by Mandy Rosko
“Good, all right. I’ll get a bowl and some clothes. Wait here.”
“Not going anywhere,” Dane rumbled. Lois ignored him and rushed into his bathroom.
The bloody towels on the floor and in the sink made her stop. It seemed he’d already tried to clean himself up. It looked like someone had tried to clean up the scene of a murder.
Aware that Dane was watching her in the doorway, Lois straightened and moved to the cupboards below the sink. She opened them and pulled out the last of the cloths. There were only two clean ones left, and one hand towel, splayed messily over the bottom of the cupboard. Probably fell there when Dane had dragged the rest out.
There was still a metal bowl in the bathroom, left there from the last times Lois and Katie had cleaned his wounds, back when he was still bedridden. It was upside down in the corner by the tub. Lois grabbed it and filled it with warm water. The rest of the first aid items were on the counter. She grabbed the peroxide, which was half empty.
Lois came back out, carrying her goods. Dane was still in his animal shape. It was strange how he still managed to look human enough that she could see the irritated confusion on his face. Could real bears make themselves look like that?
She looked at his back, really looked at it, and her heart ached for him. She tried not to cringe, or give away how bad all that blood looked as it clotted in his fur, but it was there on her face.
“You don’t have to be here. You never did. This isn’t your job.”
Lois sucked back a deep breath. “It’s my job now.”
And she wasn’t going to let him chase her out of the room. Mate or no mate, her heart couldn’t handle leaving him when he was in pain. She approached the bed.
8
She made him stand up again, long enough so that she could rip the sheets and bedspread off the bed, leaving only the bare mattress. She made him sit down again and pressed the hand towel against the back of his ass.
Dane tensed when he felt her touch. “Uh…”
“Sorry,” she said quickly. “It’s just to catch anything that drips.”
“Right.”
That made sense. What was wrong with him? She wasn’t a nurse, but she’d proved herself to be as clinical as one in all the times she’d come to take care of him. The problem was that he’d never been so injured that he’d needed to be taken care of. Not even back when he’d been on active duty. All the injuries, all the times he’d walked away with a bullet in him, those injuries had healed shortly after the good doctors could pull the bullets out of his chest.
He was pretty sure he’d creeped out a lot of the doctors he’d seen because of that, and probably some of the guys on his team.
“This will be easier if you change back. Can you do that?”
“I can do it.” Dane allowed the shift to come over him. It felt like his body was exhaling extra energy and steam. He’d done this enough that he could shift back and forth without leaving behind huge piles of bear hair. When he was in his human shape, however, he felt colder. He shivered.
Lois hissed behind him.
“How bad is it?”
He felt her fingertips running down the flesh of his back. He struggled to keep from shivering at the warmth. She couldn’t be touching his wounds. She was likely touching the bruised skin that was still intact.
“N-not as bad as when Miranda first got you, but they’re open again. The scabs are gone.” She was silent for a few long seconds. “It’s like you did almost no healing at all.”
Dane grit his teeth together. “Fucking great.”
He’d looked at it in the mirror, but hadn’t realized it was that bad. He’d hoped the oozing blood had just looked worse than it was. No wonder his back and legs hurt so much.
“Why did you change into your bear form?” Lois asked.
Dane heard the slosh of the peroxide bottle. Next he felt the cool pressure and sting of the soaked cloth being pressed to his back. The blood and peroxide slid down his back, caught by the hand towel. Not that it mattered. The wounds on the back of his legs were probably destroying the mattress. The rug would need to be replaced, too.
“I was hoping the change would wake up my healing abilities. Jumpstart them.”
Dane hissed at her next touch. Lois pulled her hands back.
“Sorry. I’m sorry.”
It hadn’t hurt. That was the weird thing. The warmth and sizzle when her palm touched him had just shocked him.
He didn’t tell her that. “Don’t worry. It’s not that bad.”
She was silent again. Dane relaxed when she pressed the cloth back to his wounds, gently cleaning away the excess blood and gore.
He couldn’t do this. This thing he was thinking about doing was not a good idea. It was out of the question, so he didn’t know why he was still considering it.
But he was. He was really wishing she would touch him again so he could feel that pleasant warmth.
Dane cleared his throat, needing something else to think about that would make this entire thing go away. He was stronger than this. He’d jumped out of airplanes, executed his missions with precision and accuracy with his team, sometimes in spite of the gunfire around them. He could do this. He could ignore the pull for one woman.
“If it didn’t work, which it didn’t, I would have shifted into my true bear form.”
“You mean you can turn into an actual bear?”
Dane smiled at the interest and wow in her voice. “Yeah, I can.”
“That’s so amazing.”
Dane shrugged. “Not really. When it’s something you can always do, it’s not that special to you.”
“Oh,” Lois said. “Well, you were a Navy Seal, that’s pretty amazing.”
“I basically cheated to get in.”
