Page 82 of Hunted

“Great!”

“—every day for a week,” he finished, wincing.

“Great,” I repeated, though the tone was significantly less enthusiastic the second time round.

I went to lift the shirt, realising partway through that this was not my shirt and holy fuck, I’m not wearing any underwear.

“I, uhh, I’m just gonna take that to go,” I stammered, plucking the needle from Beck’s grip, startling the man into compliance. I leaped to my feet, immediately regretting the swiftness of the action, but played it off with a smile and dashed past the dining table into the neat little bathroom I’d taken note of earlier.

Slamming and locking the door behind me, I leaned against its wooden panelling, panting as the pain ricocheted across my belly and down each of my legs. It felt exactly like the cramps I endured prior to the surgery, just with a little extra tugging of stitches and fatigue thrown in on top.

“Adelaide?” Beck asked through the door, sounding like he was right on the other side of it.

“Just a minute!”

“Addie, let me help you.”

It sounded like a plea—like a desperate bargain—and I couldn’t for the life of me work out why he was so desperate to help a street urchin like me.

“I said I can do it. And besides,” I muttered, already dreading the next series of mortifying moments. “Whomever dressed me neglected to put on literally anything other than this shirt.”

Silence was apparently my only companion in this outdated but immaculately kept bathroom. It looked like something out of a nineties décor catalogue, but either the Academy employed cleaners for all its staff apartments—or these three were the cleanliest thirty-ish-year-olds in all of Europe.

“When Dek carried you back here, you were dressed in nothing but that pitiful excuse of a hospital gown. We didn’t think you’d appreciate any of us touching you more than strictly necessary, nor did we think you’d appreciate waking up still in that paper gown. So Dek dressed you in the comfiest thing any of us own in the hopes it would go a small way to us earning your forgiveness.”

And now silence was his only companion.

I opted not to answer… well… any of that, and chose to stick myself with the two-inch-long needle, plunging Nadine’s nanotech into my belly.

Regret was all I knew next. Regret and fiery agony.

Blistering heat raced out from the needle point, filling every one of my internal crevices and hollows, igniting each of my nerves and veins, not stopping until every cell was ablaze.

I must have passed out on the floor at some point, because I woke up to the cold ceramic floor tile pressed against my cheek, bugs scurrying around in my belly, and the white dust of snow stuck to my lashes.

Wait—snow? That can’t be right.

I blinked, turning my head slightly, igniting the thudding crescendo of a migraine.

I think I hit my head, too.

I was right on both counts. It was not snow dusting my eyelashes, but tiny specks of plaster—thanks to the gaping hole in the wall beside the door and the ogre who stood outlined within it.

And it was not tears dripping down my face, but the crimson stain of blood, pouring from a wound in my temple. My fingers brushed the split ever so softly, but I still hissed, wondering just how much of a fool I’d made of myself.

Beck reached a bloodied hand in through the hole and unlocked the door in one smooth motion. He then barged into the tiny room in one great big furious storm.

“How could you be so stupid?” he snapped. “Why do you have to be so stubborn and pig-headed and⁠—”

“Alone?” I asked softly.

His face twitched with multiple conflicting thoughts and emotions before finally settling on surrender. “You’re not alone, Addie. And you won’t be for a very long time.”

Deklan appeared behind him in the doorway, and Van poked his head through the hole in the wall, proving Beck’s point like it was a pre-rehearsed speech.

“Come on,” he said gently, holding out a hand. “Let’s get you patched up, cleaned up, and back into bed. You get one day of downtime before we jump right back into training and the rest of it.”

Pouting, I moaned, “Is that all? I just had major surgery.”