Page 10 of Reverie

Ella shudders and collapses into her mother’s arms, and Amelia’s whole body shakes as she grasps Ella in a fierce hug.

Returning my gaze to Hunter, I jump into action when I see that he looks moments away from either vomiting all over the ground or passing out.

Or both.

I press my body into his side, smashing my breasts into his upper arm and banding my good arm around his stomach. Still, my injury pulses again in protest.

“Hunter, I’m hurt. Can you help me?” I close my eyes and bring my mouth close to his ear, hoping to drown out all his other thoughts and bring him back to me.

“Hunter.” I kiss his shoulder, tightening my hold. “Please, baby.”

Hunter’s chest expands as he drinks the air, and I turn his face toward mine.

Please. Please, please, please.

I just need tonight to be over. I need things to stop whirling out of control.

“I need to get bandaged up. I probably even need stitches.” I run my hand up his chest as I shift to stand in front of him. I keep my body pressed to his.

I swallow as I focus on the thoughts I’ve kept out of my consciousness for the last few hours.

“We need to check on the baby,” I murmur.

It takes him several moments to focus on my face. When he does, he grimaces.

“Of course, Sunbeam. I’m sorry.” In a flash, he places his hand behind my head, pressing my ear to his chest. His heartbeat is rapid, thudding so hard I feel it racing against my cheek as much as I hear it doing so. “I’m so sorry,” he repeats.

“It’s okay,” I choke out. The pain of my gunshot wound and all the shit that’s happened over the last few hours hits me as if I’d run into a brick wall. The world starts to tilt, so I close my eyes against the dizziness and lean into Hunter.

Isoneed to sit the fuck down.

And check on the baby…if the baby is even still alive.

A wave of panic washes over me and I clutch at Hunter’s shirt.

Calm down. Calm down, calm down, calm down?—

“I-I’ll bring you.”

My eyes snap open when Hunter’s mother’s voice startles me out of my spiral. Amelia and Ella stand next to each other, Ella clinging to her mother with her head on her shoulder. Amelialooks happy. So when Hunter grips the back of my shirt and growls, I watch her face fall.

“Not you,” he snaps, shifting us so he can look at her over his shoulder. The movement causes her to come back into my line of sight in enough time to see her head tick back a fraction as if he’d smacked her.

He faces Luna.

“You. Take us to medical help,” he commands in a voice I’ve never heard him use before.

I stare at his profile, taking in all his emotions as his face morphs from shock to fury to resolute coolness.

Hunter is…not himself.

Who is he? What are we dealing with here?

I suck in a breath, and Hunter looks down at me sharply. I give him a smile, but I feel my cheek muscles spasming, my grin warbling.

His frown deepens and I can’t stand the sight, so I look away from him and toward the rest of the crew around us.

Luna pauses for a moment with narrowed eyes. When she purses her lips and then smacks them, I feel a nugget of gratitude when she says to Hunter, “I’ll ignore the fact that you’re bossing me around in my own house.”