Hunger of the Heart (Wolves of Ravenwillow Book 1) (21 page)

They know…

Swallowing past the thick knot in her throat, a gust of breath escaped her lips when Eric’s gaze dropped from hers and to his children. Instantly he strode towards them, his hands falling on the top of their heads to gently brush at their hair as he spoke softly to them. She could hear what was said, but whatever he did say seemed to put the children at ease.

Almost too quickly he turned toward her and Sarah, his eyes filled with displeasure.

Oh God. I’m too late.

Was this it? Would he expose her know in front of Emma and Travis? Did Sarah already know too?

Before she could question it further, Eric stood toe to toe with her. His eyes latched on to hers like a steel clawed trap. With a gentler expression warming his face, he turned to Sarah with a faint smile.

“Could you keep an eye on Emma and Travis for a few hours?” at Sarah unconcerned nod, Rebecca felt herself become sick with fear. Too fast for her to anticipate, Eric’s hand settled over her uninjured arm, tugging her toward the kitchen doorway.

“Eric, where are you taking me? Stop.” She hissed out, attempting to twist from his hold. Once they were out in the long hallway that led to the main lobby, she fought harder, no longer afraid of drawing the attention of the twins. “Let go of me.”

“I will let go of you when I am good and ready to do so.” He stated in a surprisingly calm tone. “First thing; we have some unfinished business that needs to be dealt with.”

Dealt with?

Her worst fears had been confirmed. He was going to drag her off somewhere and kill her. Just as that murderous werewolf had attempted to do all those years ago. Shoving away her fear that demanded she cry and cower, she fought harder. She struck at his back with a feeble closed fist as she kicked out at him. She may as well have been attempting to beat up a steel vault with a rolled up newspaper for all the good it did.

Still forcibly tugging her along, Eric dragged her back through the main lobby before heading toward the infirmary once more. When no others were in sight, Eric promptly stopped, spinning towards her with a hard look.

“If you don’t stop hitting me, I will have to ensure you don’t otherwise.”

Still tugging at her captured arm, she glared at him. For the first time since the attack, her fear of what he would do to her once he knew the truth no longer held sway over her. Courage mounting, she bared her teeth at him with anger.

“If you think I’m going to make this easy for you; think again! Now let go of me before I do some real damage to you.” She threatened. It actually felt good to strike back at him, almost like she’d been freed in some way.

Eric’s reaction hadn’t been what she’d expected. Surely at this point he would have turned and attacked her. After all; what was stopping him at this point? Instead of attacking her, his hard expression softened into a mocking grin before he carelessly shrugged his shoulders.

“Fine by me.”

Her world suddenly shifted as Eric jerked her close before bending at the waist heaving her over his shoulder. With one arm around the back of her knees, he pinned her legs to his chest as he began walking again. Gasping in outrage she did everything she could think of; biting, cursing, slapping and punching at his back, though not one single effort seemed to make a difference.

Before she knew it, she saw that he was striding through the double doors of the infirmary. Why was he bringing her here? Before she could ask, he drew her off his shoulder to sit her on an examination table with jostling movements. Quickly she gripped the edge of the table to prevent from falling forward at her abrupt landing.

From across the room, Dr. Tessa stood up from behind her desk with stiff movements. It was clear that she wasn’t happy to see Rebecca back. With angry pursed lips, she attempted to give Eric a look of submission.

“Was there something you needed?”

“I am taking use of your infirmary since you cannot be trusted to do your job.”

Scoffing with dismay, Dr. Tessa shoved at her long black hair, causing the glossy waves to fall down her back. “I do my job to the letter,
Eric.
I have always done whatever you’ve asked.”

“Until today,” Eric bit out shoving back from Rebecca. Giving Rebecca a hard look, he muttered “Don’t even think of moving from this spot.” Shoving past the glaring doctor, he began retrieving bandages and antiseptic from the tall mounted shelves against the far wall before returning to Rebecca’s side.

