Filed to story: The Healer and The Wolf PDF Free
I just needed to come up with a better plan.
With so manyheavy things on my mind, sleep didn’t exactly come easy. Just when I’d managed to drift off, a loud bang from the kitchen had me sitting bolt upright in my bed. I needed to be careful otherwise I was gonna throw my back or my neck out. Maybe both. Then I really would be useless.
My cats scattered as I put on a robe and hurried down to the kitchen, grabbing the bat I kept at the door along the way. While I knew investigating such a sound would likely get me killed in a horror movie, I’d lived out in the country long enough to know that many things that went bump in the middle of the night had natural explanations beyond an intruder.
“Ricky?” I exclaimed as I rounded the corner into my kitchen, the bat raised.
He looked worse for the wear, battered and absolutely filthy. It was a bit of a shock, especially since it was so similar to how Leo had first stepped into my kitchen. Except Ricky was Ricky, and Leo was Leo, and my heart belonged only to the alpha.
“Ven,” he wheezed, limping over to my kitchen table and plopping into a chair. “Don’t suppose you’d be willing to patch me up?”
“What the hell happened?” I asked, immediately going into triage mode. Step one was grabbing my first-aid kit, step two would be evaluating his wounds, then anything after that would come from the information gained in step two.
“I tried to get in, Ven. I figured the last thing they would expect was for me to grab one of their workers on a Monday night so I could infiltrate on a Tuesday morning before they got to doing whatever they do down there. And I figured I could usethe night to press any information out of whoever I managed to grab.”
I gaped at him. That was about the last thing I’d expected. “You went to save Leo without me?” Perhaps not the most pertinent or mature question, but sometimes my mouth moved faster than my brain.
Ricky gave me a rueful look, but his wince of pain marred the expression. “Thought I had a way not to risk you. Because if I got Leo back but something happened to you, he’d never forgive me.”
I didn’t know how I felt about that. While my ego was definitely pleased at the idea that Leo would be so affected if something were to happen to me, I couldn’t help but feel that maybe I could have helped Ricky, so he wouldn’t have come home so battered.
“What happened? Did whoever you pick have more bite than bark?” I asked, trying to inject some humor into the situation, despite the fact that it wasn’t very funny at all.
“Never even got that far,” Ricky grumbled, staring at the floor. Embarrassment and shame radiated from him, but I wasn’t really sure what to do about it. “I had to shift to get close this time, ’cause I figured they’d know our truck, even with switching out all the license plates.”
That made sense, and I couldn’t help but wonder if the same issues I’d had with my GPS had extended to the truck America and her tribe had given us. I didn’t say that, however, because I didn’t want to interrupt Ricky.
“But I guess it’s still too soon, because right when I took my wolf form, I wasn’t in control anymore. It was like my inner wolf was rabid. My entire mind was full ofhatred.It was like every thought wasbite, rip, tear. I couldn’t keep track of my plan at all, and my wolf locked in on some enemy shifters’ scent.”
“Bears?” I murmured.
Ricky’s eyes widened. “How did you know?”
“That’s how Leo and I first met. He’d been pretty badly wounded by a couple of bears. I didn’t know they were shifters at the time, but I wouldn’t doubt it now.”
“Holy shit! Two bear shifters got their paws on him, and they didn’t finish the job?”
“Well, I chased them off.”
It was so strange to think back to that time-a world I’d thought only had humans and animals, and I didn’t fit well into either group.
“Youchased off two bear shifters?”
“Why do you sound so surprised?” I asked with mock offence.
“Come on. I’m pretty sure I don’t have to spell it out. A human versus two aggressive bear shifters enthralled by a group of evil warlocks? That pretty much only has one outcome.”
“Two outcomes, apparently,” I teased, and it felt like the tension eased ever so slightly. Good. I needed Ricky to relax before I cleaned his wounds. Although I had witnessed the wonders of shifter healing firsthand, it was a bit less effective while they were in their human forms. Also, they healed so rapidly it was easy for foreign objects to become sealed within their body, causing little pockets of infection. Their systems could handle it, but it took a lot of extra time and energy. The wounds I managed to clean first healed much faster than the ones I didn’t, and they never scarred. Not even temporarily. “But if I’m being honest, they probably already thought Leo was dead. All I did was scream and wave my hands around. Made a real fool of myself.”
Instead of chuckling, Ricky simply shook his head. “Leo wasn’t kidding. You really are something else, aren’t you?”
Oh, no. I could barely tolerate it when Leo got all complimentary; it felt downright weird coming from Ricky. “Youknow, normally when people say that, they don’t mean it in a nice way.”
“Well, I do, so fuck all of ’em who say otherwise. Leo’s a good judge of character-always has been. So, if he says something, I’m gonna believe my alpha.”
“Fair enough.”
The conversation tapered off as I focused on tending to his wounds. The entire time, my mind raced. I knew I had to say something, but I wasn’t sure how best to do it. It wasn’t until I finished up and tossed the last bloody washcloth into the sink that I turned to Ricky.
“If you’re going to rescue Leo, we have to do it together. This is not a solo project.”
“Ven, I admire you, I do, but I’m already pushing things by even trying to rescue him. My orders were clear, and it isn’t right for a beta to be going an’ exploiting loopholes. Taking you would be a step too far. I’ve gotta keep you protected. For Leo.”
I took a deep breath, quickly calculating what cards I had to play. “I understand that, but I need you to understand something as well.”
“What’s that?”
What I was about to do was underhanded and would likely ruin the trust I had built up with Ricky, but I was desperate. And desperate times most certainly called for desperate measures.
“I’m the one who broke Leo’s curse and then yours. Neither of you would have your humanity or even an idea of what happened to your pack if not for me. I’m the one who orchestrated the plan to save you. And in the end, I’m the one who drove the truck into that bastard and then found the medical facility.”
Ricky looked downright uncomfortable. “What are you trying to say?”
“I’m saying the two of you owe me, and pretending you know better than me, like you’re grown men and I’m some little child, is ridiculous. You need my help. Either we build this rescue plan together and try to come up with the best way to keep all of us safe, or I will find a way to go on my own. And I doubt this time the bear shifters will be so accommodating to my strategy of screaming and waving my arms.”
Ricky didn’t say anything for a long while. He just gave me a hard stare colder than any look he’d ever given me. Not that I could blame him, but I hoped he would understand in time.
“You drive a hard bargain, but all right. Let’s come up with a plan to get Leo back.”