Page 120 of Piece You Saved

I’m still figuring out where he will fit when a small sound, sense, or some internal thing makes me blink sleepy eyes open.

Something woke me. But what?

A tingle of awareness.

I sit up, stop focusing on the internal, and sweep my tired gaze around the room, hunting it out.

I freeze.

Emerald eyes glitter at me from the open doorway.

I clench the cool cotton sheets in tight fists and struggle to breathe as a large white wolf, who can only be Dariel, steps into my room.

You left the door open. How could you be so stupid as to leave the door open?

I drag air in through my nose and fight to draw another in. Panic steals away my hard-worn breaths almost as soon as they fill my lungs.

The wolf shows me its teeth.

“Kade?” A whisper. A barely audible thread of sound drifts from my lips. That’s all I can manage with terror strangling me.

I drag another breath in.

“Kade,” I whisper again, a little louder than before.

I swear I hear the rustle of fabric. Is Kade waking up? Please let it be him waking up.

The wolf snarls. My heart constricts in terror.

Get up, Saige. Get up.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see it. My bathroom door. It’s open. Not all the way, but open is open. A whisper of a memory stirs in my mind. In it, Kade is telling me all the doors in this house are reinforced. If I get behind it, I’ll be okay.

To do that, I have to convince the muscles in my body that don’t seem to want to work to move.

Slowly, I slide my left leg to the left side of the bed.

The wolf’s eyes narrow. A snarl rumbles from his chest.

I freeze. A soft whimper I couldn’t stop even if I wanted to bleeds from between my lips.

We stare at each other.

Cold sweat forms on my brow as I clench the sheet even tighter.

He takes a step toward me.

My heart gallops louder with each passing second.

“Kade.” My voice is almost at full volume now.

A cough. A rustle of sheets. Kade clears his throat. “Angel? That you?”

The wolf’s legs bunch. I’ve been around wolves hunting to know exactly what it means.

“Kade!” I scream.

I shove myself out of the bed and sprint for the bathroom.

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