Page 97 of Shadow Bound

“I did,” I admit.

“I did too,” Pruitt shocks us all by saying.

Ryker’s mouth gapes at his mate. “You knew, and you didn’t tell me?”

Pruitt gives him a sheepish look. “It wasn’t my secret to tell. Jax struggles with opening up to people—trusting them—I didn’t want to betray him like that.” Pruitt Weylyn… loyal to a fault indeed.

Ryker swings his eyes to me. “What’s your excuse? Why didn’t you say something?”

I shrug. “I think I deserve a little bit of a break. I’m new to this whole voluntarily sharing secrets thing. Plus, it never came up in conversation,” I defend myself.

“It never came up in conversation…” Ryker repeats slowly in bewilderment. “Jesus. We’re having a pack meeting tonight—” He pauses, scanning our beaten and bloodied bodies. “—okay, maybenottonight, but sometime soon we’re discussing that important information that needs to be shared with the classimmediately.” He turns his head to scowl at his mate. “And we will be discussing the fact you kept a secret from me.”

Pruitt’s green eyes roll in her head. “Yeah, yeah,whatever.” She waves him off. “You weren’t going to be kept in the dark forever.” She takes his hand and starts pulling him in the direction of Winslow and Ranger’s house.

“How long have you known about Jax?” Ryker asks as they walk away.

“I don’t know, a year and a half? He told me while I was being held captive at that facility in Vancouver.”

“Goddammit, Pruitt.”

Turning in Ransom’s hold, I look up at him. He has a couple of gashes on his face and some bruising on his sides. Otherwise he looks okay. Bending his head, he drops a kiss to the top of my head. “Come on, Tink, let’s go get you cleaned up.” He lifts me up into his arms, cradling me against his chest. I’m too tired right now to even argue with him about carrying me. I just drop my head to his shoulder and melt into the heat of his body.

As we pass Alexandre, my eyes linger on him. I decide right then and there that I want to be cremated when I die. If there is no body, I can’t be forcibly brought back to life like Alexandre was. I never want to be like thethinghe was when he was brought back.

We walk in silence for a while, but it’s Ransom who finally breaks it by speaking up. “Do you know how scared I was when I couldn’t find you? I can’t believe you went after Nessa and Noah alone. I’ve never felt—” He pauses, choking on his words for a second. “—I don’t ever want to feel that kind of fear again, Isabeau. I swear if you continue to sneak away from me and put yourself in danger, I’m going to put a tracking device on you.”

“I promise to not do it again,” I tell him, but even I don’t believe myself when I say the words.

“For my own sanity, I’m going to pretend that you meant that.” His chest shakes as he silently laughs.

“Smart man,” I yawn.

Dropping a kiss to my temple, he says, “Once we’re cleaned up, you can feed off me. I’m sure you need the blood.”

I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to him being so relaxed about the blood situation. From the beginning, he’s been nothing but accepting and understanding. And now that he’s my only food source, he’s even more calm about it.

There isn’t a better match out there for me. Everything about him is perfect for me.

* * *

I exitthe bathroom with a white fluffy towel tied over my breasts. Ransom sits propped up against the headboard, wearing nothing but a pair of gray sweatpants. He’s texting on his phone and I know instantly who he’s sending a message to.

“Has Remi gotten back to you?” I ask as I drop the towel and slip on one of Ransom’s oversized T-shirts. Remi took off after the fight, saying she needed some time alone to process the loss of her boyfriend. No one has heard from her or seen her since she took off in her wolf form through the woods.

Ransom is worried sick, but also knows that Remi is more than capable of taking care of herself. “No, I just sent her another message. I know I need to give her room to grieve and have time to herself, but I don’t like her being out there alone.” He sighs, tossing the phone onto the side table.

“Give her tonight, if no one hears from her, we can go track her down and bring her back here tomorrow,” I volunteer as I gather my damp hair up into a ponytail.

Ransom cocks his head at me. “You’d go look for her with me?”

Frowning, I move closer to the bed. “Of course I would, Ransom.” I swing my leg over his thighs and straddle him. Now face-to-face, I look into those ocean blue eyes of his. “Don’t you know I’d do anything for you or your family? I don’t know what it’s like to be part of a family, I never thought it was my fate to be part of one like yours, but I want to learn.”

Holding his face between my hands, I skim my lips across his. “I didn’t think I was destined or meant for a lot of things, but you changed that. You changedeverything. Before you, I didn’t think I could be happy. I just thought I’d go through life going through the motions, not really enjoying it. There was also a high probability that Nessa was going to show up and kill me, so I also didn’t really think I’d have a life to live. You make me happier than I thought possible and you make me excited about life, about what comes next.” I kiss him softly again. “I didn’t think I was capable or deserving of love. I’d been told I wasn’t all my life; the message is bound to stick in your head after a while. But then I met you and you opened up this—floodgate—of emotions that I’d worked so hard to keep at bay. It barely took any effort from you either. I was pretty much done for after that first night in the clinic when you held me up against that wall. I fought the emotions for a while because I was afraid of what they meant, but I don’t want to fight them anymore.”

His hands flex on my hips. “Beau…”

I take in a shaky breath, needing the extra calming breath so I can say what I want to say. No, what Ineedto say.I have to say it. “I love you, Ransom.” My voice is barely a raspy whisper, but I know he heard me because his blue eyes widen, and his chest stops moving like he’s holding his breath.

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