What was he doing?

Looking past Eric as he laid out the items he’d collected, Rebecca found her eyes drawn to the glaring woman a few feet from her. If she wasn’t so terrified in at moment, Rebecca may have conceded that she was pretty in an average sort of way. She wore her hair nearly down to her waist in long black waves. It wasn’t until Dr. Tessa had shoved impatiently at her hair that Rebecca took notice of a thick scar on the right side of her face, where an ear should have been. From what she’d learned of shifters, they had excellent healing abilities, so why was this doctor so horribly scarred? As if feeling her scrutiny, Dr. Tessa stiffened before pulling her long hair over the right side of her face, hiding the hideous scars from view.

“Leave us.” Eric bit out when he noticed that the doctor had made no move to help or speak.

With an angry huff the woman stormed from the room, the edges of her white lab coat drifting behind her with her quick strides. Once they were alone, Eric took possession of her bandaged arm and quickly unwrapped the work she’d done just hours ago.

Still surprised at why he was attempting to attend to her wounds instead of killing her, she stared at him stunned. What was he doing? Slapping at his hand, she attempted to pull her arm from him. “See the bandage, genius; that means I already took care of it. Now let me go.”

"Shut up and hold still." Eric grated out as he ripped the rest of the gauze wrapping away to reveal a bloody bandage beneath. Tossing the length of gauze aside, he tenderly held her arm still as he lifted the bloody bandage away.

Eric felt his heart squeeze in his chest at the sight of her wounded arm. He supposed in retrospect it wasn’t
that
bad, but inside he shook with fury that someone had harmed his mate. On the underside of her forearm was several thin cut from glass, the edges of each cut was red and irritated. The worst of her injuries was a single three inch cut diagonally across her arm. It was deep and still bled a bit.

“You should have had these seen to.” he scolded, turning to rip the cap from the bottle of antiseptic. Quickly dumping nearly the whole bottle on her arm, he held her still as she cried out in pain as the wound bubbled with the contact.

“Ow! You ass!”

“There you go with your language problem.” He teased. Taking a thick gauze pad, he patted the area dry then he worked on bandaging the treated wounds. “Perhaps something needs done with that mouth of yours. A good wash with soap would help your disposition too I bet.”

"You’re such a jerk, Eric." she grumbled out before wincing in pain at the pressure to her wound.

He inclined his head at her words as he secured the bandage on her arm with two crisscrossed strips of tape. "I may be a jerk, but I am the only jerk you will know."

Rolling her eyes, she scoffed.
Oh look; arrogant Eric is back. What a surprise.
"Why? Are you saying you’re meaner than every other man?"

Lifting his amused gaze to her scowling one, he smirked. "No. But I am the only jerk that is going to be inside you." His hands settled on her thigh, as his hands squeezed and caress her muscles. His touch had her shivering within second. Bastard.

Slapping at his hands until he moved them to rest on the table beside each of side of her hips, she glowered at him. "Do you always feel the need to talk about sex? Don't be so vulgar."

"Vulgar?” a single brow rose at the word. “That wasn't me being vulgar. If I wanted to be vulgar I would tell you how I loved how you clawed at my back like a sexy kitten or how I loved being inside you. The feel of your hot body wrapped around mine..."he groaned with the memory as he leaned closer to her. "I couldn't decide whether to sink so far into your soft body and stay there or drive into you until you never remember what it felt like to be without me."

Womb clinching, Rebecca felt her breast grow heavy. Heat flooded her face as every cryptic word slipped from his lips. Gulping she looked away from him, her body trembled slightly at the feel of heat from his body as he pressed between her splayed legs.

What the hell was wrong with her? Just moments ago she was sure he was dragging her off to kill her and now he had rebandaged her arm and now was
flirting
with her. Was it possible that he didn’t know her secret after all?

