“Yup, sure am,” he said as he raised himself up on one elbow, wincing. “Although I must look like quite a sight.”
“You, uh, are quite bloody. I was about to call a doctor to get you cleaned up.”
Oskar shook his head. “Hell no. I don’t need a doctor. These are just a bunch of flesh wounds. They’re not that deep even though they look really bloody. Give me some wet washcloths or something and I’ll clean them up myself.”
His words gave Zora a mixture of relief and confusion. “But you were completely passed out less than a minute ago. How can the wounds not be that bad?”
Oskar sat up all the way then, and winked at Zora. “I’m a shifter. I recover quickly. Besides, things aren’t always as bad as they seem.”
“But Otto clobbered you.”
Oskar shrugged, then hopped off the hospital bed to go get his own washcloths, since Zora wasn’t helping much. She was standing in a bit of a daze as she watched Oskar, naked as the day he was born, cross the room and get one of the large first aid kits sitting on the shelves. Zora tried not to stare at his naked ass, but it was hard not to. His muscles everywhere were sculpted and perfect. When he turned around and caught her staring, she felt her cheeks heating up. But he didn’t seem to notice. He walked back toward where Zora was, and cracked open the first aid kit.
“Otto didn’t hurt me as badly as it seemed,” Oskar said as he dug inside the kit and started pulling out an assortment of bandages and creams. “It’s mostly just scratches, although a couple of them did end up being pretty deep. I overdramatized things and fell down like he’d really hurt me.”
Zora stared at him. “You…what? I don’t understand.”
“I fell down on purpose.” Oskar paused and looked up at Zora, giving her a wink. “I can trust you, right?”
Zora felt an impossible thrill going through her at his wink. Was he flirting with her? She tried to stammer out a reply. “I…uh…yes. Of course you can trust me.”
Oskar fumbled with a roll of bandages. “Otto told me before the match that he wasn’t a fan of fighting other shifters either, but that Loki is obsessed with shifter versus shifter matches. He said once Loki gets it in his head that he wants two shifters to fight, there’s no stopping him.”
“That’s true,” Zora said, rolling her eyes. “My brother can have a one track mind sometimes, and that track isn’t usually a good one.”
Oskar nodded, and Zora caught him wincing as he tried to open a bottle of antibiotic cream.
“Here, let me do that,” she said, reaching over to take the cream from him. He let her have it without protest, and hopped up to sit on a nearby exam table.
“Otto told me the best thing to do was pretend to fight, and have one of us appear to be wounded badly and fall to the ground. He generously offered to let me be the wounded one.” Oskar laughed.
“Why is that generous of him?” Zora asked. She pulled some alcohol wipes from the first aid kit and started wiping down the numerous scratches on Oskar’s arm. He winced when the alcohol hit the raw wounds, but he didn’t complain or pull away.
“Because Otto predicted that whichever shifter fell to the ground would disgust Loki so much that Loki wouldn’t want anything to do with that shifter for a while. According to Otto, I’ve just bought myself several days of Loki-free time. Otto said it might be up to a week before Loki bothers to come looking for me again.”
Zora paused in her work to look up at Oskar. “That’s true. But when he does come looking for you again, he’s going to be angry and work you extra hard.”
Oskar shrugged. He smiled down at Zora, his face only about six inches from her own. “I’m not afraid of hard work. Anything I can do to buy a few days without having to hear threats against my sister is worth it.”
Zora felt her heart pulsing in her chest, and she was sure Oskar must be able to hear it. His face was so close to hers that if he’d just dipped his head a bit, their lips could have met. As foolish as it was, she had never wanted anything more than she wanted him to kiss her right then. For a moment, she thought he might. But then he looked away and the spell was broken.
Zora tried not to let out an audible sigh as she went back to cleaning the numerous scratches on Oskar’s body. She knew he would probably never kiss her. She should let go of the fantasy right then. He might have trusted her enough to tell her about Otto’s plan to screw over Loki, but he would never trust her enough to kiss her. It was well known that the penalty for a shifter making any kind of romantic or sexual pass at a Gilt Hollow citizen was death. Why would Oskar risk his life for one kiss? No one was that foolish. Or that brave.
