Broken Wolf: Moonbound Series, Book Seven (23 page)

V
ADIK
NABATOV

G
olden sunbeams glowed
in the hospital window and Vadik let them wash over his skin, watching them light a path he never thought he’d see again. The tattoos on his wrists were a deep, rich green, and had loops and whirls that perfectly matched Andrea’s.

He held her hand and traced one finger along the edge of her tattoos.
Please, Andrea. Wake up
.

The blue blanket that covered her body matched the blue of the clothes they’d given him to wear. His skin was caked in mud and grime, where Andrea’s was clean. Other than the green bond marks, her skin was unblemished. Until her shoulder.

The bandages had been wrapped over her arm and around her neck, and the side of a hospital gown lay open on one side so that her arm hung out, but the rest of her body was covered. Blankets covered her from rib cage to toe, so he wasn’t certain if they’d cleaned her whole body while she’d been out of his sight, or if it was just her torso and face.

Everything else had healed, except her shoulder. And now, she had human blood swimming around in her, after the transfusion. He had been worried that human blood wouldn’t be enough. But she had turned a corner as soon as they started giving her blood.

Because he could feel every beat of her heart, now, if he concentrated. Not just hear it, but feel it. In the same way he could feel his own.

The wolf thing, everyone kept telling him. The bond thing. Or the mate thing. All these words they’d been throwing around, and he had no idea what any of them meant. He knew what they felt like, though.

He knew the difference between what his old life had been like—when he could easily shut off the pain during a fight—and his
new
life. Everything that happened to Andrea, he felt it. While she’d been under the knife, she’d gone strangely numb, and it felt like death. It had been all he could do not to rush into that room, just to know she was still alive. To see her with his own eyes.

The heart monitor beeped at him, and he could feel the ache returning to her shoulder. But he just needed her to wake up.

After watching her pass out on that boat and being certain she was going to die, he needed to see the blue of her eyes. So his heart could beat again.

A knock on the door shook him and he looked up to see a blue-clothed blond guy standing just outside. Vadik nodded at him and the door opened. The low hum of the hospital white noise filtered in behind him.

“Hey, man,” the guy said in English and Vadik’s attention jumped up to his face. He recognized the voice. But the face. It was a cleaned-up, shaven, clothed version of the guy from the island.

“Owen, yeah?” he said.

“Right. I guess I look pretty different.” The guy ran a hand across his clean face and the green on his wrists stuck out against his tanned skin.

“I see you bonded with your girl. Clara?”

Owen nodded and walked around the bed to take the chair on the opposite side. “She’s showering, and then she’ll probably be in here. She wanted to see how Andrea was, for herself.”

“There hasn’t been any change since surgery.” Vadik fingered the edge of the blanket.

“You want me to sit in here while you go get a shower?” Owen gestured to Vadik’s body like it was made of dirt. And to be fair, it nearly was. Someone had put a hospital gown over his naked torso, but the black pants that had been with him in the jungle were still plastered with dirt and grime.

“I’d like to be here when she wakes up.”

“I get it.” Owen put up his hands in deference. “I’d be the same way.” He looked over his shoulder and chuckled. “Look at that.”

Vadik glanced up at the window, and the yellow orb of the sun was half-visible over the mountain that rose up behind the hospital. For a long minute, the two of them stared at the window like a shrine.

“I didn’t think I’d see that sun again.” Owen shook his head and pushed himself out of the chair, turning to face the big yellow orb. “Did you?”

“I didn’t.”

“I guess you never know what’s going to happen.”

“That’s the truth.” Vadik reached out to grab Andrea’s hand. “As Babushka would say,
all is well if things end well.
”

The contact of his skin on hers sent a spark through his body and Andrea shuddered. Her lips opened and she breathed. The dark streak of her hair moved with the air, and Vadik felt his heart rush forward. He covered her hand with both of his, and she moaned. The electricity shooting through him wasn’t pain. It was… what had Maggie called it?

Magick.

“Vadik?” Andrea whispered.

His eyes watered and he sank to the floor beside her. “Yes, love. I’m here.”

She groaned and moved one shoulder, and the pain was back. More than a throbbing this time, it was stinging him and burning. But Andrea was waking up.

Owen cracked a smile and walked to the side of the bed. He pressed his lips hard together and nodded his head. No words followed, but he looked at least pleased.

“Vadik? What… where…?” Her words were croaking and slow, but they came. That was all that mattered.

The blond man settled a hand onto Vadik’s shoulder and patted him. “I’ll leave you two alone.” He walked back to the door, his steps almost halting, and paused with his back to them. “I’m sorry, man.”

Vadik looked up, his eyes already full, and found the man’s back still facing him. “What for?” he asked.

“Back in the jungle, I told Clara that I would rather you died than her. I would have left you there if it hadn’t been for her.” His shoulders raised and lowered, followed by a gust of air. “It was wrong of me.”

A rise of pity slid up through Vadik’s stomach and into his throat. He’d been there before. There had been moments, when he and Luther were in Mexico City, that he’d wanted to leave Luther behind, just to save himself, or to kill someone else, to save himself.

