Chapter 0004

Grey's POV

"Are you gonna try to lie to me about remembering this too?" I watched her reach to assess her wound and intercepted her hands before they could submit the arrowhead deeper into her shoulder. While drawing her touch elsewhere, I could feel the heat from her fear intertwined with her confusion. But if there had ever been a time to explain the details to her, now was not it.

Her lips parted to spew something likely heartless so I pressed my hand with closed fingers over her mouth. Soft petal lips against my palm brought inappropriate visions to the forefront as her eyes fell to my mouth. I was tempted to lean forward and replace my hand with my kiss, instead tensing in aggression in having to withhold what was so natural. Aware that remaining here was too dangerous, I pulled her back to her feet and guided us both in the direction of my basement.

"I am not going anywhere with you until you tell me what the hell is going on!" She tossed my hand away as she tried to stand without a wince, failing as her fingers applied pressure around the protruding propellent. But even if I wanted to make her understand, it wasn't when we had marksman outside of my home. The fact I didn't hear them approach to begin with just proved that she was too distracting and therefore hazardous. All because the sound of her heart was louder than that of the coming footsteps of foes.

"I am not-" I took hold of her uninjured arm until she pressed against my chest.

"Neither of us is going to have that chance if we say here. So either you get your ass in there or I do it myself." I left her at the crest of the steps, waiting for her to begin a descent as I didn't want to worry her with the sound of heavy boots I picked up in the close distance. "It's either me or them." She seemed to consider this for a moment, her mind ultimately deciding on the lesser of two evils as she took to the first step at the very moment I heard them reload from their quiver.

Illumination came from fluorescent bulbs that seemed endless after a heavy metal door I closed without a strained breath, turning back to find her eyes wide in wonderment. As much as I wanted to savor the way she looked at me with such an expression, maybe proving how I could make it last with pleasure instead of adrenaline, I didn't have the time. The sound of the front door came open quickly with too many steps to count overhead.

"I won't tell you again." I explained as she scoffed, walking in the only direction the tunnels allowed; forward. With each step, she continued to analyze the walls around her, everything having been carved out long before the buildings above had their mortar settled. Feet and paws alike took to it like a trail before we could hide so easily in the daylight. It was a detail I wanted to share with her among so many others but the reminder of why I couldn't was still protruding from her shoulder.

Step after step and heavy sigh after glare tossed over her shoulder, we finally came to another heavy door. All the while, the sounds of those following us seemed to die away in the process. Coming open to a private garage, the door was returned to a close behind us before she became lost in the scene.

"This was not what I was expecting..." She reached for the first wall, chains and traps laid alike as I quickly took her hand away. "I was thinking more Audis and Thunderbirds not...literal whips and chains..." Something mischievous flickered behind her eyes like a lustful little candle begging to be stoked. For a minute I thought of throwing caution to the wind and using that table behind her back to test her limitations. But once again, the arrow was more important.

"I have to break it."

"You are not touching me if you think my bones are just going to be at your disposal-"

"I meant the arrow. Sit still." I held her shoulder tightly, careful to keep from causing further pain, before ultimately snapping the edge of the wood. An insignia on the end made my entire body tense to know that this was not a mere accident. She was a job, all because she was at my side for even a second. Probably theorized to be more important than she was, in a way I wanted her to be, with the fact her scent was in my bed and at the scene of a crime my body once permeated.

"Take this." I handed her a small bottle of Vodka.

"I don't drink."

"You'll want to." Taking a drink myself, I used a second bottle to cleanse the tools pulled from a small box behind her. It was rare to have to use it as we healed between feeding and rest, but we kept it on hand for the new wolves as they were still adjusting. I considered her the same, without the physical attributes as she was somehow a contradiction of powerful and fragile all the same. Maybe it was because she was independent but I wanted her to be reliant on me, knowing in the end it was better that she wasn't.

"You don't have anything a bit stronger for that?" She bit the question behind clenched teeth as I leaned forward to the scalpel.

"I don't know if they put anything on the tip...I need to make sure I get it out fast. I could just pull it-"

"Fine. Just...just hurry." She tried to steady her breath and closed her eyes into a tight squeeze before I made that first incision. I only pressed it as deep as necessary and molded it around the blade of the arrow until it could be pulled freely. Fortunately, it was not dipped in anything asinine but it was still going to leave a scar nonetheless. I hardened at the idea of her being hurt because of me but tightened for a different reason to the whimpers she made as my mind constructed a different scenario for them.

"How did you do it?" She asked while holding the gauze over her shoulder as I reached further to her side to get a wrap. "The rope burns...I mean if anything I'd have a bruise or two..."

"We should get you home to pack and I'll make arrangements to get you out of town." Her hand came over mine in the most compassionate hold I didn't deserve. It was only to gain my attention and yet it had also pulled forward more affection. I repressed it once more with hostility but this seemed more futile with each attempt.

