Chapter 282
“Ellie!” Lucas, turning, helped pull me to my feet. I yelped again as the weight on my leg made fresh pain shoot through me, forcing me to pitch forward against his chest.
“Shit.” Lucas looked down at my leg. It was trembling, the nerves winding tight from the pain. I looked down, too, as Lucas crouched and peeled my sock down. Just that light touch made the pain worse, and I grabbed a nearby sapling to keep myself
upright.
Lucas hissed through his teeth and looked up at me. “Swelling already,” he said. Or at least, I think he said it. I could only see his lips move, his voice completely drowned out by the rain.
“I’m fine,” I said.
We both knew that was a lie.
Lucas stood, placing his hands on my shoulders. “Can you walk?!” he shouted.
I nodded, biting down hard on my lip, and tried to take a hobbling step forward. My leg immediately protested, and my knees began to crumple beneath me. Before I knew it, Lucas was sweeping me off my feet.
My ankle didn’t like that one bit. Just the movement alone made me dig my fingers into Lucas’s shoulders, scrunching my eyes
shut in pain.
“Dammit,” Lucas said, looking around. The path stretched seemingly endlessly in both directions-uphill at a sharp, slippery incline one way, downhill the other. His light hair was already stuck to his face, and both of our clothes were completely soaked through.
“We can’t make it the rest of the way like this,” I said, stomach sinking with the realization. “The house is closer. We should head back that way.”
Lucas’s jaw tightened. “I just want you to be safe.”
“I’d like for both of us to be safe,” I sighed.
Lucas looked at me for a moment, then at the uphill trail. Finally, coming to the same conclusion I had, he began to carry me
back toward the house.
I wasn’t sure how long Lucas walked. The pain made everything feel stretched out and eternal, each step sending fresh agony shooting up my leg. But eventually, we came out of the treeline into the rain. I saw the house ahead through the downpour, and I also saw Dominic.
He was standing at the edge of the forest, already soaking wet. He saw us at almost exactly the same moment as we saw him. Lucas’s footsteps haltered, and he tightened his grip on me. For a second, nobody moved. Then Dominic was jogging toward us. Even from here, I could see his expression was dark and angry. But there was a thread of concern there, too.
“What happened?” he asked when he reached us.
“She slipped on the trail,” Lucas said. “Her ankle.”
Dominic’s eyes dropped to my ankle and then came back up to my face. “Why didn’t you mindlink me?” he asked. His voice was strained around the edges. “I would have come.”
I bit my tongue to keep from saying something nasty. “Lucas was right there,” I said instead.
Dominic’s eyes darkened further. “I’m your husband, Ellie.”
I didn’t reply to that.
Dominic’s jaw set. He shot Lucas a withering glare, but Lucas was already pushing past him, heading toward the house.
+30 Bonus
“Wait!” Dominic moved in front of us, spreading his arms wide. “Give her to me. I’ll take her from here”
Lucas held me tighter. “No.”
Dominic looked at me. “Ellie, come here.”
“No,” I said.
His face fell. “Why are you doing this?”
I opened my mouth, but then shut it again. He didn’t understand. He couldn’t… wouldn’t. And I didn’t have the energy to explain it to him right now; even if I did, the explanation would require a conversation I wasn’t ready to have, possibly ever.
In my past life, I would have reached for Dominic first. Every time, without thinking. He was my mate and I loved him and the idea of not going to him when I needed something wouldn’t have even crossed my mind.
But he’d let me die. He hadn’t even been there. He’d put my crown on Vivian’s head and let me waste away.
And even before all of that happened, it wasn’t like he ever actually helped me, anyway. All of the times I went to him for help, sad or in pain or simply needing guidance, he had given me the cold shoulder and turned me away like I was a nuisance and not
his wife.
This life wasn’t any different. Not really. It might be dressed up in a new outfit, but it was still the same at its core.
“Take me inside,” I said to Lucas.
A muscle jumped in Dominic’s jaw. I could tell he wanted to argue further, but then he took one look at my ankle and seemed to come to a conclusion. He stepped back, hands at his sides, and said nothing more.
Lucas started toward the house again.
I didn’t look back at Dominic the entire way-not even to check if he was following.
