Wolf Girl (Wolf Girl, #1)(48)

“I fucked up. Demi, I’m so sorry I fucked up.” His grip around me tightened and I winced because it hurt my injuries a little, but at the same time I needed it. I needed him, I wanted to be closer. I couldn’t get enough of this feeling that he provided when he held me.

I felt safe.

I felt adored.

I felt like I was falling in love.

All of it scared the shit out of me and filled the holes inside of me at the same time.

“Shhh,” I soothed in his ear. “I forgive you.”

He nodded, his dark hair splashing across his forehead. “Never again.” He tapped the cuff. “Never again.”

And I believed him.





“I need you to lay her on the bed, Sawyer.” A tall man in a white doctor’s coat peered at Sawyer with a slight look of alarm. Sawyer hadn’t let me down since we left the Wild Lands. He’d held me to his chest in the helicopter. He’d carried me through campus into his house. And now a bunch of dominant males wanted to examine me and his wolf was back, glaring at the men with yellow eyes.

The bed had been stripped and covered in plastic sheeting, then a white gauzy linen. We didn’t go to his old house where the vampires attacked like I thought we would; he must have moved after that incident. We were in a giant glass house that was slightly more off campus but surrounded by open green grass and men with machine guns monitoring the perimeter.

He just glared at the doctor, chest heaving, arms snuggled tightly around me.

“Sawyer…” I pulled his face to mine and met that blazing yellow gaze. “I’m in pain and I’d like the doctor to help me. I had a really bad fall down the mountain. I need you to put me down.”

His eyes bled into blue and his face contorted in agony, as if thinking of me in pain caused him to also feel discomfort.

With a nod, he lay me on the bed and then hovered six inches over me.

The doctor cleared his throat. “I need space to examine her.”

With a growl, Sawyer pushed off the bed and stood behind the doctor and his female assistant and they immediately went to work.

The female clicked her tongue as she pulled up my shirt to look at my stomach. “Does it hurt when you breathe in deeply?” she asked.

I looked down at the purple splotching bruises on my ribcage and nodded. I’d been taking shallow breaths this entire time.

“Broken ribs,” the doctor typed into his tablet.

I could hear Sawyer’s jaw clamp shut from here; his teeth clacked together. He started to pace the room as they continued to inspect me. Flashing a light in my eyes, they had me follow their finger.

“Concussion,” the doctor said.

“Motherfuckers!” Sawyer growled and the doctor flinched but carried on.

The doctor inspected my bleeding and crusted elbow. “She’ll need sutures for this laceration on the elbow.”

The woman frowned. “Why isn’t she healing?”

Sawyer’s growl turned into a whine. “Where’s the witch!” he cried into the hallway. “Get these fucking cuffs off her!”

Eugene’s voice came back: “She’s on her way.”

The two doctors shared a look, and then Sawyer swallowed hard. “Her … the cuffs basically make her human. She can’t heal until they come off.” There was so much gut-wrenching guilt in his tone that it brought tears to my eyes. I reached out a hand for him but he faced the wall, head down as if he couldn’t even look at me in that moment.

The woman raised her eyebrows but said nothing while the male doctor let his eyes roam over Sawyer’s naked back. “Let me look at that nasty wound on your flank.”

“I’m fine,” Sawyer growled, spinning back around with yellow eyes. “Demi first.”

The doctor shook his head. “I can see your ribcage, Sawyer. Werewolves are not impervious to infection, my duty is to the alpha fami—”

“Your duty is to follow orders.” Sawyer looked murderous, and I just wanted to fall asleep, everything felt so heavy. “Help. Demi. First. She is my family.”

She is my family.

Were there ever four more powerful words? I wondered if I’d even heard him right.

The doctor sighed and rubbed the back of his neck.

“I’ll need to get a CT on her. And I’d like to x-ray her spine and ribs,” he ordered, and the woman typed up something on her tablet. “Even if we can get her healing back, she’ll heal all wrong and have a permanent injury without the bones being set properly.”

Oh God.

I tried to focus on his words but everything in the room spun and I started to feel nauseated.

“I feel sick,” I told them both.

They shared a look. “Could be a brain bleed. Order that CT scan stat, and where is this witch? We need those cuffs off now before damage begins to become permanent,” the doctor barked to the female and Sawyer simultaneously.

Sawyer fell to his knees, leaning over me at the bed, his face contorted into absolute misery. “Demi?” His voice was a hoarse whisper, fading in and out with warbled tones.

“Hmm?” I tried to focus on staying awake, but everything was too bright. Too loud. Too heavy.

Leaning in, he whispered in my ear. “I don’t deserve you.” His breath feathered over me. “But I don’t think I can live without you … assuming you’ll even have me.” My brain was too slow in trying to process those words. Everything felt so heavy and sluggish and loud and painful.