consumed by the dead, but it’s different when you’re the one to end a life.

The drive back to the hotel in Vancouver is silent too. I stop at a pharmacy and pick up bandages and wound cleaner so I’m able to take care of the bullet graze on her cheek back at the hotel. Winslow stays in the car when I go inside. By the time we get to the hotel, it’s after midnight and no one is in the parking lot and lobby. We slip inside without anyone seeing us, thank God because people would be confused and worried about the blood covering Winslow. I didn’t realize her hands were also coated in it until we got into the bright lights of the lobby.

I drop Winslow off at her hotel room door and take the key card from her when she takes it out of her bag. I open the door for her. “Unlock the adjoining door when you get inside, I’m going to come to clean out the wound on your cheek when you’re done,” I tell her before she can close the door on me.

“You don’t have to do that.” Her eyes look bigger than usual when she looks up at me.

“I know, I want to,” I say softly. The instinct to take care of her consumes me. “Get cleaned up, I’ll be over in a little while.”

In my room, I shower and clean up myself. The guy had gotten in a few lucky punches and I have bruises all over my ribs—nothing that won’t be gone in the next hour or two. I sit on the edge of my bed and respond to the text messages my family had sent me. My parents left for Europe around the same time Winslow and I left for Canada. I have a dozen worried texts from my parents when I check my phone. I knew my dad was going to have a hard time walking away and turning off his ‘alpha mode’, and there was no way in hell my mom was going to stop her coddling, even if she’s an ocean away. I send them both a quick text, giving them the basics of what went down at the facility.

I decide to just call Pruitt. She is the acting alpha and she has sent me more texts than my parents combined.

She picks up on the first ring. “Are you guys okay? I’ve been pacing all day knowing you guys were going back to that hellhole.”

My lips twitch at her panicked tone. “We’re okay—well, Ithinkwe’re okay.”

“What do you mean, youthinkyou’re okay?”

“Sterling had the facility wired with silent alarms. We set them off and men were dispatched to bring us in. We ended up taking them out.”

“Winslow killed someone?” I hear Ryker’s voice pipe up in the background.

“Oh, by the way, you’re on speakerphone,” Pruitt offers quickly. “Is Winslow okay? I know when I killed Nicolai, I had nightmares for weeks afterward. I knew in my heart I did the right thing, but it’s still hard knowing you killed someone.”

I sigh “Honestly? I think it’s hitting her pretty hard, she hasn’t talked since we left the facility.”

“Have you checked on her?”

I can still hear the shower going in her room with my enhanced hearing. “She’s showering off the blood now. She cut the guy’s throat and he ended up tackling her to the ground. He bled out on top of her and then died literally on her. She freaked out when she couldn’t get him off.”

Just relaying the information to Pruitt and Ryker is making my wolf growl at the memory.

“She’s tougher than I gave her credit for.” Ryker sounds genuinely impressed Winslow was able to kill a man twice her size. He would find that impressive. Meanwhile, I hate that she was put in a position where she had to fight for her life. I don’t get the impression it was the first time she’s had to do that.

“She handled herself well,” I concede.

“When are you guys coming home? I don’t like you being up there without backup. Maybe I should send Ransom, she seems to get along with him well and he’s turned out to be quite the badass.” Pruitt offers.

I know she means well by offering to send my twin, but I don’t want Winslow anywhere near him right now. The possessiveness I feel for her is in full force. “You don’t need to send anyone. We should be back tomorrow.” Now that we have the blood, I don’t think there’s much else for us to do here.

“Okay good.” Pruitt sighs. “Will you tell Winnie I’m thinking about her and I’ll be there for her when she gets home?”

Home.

It isn’t her home, so why does it feel so right when Pru says it?

“Sure.”

“Take care of the witch dude, she might be strong, but she might need to lean on you a little bit. The first kill is never easy,” Ryker adds before I disconnect the call.

She can lean on me as much as she needs.

Still sitting on my bed, I listen to the shower in Winslow’s room that’s still running. She’s been in there since before I got in my shower. Worried, I open my side of the adjoining door and sigh in relief when I discover she listened to me and unlocked her side.

“Winslow?” I peek my head in the room, half expecting her to be sitting on the bed, just letting the water run. But she’s not in the bedroom.

I make my way toward the bathroom where a thick cloud of steam is building. The white shower curtain is pulled tight so I can’t see her, but I can sense she’s inside. I knock against the door to get her attention. “Winslow?” I repeat, but she still doesn’t answer me. Unease filling me, I can’t stop myself from pulling the curtain back and inch, needing to make sure she’s in fact okay. I know she’s in there naked and might claw my eyes out for looking, but I risk it anyway.

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