Filed to story: The Healer and The Wolf PDF Free
“True. Do you have the fake license plates America gave us?”
“All twenty of them.”
Leo let out one of those small chuckles I adored so much. “She went a little overboard with that, didn’t she?”
“Yeah, but there are worse things to be burdened with. For what it’s worth, I like her.”
“I liked her, too. She seems like she has a good head on her shoulders, and I’m glad she’s back with her family. Another wrong caused by the brothers has been righted.”
“I’m with you on that.”
We sank into a companionable silence for a while. Leo was probably thinking about his pack, who, if anyone, he would find at the medical center. Perhaps it would even be Atticus. Meanwhile, I was wondering what would happen to me when he reunited with more of his pack.
I was running out of food, and it would only be a matter of time until I ran out of money, even with the incredible boon of all that free compost and the extra money from my singular week of gardening. Thank God for an early direct deposit into the prepaid card. I’d set it up because cashing a check not made out to my legal name would be a bitch, and I’d given the details to Valencia almost as soon as I’d started. A good thing since I was pretty sure there was no one left at the estate to issue a check anyway.
The sleeping arrangements were also an issue. Another smaller shifter could maybe sleep on the other end of the sofa with Ricky, and one could try sitting upright in my loveseat, but that was it. Leo and I had my bed, and there simply wasn’t room for anyone else.
So, what then? Would they all have to move on? Find a place that fit their growing family? Wait, growing family wasn’t accurate-
restored family. I was the interloper here. I was the one who had come in and forged a connection with their alpha.
A connection I didn’t really have a name for.
We weren’t together. We hadn’t uttered so much as an ‘I like you’ let alone an ‘I love you’. Yes, we had hooked up, and the sex had been incredible, but that didn’t mean we were in a relationship. Hell, wolf shifters might all sleep together interchangeably. Kind of like the entire art department of my old college.
We were friends, I knew that much, and I cared deeply for Leo. Perhaps I was putting words into his mouth, but it seemed like he also cared deeply for me. But just because we felt that way for each other didn’t mean it was love.
It also didn’t necessarily mean it wasn’t love.
Ugh, why did life have to be so complicated sometimes?
“What’s wrong?” Leo asked, voice low and soothing. The man would have a real knack for narrating books. I could listen to him talk about literally anything for hours and be happy about it.
“Just thinking about the future.”
“I smell a lot of anxiety. Are you afraid?”
Sometimes I forgot just how intense that shifter nose of his was. “No, not afraid. Worried, yes. Just wondering where I’m going to fit into all of this.”
“What do you mean?”
Although it made me feel quite vulnerable, I decided to go with the truth. Because if I was going to make such a big mental deal about trusting Leo, then I needed to actually trust
Leo and be honest with my feelings.
“We’re doing this to get your life back with your pack, right? To get all your lives back, and to get justice. I love having you here, but my house is too small for many more of you, and the ultimate goal is your whole community. Eventually, you’ll all need to move on, won’t you?”
My voice didn’t wobble. Well, maybe a little at the end, but no one could blame me for that. I wasn’t really sure what I was expecting Leo to say or do, but I didn’t expect him to turn fully toward me and take my hands.
He had magnificent hands. Big and strong. Tanned and warm. Covered in thick veins that made me think of things that had heat pooling in my belly.
“Vanessa.” Oh, we were using full names, were we? He definitely was being serious, then. “If you want us gone, if we have brought too much inconvenience to your life, say the word and we’ll go. But until you utter those words, I am here at your side. I owe you my life. Ricky owes you his life. And if we get the rest of my pack back, they will owe their lives. You’ve saved us so many times over, I’ll never be able to repay you.”
As usual, whenever Leo got serious, my stomach flipped. He just had that natural gravitas to him. I was certain he wasn’t even aware of it. But at the same time, something in his words didn’t sit right with me.
“I don’t want you to stay here because you feel indebted to me.” That small, very insecure voice in the back of my head screamed, yes, you do
! I would take any reason for him sticking around as long as he didn’t go. But no, I had worked really hard for a long time to be better than that tiny voice. I was worth having people who were enthusiastic and happy to be around me.
“It’s not that I feel indebted to you, it’s that I am. But even if I weren’t, I would beg to stay by your side as long as you would have me. If you want to go back to a more normal life, if I’ve brought too much pain and stress to your home, if I scared you too much at the estate, I’ll leave. But please believe me when I say that Earth itself could crack in two and I would still find a way to be beside you.”
Was I breathing? It didn’t feel like I was breathing.
“Y-you can’t mean that,” I sputtered. Those words weren’t just pledges of loyalty. Those words were romantic. Words that would be said to a lover, a soul mate, not just a friend.
Leo was leaning forward, gazing so deeply into my eyes it was almost as if he was looking right into the very heart of me. I wanted to ask him what he saw, and if it was the same lonely, often cowardly girl I so often saw in the mirror.
The girl that had been so scared to be proactive about anything in her own life, she’d ended up killing her own mother.
How could he possibly mean those words to a girl like that?
“I do mean that. I mean it with all my heart. I want you to know you are under no obligation to feel the same. I showed up in your life and dragged you into all of this. You’ve been nothing but a saint, and I have truly fallen in love with your kindness. You make me want to be a better man, even when the wolf that presided over me for so long once thinks that a civilized man shouldn’t.”
I couldn’t believe my ears. Surely, I was hallucinating or dreaming. There was no way on earth Leo loved me. I was a nobody. A grocery store clerk and college dropout. An orphaned, social recluse. Leo was a capable warrior and experienced alpha who had overcome impossible hardships and was reuniting his people. What could he possibly see in me?
“You love me?” I squeaked. God, I sounded so stupid, but I couldn’t help it. Finding out he had true romantic feelings for me felt as shocking as discovering the existence of shifters. It went against everything I was taught to believe.
“I do. I know it’s fast, and I accept you may not feel the same, but this connection between us is real. I never want to lose it. No matter what happens at the medical facility or with any other warlocks we encounter, I want you in my life. If you’ll have me.”