Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 104350 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 522(@200wpm)___ 417(@250wpm)___ 348(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104350 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 522(@200wpm)___ 417(@250wpm)___ 348(@300wpm)
Feeling heavy and uncoordinated, Tao sat upright and gathered her to him. “That’s okay, baby.” He kissed her temple. “You can sleep now.”
“Awesome,” she breathed. Then it all went black.
“I can hear her breathing,” Savannah whispered, standing beside the bed on which Riley was sprawled, hair fanned out all over the pillow.
Crouched beside Savannah and Dexter, Tao nodded. “See, she’s just sleeping.” But he understood why that didn’t chase away their terror. He needed to look into her eyes, hear her voice, to truly believe she was fine. “We can’t wake her, though. She needs the rest. The more sleep she has, the faster she’ll get better.”
Biting her lip, Savannah asked, “Can we come see her when she wakes up?”
“Of course you can. You two will be the first people she wants to see. What she needs most now, though, is for you to take care of each other while she sleeps. Can you do that?” At their nods, he smiled. “Good.” Tao gently touched Dexter’s hair. “How’s your head, little man?”
“Better,” said the toddler, sucking on his thumb.
Tao had expected to be dealing with a traumatized child, given that Shirley had burst into their bedroom and slung him at a fucking wall, but either Dexter was good at blocking out stressful events or he’d simply become extremely resilient after surviving alone on the streets. Then again, all cheetahs were physically and mentally tough like that.
“The bad lady’s gone now,” said Savannah. “Riley made her go away.”
“She did,” Tao confirmed. He looked up as Makenna poked her head through the partially open door.
“There you both are,” she said. “Grace wants to know if you want to bake cookies with Kye and Lilah.”
Both children looked at Riley, loath to leave her. Tao put his hands on their shoulders. “I’ll come for you when she wakes up,” he promised them. “Okay?”
“Okay,” said Savannah. Taking Dexter’s hand, she tugged him toward the door.
As they reluctantly left the room, Makenna walked in and peeked at Riley. “She’s been asleep for quite a while now.”
At least twelve hours, Tao estimated. He’d have panicked, but . . . “It’s a healing sleep.”
Makenna’s brow creased. “A what?”
“When ravens are injured, they go into a deep sleep to help them recover. Max confirmed that she’ll be fine.” The uncles had gotten a scare when she hadn’t called them back last night, so they’d both rushed to Phoenix Pack territory. The first thing they’d done was check on Riley. The second thing they’d done was yell at Tao, blaming him for her injuries. Then they’d apologized profusely for yelling at him and congratulated him on the mating.
“Her wounds have faded,” Makenna noted. “So have yours. That’s good.”
“Yeah, that’s very good.” Ally hadn’t fully healed Riley or Tao, needing to save energy for the rest of the injured, so they had both been left with some superficial cuts and bruises.
“So many were injured, Tao. Almost everyone was at the very least skimmed by a bullet. I honestly thought we were going to lose Trick. Taryn barely managed to heal him in time.”
Tao had already heard the story from Taryn, who was swamped with guilt for being too weak from healing Trick to go to him and Riley. She’d actually been in tears, apologizing for not being able to get to them. It had taken a good half hour to convince her that she had nothing to apologize for and that he wasn’t angry with her. She’d sent Ally to them, which had saved them. “Thank God for Ally.”
“Hell yeah,” agreed Makenna. “She healed me not so long ago. I would have died if it weren’t for her. She’s saved a lot of lives, including Shaya’s.” Makenna hugged herself. “You know something? It didn’t occur to me that Ramón would try to invade our territory. I knew he was a danger, but I truly didn’t credit him with that much power.”
“We think of humans as weaker than us—physically, they are. That means we can sometimes forget that they can be much more dangerous.”
She nodded. “Do you think Ramón expected to get out of that alive?”
“Yes. He was proud and arrogant, and he’d probably thought of himself as not only untouchable but invincible.” It had been his downfall in the end.
“I would have liked to be the one to kill him, so you can tell Riley I’m totally jealous that she was the one who did.”
After Makenna left, Tao slid under the covers and gently tugged Riley into his arms. She didn’t even slightly stir, which would have been worrying if he hadn’t known for sure that it was normal for ravens.
He lay there for what could have been hours, watching her sleep and reassuring himself that she was fine. It was hard, though, because he kept seeing flashes of her in the van, hurt, bleeding, and weak. Kept remembering how often their mating bond had flickered as the darkness pulled at her. As fear clogged his throat, his arms flexed around her. Her eyelids fluttered halfway open, and two pools of violet locked on him.