Free Brand of the Pack by Tera Shanley

desperate for forgiveness.
    Tail tucked under her hunched body, weaving back and forth, she approached. He whined again, and she rushed over to him on her belly, then licked his face. He tried to nose the wound on her neck, but the pain kept him from focusing long enough.
    “Grey,” Wade said, kneeling close. “You have to Change before you pass out again. I have to work on your injuries, but I can’t do it when you are Wolf. I could miss something.”
    Morgan lay beside him, whining. He understood what had Wade said, but adding the pain of the Change on top of what he was already feeling had his mind skittering away from the idea.
    “She needs you, Grey. Morgan and Lana and Marissa, they all need you. You have to Change,” Wade encouraged him.
    He began to Change, pushing it quickly. His roar turned into the agonized scream of a man. The edges of his vision blurred and collapsed until the thick, black folds of unconsciousness relieved him.
    As much as he fought to wake up, he was only able to do so in short spurts. He would open his eyes to the pain—always the pain. Morgan was there as an anchor to focus on. Her soft fur, always reassuring under his fingertips. Her eyes so full of worry as Wade and Marissa worked over him. The red on the matted fur of her neck. Her scent, just strong enough to hold him for a few minutes before his eyes grew too heavy to keep open anymore. There was only time to worry about her injured throat for a second before the darkness dragged him back under, again and again.
    When at last consciousness washed over him and held, he stared in confusion at the slowly spinning ceiling fan above him. He searched for pockets of coolness under the familiar sheets but the motion stretched newly stitched skin. He froze and sucked air quietly through his teeth. God, that hurt.
    Morgan lay beside him in her human form, lacking a single stitch of clothing save her engagement ring. She was sound asleep. She didn’t even wake as he adjusted his position to get a better look at her. The blanket draped around her hips, and rays of early morning sunlight caressed her soft cheek. The webs of light brought out the auburn highlights in her dark hair as it cascaded across her pillow. He had seen her body before, but it had been right after she was kidnapped, and she’d been covered in bruises. Now, her skin was unblemished alabaster. Damn, she was beautiful.
    She had healed from Montana. Only a long, thin scar along her hairline was visible. He pulled his hand up to touch her cheek but stopped when he spotted the large bandage where his teeth had grazed her last night. It brought a sick pang to his stomach. When he looked back at her face, two light purple eyes stared steadily back at him.
    “You scared me last night,” she said in a sleepy voice.
    “I didn’t mean to hurt you. I didn’t know what I was doing.”
    “No, not that. I knew you were going to bite me when Wade gave you the smelling salts. I meant I was scared I’d lose you.”
    He shrugged off the things about this life he couldn’t avoid. “I have to protect you and there will be times when it’s going to have to be like this. I’m sorry.”
    “You can’t understand how hard it is to not be able to defend myself. I have to watch the man I care about do it for me and try my best to clean up the pieces afterward. The scars on your body are because of me.”
    Touching the bandage on her neck, he said, “Yours are from me.” They were both marked. Unable to take his eyes from her bare breasts, he trailed his finger down until he brushed the weight of one. “You know, this is the first time we slept together in our bed.”
    “I wanted to sooner,” she admitted, sliding over him and straddling his hips. “I’ve been ready for a while. Do you know how hard it’s been to resist going down to the guest bedroom and finding you at night? This bed feels too big, too cold without you.” She raked her fingers just above where his cock was