“Dead?” echoed Dante in a low, menacing voice. So the shooter had been aiming to kill, not to injure, and probably would have succeeded if Jaime hadn’t sensed his presence and quickly moved.

As the reality of just what could have happened to her hit him, a sinister growl rumbled out of him.

She could be dead right now. He could have lost her, could have been forced to grieve her—something he would have done every single day for the rest of his life. Nothing would have helped him move forward. No one could have replaced her. Not even his true mate. He gritted out, “And you had every intention of making sure she was dead, didn’t you?” Fuck looked up at him miserably. “You’re going to kill me now, aren’t you?”

“Without blinking.”

It was an hour later before Dante returned to the caves. Any other time he would have spent some time alone, but he needed to see Jaime. Needed to be sure she was safe and well. He also needed the sense of calm that only she could give him. To his surprise, she was asleep with Hunk curled up beside her protectively.

Grace looked up and smiled from the chair beside the bed. “She’s fine,” she assured him quietly. “I’d say she’ll be fully healed by morning.”

“Thanks, Grace.” He made a mental note to thank Lydia tomorrow.

“Are you staying in here with her? Lydia or I can do it if you—”

“No, I’ll do it.”

“Okay. Come get me if she wakes up through the night in pain, all right?”

“I will. Thanks again, Grace.” Sinking into the chair that Grace had vacated, he stared at Jaime’s sleeping face, marveling at how she never, ever looked at peace when she slept. She was always frowning or pouting or wearing that odd little expression that made her cute little nose crinkle up. Leaning forward, he placed a soft, lingering kiss on her forehead, ignoring the hiss that came from the huge, ugly cat that was snuggled into her. When Jaime’s eyes fluttered open, he cursed. “Sorry, baby, I didn’t mean to wake you. Look, I know you’re pissed at me for telling you to stay behind, but—”

“I’m not. Well, I am. But I get why you didn’t want me there. You okay?” The way he rested his head on her shoulder said that he wasn’t. “Did you get answers from him?”

“In the morning, baby, we’ll talk about in the morning, I swear. I just can’t think about it all right now.”

Because he needed to calm down, she realized. On the outside he was the picture of calm, of course. “You don’t have to feel bad about killing that guy.” She wouldn’t have if the situation had been reversed.

“I don’t. He hurt you.” Dante knew he should feel some remorse, knew it probably made him a bad person that he didn’t. But that kill had about as much significance to him as a tiny splinter, because of what the bastard had planned for Jaime.

“You’re not a bad person,” she told him, knowing where his thoughts had taken him. “I’m not saying you’re perfect. You’re cocky and a know-it-all and you’re addicted to working. But you’ve got a nice big dick and great bedroom skills, so I’m willing to overlook all that.” He laughed and lifted his head. Only Jaime could have put a smile on his face when he was in this mood. “Then I’ll be sure to put my big dick and my skills to good use tomorrow. Now you need to sleep though.”

She wanted to sleep beside him, but there was barely room for her on the single bed, let alone both of them. Besides, Hunk would probably slice open his cheek if Dante tried. She gripped his hand. “Stay with me.”

He kissed her softly, amazed that such simple contact could soothe him. “You couldn’t get rid of me even if you wanted to.”

They both knew that he was talking about more than tonight.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“The wound is fully healed,” declared Grace after she had carefully examined Jaime’s leg the next morning. “I think it will still be a little tender to walk on for a few hours. By tonight, it’ll be fine again.”

Jaime looked at the panicky wolf who sat gingerly on the bed, as if his body weight could break her. “Happy now?”

Dante kissed her cheek and filled his lungs with her scent, reassuring himself and his wolf that she was fine. “I just wanted to be sure. You were almost killed last night. Give me a little space to be more overprotective than usual.”

“Give me a little space to breathe. I’ve agreed not to go to work, but there’s no way I’ll agree to sitting in this damn bed all day.”

The door opened, and Lydia strode inside with a tray of food. Gabe was close behind her, carrying two mugs of coffee. While Dante had been off interrogating the lone wolf last night, her brother had barged into the examination room and fussed over her for at least thirty minutes straight. It had taken Hope, Lydia, and Rhett to convince him to go to bed.

“Morning, sunshine,” drawled Gabe, who knew she was the world’s worst patient.

Scowling, she took the mug of coffee. “If you’ve come to fuss again, you can leave right now.

I’ve had enough of that from Popeye here.”

Dante nipped her earlobe punishingly. “You’d be the same if it was me.” She snorted. “No I wouldn’t, because you wouldn’t even be in this bed. You’d have been out of it the second the bandage was on.”

He couldn’t argue with that, so, stifling a smile, he said nothing and took a swig of his coffee before digging into the pancakes that Lydia had placed on the tray for him.

“Your silence speaks for you.”

Gabe chuckled and kissed her forehead. “Give him a break.”

She gasped. “Whose side are you on?”

“His, in this case. He just wants to take care of you. Let him.”

“Traitor.”

Suddenly there was a light knock on the door, followed immediately by Shaya peeking through.

“Is it okay to come in?”

“Yes, please do,” Jaime quickly replied before Dante could say something dumb about her needing peace and quiet. Shaya smiled and walked inside, and then a crowd of people followed behind her and piled into the room.

Dante went to object, but Grace shook her head, saying, “They just want to see that she’s okay.”

Begrudgingly, he didn’t comment as each of the pack—other than Greta—gave Jaime a brief hug, though he did release a low, territorial growl whenever one of the males touched her. Marcus earned a whack over the head when he kissed her smack on the mouth purely to rile him. Jaime raised a brow at Dante, but he just shot her a wide, unrepentant grin.