If that was the case then why had Chris and Jason showed up as they did and what was the scheme Eric was involved in and how did she fit it? Ugh! Too many questions crowded her brain, confusing and irritating her. Not to mention that the feel of Eric hard body pressing between her spread legs was causing her body to vibrate with need, distracting her from her thoughts.

She flinched with surprise as his hand cupped the side of her face, his face lowering closer to hers. Like a trapped animal, she held herself still. Surprise filled her when his forehead suddenly pressed against her own. Then for the briefest moment, she could have sworn she’d felt him tremble against her. It was more likely that it had been her instead or simply her imagination.

“You should have demanded that Dr. Tessa looked at your arm. What if you had been hurt worse?” When he lifted his face from hers, Rebecca gripped his wrist and tugged his hand away from her cheek.

She shrugged. “It doesn’t matter.”

“It does matter!” he snarled. His eyes gone wild and were glowing. “And don’t think for a moment that I have forgotten how you kicked me in the face and ran straight into a shower of bullets! I should tan your ass for that!”

“I am not a child!” she shouted at him. “I wasn’t about to let Emma get hurt because…”
of me.
Was it possible that other shifters had discovered her secret and decided to attack Eric’s home? Had she nearly gotten them all killed?

“No, you’re right.” Eric agreed in a quiet tone, his eyes still boring into hers with a look of anger. “You’re not my child, but you are mine.”

She would be lying if she said that his possessive words didn’t make her heart swell. She wanted that. To hold onto that look that he flashed at her now, the same look that he’d given her last night as he’d taken her. With everything in her she wanted to be able to trust that Eric wouldn’t turn on her if he knew her secret, but it wasn’t a gamble she was willing to take.

Forcing her gaze away, she shoved at his chest. “Let me down.” With an annoyed roll of his eyes, Eric stepped back allowing her to slide down from the tall table. Straightening her blouse, she looked up at Eric. “Thanks for saving my life. I would be dead if not for you.” She admitted with a slight smile.

Crossing his arms over his chest, he replied. “Don’t remind me how close you nearly came to dying, Rebecca. I don’t like thinking about it. If I have anything to say about it; you won’t be put in danger like that ever again.”

Her fragile smile fell. If only she could believe him. Sighing, she looked away from him. Without a word she started for the door. It wasn’t long until the small hairs at the base of her neck stood on end as she felt him coming up behind her. Stopping, she glanced over her shoulder to see that he was walking beside her as if they were going for an afternoon stroll.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“Following you. Something tells me that you shouldn’t be left on your own or I may have to hunt you down.”

Hunt you down…

If that phrase didn’t worry her, nothing else would. She was correct about trusting Eric; it wasn’t something she could risk. “I’m leaving, Eric.” She said with a firm look, daring him to tell her otherwise.

His eyebrows rose in mocking surprise. “Oh, are you now? Did you really think that I would let you out of my sight, especially after what nearly happened this morning?”

“As much as I worry about Emma and Travis, I know they will be safe here with you and your family. But what happened has nothing to do with me. I’m leaving.” When she turned to walk down the hall once more, her head fell back against her neck as she growled with frustration at the echoing sound of his footsteps beside her.

“Even if I was willing to let you run from me
again
, you could be in danger after today. You will remain here until I can figure out who tried to kill us this morning.”

Before she could question if Eric knew anything about who had attacked them this morning, she heard a voice call out to her from behind her. “Rebecca.”

Knowing the voice wasn’t Eric’s; her curiosity was peaked, causing her to turn toward the voice. She froze in place as she saw Damon striding to them. Dressed in a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt with his blonde hair slicked back, Rebecca was surprised there wasn’t a fan club of panting girls trailing behind this man.

At the thought, Rebecca found herself mentally slapping herself. Why was she ogling
him?
She had to remind herself that she wasn’t convinced that Damon hadn’t spilled her secret to Eric or the rest of Eric’s pack. What other explanation was there for the events this morning? She highly doubted that as an architect; that Eric had attempts on his life.