Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Eight

Havermouth, Present Day

“Aislen…” Heath started but was interrupted by the arrival of the nurses. “We’ll talk after.” The nurses began adjusting the bed to sit Aislen upright.

“Any discomfort?” The nurse asked attentively as they helped Aislen turn so that her legs hung over the end of the bed.

“No,” Aislen suspected that Talen’s blood was the reason, healing her from the inside out. Bless her daddy vampire, she thought fondly.

“Okay, but be guided by your body, and if it hurts, we will stop…”

“I can carry her,” Cameron hovered anxiously as Aislen stood with the help of the nurses. His hands were already held out, wanting to push the nurses out of the way.

“Boyfriend?” The nurse to Aislen’s left asked as they took a shuffling step towards the ensuite.

“Yeah,” Aislen agreed. It was close enough a description for their relationship, she decided, and she was so fucking over being ashamed and hiding. “Both are, actually,” she said with a slight shrug. “Four, really. But only two are here right now.”

The nurse to the right snorted out her laughter. “Girl, I can’t even land and keep one man, and you’re hoarding them. What’s the secret?”

“A bad attitude, and active sexual appetite,” Aislen replied with a grimace as they edged into the small ensuite bathroom. There wasn’t a lot of room.

“There will be a bit of pressure as we release the catheter, and then we’ll get you onto the shower chair and start the water,” the nurse hesitated after removing the tubing. “If you like, one of your boyfriends could hop in with you and help…”

“Me,” Cameron had followed them to the door. “That’s me.”

The nurse raised her eyebrows and Aislen nodded with a smile. “Let him help, if he wants to,” she said. “I don’t mind. He’s seen me naked before.”

“Alright. The call bell is here if you need anything. And the bandages are waterproof so don’t worry about them,” the nurses eased her onto the shower chair and then edged out to make room for Cameron, who brought in a bag with him and set it on the toilet.

“What’s in that?” She asked, intrigued.

“We popped by your house and picked you up some stuff,” he pulled off his t-shirt whilst heeling out of his shoes, shoving them into the corner by the door, and draping his top over the edge of the vanity. They hadn’t made hospital bathrooms with werewolves in mind, and Cameron filled the tiny space, his elbows almost hitting the wall tiles several times as he undressed. “Mum always said that having her own stuff around in her hospital rooms made her feel better.”

“I’m sorry about your mum, Cam,” she said softly. She suspected that Mrs. Edison had never told him about the phone calls, and she decided never to mention them. She knew from experience how awful it was to be angry with a parent who had died and with whom there would be no opportunity to hash it out and make up with.

He had stripped to the skin, and fuck, she thought, there were worse ways to shower than with a gorgeous, gleaming, russet-haired werewolf man with a grin that made a girl want to drop her panties and mount him.

“I guess growing up with my parents the way they were, and seeing the effect that had on my mum,” he released the ties holding the hospital gown shut behind her, and peeled it from her before starting the water, angling the spray away from her until he could adjust the temperature. “Makes me a very needy mate, because that sort of relationship is my worst fear.”

His thoughts around her had always been “see me” and by extension “want me” and her heart ached to understand if the reason behind that need went beyond stung, male pride. “I’m sorry,” she said as he stepped into the cubicle where she sat.

He looked down at her, the water running over his shoulders and dripping off the ends of his hair. “We showered together before,” he said with a gentle smile, his blue eyes heating at the memory. “Do you remember?”

“Cameron… I have never forgotten. Not one minute, not a single day. Not the unhappy moments, and most certainly not the happy ones.”

He broke their gaze, looking away and his Adam’s apple moved as he swallowed. “I always remember that shower,” he said. “It was one of the happiest experiences we had together. It was special. Or it was to me.”

“It was to me too.”

He stepped to the side and unhooked the handheld shower head, directing the spray over her hair and using his free hand to gather and direct the water. “I’m glad that you thought so,” he said quietly.

He handed her the shower head and filled his palm with shampoo. She closed her eyes and leaned back as he began to massage the shampoo into her hair. “Your hair is still crazy,” he chuckled. “And so long when it’s wet.”

She smiled. “A bit like me, crazy and wet.”

He reclaimed the shower head to rinse out the shampoo. A heavy silence fell between them, and she knew that he was thinking about the shooting. She looked down at the bandage on her stomach. When she had been a child, she'd played paintball, and the bullet wound felt a lot like a bruise from a paintball pellet. There was a cramping ache in her stomach, but the pain level was within her tolerances.

“Why? Why did you run towards the shooter, Aislen? You could have been killed,” Cameron's voice broke. “It was an insane thing to do. Brave, but crazy.”

She considered her answer. “There was a rainy day at school, and I was in the library, and my… my ability to read minds went a bit haywire, as it did, and sometimes still does… And I had this… like vision of a boy walking in and shooting a teacher. And then it was over, and…” She trailed off.

“You saw the future,” he realized. “Like with my mum.”

“Yeah,” she sighed. “I guess. I had this… feeling. From the moment it started to rain, it slowly crept in at me, until I heard that first shot, and I… I just knew. And I knew that I knew because I was meant to, that I was meant to be there at that time. So, I guess I did the stupid thing, and ran towards the shooter, rather than away.”

“Fuck,” he breathed out as he handed her back the shower head and used conditioner, stroking it through her hair and using his fingers to comb out the locks. He took the handheld back. “Can we agree that next time you have a… a vision, or whatever, of the future, and there’s something dangerous involved, you will run the other way?”

She laughed. “Ah, you know me, Cam, no promises.”

He slid his hand, the palm slick with soap, over her shoulder, massaging into the muscles, and she moaned, leaning her head to the side, before he switched hands to rub the tension from the other side. “Oh, god,” she groaned. “That feels good.”

He stroked down her arms and then over her chest, teasing her nipples to standing and cupping her breasts, taking their weight in the palm of his hands. “Your breasts are amazing,” he breathed into her ear. “Even better now, than when we were teens, but man, I obsessed over them then.” He walked to stand before her. He was hard, and for a moment, before he crouched between her knees, his cock with its reddish nest of hair, was on mouth level.

“If I hadn’t been shot yesterday, I’d offer to help you out with that,” she teased him.

“If you hadn’t been shot yesterday, I’d use that to help you get off,” he replied wickedly as he stroked soap over each foot and up her shins to her knees before rinsing, and then over her thighs.

“Fuck,” she whispered, her body aching with arousal. “Who would have thought that showering in a hospital after being shot in the stomach could be sexy.”

He looked up and her and grinned, flashing his beautifully white teeth, and adjusted the handheld to a strong, single stream. “Sex might be too much at the moment, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get off,” he suggested. “Just lean back a little and let me…”

She spread her legs complicitly and ran her fingers through his hair, shaking free the water that clung to its strands, as he directed the stream over her clit. “Fuck,” she closed her eyes. “I could jealously ask how you guys know so many tricks on how to get a girl to come…”

“We watch a lot of porn,” he replied, his voice hoarse.

“Of course you do,” she laughed and then moaned as he slid his hand between her legs and eased his fingers into her. “I have no idea,” she was breathless, the flow of the water and his fingers teasing her towards orgasm. “What it is about you guys. I could be a nun when I’m not around you… if you don’t count my vibrators... But the moment I’m around you, I turn into…”

“Our slut,” he said softly. “Our mate.”

She caught her lip between her teeth and arched her neck, her head lolling as she came.