Moon, Bitten

Chapter Thirty-Four

        "Take it easy, Ron." Micah instructed, "You're not fully healed yet."

        "Fully healed be damned!" he grumbled viciously, shoving at the beta wall that obstructed his path. He needed to see her! He needed to know that this wasn't some cruel travesty of the mind.

        Micah held firm to his arm, "Ron, you must wait – "

        His talons lengthened and he raised them threateningly, baring his canines as he roared menacingly, "Obey me now and move from my way!"

        His beta tensed but reluctantly released him, stepping aside.

        Ronan made a dash for the stairs, seized the banister and began his ascent to the top, heedless of the churning air.

        His heart palpitated with such fierce propulsion it threatened to collapse. He had watched her take her last breath. It wasn't possible and yet – he wanted to believe. He staggered to the top and when he reached the doorway of her bedroom, every bit of him froze in astonishment and it was as though the light restored itself within him. His body, in a combined state of shock and disbelief, fraught with raw emotion at the sight of her, he feared at any given moment she would dematerialize from his eyes.

        "Kate – " he murmured brokenly as if on the verge of hysteria.

        Those beautiful, yet haunting green eyes met his gaze from across the way, full of life.

        He started toward her, driven with a need to seize her in his arms to confirm that she was flesh and blood and not some twisted figment of delirium, but she stalled him promptly with a dejected plea, "No!"

        Ronan halted, frowning, his muscles stiffening as he gazed at her with open longing. His hands curled at his sides to suppress the urge to take her in his arms. His jaw tightened into a hard line of restraint as the anguish on her face struck an imaginable chord within him. Her eyes, always a reflection of telling pain, were large pools of fathomless green exhibited one momentous emotion – resentment.

        He met her gaze unflinchingly as his hands fisted so tightly his knuckles whitened with the strain. He detected the flickering of tears in her green eyes and it took every bit of his willpower to not go to her, to not gather her against him to relieve her of her pain, and to reassure himself that she was very much real.

        He just wanted to touch her because he had thought he'd lost her forever.

        His brows drew together as he surveyed the length of her. How had she survived when she had lain on death's door? He would have known if she were a vampire.

        Thankfully, he sensed that she wasn't.

        A hand settled on his forearm, jarring him from his thoughts. "She just needs some time, Ronan."

        He dragged his gaze to Bennett and then back to Kate but she had turned her eyes from him and it was as if she had delivered a fatal blow to his chest.

       Then he did the hardest thing he'd ever done.

       He turned and walked from the room.

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        Days transpired into weeks and not once did Kate stray far from her room. Ronan dared not leave and he knew nothing could have driven him from her, and as those torturous days stretched onward he had time to consider what Adeline had disclosed to him.