“Everyone would have done the same thing in your place.” Vadik squeezed Andrea’s hand. “If it had been her, I would have…”

“No, you wouldn’t.” Owen’s voice broke on the last word and Vadik chuckled.

“The old me wouldn’t have sacrificed myself for anyone.” His eyes traveled from Andrea’s toes to her forehead, slowly, as though his body had to recognize the thing that had changed him. “But now that I have her, trust me. On that island, if I would have had to choose between anyone else, and
her
, I would have chosen her.”

Owen’s hand slid onto the wall and then fisted. “What the hell kind of cannibalism is that, man?”

“Don’t feel too bad.” Vadik let a smile spread through him, the warmth lighting him from the inside. “That’s love.”

The blond man’s laugh was almost hidden under the noise of the hospital coming back into the room when the door opened. But Vadik heard it. Not every man would be able to understand that kind of devotion… that kind of sacrifice… but Vadik did.

Andrea’s energy continued to grow, the longer Vadik’s hand held hers, and before long, her eyes were fluttering open. Those beautiful, blue-as-Lake-Baikal eyes. Those eyes that belonged to the most beautiful woman in the world.

She smiled, moving her body until the pain stopped her. “Oooof. That hurts.”

“I know.” He bent over and pressed his lips to hers, reveling in the soft feel of her kiss. When the pain stabbed again, he pulled away and took his chair, gripping her hand. “I can feel your pain now.”

Her laugh was short, but it was heartfelt. “Lucky you.”

Vadik touched her thigh, covered in blankets, rubbing his hand along her leg like he needed reminding that she was really with him. The rhythm helped to calm him, center him.

“What time is it?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” he said, looking around the room for a clock and finding none. “After sunrise, though.”

“Have we heard any—”

“Nothing.” He kissed her hand and pressed the skin to his cheek. “Maggie will tell us when there is any news.”

“Where is everyone?” She glanced from the window to the door. “Are we still in Choaca?”

“Yes. Maggie and Alex are here. Dani and Niko are on the island. Luther went with the other boat, and the Rangers. They had the guards with them, and I’m sure the Rangers will interrogate them.” He pressed his lips together, remembering the last briefing he’d gotten from Maggie. She had been too on edge. He didn’t need to worry Andrea with the problems of the team. Not now.

“Where are Clara and Owen?”

“They’re down the hall. We’re in the recovery wing, I think. You had surgery.” He increased the pressure on her leg when her anxiety rose. “You’re going to be fine.”

She lifted her shoulder and glanced down at her arm. Tears formed in her eyes and sadness overwhelmed him, slamming into the fear that they both shared. “What happened to my arm?”

“You’re going to be fine. Surgery, stitches, but you’ll regain some use of your arm. It will just…it will look a little different.” His throat itched and he had to stop talking, overwhelmed by his emotion. “I thought we would lose you.”

Her smile was faint, but it was there. “You can’t get rid of me that easy.”

“Andrea. Don’t joke about this. It was life and death.”

She squeezed his hand. “I know it was, but I’m not going to focus on that.” A somber look pulled at her smile. “I know it will be a hard road ahead, and I’m sure life will be different. But look at it this way.”

He raised an eyebrow.

“This may be a hard outcome, but Fate was protecting us.” Her eyes brightened and she pulled at his hand. “All’s well that ends well.”

Vadik recognized the echo of his grandmother’s words in Andrea’s hopeful statement, and he couldn’t help a smile. They had a lot in common, the two most amazing women ever made, and he was overwhelmed with how lucky he felt. How blessed he felt.

He leaned over her, letting his lips fall on hers, letting the energy between them burn hot and low. A practice for when it would engulf them. She slid one arm around his neck, holding him against her. She opened her mouth to him, opened her life to him, her heart. He could feel the opening. And he opened in return. When he finally pulled away, he met those big, hopeful, blue eyes. “I guess Fate knows what she’s doing.”

Andrea flashed him a wide smile. “She sure does.”

C
hapter
One

“You look like you’re going to murder someone.” The commander’s voice broke into Viper’s revenge fantasies.

He had his hands fisted and pounding on his legs, which bounced in tandem with his heartbeat. “That’s my job, isn’t it?” He cocked an eyebrow at Rain.

The commander laughed and smacked him on the back. The plane’s engines hummed around them, and whatever comment Rain made was lost to the night.

Flying across the country, from North Carolina to Mexico, was technically flying back in time. Not far enough backwards for the likes of Viper. He would’ve liked to have gone all the way back to when Adrian Rossi had first started his operation. Cut the man’s balls off and wear them as a necklace. Filet him like a fucking side of beef.

“Okay, man, you have
got
to settle down.” Rain put the muzzle of his unloaded M4 on Viper’s leg.

Banner sat next to him, eyeing Rain’s gun that stretched across the walkway. The MC-130 was flying light, with Cap and Gray leading the other Black Wolf squads on paratrooper training somewhere in the Smokies. What had been a week of easy base work had turned into his dream come true. Objective: Adrian Rossi.

This was personal.

He’d volunteered for this one. Viper had known he’d need to hunt down Adrian Rossi from the first moment he saw the video feeds from that island. Those defenseless children needed retribution.