He looked back just in time to see the jerk of surprise.
“What? How could you do that? I mean, they’re the Navy Seals. They don’t seem easily tricked.”
“It’s complicated,” Dane said. “There’s an age limit. When I signed up for the Navy, I was well above it, so getting a good ID and claiming to be under twenty-eight was important if I ever wanted to get into boot camp.”
“Oh, well, that’s hardly cheating if it was just the age limit. You’ll live forever anyway, won’t you?”
Dane smiled again. He shook his head. “No. I won’t. I’ll live for maybe another two hundred years, hopefully. Anyway, it’s not like they don’t see fake IDs from time to time. When they found out, I was brought to my commanding officer.”
“What happened then?”
It felt strange talking about this, but he supposed there was no harm since Lois knew about shifters. Knowing there were some humans in high places who could help her if she ever needed it was relieving.
“I told him to make some calls, he did, and after some testing to prove I was who I said I was, I was given the okay to stick around.”
“Wait, what? Who are you?”
He shrugged. “Just a shifter. Believe it or not, there are a number of humans in high places who know about us. It’s virtually impossible to keep it from everyone, and there is no way in hell shifters would have been able to stay secret if it wasn’t for government help.”
Lois was putting her hands on his back again as she washed out his wounds. He was getting more of that warm, pleasant sensation that he liked so much better than all the bed rest in the world. He sighed at the feel of it. God, it felt so good.
“I think this makes sense. Shifters are really strong and fast, so you make good soldiers when you sign up?”
Dane nodded. “I still had to go through boot camp, despite knowing I could probably pass the physicals. They don’t fuck around with that. They wanted to be a thousand percent sure I can handle my shit physically and mentally when it came to my training. Took a year and a half, which is the minimum, before I was put on a team. It was good for me.”
It had helped him to forget, just like talking to Lois was helping him to forget. It was relaxing
.
“So why don’t shifters just reveal themselves to the rest of the world?” Lois asked. “It doesn’t make sense that the military would know about you guys but no one else does.”
Dane sighed. “It’s an old and stupid reason, to be honest. A lot of it had to do with the old Salem witch trials. Then there was that Vlad the Impaler shit. The deal came about that if shifters continued to lend their support to any military endeavors, then the rest of the world had to leave us alone. I don’t really think that’s necessary today, but it’s not easy to lobby for a new law when the law supposedly doesn’t exist. Also, most shifters don’t give a shit.”
“You want to be left alone?”
“Pretty much. That’s why Garret runs this pack. The people who live here want to follow his law and his word instead of someone else’s. The ones who don’t want to be holed up in one pack in one town for the rest of their lives join the Army, travel the world, but they eventually come back.”
“Like you did?”
Dane bit his lips together. “How’s it going back there?”
Lois swiped the cloth across his back some more, this time moving a little quicker. She didn’t answer right away. Maybe the gore was getting to her. Dane looked back at her.
“Hey, you okay?”
The look of focus and concentration in her blue eyes made Dane sit up and really take notice. Her head was tilted slightly to the side, and she was leaning in close.
“Lois, what’s the matter?”
“You’re healing.”
“What?”
This time, Dane tried to look down at his back, which he pretty much couldn’t do.
Lois blinked, as though trying to clear her vision. “I’m watching it right now. Your skin is knitting back together.”
Dane got up from the bed. He walked naked into the bathroom and turned around at the mirror. He looked over his shoulder, and the wounds were definitely smaller. They were still open, still red and angry, but Lois had washed away his blood, and more wasn’t oozing out.
He eyed the slices, and noted that they were slowly coming back together, his skin closing and healing. It looked to be at the right pace for him, but he almost couldn’t believe it.
Until Lois walked into the bathroom with him, staring at his reflection. She either didn’t care that he was naked because she was that transfixed, or thought his back finally healing deserved more attention.
Maybe it was a little of both.
“You are healing.”
Dane looked at her, at her wide, eager eyes, the way she was so clearly rooting for his recovery, and his chest constricted with a warm ache he couldn’t quite describe, but he knew full well what it was.
“Because I was touching you? I was so close to you?”
Dane fell back a step, like he’d just been punched. “Who told you that?”
Lois said nothing right away. She stepped into the bathroom. Dane held still. He let her come to him.
She reached for his hand, lifting it, gazing at his knuckles, and then brought it to her lips. She was kissing his hand. He pulled away from her as if she’d burned him.
“You shouldn’t do that.”
She reached out and made another grab for his hand. He pulled back, but this time, she didn’t let him go.
And that warm, pleasing burn was climbing his arm, settling into his shoulder, and spreading to his back.
“You are the most irritating man on the planet, but I can’t stop wanting to kiss you.”
“I’m irritating?”
“But cute,” Lois said.
Dane couldn’t tell if he was being insulted or not. This woman was frustrating him, big time.
