Hunter - Book 2 of the Hunted Series

Chapter 21 - Home

I fell asleep again. I had bad dreams still, dreams that I was still in that ship, that I was in that cell, that he was raping me again, constantly waking up. Nick was there every time, fully awake now, sitting with me and quick to notice if I'd woken up again. The worst ones were of running. Running, and running, and running, a never ending driveway and loosing the babies on the driveway but I had to keep running, I had to keep going, because he was coming. I had to leave them. I had to run. Or the one that had me wake up on the boat, this being all a dream, waking up to find him doing it again. Over and over and over.

Finally I told Nick to sleep beside me, hold me, and stay close so I could smell him. He blinked and nodded, slipping into the bed beside me, an arm across me.

This time it worked. I slept.

I woke as Nick stood up early the next morning, before sunrise, as if he was too restless to lie there. I kept my eyes shut, listening to him near the wardrobe, taking things off hangers and putting things back on the hangers, like he was cleaning it up, the sound of rustling going on for a while.  

I fell asleep again, slipping back into the dreamless sleep, and when I next woke Reece was gone and Nick was standing beside the window. The curtain was aside and sunlight streaming in on him. I couldn't resist looking up at him as he stood there, the warm light highlighting the warm brown in his hair, the olive skin, body so toned and well cared for, white and red scars across his back and chest and arms. All looked more or less the same age but some were much more dramatic than others. And while they flawed the beauty, somewhat, that he might have had when he was younger they just added to how damn handsome he was now as an adult.

He stayed there, eyes fixed on the world outside, as he tended to do when his mind was working over something that Nick didn't want to say yet. I yawned and continued to watch him, through heavy blinks of my own, trying to push the desire to sleep a little bit more to the back. Just let me look a little longer. Just a bit more. I was getting so used to his moods now, seeing the real moods behind his silly pranks and jokes, and apparently a month apart hadn't changed that.

He knew I was awake, apparently, because he started to make his muscles flex. A small smile appeared on his face, twitch, twitch, tense. Very nice sight, I had to admit, very nice, but if he came too close I'd have to tickle those muscles and see how macho was then. He glanced sideways at me as he flexed his arm, smile hiding the tension he was really feeling under the surface, and sat on the edge of the bed, laying back so his head was right up against my breasts.

"They're building their spines now."

"Huh?" I blinked at him, sleep fogging my head, unable to keep up that much with him.

"The puppies. Spines are forming. Nostrils opening. Lungs getting ready to work." I felt a tremor go through him as he added softly, "I didn't stop following it while you were missing. Made Clayton read it out while I was in bed. Even though they kept telling me that you might- that they might have been-" He cut off, jaw tightening, one arm shifting up so that he could reach for my hair and play with it. "I knew you were alive."

"He thought they were Jeremy's babies. Wanted to steal the alpha's children."

Nick tried to laugh. It came out as a cough and his head twisted in the other direction to the stomach so close to him, pushing up the fabric so that he could kiss it, touch it with his other hand, get a really good close look. There was a low possessive growl there, just under his breath, as he decided. "Mine."

"All yours." I agreed, shutting my eyes, body ready to surrender to that. He could stand watch for a while. I was exhausted. "Sore back duty too."

I felt him stand up again stand on the bed, stepping carefully over me, and lay down so that he could rub my back and hips, stroking me, the aches and pains easing as he did it. That was nice. I was done being superhero pregnant werewolf. I just wanted to be super tired whale-werewolf hybrid pregnant woman instead. The fingers against my aching skin and my increasing desire to nap some more took over, before I was back in that sleep, feeling safer than I had for days.