Alpha's Regret: The Seventh Time was Forever novel · Chapter 23 of 24
Chapter 23: What the Stone Kept
Dorian woke on the third day in Maud's bed, with his left hand bound in clean linen to the elbow.
Rosalind was in the chair beside him, asleep, with her cheek on her fist.
He lay still and looked at her for a long time.
She was thin yet, but her colour had come back.
She had not coughed once since he opened his eyes.
When she stirred, he shut them and pretended to sleep.
"I know you're awake," she said.
"I'm not."
"You breathe differently."
He opened one eye.
"How bad?"
"The silver went through the palm. The healer says you'll keep the hand, and you won't close it all the way." She said it evenly. "You'll have a second scar over the first."
"Good."
"Good?"
"I deserve to wear one for the right reason."
She did not answer that.
She got up, and poured water from the jug, and held the cup for him while he drank.
He did not reach for her.
He had decided on the second night of fever that he would never reach for her again unless she asked him.
"Where's Ansel?" he said.
"Gone home with his riders. The Ironwood families took away his sash at their own border." She sat on the bed's edge. "Perrin says they've chosen a woman Alpha. They sent a letter. They want a treaty."
"And Pippa?"
"Nobody has seen her. A trapper says she's walking south along the highway."
He looked at the ceiling.
"I'm not sorry," Rosalind said. "I don't think I'm meant to be."
"No."
"What do you want, Dorian?"
The question was plain, and he had no ready answer.
He thought about it honestly.
"Nothing," he said. "I don't want anything. You gave me back my life when you could have let Ansel finish. I'd sleep in the truck for a year and call it a gift."
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