Oskar had fallen silent, and Zora did not attempt to restart the conversation. She was having enough trouble focusing on cleaning Oskar’s wounds as it was. She couldn’t possibly follow a thread of conversation right now. Her hands shook slightly, and her breathing felt shallow and rapid as she tried not to think about the fact that she felt like electricity was shooting through her body every time her skin touched Oskar’s.
She also tried not to think about the fact that he was sitting completely naked in front of her. She thought about going to grab one of the many blankets in the room to cover him up, but decided against it. That would only make things more awkward. Shifters didn’t care one bit about being naked in front of other people. If Zora put a blanket on Oskar, he would know that she felt embarrassed. And having him know she was embarrassed was more embarrassing to her than trying to avoid looking at his dick, so she continued to clean and bandage his wounds while doing her best to appear calm. She could only imagine what Loki or her father would say if they knew she was in here with a naked shifter, wishing that she could be naked, too. They would probably never let Zora out of their sight again. And they would certainly kill Oskar, his sister, and anyone else that Oskar loved.
Zora wondered if there was anyone else Oskar loved. Did he have other family? She hadn’t heard him mention his parents, and Loki hadn’t threatened to kill Oskar’s parents, which probably meant they weren’t alive anymore. But was there anyone else in Oskar’s life? Close cousins? Or a girlfriend he’d been forced to leave behind, perhaps? Zora felt her face flush with jealousy at the thought of Oskar loving another girl. How had she come to this? A girl pining over a man she couldn’t have, but growing jealous over the thought of another girl having him even though she couldn’t.
Zora’s attempt to regain her composure by lowering her eyes backfired completely. When she looked down, her gaze accidentally landed right on the space between Oskar’s legs that she had been trying so hard to avoid. To her shock, his dick now stood stiff and erect, pointing toward her proudly. For a moment, she could only stare, trying to comprehend what she was seeing.
His erection was enormous, and looked like it was hard as a rock. But why would he be turned on in the middle of the medical wing? It wasn’t possible that his body was reacting to her, was it? Zora looked up at Oskar’s face again, her eyes full of questions. There was no use trying to deny what she had seen. They both knew that her eyes had fallen on his giant erection. Zora wasn’t sure what Oskar would say to explain himself, but she half-expected him to make up some kind of excuse. She braced herself for it, waiting for him to say that it wasn’t her that had turned him on, but that he was thinking about his girlfriend back in Bear Hollow. Or perhaps, if Zora was lucky, he wouldn’t mention a girlfriend and would instead say that all of the scrapes and scratches and loss of blood were affecting him in strange ways that he couldn’t control. At least if he claimed his erection was merely evidence of his body going haywire, Zora could continue to pretend that Oskar didn’t have some sort of love interest back home.
But Oskar didn’t say any of those things. Instead, he looked down at his own erection, then back up at Zora’s face, then shrugged. “What can I say? It’s impossible to sit in front of a girl as stunning as you and not have my body betray my feelings.”
Zora found herself at a loss for words for what felt like the
hundredth time today. “I…I…” she gave up and shrugged, feeling like an idiot but not knowing what to say to the man in front of her whom she barely knew but already felt like she loved. He smiled at her, and dared to reach for her hand.
“I hope those few stammers mean that you’re not going to have me killed for being attracted to you. I’m not trying to overstep bounds. But, like I said, you make things difficult.”
“I’m not going to have you killed,” Zora managed to say. “That would be cruel, to kill a man for having a normal, male reaction.”
Oskar’s smile deepened. “And what about for this? Are you going to kill me for this?”
“For what?” Zora frowned in confusion.
“For this.”
He leaned down and placed his lips on hers. Zora was taken completely off guard, nearly losing her balance as the rush of tingling, electric passion flooded from Oskar’s body to hers. She might have actually fallen over, if not for the fact that he reached out to put his arms around her. A thousand fireworks went off in Zora’s heart, and she willed the moment to last forever.
