I woke up to a ceiling I didn’t know, the room smelled clean, like herbs and warm water, and the bed under me was softer than anything I’d ever slept on in Silver Fang. For one stupid second, I hoped it was all a dream, the Moon Match, the rejection, the hunt, the cave everything up until the trade.
Then I tried to sit up, but pain shot through my ribs and shoulder and hip, and I fell back with a sharp breath, eyes watering.“No,” I whispered to myself, it wasn’t a dream and the pain was a clear reminder of it. A voice answered from somewhere nearby. “ Nurse she’s awake.”
My heart jumped, and my hope died completely. I turned my head slightly and saw him sitting in a chair near the bed, one arm resting on the armrest like he’d been there a long time, his posture relaxed, but his eyes ale
