Chapter 418 Wolf’s fur

Without wasting another moment, Viola dropped to his side. “Oh my God, what happened to you?” she cried out, searching for the source of the blood as she realized his entire shirt was soaked through, and the floor beneath him was collecting a growing pool of crimson.

He gently pushed her hands aside. “I’ll be fine… ugh…” he gritted out, trying to remove his shirt himself and deal with the source of his pain, but Viola immediately reached for it.

“Let me do it,” she said.

He moved her hands away again.

“I can do it. Leave it.” Sebastian gritted out through the pain.

“Stay still,” Viola insisted firmly, glaring at him in warning.

He carefully lowered his hands, allowing her to tend to him.

Viola composed herself, fighting back the nausea rising in her throat at the sight of so much blood, even though she wasn’t squeamish and was used to seeing it. She didn’t know how he had been injured or where he had been, but she knew panicking wouldn’t help. Treating him first and questioning him afterward was the right course of action.

She couldn’t peel the shirt off normally because it had stuck to his skin, and without knowing exactly where the wounds were, she tore it open down the front instead, ripping the fabric apart.

She gasped at the sight of multiple gunshot wounds across his stomach, but Viola was familiar enough with gunshot injuries by now that she didn’t allow herself to panic, especially after confirming they were ordinary silver bullets, not the special kind used in the earlier assassination attempts that had nearly killed him.

“Call Gilbert. I need the bullets out so I can heal,” Sebastian said, watching her study the wounds with her expression growing pale but her lips had pressed into a displeased line.

He hadn’t intended to come to her first with injuries like this, but she had been the closest person to reach once he entered High Tower, by the time he made it to Gilbert, he would have lost too much strength. Sebastian had come to her with the intention of having her help him reach the doctor, but she surprised him instead.

“I can handle it. Lie down.” She said, gently pushing his shoulders back so he’d lie flat.

Sebastian wanted to resist, not wanting to put her through this, but she looked so certain that he gave in, even as the pain burned through his flesh like fire and he wanted the fucking bullets out of his flesh.

Sebastian watched his wife move around the room, opening drawers, disappearing into the closet, and returning with a first-aid box before kneeling beside him again, her eyes fixed on his wound.

“After I’m done with this, you are going to tell me exactly where you went, and how you got yourself shot.” She said calmly, though he could tell she was furious.

He parted his lips to answer, but unbearable pain shot through him instead, his jaw clenching as she dug the first bullet from his skin.

There were three bullets total, one lodged deep in his lower abdomen, and Viola thought, had he been human, she would have lost him right there on the floor. A wave of turmoil surged through her, but she forced herself to stay composed and focused.

By the time she finished removing the third bullet, he was breathing heavily, weakened against the floor, his eyes barely open.

Viola worked quickly after that, her hands steady even though her heart was still hammering from the fright of finding him in this condition.

She cleaned each wound with careful strokes, wiping away the blood that had soaked into his skin and pooled on the floor beneath him.

The silver had burned the edges of his flesh, but already the wounds were beginning to knit back together, his Alpha healing working, slowed only by the metal that had been inside him.

She pressed clean gauze over each site, then dampened a soft cloth and began wiping down his chest, his stomach, the hard lines of his arms, clearing away the last traces of blood and sweat until his skin felt warm and clean beneath her fingers, all the while wondering where he had come from, what had happened to him.

His eyes closed completely. His breathing evened out. It would take a few hours for him to heal fully now that the bullets were out, and he might sleep through most of it.

Viola watched his face for a long moment, the pale exhaustion, the dark lashes resting against his cheeks, and something tight, furious, and terrified twisted inside her chest all at once.

She had almost shot him herself.

For one heart-stopping second, she had believed the shadow in the doorway was Nick, and her finger had been only a breath away from pulling the trigger. The thought made her hands tremble now that the danger had passed.

Looking down at them, Viola suddenly saw fine hairs sprouting across the backs of her hands. She froze, staring in disbelief as she realized they were fur. It rose through her skin like goosebumps, the soft color of a newborn pup’s coat, before sinking back beneath her skin just as quickly as it had appeared.

It was the first time she had ever witnessed anything like that happening to her.

She slowly turned to her seemingly sleeping husband, clutching one hand against her chest as she was reminded once again of the suppressant in her body. But Sebastian’s condition made it the wrong time to bring up such a conversation, so she swallowed the questions rising in her throat and kept them to herself for now.

Viola rose, went to the bed, and pulled a pillow free. Returning to him, she gently lifted his head and slid the pillow beneath it, so he wouldn’t have to lie flat against the hard floor any longer. Then she sat back on her heels, letting out a long, shaky breath, the adrenaline finally beginning to drain from her body.

She was still leaning slightly away, thinking about how he had gotten shot and whether he had been ambushed in another assassination attempt, when a strong arm suddenly curved around her waist and pulled her down against him.

Viola gasped as her body settled against his bare chest, the heat of him startling after the cool air of the room.

Before she could speak, Sebastian’s mouth found the side of her neck, warm and deliberate, trailing slow, open-mouthed kisses along the sensitive skin. His lips moved lower, tracing the curve of her collarbone, then lower still, until they brushed the soft swell of her breast through her nightdress.

A rush of heat flooded through her instantly. Caught in a mild heat state because of her pregnancy, her body had become far more responsive, far hungrier for him. Even the lightest touch from her mate was enough to set her blood alight with arousal and dampen her underwear.

However, this wasn’t the moment, not with everything they still needed to talk through. But her husband’s sinful mouth was doing things to her that she couldn’t resist.

“Sebastian, not now…” she said, a moan slipping past her parted lips as he nuzzled against her skin.

“I need this to heal faster, love. I need my strength,” he rasped against her skin before adding, “And you’re wet for me.”

His hand slid between her thighs, his fingers brushing over her sex as he felt the warmth of her dampness.

Viola lost the battle to continue the conversation the moment his hand covered her there. Furthermore, he was right. Intimacy and physical contact between mates heightened healing, the surge of arousal triggering restorative responses within a werewolf’s body.

She arched into his next kiss, her fingers sliding into his hair as she reached down and began shedding her nightdress, letting it slip from her shoulders and pool around her waist.

Sebastian’s hands guided her the rest of the way, slow but certain despite his wounds. He eased her down onto him, the thick length of him pressing into her in one smooth, careful thrust that stole the breath from both their lungs.