He started out rather modestly, his strong lips merely pressing against her soft ones. But then, the intensity increased. He slipped his tongue past her lips, and it danced with her tongue as though it had been made for this exact moment. Adrenaline raced through Zora’s body in a perfect mixture of passion and fear. She had never wanted a kiss as badly as she wanted Oskar’s kiss right now, but she couldn’t help but feel worried about someone walking in on them. If any other Gilt Hollow citizen saw them, she and Oskar would both be in loads of trouble. But somehow, the fear of being caught only made the moment more exciting. Zora trembled slightly in Oskar’s arms, and in response he held her tighter.
He kissed her long and deep, but all too soon he was pulling away. Zora resisted the urge to pull him back. They had already done too much. They could never do this again, and they could never tell anyone it had happened. Still, even as she straightened her shirt and nervously tucked back a few strands of her hair, she knew she would kiss him again in a heartbeat at any opportunity.
He was looking down at her with eyes so intense she could hardly bear to meet his gaze. She met it, though, and gave him a small smile, trying to ease the gravity of the moment.
“I could have you killed for that, you know.” She was trying to make a joke to lighten up the situation a bit. But he didn’t crack a smile back. He kept looking at her with that same intense expression as he leaned in until his eyes were only inches from her own.
“Then I’d die a happy man.”
And with that, his lips were on hers again. Despite her promises to herself to stop, Zora melted into his kiss once again.
Chapter Eight
Oskar paced his giant bedroom by the light of the moon, wishing that tonight’s sky had been dark. He felt exposed, even though his door was shut and no one could see him in here.
This room would serve as his permanent quarters, he’d been informed today when one of the Seversons’ many servants escorted him over. It didn’t look that different from the room he’d stayed in last night, although this one was perhaps twice as big, and the décor was twice as ornate. The servant had seemed disappointed that Oskar had not been more impressed with his “upgraded” accommodations, but Oskar had never been good at bullshitting, and his honest opinion was that he would have rather stayed in the first room. Every time he was given more space, more clothes, or more food, he could only think about what a waste it all was. How big of a bedroom did one man need? How many outfits could one man—even a shifter who frequently ruined clothes by shifting—be expected to wear? And how much food could one man, even a man who was half bear, possibly eat?
The Gilt Hollow citizens were apparently determined to discover the answers to these questions, because they kept giving him bigger spaces, more clothes, and more food. Dinner tonight had been spread out on the table in his room once again, and it had looked like a feast for ten men. Several large carafes of wine were offered, both red and white so that Oskar could choose his favorite variety. He would have much preferred a beer, but the Gilt Hollow citizens didn’t seem to be much into beer. Oskar hadn’t seen anyone drinking anything other than wine or juice since he arrived in the city. Until now, Oskar had sent back the drinks he was offered at every meal untouched. Tonight, though, he’d decided to have a few glasses of a dry red they’d given him. He hated to drink their wine, but he desperately needed to calm his nerves for the night ahead.
For similar reasons, he’d eaten the food offered him as well. The potatoes Zora had given him at lunch had long since worn off, and his stomach had started growling again. He knew he would need strength for tonight, and so he gave himself a pass to eat the food placed in front of him. Tonight, at least, the fare had been a bit simpler than last night. Oskar had been offered steaks grilled to perfection, a side salad with his choice of dressings, and a heaping pile of green beans. He would have preferred to simply have more potatoes again, but Zora was the only one he trusted to ask the kitchen for special food for him. He didn’t dare request to see Zora. Not so soon after he’d been such an idiot today and let his lust for her carry him too far. Yes, she had been receptive, and the room’s door had been closed. But what if someone had burst in quickly? Unlikely, but it could have happened. Or what if, in a more likely scenario, Zora decided that she didn’t like what had happened between them, after all? She could easily go to her father or Loki and complain that Oskar had made a move on her, and it wouldn’t matter how Oskar tried to defend himself. They could kill him, and probably would. And worse, they’d kill Whisper as well.
