Page 86 of Lost Touch
“We thought you’d taken off,” Brian whined, eyes flicking between me and Drew, as if he couldn’t quite bear to look at either of us. “I mean, what were we supposed to do?”
“Tell them the truth?” The words wrenched out of my throat, scraping like barbed wire. “Send them looking for me? Call an ambulance when you crashed the car in the first place? You left me to—worse than die.”
A long, heavy silence descended on the room. Clayton’s mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out.
Drew lifted his hands, spreading his fingers to show them the gleaming, razor-sharp length of his claws.
“I have ten of these,” he said, his voice so calm and even and deadly that I grabbed him by the arm, my breath catching. Oh, shit. “You have a lot more than ten internal organs between you. I’ll have to double up. You better fucking pray I get bored and do it quickly instead of slowly.”
“He’s fine!” Clayton cried, pressing himself back against the couch. A damp patch appeared on the front of his gym shorts. “He’s right here, he’s alive, nothing happened to him, please don’t—”
“You have no fucking clue what happened to me!” My shout startled even me, and I jumped up from the chair, fists clenched, wishing I had my own claws to tear them to shreds. Images flowed through my mind like a waterfall, the lab where they’d tortured me, my cell, the endless tears I’d cried as I begged for someone to come and rescue me. “You deserve it. You deserve for him to rip your liver out and beat you to death with it—”
“You have the best ideas, babe,” Drew interjected. “I love you so fucking much.”
For a second everything blurred, and it felt like my blood stopped pumping. I turned and stared up at him. “You what?”
He looked back at me, mouth open in startlement. “What?”
“You said you love me,” I whispered.
“Oh, my God,” Brian moaned. “This isn’t fucking happening. What’s fucking happening?”
Drew’s brows furrowed, and he waved a clawed hand at me in a “help me out, here” kind of gesture.
“Yeah, of course I fucking love you,” he said, sounding puzzled more than anything at my lack of comprehension. “I’d die for you. I’d kill for you. Ihavekilled for you, and I’m totally down to do it again in the next five minutes. I mated you, Ash! What the hell did you think?”
“I—what—I thought—” I sputtered into silence, torn between the deep, almost frantic joy welling up in me and absolute, bone-deep exasperation. “I thought you’d say something, Drew! You know, words? I’m human! I don’t speak fluent werewolf yet!”
A dull, deep-red flush spread over Drew’s perfect cheekbones. I wanted to lick them.
Maybe the werewolf thing was starting to rub off on me after all.
“I’m human enough to use words to tell you I love you. But I’m also human enough not to want to say it when I don’t think I’ll hear it back.”
Exasperation came out on top.
I put my fists on my hips and glared. “You arenotthat stupid! Don’t think you’ll hear itback? Of course I love you, you idiot! I thought you didn’t love me!”
Drew stared at me for a second, and then a brilliant, blinding grin took over his face. “Yeah?” He moved a little closer, leaning down, his lips getting so close—
“Oh my God,” someone groaned. “Fuck, I’m gonna throw up, this is so fucked-up—”
Drew and I turned as one to see Clayton covering his face and leaning over the side of the couch, while Brian gibbered at the other end of it.
“Way to ruin the fucking moment,” Drew gritted out. He turned back to me. “I love you. I can’t quite believe you love me, so can you scream it later while I’m holding you down?”
“Yeah, I can do that.” My own smile felt too big for my lips to contain. The bond flared between us, vibrating with its own delight in flashes of brassy gold. “All night. Please.”
Drew nodded briskly, as if to settle the matter. And then he turned his full attention to the two assholes on the couch.
“I’ve changed my mind,” he said. “With your permission, babe?”
“I trust you.” And I did, with everything. Including executing my revenge for me. Right then, I felt too happy to want to dismember anyone, but I didn’t think that’d stop Drew, necessarily. He could handle it.
Drew leaned down so quickly I almost missed it, kissed my cheek, and took my hand.
“Instead of me killing you slowly, you fucking assholes are going to go to the police station, turn yourselves in, and confess. All of it. The way you drugged him, the fight, crashing the car, leaving him for dead, the lies. Every single fucking last bit of it, until they have to gag you to make you stop telling them what absolute scum-sucking motherfucking pieces of shit you are. Do you understand?” Brian made an incoherent sound. “I said, do you fucking understand?”
