Addict (Hunter #2)(66)

“Sorry, dear, this is probably going to be intensely painful.” Sharpe gave me a mischievous grin.

Marcus swore as the doctor pushed the plunger down, and I screamed. The pain came fast and hard, my body shaking and fighting. Donovan was suddenly in Marcus’s place. He held my shoulders down, forcing me to remain still as fire coursed through my veins. I can handle a great deal of pain, but my entire forearm restructuring itself was a bit much.

Sharpe pulled the needle out of my arm and called for another.

I shook my head. I couldn’t take any more. Tears streamed down my face and I begged, pleaded with them to cut the f*cking thing off. Donovan looked grim above me as Sharpe found another vein and went to work.

I was about to pass out from the pain when I suddenly found myself walking on a familiar path. I stopped and studied my surroundings. My body felt perfect, my arm free of agony and whole again. I flexed my hand and smiled before looking around me.

I was in a park from my childhood. Green trees and grass, blue and green playground equipment. Chisholm Park. Up ahead in the distance, I could see the duck pond. I would walk home from Bell High School with Nate, and we would stop and watch the ducks swim. We would stay there for long periods of time, dreading the moment we would go home and face the man who’d raised us. Nate and I would sit and talk, and sometimes he would read to me to pass the time.

There was a comforting weight in my hand. I didn’t need to look to the side to know who was holding my hand. He was the man who had taken me here with his mind. My lover.

“I miss my brother.” The longing for my childhood companion was sharp.

“I know you do, bella.” Marcus squeezed my hand gently. “When you’re ready, you’ll call him.”

I nodded and sat down to look out over one of the peaceful places of my childhood. “Is it working?”

“Yes, it’s working. I’m sorry for the pain. I should have pulled you in before he even began. I didn’t believe it was something so horrible. I shall have a talk with the doctor after this is done.”

There was a warm breeze, and I leaned into my lover’s body. He was everything comforting to me. I loved the way his arms felt around me and how my head tucked under his when I rested on his shoulder. I loved his scent. He smelled of sandalwood and soap. We sat quietly for a moment. This was so much better than anesthesia, which would have made me throw up.

I hated the fact that I kind of wished Marcus was Gray.

“Bella, I believe it’s finished now,” Marcus said quietly, as though he was reluctant to break our peaceful moment.

I turned my face up toward him. I wasn’t ready to leave. I wasn’t ready to face everyone. The day had gone so poorly. There were ramifications I didn’t want to deal with yet. Marcus and I were going to fight because he wouldn’t like what I needed to do. I wanted some sweetness first.

“Just because they’re done doesn’t mean we are, right?”

A slow smile crossed his handsome face. “No, my mistress.” He gently lowered me on to my back. The grass was soft against my suddenly naked skin. “We’re not finished yet.”





Chapter Fourteen



I flexed my hand, opening and closing it. I was doing it almost unconsciously now. It felt good to use my hand again. It was hours later and I was sitting in my uncle’s living room waiting for dinner. I discovered that nearly losing my arm made me hungry. And thirsty. I was working on my second beer.

“It works like a regular arm, right?” Lee stared at it. I thought he might be waiting to see if it could launch rockets or do something cool and bionic now.

It was perfect, with the singular exception of the skin being lighter than the rest of the arm. It was like I’d tanned lightly, but only on one side of my body. Sharpe swore the two arms would eventually match.

“Yeah.” I grasped my beer bottle with it. “It works like normal.”

“I wish I could have seen it,” Lee groused. “I bet it was cool.”

Rhys smiled and nodded. “I bet it was cool, too. You should have taken pictures.”

“I think it would be gwoss,” a small voice said. My cousin, Courtney Owens, stared up at me. She was a tiny thing with huge brown eyes and thick hair. I bet her hair weighed more than her body did. She was four years old and couldn’t pronounce an L to save her life. “I’m gwad Aunt Kewsey didn’t wose her awm.”

She wasn’t great with Rs either. She was a baby she-wolf, and I kind of wanted to cuddle her because she was so damn cute. I was never a cuddler before I’d started training.

She was my blood. It was odd to think I had family I hadn’t known before a few months ago.

“Me, too, kiddo.” I was unable to stop myself from ruffling her hair. I’d never been around kids before. I was rapidly discovering I preferred them to adults. At least they were honest.

Liv sat across from me at the big dining room table. She took a long swig of beer. The events of the day had taken their toll. She normally didn’t touch the stuff, but when Zack’s wife, Lisa, had offered her one, she quickly said yes. She also said yes to number two, and to the shots of whiskey she’d taken before we’d even gotten here. “I don’t like to think about what you had to go through to get it back though.”

“Let’s not talk about that part,” I replied. Liv had told me she could hear me screaming all the way down the hall. It was my screams that woke her up and sent her to the bottom of the whiskey bottle.