No, Oskar shouldn’t have done that today. He shouldn’t have trusted Zora on any level, not even just to tell her the little trick Otto and he had played on Loki. Oskar had only been in Gilt Hollow one day, and he was already acting like a fool. For all he knew, Zora had been placed as a spy to report back to her father or Loki on whether the shifter “volunteers” were loyal. At least Oskar hadn’t told her the most important thing Otto had said to him. Oskar had repeated Otto’s words over and over in his mind since Otto had spoken them in the Arena. Now, Oskar closed his eyes and replayed the entire exchange once again.
“Are you a volunteer, or a forced volunteer?” Otto had asked.
Oskar had blinked at him, surprised by the question. “A forced volunteer. Of course. Aren’t we all?”
“Most of us are, yes. But there are a few who actually wanted this, and I have to watch out for those ones. I can’t ask them what I’m about to ask you.”
“I was definitely forced to be here. Ask away.”
“There is a resistance. Would you like to join?”
“A resistance? Against the Games?”
“Against Gilt Hollow’s entire way of life. There’s a meeting tonight. Are you in?”
Oskar hadn’t hesitated. “Of course. How do I get to the meeting?”
“We’ll send you an escort. Leo. He’s a guard for the Seversons, but he’s a shifter and is on our side. He’ll come get you from your room late tonight and take you where you need to go.”
“How late?”
“As late as it needs to be to make sure no one sees you. Now let’s get this fight started before Loki starts yelling at us that we aren’t moving fast enough.”
Otto had signaled to Loki that the two shifters were ready, and that was the last Oskar had heard of the resistance. Now it was after midnight, and he was still pacing, waiting for Leo to take him to what he hoped might be a way for him to one day get out of Gilt Hollow.
The later it got, the more Oskar worried. Had something happened to Leo? Had the resistance been exposed? Had they been unable to find him since he’d switched rooms? But just after one a.m., a sharp knock sounded at his door. Oskar nearly jumped out of his skin, and went to answer the door, his heart racing with excitement. As he’d hoped, Leo stood there just as promised. Oskar recognized him as the guard who had been standing by the gate of the Seversons�
� palace when Oskar had first arrived. He remembered that Zora had said Leo could be trusted, and suddenly, Oskar wondered if this was all some sort of giant trap. Maybe Zora was a spy, and Otto was working with her. This could be a test to see if he was loyal to the Seversons, and if it was, Oskar was failing miserably.
“Mr. Warden, if you’ll come with me,” Leo said in a brusque tone. Oskar followed without a word, trying to stay as silent as possible as they headed into the darkness of the long hallway. Oskar would just have to trust that the resistance was real. He had nothing to go on but pure instinct, and his instincts were telling him that he should follow Leo. Hopefully, this wouldn’t prove to be the first time Oskar’s instincts had failed him.
The way to get to the meeting was long, and Oskar was beginning to wonder if Leo was purposefully leading him on a convoluted path so that he wouldn’t be able to tell anyone exactly where they had gone. The idea irked Oskar. He wanted Leo to trust him, but at the same time, he would understand if the “resistance” wanted to vet him a bit before trusting him with more details. Danger and death were easy for shifters to find here in Gilt Hollow.
After nearly ten minutes of walking, Leo finally came to a rather plain wooden door. Leo looked around to make sure no one else was in the hallway, and then he knocked on the door with a series of precisely spaced raps. The rapping must have been a code or password of some sort, and a few moments later the door opened to reveal Otto and a group of about five other shifters.
Leo motioned to Oskar to follow him inside, and quickly shut the door once Oskar complied.
“Hello, Oskar. Glad you could make it,” Otto said, pulling Oskar into a big bear hug. “Hope the scratches are healing up okay.”
Oskar glanced down at the bandages on his arms. Doing so reminded him of sitting naked in front of Zora while she tended to his wounds. He felt his cheeks heating up at the memory, and he was glad for the dim lighting in the room so nobody could see the way his dick was betraying him and stiffening up at the memory of kissing Zora.
The Misfit and the Bear Page 6