"I'm not leaving. I have a life here, as pathetic as it might be," I was angered for a new reason entirely. The way she saw herself, despite being dominating enough to know she deserved better than to be treated as I spoke to her, was nothing but devastating. "But I deserve answers. Especially after you made me feel crazy." I sighed as she was right.

"Blood." Her eyes widened.

"Your blood?" Her words hollowed with each letter until it was nearly a whisper.

"You had a concussion and brain swelling...you wouldn't have lasted the night. And anyone who would have been on the trail of the poor excuse of life taken last night, your wounds would have led you to yourself. To me."

"How? How does it work?"

"Do you not realize that you were just shot not even an hour ago? This isn't exactly the time for twenty questions." I forced her arm to outstretch to wrap it but she tore it back.

"Kind of hard to forget with the throbbing pain. But if you would have been honest with me, I wouldn't have been shot to begin with!"

"You want a handbook or something? It isn't exactly a science."

"That's for sure. I saw what happened to you...the way you changed...Anybody else's body did that and they'd be dead. But you healed me somehow..." Her eyes lowered over my body as if remembering every detail to inclusion. "I want to know how it works. You might even get a few minutes of silence for answering it." As tempting as it was, the silence was more torturous. It was there that my mind made scenarios that were unethical, sordid, and cruel.

"I used my finger, cut the tip, and traced over where you were hurt. You absorbed it. Woke up a few minutes later."

"And my memories?"

"I have influence over you. I can't make you forget anything or put anything in your head completely, but I can make things...cloudy." She slowly nodded. "Answer enough of your-"

"Can you do it again?" My body stilled. There was only one other person in my life who had witnessed my transition in surprise and it cost them their life. But for her, her curiosity was a downfall. Not once had she run from me, not even when I wished she would have. But that was the fickle way fate existed. She caught up with you one way or another.

"Why?"

"Because it hurts like hell and I can't exactly explain this as if I ran into a door." I sighed, knowing she had a point.

"Does it hurt?"

"You won't feel anything-"

"I meant for you." There was a renewed softness behind her eyes that bloomed in grace, almost sad as if imagining me in pain was a sense of her own.

"I'll manage." I took the same scalpel, drowning it in the final waterfall of the spirit, before taking it to my thumb. Slicing it once, I took it directly over her shoulder. But where I may have done this a handful of times to mend my own scrapes or assist the newbies to show how they could do it themselves, it was different with her. More intimate. Painful in a way that was deeper than I could explain because of how I wanted more than my thumb on her skin.

"That feels..." Her eyes closed softly as I moved closer to her against the desk, allowing myself the eliminated distance and a hard swallow to the way she responded. "So warm...Like you're touching my nerves themselves...But...deeper..." I pressed harder from pure need as a soft gasp pulled my second hand into a fist on the edge of the table. She was healed, not an inch of her skin wearing the mark of the arrow, and still, I couldn't pull away. When I finally tried, her hand was quick to replace it.

"I-"

"It feels so good..." I bit the backs of my teeth, wanting to make her illuminate like this for me everywhere as her breathing quickened and my seam became impossibly tight. But destiny itself had other plans as my wound closed on my finger, stopping us both from this indulgence, as she came back to reality.

Pushing past me, she rolled her shoulder before looking at the only car set in the garage. In what was decorated as more of a training arena, she was desperate for a source of changed topics. But I was stuck staring at her blushed cheeks and listening to that pulse in her neck that sounded as loud as a tornado siren but as smooth as honey, racing in such a way only for me.

"How far are we from the city?"

"About twenty miles." She cocked her jaw, leaving me to the understanding she was going to try and walk the distance. "I'll drive you..." But as I began to step, she didn't budge. It meant I had to turn around to note her again. This time, finding her arms crossed against her chest now rising in calm breaths.

"What happens if I stay in Chicago? Will I have to worry about being shot every time I open a door?"

"That would be mercy." She shook her head.

"And you won't tell me why I am this sudden target?" More than the fact you're bound to me by the moon, stars, and whatever deity you choose to believe in, you mean? "Then I don't see the point in running." I released a heavy exhale.

"For all I know, it could be a simple fix. Like a conversation, ever tried that?" I glared. "Or...You could end up showing up in my new town a few weeks from now realizing I told one too many people about how a werewolf saved my life. Maybe drew a bit too much attention." I suddenly understood. She was blackmailing me.

"You want money..."

"I want something..."

"My car?" I asked as she looked at the keys in my hand.

"Something I'd say I earned," I began to speak in rebuttal, but her answer threw me off-center as she interrupted me.

"That job."

"You want to work there? After all of this?"

"It's better to know what to look out for than to be ignorant of the world around me. A world I can't pretend I didn't get a glimpse of."

"You were shot and you find that what, exciting?"

"I think it's fair of me to want to know why I'm a target. And if you won't tell me, I'll find out myself. So...Are you going to let me drive or give another bull excuse as to why I can't push the pedal to the metal."

This woman was going to be the absolute death of me. For once, I couldn't think of a worthier cause.