Rebel Roused (Untamed #5) Read Online Free PDF Page B

I could speak again. His own eyes looked glassy as he gazed at me and nodded.
    “You are, too.”
    I glanced around the room. “I’m in the hospital?”
    He nodded. “We really gotta stop meeting like this,” he said with a smile.
    Oh, god. He was alive. We were both alive. I wanted to laugh. I wanted to kiss him.
    I wanted to know that this was real.
    “You’re okay?” I needed to hear him say it out loud. “This isn’t a dream? Please tell me this isn’t a dream.”
    Dare leaned closer, pressing his warm lips to my cool forehead. “It’s not a dream.”
    “What happened?”
    He pulled back and gazed down at me. The circles around his eyes were even darker now. He seemed so…drained. Yet the smile still clung to his lips.
    “I got you back,” he said softly. “That’s what happened.” He looked over to the machine next to my bed. “But you…” He trailed off and pressed his lips together as he swallowed hard. “You saved my life, Ree. You…” He shook his head, unable to speak for a moment. When he did, his voice was tight. “You saved me.”
    I reached up and touched his face with my left hand. He leaned into my palm, stubble scratching my skin, his tender lips brushing against it. He was all sorts of hard and soft. And real. He was really, really REAL.
    “I couldn’t let him hurt you anymore,” I said. “It was instinct.”
    “It was crazy,” Dare said. But he would’ve done the same for me. Hell, he already had. Countless times. He’d saved my life over and over again. “You scared me to death.” Then he laughed at his choice of words. “Shit. No pun intended.” He kissed my forehead again, ever so softly making his way down my nose to my lips. “I’m so glad you’re okay. I don’t know what I would have done if you’d…”
    “I know. Me, too.” I took a deep, shaky breath and tried to sit up, but my side felt like it was on fire. I gasped at the pain. Fuck, this hurt.
    Dare raised my bed and gently shifted another pillow behind me, so I was half-sitting. “The bullet went straight through your phoenix’s heart.” He gently placed his hand on the upper part of my right thigh. “Thankfully it went clean through and out the other side.”
    “What about your dad?” I said, shuddering at the mere thought of him, but I had to know. “Is he…?”
    “He’s dead.”
    Relief washed over me, though it didn’t feel real. It didn’t make me feel safe. It didn’t make me feel better.
    “Oh, my god. What about Rex? He was trying to protect me, Dare…and he…Daren shot…”
    Agony sliced across Dare’s beautiful face, his eyes grew watery, and my heart stopped.
    No. Oh, please no. “Oh, my god, Dare. I’m so…he can’t be…” A sob escaped my lips as tears filled my eyes again.
    “Rex is…gone.” He leaned forward, wrapped his arms around me, and we held onto each other as we cried.
    In so many ways, Rex had brought us together and kept us together…even when we were apart. That he was…oh, god, the pain in my heart was worse that the wound in my side.
    Rex was gone. Dead. And he’d died because of me.
    Dare saw the look on my face, felt the guilt scorching my insides. “Don’t go there, Ree,” he whispered hoarsely. “It wasn’t your fault. It was mine.” He took a deep breath. “Can you ever forgive me?”
    “Forgive you for what?”
    “For everything. For what my father did, for letting you get hurt, for Rex, for—”
    “Dare, no .” I pressed a finger to his lips. “Don’t. I refuse to lie here and listen to you apologize for what that monster did. You weren’t responsible for any of it.”
    “But—”
    “And your love was the one thing—the ONLY thing—that kept me going through all the pain. It kept my heart beating. So don’t apologize for saving me.”
    “You’re the one who saved me.” He shook his head. “You’ve always saved me. From the moment I met you and every minute since.” He picked up my left hand, held it gently in