Page 20 of Alpha's Baby Girl
I didn’t know if I could carry her as a wolf, but I knew shifting with an injury sometimes caused more damage. Half-submerged in the river alongside her, I crouched to scoop her leg into my lap to assess it. It didn’t look too bad, and it was placed somewhere that wouldn’t cause too much of a difference when she shifted.
“I need you to shift, okay?” I asked her. “I’ve found a cave and some supplies.”
She huffed again, her eyes blinking at me. Thalia was so gorgeous, both wolf and human. Her eyes glanced towards the way I’d come, and she whined.
“You want me to leave?”
She blinked at me again.
“Not happening, sorry.” Then I paused. “Are you worried this will make you fail the trial?”
A quiet snarl rippled from her, and my inner wolf wanted to growl back in challenge.
“This won’t affect anything. You’re surviving, aren’t you? I said I’d be there to help some of you. So let me help, Thalia.”
She stared at me for another few minutes before her nose flared. And, because I knew she couldn’t answer me verbally, I said, “Let me take care of you the way I should have always been taking care of you these past three years.”
Her eyes were so wide as she finally relented.
When she shifted back to her human form, I shifted once more into my wolf form, and then maneuvered her onto my back. She groaned under her breath as I stood up and began to walk.
Her hands fisted in my fur, and my wolf went crazy at the feel of her body heat so close to me.
I heard a quiet mumble as she buried her face into the fur of my neck.Mate, I can’t ignore that I need you.
Chapter 11 - Thalia
I was distantly aware of the muscles moving beneath me and the warm fur against my bare skin that I snuggled into, humming happily. Everything felt so right, despite the fire lancing up my leg from the deep cut I’d gotten after slipping into the river. The current had carried me fiercely further down, away from my first location, until I’d come to a stop at the riverbank.
I’d tried to climb my way out, but my leg had buckled beneath me each time.
Now, I was aware of being carried out of the rain, and set down onto cold ground. The sound of a zipper cut through the roar of the rain, and I realized I was in a cave.
One word kept ringing through my head:mate, mate, mate. After seeing him again in his wolf form, my wolf knew how close she was to the alpha who had rejected her—an alpha now carrying me to safety and protection
A blanket was tucked around my shoulders.
Fenrys’s face faded in and out of view. I reached up to brush his black curls out of his eyes. As a wolf, they were the deepest blue, and I almost missed the rumbling growl he’d given me out by the river.
“Mate,” I whispered, my eyes on his.
Fenrys smiled as he cupped my face. “Sleep now, Thalia.”
I wanted to protest but between the blood loss andhim, exhaustion washed over me and lulled me into peaceful depths. If he was protecting me, I needed to do the same to him. How could I be a danger to him? How could I go through with this, when he had saved me?
***
When I woke up, a fire’s warmth heated one side of my face, and my leg was tightly wrapped. Moving the blanket aside, I frowned at seeing a bandage wrapped around my shin, encasing ankle to knee. It seemed overkill for a small gash, but something in my chest softened.
Then I stopped myself when I heard the rustle across the cave.
On the other side of the fire, as far from me as possible, Fenrys was sitting against the cave wall, his eyes on me.
“You’re awake,” he breathed.
Then the panic set in. The trial. I sat upright, wincing when my head throbbed. Fenrys made a noise in his throat but stayed put, his face strained, his hands clenched on either side of his thigh. He wore thin sports shorts but no T-shirt, his skin slightly pink from the fire.
“The trial.”
