Page 27 of Hayden's Haven
She was beginning to understand the tan shifter who’d sent the spectators away. He had left Benji pinned under Hayden, without fearing for one second that Hayden would kill Benji. Hayden wasn’t like the white wolf he resembled so much, or even Vance or Truman. He could control himself when pushed. A part of her had known that all along. It’s why she had never feared Hayden, even when they were alone, like now.
“My back is fine,” he said, his voice filled with a raw emotion she couldn’t quite identify. He didn’t sound angry or hurt like down at the maintenance building.
Slowly, Mila turned to face him. His eyes, deep black pools, swirled with desire. With a shaky hand, Mila trailed several fingers along Hayden’s cheek. “Are you okay?”
“Like I said, my back is fine.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
He was pulling away from her before she had even begun to grasp what might be happening between them. “Turn around. I want to examine the wound.”
He did as he was told. He was wearing a loose button-down shirt that she could easily lift to check his back, but somehow that felt too intimate. “Remove your shirt, please.”
A few seconds later, he had unbuttoned and removed the shirt, baring a well-muscled back that she had seen before, though only from a distance. Her hands were tempted to glide over every muscle, explore every dip and curve with her fingertips, maybe even her tongue. Her cheeks burned hot. She did not just picture herself licking him!
“Like what you see, Mila?”
Just the way he said that sent a shiver straight to her core. “It’s nothing I haven’t seen before,” she replied, determined to keep her reply professional as she looked over the wound. As she thought, the skin had already knitted together, keeping her from determining how deep the blade had gone. “The wound’s already healing. You’ll be as good as new by morning.”
He spun around and his hand went to her throat so suddenly she flinched. A single finger slowly caressed the tender skin of her neck. “Your bruises are still here.” It wasn’t a question or even an observation, but an accusation that something wasn’t as it should be, that she was hiding something from him.
She had thought about covering the bruises with makeup. Tess had even offered to help her, but it wasn’t worth hiding her injuries. Those who hadn’t already guessed would find out soon enough.
“Half my pack was sick with SEV-2. Someone had to check on the sick, give them some relief where possible. The vaccine I’d been working on wasn’t ready.”
“You got sick, and when you woke, you could no longer reach your wolf,” he finished for her. The sympathy and understanding in his voice was the first time she had heard someone grieve for her loss. No longer being able to access her wolf was indeed a loss, but it was far from the end of the world. The last thing she wanted from Hayden of all people was pity. She was stronger than that. The very fact that she was in this house alone with a white wolf was proof of that.
“I lived. Fifty-three others weren’t as lucky.”
“This is why you pushed me away, why you walked when Kate and I shifted and why you refused to join me at the Running of the Moon?”
She nodded, watching his expression closely. That was her one regret, turning him down. She would have liked to run alongside his wolf, even if only one time, to know what it felt like.
“You won’t do that again.”
“Excuse me?” she said, her voice pitching high at his high-handed tone.
“You won’t lie to me again.”
“I’ve never lied to you, Second. You made assumptions.” She slipped past him and out the door. “I better go.”
“I’m sorry, Mila,” he said seconds later when he caught up to her. “I shouldn’t have said that. I thought you were afraid to tell me the truth.”
She was afraid, but she hadn’t lied. She wasn’t part of his pack and she only planned to stay long enough to develop the vaccine. He darted in front of her, forcing her to stop. He was a tower of muscle, as toned and chiseled as any statue she had ever seen in a museum, except for the three scars that ran from his chest to his abdomen and another deep scar that ran from his left elbow to the back of his hand.
Mila desperately wanted to ask him how he had gotten the scars and why Benji had called him a traitor even though that tan wolf had trusted that Hayden would not kill Benji. Hayden was awhitewolf, for God’s sake! White wolves were known to be violent and unpredictable, but there was a gentleness to Hayden, one that she craved to wrap around her and shut out the rest of the world.
Technically she had never lied, but she was hiding a part of herself from him. Even if he thought he felt something for her now, it would only fade in time. In the eyes of a strong shifter, she was practically a human. Eventually, he would despise her for who she was, just like her parents had.
“I need to go, Hayden,” she said, but he placed his hands on her upper arms, sparking that warmth in her, giving life to a part of her that had died long ago.
“Stay, for just a bit?”
She shook her head, the ability to speak long gone.
“I won’t hurt you, Mila. Ever.”
He would hurt her, by leaving her, which was an inevitability. He was second to Damien, practically an alpha. Eventually, he would want to blood-bond a female, even if his wolf never showed signs of turning feral. All shifters wanted that special connection with their mate that only came through a blood-bond, but no strong shifter would want to blood-bond her. Vance had made that quite clear, though she was glad Vance had never pushed for a blood-bond. Being tied to him on that level would have killed her, possibly literally. Hayden on the other hand. . . Oh, how her stomach fluttered at the idea of blood-bonding him. That would truly be a dream come true.
