Page 59 of Wolf's Fate

I was already shaking my head in annoyance. “No. You’re wrong.”

He blew out a frustrated breath and walked to the door. “I’m going for a coffee, wantone?”

“Caleb?”

He glanced back at me. “Drop it. We won’t ever agree on this.”

“It’s not that simple. It’s not your choice to make.”

“Make it that simple.” He stepped out of the room, and I hated that he knew I couldn’t follow him.

Slumping against my pillow, I eyed the door with so much animosity that when the nurse walked in to check on me, she stopped and looked over her shoulder.

“You good?” she asked hesitantly. She was a different nurse from the one I had last night.

“Yeah.” I immediately changed my answer. “Actually, I hurt. A lot. I know my…husband…said I was anti-meds, but is there any chance I can get some painkillers? Please?”

Picking up my chart, she scanned it and nodded. “No problem. You have pain meds on the chart signed off by the doctor. I’ll check your blood pressure and temperature first, then go get them. Okay?”

“Sounds perfect.”

When she left, I was alone and ready to cry with frustration. Caleb hadn’t come back, and I just knew the asshole was sitting outside in the hall rather than coming back into the room.

When the nurse came back with a little cup, I didn’t care what people thought of us, and I asked the question. “He’s out there, isn’t he?” I didn’t make eye contact, but when she was silent for so long, I looked up.

Her look was full of sympathy and understanding. “It can be a huge shock for our loved ones to see us wounded and inpain,” she told me compassionately. “Give him a moment to adjust. It’s not easy for either of you.”

I said nothing, merely nodded and suffered the consoling pat on the shoulder as I swallowed the pills. I didn’t ask what they were, and she didn’t tell me.

When I woke up, I knew without opening my eyes that Caleb was gone.

Lookingup from my chocolate pudding, I made eye contact with Ned, who was also finishing his own cup. He winked at me as he licked his spoon.

“Honestly, if they told us that we would get this if we were sick, more of us would line up at Doc’s testing room.”

I giggled despite the fact I was sure he was deadly serious. “It’s not even good pudding,” I told him and enjoyed his look of dismay that there was better out there and he didn’t have it.

Ned had been in the room since Caleb left. I’d jumped to the conclusion that he had left because of our talk and that he had been a chicken shit again. Instead, it seemed their pack authority had called for him and he had no choice but to go. I’d taken the painkillers and been in a happy no-pain sleep, and he didn’t want to wake me to explain.

So, there was the fact that I felt guilty for thinking the worst, and there was the further complication that I confessed what I thought to Ned in a moment of weakness, and he had told Cannon, who I was sure would tell Caleb.

Awkward.

So now I wasn’t sure if Caleb hadn’t come back because of me…or yeah…because of me.

“I’ll miss these,” Ned told me, dropping his cup into the trash.

“I won’t,” I said emphatically, making him laugh. Looking down at the jeans and sweater I was wearing, I couldn’t stop the smile. “I am so looking forward to leaving this room and going home.”

I’d been in the hospital for four days. Despite being very lucky and not breaking anything or rupturing anything, I’d suffered a head injury. Although I was concussion-free, I had stitches in my head I hadn’t even known about, and they kept me in for observation. Then I caught an infection and that added a couple of days onto my stay.

But today,today, I got to leave.

Mybrother-in-law, Ned, hadn’t left. I was sure at first that I was the subject of many a nurse’s speculation over the water fountain, but that was quashed once they’d been in my hospital room. Ned and I had reached an amicable, almost friendly, relationship, but a secret affair with my husband’s “brother” was definitely not in the cards.

“Not home,” he reminded me smoothly, the way he had every time I mentioned leaving.

“Yes, yes, I know,” I grumbled. “I get to go to the underground test center again.”