The Bite (Book 1)

Original Edition - Chapter 66: Keys

"Ethan?"

I felt my heart drop as I stepped closer to him. The dirt around him was littered with blood that was slowly oozing out of his neck into his fur that was sticky; dried yet a little wet as the blood slowly dripped out from under the collar.

He looked up at me with wide eyes and let out a warning growl. I let out a hot breath and kept walking. He growled again, but I didn't care. I couldn't stand the sight; the sight of him chained to a damn pole. The sight of my male hurt and tired; the silver must have kept him from sleeping.

He started to growl but my beast whimpered at him. "Ethan, please."

He huffed as we walked slowly to him. My wolf was going insane but there were nothing we could do. I warned her, she needed to keep her head together. We had to try to keep it together.

But my heart was breaking at the sight.

The silver. I could hear it burning. I shook my head and walked carefully until my nose was close to his. He whined and looked at me a little pained. If my wolf could tear up, she probably would have. She whimpered some more and nuzzled his cheek; letting the pull between us fill our bodies with endorphins to temporarily hide the pain.

He sighed as she licked his snout before she looked him over. Chocolate fur with stains of red around raw skin and tired blue-green eyes, very tired eyes. We looked at the collar and tried to see if we couldn't do anything about it. I got pretty close to it when Ethan nudged me away and shook his head.

"Just let me try?"

He shook his head some more and whined. I looked back at it and cringed. It was on there pretty tight. If I moved it, it would probably just hurt him more.

My beast whined some more then started to lick away at the blood that stained his fur. She was thorough and frantic with her work; Ethan let out soft rumble which made me smile inwardly.

She got up to his neck where he stilled. Even covered in blood he smelled amazing; his neck smelled amazing, but I knew now was not the time. Still, I let her lick at the area and clean off the crimson that was staining his chocolate fur. The more I licked, the more he purred and whined to me. It made me smile some more, at least he was feeling better.

After we were done, I stepped back and laid on my belly in front of him. He reached out his nose to me and grazed it against mine. My beast whimpered some more and scooted closer. I turned my head slightly so I could look at him. He gave me what looked like a half smiled and huffed.

"Can you link at all?"

He shrugged and I didn't want to push him too hard. But still, I just wanted to make sure he was ok. I had to know.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. You shouldn't be here–" he cut me off with a low growl. He gave me a long look and let out another long breath.

My beast stirred. I got up and walked carefully to him; making sure that I didn't move him too much so I didn't cause the silver to rub involuntarily. My beast got down on her belly then scooted up to lay with her back against his belly.

He purred softly then nuzzled closer to us. He licked the top of my head threw his front paw over us; if it were any other circumstance then I would say it was a cozy position we were in.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the tree, or any of the other stuff. I just–I didn't know how. I saw so much that scared the hell out of me and you were, well we were–," I sighed as I paused. "I should have, I should have had more faith in you. It was wrong, I'm sorry. Maybe if I did then you wouldn't be here. I've been so selfish, I'm so sorry. I ju–"