Page 29 of Savage Hunter

Stairs wind up the side of the interior to the second floor. I take them just as quickly. I climb to the second level and don’t stop until I am outside the back door at the end of a hallway. I pick the left, turn the handle and come face to face with… I stop breathing.

The sight of her slight body nearly brings me to my knees. Relief and fear congeal in the pit of my stomach and have my heart racing. I blink, scared that what I’m seeing is a mirage.

Beautiful, rosy lips fall open and those pretty blue eyes of hers climb to meet mine; recognition is fierce.

Her eyes turn wild. “Wolfe?” The brewing fury inside for months on end me falls flat.

Black agony rooted deep inside my chest loosens its death grip on me after months of slowly squeezing the life from my soul.

“Harmonia.” I whisper raggedly, unable to find my voice. I’ve gone up against scary motherfuckers in this world. I’ve taken bullets and bled until nearly unconscious. Never once did I falter. But the disbelief and tears glittering in her eyes steals my strength.

I fall at her feet, hands going around her waist. I press my forehead against the soft belly of the woman who makes me weak to the core. Words, thoughts and emotions all clog my throat.

My heart races and I drink in the sight of her slight frame like a starved man devoid of life.

“Harmonia,” I whisper her name again. Everything I feel and think right now comes down to that one name. “Tell me I am not dreaming.” God, my hands tremble uncontrollably and the knots in my throat keep me from saying the words I’ve lived with for thirteen endless months. I can’t do anything more than absorb the light of her goodness right now.

A harsh, pain-fill sob tears from her throat.

Misery fills my heart at the torment I hear in that one guttural sound.

My hands cinch around her waist tighter. After losing her, days led into months of hunting. I dreamed of having her in my arms again. It got to the point I was hallucinating. I saw her face, smelled her sweetness and heard her voice everywhere. But never found her.

Until now.

“Talk to me. Let me hear your voice. Am I dead? Is this my reward or my punishment?” My voice thickens painfully.

All this has to be in my head. My eyelids are on fire. My nostrils flare from the effort it takes to hold back the tears threatening to steal the last of my strength.

I tighten my grip but I still can’t believe I’m touching her. I wrap my arms around her middle and press both of my hands against her back. I must have taken one too many bullets getting Rage home. It took all the Savage crew, myself and a few of their friends to fight off the Colombian cartel. And I ended up dead. That is what this is.

“I need to hear your voice, Angel. Talk to me. I’ll accept I’m dead if I get to keep you here with me.” I sound like a greedy bastard. Having her here with me means she’s suffered the worst of fates.

I’d do anything for this to be real. God, please. Let the torture end already. Don’t give me this moment for it not to be real.

Blue eyes come into view when Harmonia comes to her knees in front of me. “Harmonia.” My hands circle her face and the tears in her eyes fall in time with mine.

I swallow them back but I’m not winning the fight. Fuck, I must look like a wreck. A weak mess. I claw out of the darkness and draw her in. My lips meet hers. Soft warm. Alive.

“Wolfe, oh my God. Wolfe? It is you. I thought I’d finally lost it, but it is you.” The disbelief in her voice matches mine. Bleak coldness that had me in its grip for months cracks around the edges. Utter panic stabs at my chest when she scoots across the floor, putting unwanted space between us. Tear-filled eyes take in the monster in front of her.

“Don’t be scared. I won’t hurt you.” Despite the blood on my hands, I hold mine out to her.

I know what she sees. I’m not the polished man she remembers by any means. She’s changed in the months we’ve been apart, too—her thinner frame, the shadows under her eyes that look far too close to bruising. She looks tired. Maybe even defeated.

“This can’t be. How did you survive? I hoped…but no. There were so many guards and so much blood.” Shaking fingers raise to cover her mouth. “There was so much blood, Wolfe.”

A lot of it was mine, but enough of it was theirs.

“I lived for you,” I tell her honestly. I don’t know how I didn’t die the night she they took her. I’m just thankful I lived so that I could be in this moment.

She drifts back to me, bringing with her my heart and soul. I reach for the towel wound around her head before easing my hands to either side of her face. Wet hair tumbles over my fingers and the scent of her fruity shampoo fills my nostrils. I lean in and press a kiss to the top of her forehead. Her cheeks. Chin. Anywhere I can reach.

She touches me too. Her fingers comb through my longer hair and she brushes the back of her knuckles over the beard she’s never seen on me. Her touch is light, like a feather. I don’t look like the same man she gave her virginity to. The polished man who wore suits all the time and stayed cleanly shaved gave all that up for biker boots and jeans. The man she knew a year ago died the night I lost her. I’m rougher. A lot meaner. A monster in every definition of the word.

Her attention falls to the blood on my hands and the debris still clinging to my shirt and the Savage cut. The smell of smoke and fire overpowers the smell of the soap from my morning shower.

She’s on her feet, wrapping her arms around her middle. I shake as I hold out my hand and silently beg for her to come back to me. Now that she’s in front of me and I know I’m not dead and I can’t bear the thought of not touching from here until the grave takes me home.

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