Jace held his breath and sat perfectly still as Luka deftly added the last stitch to his face. Jace had lost count of the number of stitches after about the fiftieth one. But he knew he’d had about five beers. Or six. The right side of his face was completely numb and the alcohol was just starting to take the edge off his ire from the attack at the condo.
“Now, you need to keep this clean and apply the ointment I’m going to give you liberally. Yes, I’m the best plastic surgeon in the city, but if you don’t do everything I tell you to, no number of tiny stitches will diminish the look of the scar. You’ll mess up my work. Don’t mess it up.” Luka used the needle in his hand as a pointer and stuck it in Jace’s face. “You’re a walking advertisement for my skills.”
“I’ll remember that,” Jace said dryly. As if he actually needed stitches with his powers to heal. “Thanks, Luka.”
“No problem. It’s a good thing it wasn’t too deep.”
Deep enough to give Jace a reason to kill the lycan who’d scratched his face. The lycan had a distinctive scent — and a familiar hunch.
Jace’s gaze moved over the throngs of clan members who had gathered to hear him relate the attack to see Kira seated alone at a table a few feet away. Her worried gaze hadn’t left his face during the entire procedure. Her distress over his pain warmed him, his jealousy over her connection to Kipper decreasing the longer their eyes held.
“Kip!”
Someone from the crowd called out his best friend’s name. Kira’s eyes swerved toward the sound. Jace fought against another rising tide of emotion at Kira’s affection for Kip and told himself it was because he had imprinted on her that he didn’t first feel relief that Kip was still alive.
Because he was relieved Kip had survived the attack.
Kira left her seat and impressively pushed through men twice her size to get to Kip. Kip saw her and displayed a cocky grin, but he held up a hand to block any contact. His eyes found Jace and Jace nodded. Kip’s arms went out for the hug and Jace turned away. Luka secured the last piece of tape over the protective bandage covering Jace’s wound and made his way to see about Kip.
Roman took a seat across from Jace. His eyes held a hint of smugness, but his voice was deadly serious. “You know that this is the only safe place for her now, and for you.”
“That’s why I brought her here.”
“And you’ll have our protection in exchange for your loyalty.”
Jace sighed. “I was never not loyal to the pack.”
“You left. That’s a sign of disloyalty.”
His uncle’s hard, accusing gaze and the hiss in his voice challenged Jace to defy his proclamation. Jace schooled his heart to beat an even, calm pace and he didn’t look away. “Fine. I won’t argue with you.”
Roman’s lips snaked upward. “Good. Now I want to know everything about what happened.”