Billionaire's Betrayal a contracted revenge (Aurelia) novel Chapter 159

Chp 159: Whole.

Aurelia’s POV

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The pain came in hot waves, radiating up from my ankle every time I so much as breathed wrong, and through the fog of it I could hear Kaelen pacing.

Back and forth. Back and forth. His boots struck the stone floor in a rhythm that hadn’t slowed in twenty minutes.

“Kaelen. Sit down. You’re making me dizzy.”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re wearing a groove into Sonia’s floor.”

“I said I’m fine.” He stopped, finally, and dragged a hand through his hair, looking really rattled. “This is my fault. I put you on that horse. I told you to trust her. I didn’t see Elena until it was already too late to stop any of it.”

“You didn’t throw me off the mare, Kaelen.”

“I might as well have.”

He went back to walking back and forth. And I just gave up arguing and let him, because some men needed to wear a hole in a floor before they could hear anything you said to them, and I didn’t have the strength left tonight to be the one who talked him down from it.

Sonia knelt at my ankle, gentle fingers pressing along the swelling, and I hissed at the touch.

“Sorry,” she whispered, and kept working, brow drawing tighter with every press. She reached for her light, checked my eyes, checked my pulse, and then went back to the ankle a third time, frowning like a woman doing arithmetic that refused to add up.

Kaelen stopped walking again, watching her over my shoulder like a man watching a bomb technician work.

“Well,” he said. “What?”

“Give me a moment.”

“You keep saying that. You have said that three times.”

“And I will keep saying it until I’m sure of what I’m looking at.” Sonia didn’t look up. “Go worry somewhere else, my king, before you fray whatever nerve I have left tonight.”

He didn’t go anywhere. He just crossed his arms and stood closer.

“You are hovering,” I said.

“I’m supervising.”

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16:54 Mon, Aug 31

Billionaire’s Betrayal, a contracted revenge

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“You are hovering, in a way that’s making Sonia’s hands shake, which can’t possibly be helping either of us.”

“Fine.” He took one dramatic step back, arms still crossed. “There. Behold my restraint.”

“That’s not restraint, Kaelen, you are still standing directly behind her shoulder.”

“It’s the best restraint I currently have in stock.”

“That’s odd,” Sonia suddenly said, mostly to herself.

Kaelen was across the room in two strides. “What’s odd?”

“The break.” She looked up at him, then at me, then back down at the ankle she was turning gently in her hands. “It should be badly displaced. The angle you came in with, the swelling I saw an hour ago, that was a clean fracture, no question. But the bone is already lining back up on its own. The swelling has gone down by half. I have never seen anything heal this fast in one hour, not in a person, not without help.”

“Is that bad?” I asked.

“It’s confusing.” Sonia sat back, exhaling long and slow, some tension leaving her shoulders even as the puzzle stayed plain on her face. “It’s not bad, little one. Whatever is happening in you, your body seems entirely capable of handling it without my interference. You are going to be fine.”

Just then Kaelen let out a breath I hadn’t realized he was holding since the moment he found me in the dirt.

“More tests,” Sonia offered. “I could run bloodwork, take proper images, try to understand…”

“That won’t be necessary,” Kaelen said, quickly enough that I glanced at him.

“Kaelen…”

“She has had enough of people examining her for one lifetime.” His voice lowered when he looked at me, and something in his eyes made the room feel smaller. “Let her rest. The rest can wait.”

Sonia studied him a beat too long, clearly biting down on some thought she chose not to say aloud, and then just nodded and started gathering her things.

“I’m sorry,” Kaelen said, once she had gone, crouching at the side of the cot so we were level. “Really. I should have watched the tree line myself instead of trusting the ride to go easy. I am not a man who apologizes often, Aurelia. Ask anyone in this house. They will tell you I have made an entire personality out of never once saying sorry to anyone.”

“You are apologizing quite a lot for a man out of practice.”

“I’m aware. It is not comfortable.” He almost smiled, even now. “It is not fine. You could have been…”

“I’m not made of glass.” I reached out, without quite thinking about it, and laid my hand over his where it gripped the edge of the cot. “Whatever is wrong with me, it apparently mends itself faster than either of us can panic about it. Stop looking like a man standing over a grave.”

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16:54 Mon, Aug 31

Billionaire’s Betrayal, a contracted revenge

“You can let go of me now,” I said. “I can walk.”

“You most certainly can’t.”

“The bone is fixed, Kaelen. Sonia said so herself.”

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“Sonia said your bone is fixed. She didn’t say your legs have magically learned to trust the ground again after being thrown off a horse at a full gallop.” He adjusted his hold, sweeping me up properly into his arms as though I weighed nothing at all, and started for the door before I could argue further. “Humour me. Let the terrifying wolf king carry you to bed. It’s good for my reputation.”

“Your reputation doesn’t need help. Everyone here already thinks you hung the moon.”

“They do, and I intend to keep it that way, which means you can’t be seen limping past them looking like I let you get eaten by my own horses.” He glanced down at me, that lovely grin creeping back now that the fear had drained out of him. “Also, and I only mention this because you asked, you smell like pine sap and terror and something underneath that I’m choosing not to name out loud in front of Sonia’s staff.”

“That’s a really terrible line.”

“I have an entire catalog. And that wasn’t even my best one. Give me another ten feet of hallway and I’ll improve.”

“Please don’t.”

“It worked, though. Look at your face.”

“My face is exhausted, not impressed.”

“Exhausted and impressed aren’t mutually exclusive. I contain multitudes.”

“You contain a great deal of confidence for a man currently carrying an injured woman down a hallway.”

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