“Agreed.” Aside from the fact I wasn’t stupid, the doctors could provide the industrial-strength painkillers I was no doubt going to need once all the aches and bruising fully developed.
He hesitated and then helped me upright, his grip moving from my hand to my elbow as my legs wobbled alarmingly. Once I was steady, he released me, then helped Monty to his feet.
He studied the two of us for a second, and then shook his head. “This way.”
Our pace was slow, and it seemed to take hours to get out of the damn ravine. I was sweating and aching by the time we reached the road and the waiting ambulance officers. Belle had already been taken to the hospital, but the medics assured me it was nothing more than a precautionary measure and that her sprain wasn’t that bad.
Monty and I were bundled into the waiting ambulances and taken to the hospital. It was a good five hours before they’d run all their tests and confirmed what I already knew—aside from cuts and bruising, I was perfectly fine. They loaded me up with painkillers, told me to rest up over the next couple of days, and then shuffled me out the door—where I discovered Aiden waiting for me.
“Hey,” I said, rising up on tiptoe to kiss him. “I thought you were working?”
“I am, but I’m also the boss.” He opened the truck door and ushered me in. “And we need to talk.”
I waited until he’d jumped into the driver side. “If this is about Katie—”
“It’s not so much about Katie, but rather your continuing refusal to fully trust me.”
I frowned. “That’s not true—”
“Isn’t it?” He pulled out of the parking area and then glanced at me. “Then why not simply tell me you were going to see Katie and that you didn’t want me along?”
I wrinkled my nose. “Because I thought you’d insist.”
“I would certainly have asked why, but I wouldn’t have insisted. I’m a werewolf, not an ogre.”
A smile tugged at my lips. “I know, and I guess I do owe you an apology. It’s just that I have a hard time—”
“Trusting anyone other than Belle. I know. But you’ve formed a family of choice here, Liz, and you very much need to believe in and trust all of us.”
Family. It was something I’d long searched for, something that was finally within my reach.
And something Clayton could so very easily destroy.
I blinked back tears and stared out the side window for a couple of seconds. When I was certain my emotions were back under control, I told him everything Katie had said about the wild magic; everything except the whole baby thing. There was no real point in mentioning that, simply because—however much I might hope otherwise—the little girl I saw in my future might not be his.
“She also confirmed that I can’t permanently leave the reservation.”
“Which is a good thing, isn’t it? It means that Clayton can’t swoop in and spell you away.”
“In theory, yes.” Although given both Clayton and my father had hidden their presence from Katie, there was no absolute certainty.
He slowed as the lights ahead went red. “And the stuff about the wild magic protecting you? Is that what happened today?”
“Yes.”
“Which means Clayton can’t actually hurt you.”
“He can hurt me by hurting Belle. Or you. Or any of the others.”
Aiden frowned. “Do you really think he’ll go to those extremes?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know him. I’ve never really known him—he was my father’s friend and a second cousin. I had very little to do with him.”
At least until my father decided the best way to deal with a problem child was to basically sell her off to a friend desperate to have a wife young enough to have lots of children.
“Then you need to talk to someone who did,” Aiden said.
I snorted. “Like who? My goddamn father?”