Page 82 of Piece You Saved

A howl goes up in the direction I just ran from. Dariel. If Kade hadn’t turned up when he had… I try not to think about what would have happened then.

Why do I keep doing things that threaten to kill me? Does a part of me still want to die?

I release a shaky breath that catches in my throat. I try to breathe again. Draw in deep, but it’s not working. Why isn’t it working?

Going downstairs to the garden isn’t an option. Neither is leaving this room. I get up, stripping as I head for my adjoining bathroom and step into the shower before it’s warmed up. Bowing my head, cold water streams over me. Strangely, it quietens my panic to the point I can almost think. I’m not sure why, so I yank the faucet from hot to icy cold, determined to stay in this freezing shower forever.

Two doors away, a wolf rages. The cold water is seeping into my bones when someone pushes my shower screen open. A hand reaches around me, dialing the heat up. Familiar arms wrap around me from behind, drawing my shaking body back into a hot male body.

Aden.

He needed me to ground him before, and as we stand in the shower, with steam curling around us, I’m the one who needs him.

“It’s okay,” he whispers into my ear. “You’re safe now. You’re safe.”

And as the room fills with steamy water, so thick I can barely see the wall in front of me, my ragged breathing slows. The tears streaming down my cheeks continue.

How can I stay here when Dariel’s wolf wants to kill me?

CHAPTER 22

HARLEY

“Are you finally leaving on time, Harley?” Becka calls as I shrug into my jacket on my way past the nurses’ station.

I turn, still backing up to give her a salute. A tired salute, because I’m sure I left the last bit of energy I have somewhere on the fifth floor. “If no one stops me this time.”

“This time?” Her bright smile dims. “Don’t tell me you stayed late again.”

I glance at my cell before tucking it back into my scrub pants pocket. “Only by a couple of hours.”

“You need a life, Harley.” Female interest stirs in her brown gaze.

“A life? What’s that?” I deadpan.

Becka leans on the counter, resting her elbows on the surface as she says, “I could show you if you want.”

I stop backing up. When I told Saige I have no interest in any woman but her, I wasn’t lying. “You can do much better than a guy like me.”

Her lip quirks. “I’m not so sure about that.”

“I am. Bryan is more your type.”

She tilts her head. “Bryan?”

“Oncologist. He was asking about you a couple of weeks back.” Bryan wasn’t, but I caught the way he was looking at her on the way out early one morning.

“He was? You never mentioned it before,” she says, peering over at the elevator, probably wondering when she can go upstairs and speak with him.

“That, Becka, is because he would carve me open if he saw you making eyes at me. Talk to him. I think he’s shy.” Lifting my hand in a wave, I resume backing away and out of the hospital at the tail end of a long, long night. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Her expression is thoughtful when she calls out a belated bye. I step out of the doors and into the dusky early morning.

Before med school, Simon and I would head home from clubs at four to shower, dress, and grab two hours of sleep before we headed to class. As tuition costs mounted, all that fancy education became too expensive to do anything to fuck it up.

It feels like so long ago, I couldn’t imagine getting by with so little sleep now.

I flash a tired smile to a doctor who’s chatting on his cell phone as he arrives for the day shift.

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