But cute.
She might have the balls to tell him that, but he wasn’t going to tell her that.
She kissed his knuckles again, and the warmth increased. It turned almost molten lava hot when she shut her eyes, those big, thick lashes fanning across her cheeks.
She was beautiful.
“If this makes you feel better, let me do it.”
She looked up at him, and something pierced his chest. Something hard and sharp, but he would gladly die on that feeling if it meant he could get more of it.
She reached her hand up to his face. “Come here.”
He did. He leaned down, and he did the thing he’d wanted to do ever since he’d gotten his first look at her pink lips.
He kissed her.
9
Lois tightened her fingers in Dane’s black hair. When she opened her eyes, she noted with pleasure how his were still shut.
A quick glance in the mirror behind them told her all she needed to know about his healing situation. The wounds were closing faster. They thinned, turned pink, and for the most part, sealed completely shut¸ leaving behind thin red lines, as if he’d just been scratched by a cat instead of a wild shifter bent on killing him.
Dane’s mouth moved to her throat, and Lois was lost to the sensation of his warm mouth and the pulsing that throbbed and spread through her body, into her chest, and lower still.
He was lost to it, too. Lois could tell. She felt it in the way his lips found hers one more time. He was hungry and eager, and the more he kissed her, the more his wet mouth pushed against hers, his chin tilting and easing her lips open, the more desperate Lois got for that pleasure he was offering.
He pushed her out of the bathroom, moving swiftly with her. Lois didn’t fight him. Her hands continued reaching, pulling, and touching his skin, so warm and soft yet hard underneath with muscle. Something was happening to her because now that she was touching and kissing him like this, it was like she’d crossed a line in her mind. The point of no return as her body succumbed deeper and deeper into that desperate need to soak up as much of the warmth as Dane would offer her.
The small growls he released as he kissed her, the way his hands were hard and rough as he held onto her shoulders, gave her a thrill as he used just the right amount of force to push her back on the bed.
Which was easy when the backs of her knees touched the mattress. She tumbled down onto the mess of sheets she’d pushed to the side. It felt like she was lying in a pile of feathers, or a cloud, or even a mound of cotton.
And it felt good. It felt better still when Dane stared down at her with those glowing eyes. They were no longer that pale shade of green. They glowed a golden color. Not only was green supposed to be one of the rarer eye colors, but he could also change his eyes to that gorgeous golden shade.
And they were beautiful. When he came down lower, settling his body on top of hers, Lois could make out flecks of soft brown, red, and yellow that surrounded the irises. Like a glittering wheel of yellow and gold. Sunflowers couldn’t compare to it. The sun during a sunset couldn’t either.
“You are beautiful,” he said.
Lois smiled and touched his hair again. “That’s my line.”
He frowned a little, his mouth still quirked in that soft smile. He looked as though he couldn’t understand why she would ever say something like that about him, but he didn’t fight against it. He shook his head, as if it was more amusing than the truth, and he kissed her again.
More of that sizzling energy tingled through her body. Every fine hair she had, from her arms to the back of her neck, stood up with goosebumps when Dane slid his hands under her shirt, touching her skin for the first time.
She wasn’t a little girl. Lois knew this wasn’t just going to be a make out session, that she was gearing up to have sex with Dane, a man she’d first met when he’d kidnapped her.
And she was totally all right with that. She wanted this. She wanted it all the more when she felt his hands on her breasts.
Lois moaned. Dane squeezed them over her bra before pushing it out of the way. He didn’t bother to unclasp it, just lifted it up, giving him the access he needed to more of her sensitive skin.
And Lois arched her back forward, pushing her breasts into his warm, rough hands. Her nipples were hard, and he was s
o damned warm, especially when he flicked his fingers over the buds.
Lois sighed, shutting her eyes and letting her head fall back onto the sheets beneath her.
"God, you feel good."
"Stop talking," Lois said, opening her eyes and looking right back into those perfectly golden orbs. Her hands scrambled with her jeans. She wasn't wearing a belt, but it seemed to take more effort than she was used to in order to open the button and zipper so she could push them down her hips, panties and all. "You know what I want."
Something in his eyes changed. They dilated, and Dane sucked back a deep breath through his nose before he shut his eyes, as if trying to shield himself from something.
"God, you smell good, too."
If it was possible, Lois might have burned up from those words. She must have been full body blushing at the excitement of his words. They warmed her all over.
She would have spread her knees for him, but her jeans had rolled inside out on her calves, and they were stuck. Lois squirmed, hating that feeling. "Shit, help me out of these."
Dane did, but not in the way she'd expected when one of his claws suddenly came out and he made a neat and clean slash along the seam of her jeans, ripping them wide open on one leg and pulling the denim off her body.
"Dane!"
"I'll buy you a new pair," he said.
That hadn't really been the point, but knowing she didn't have to worry about him destroying her clothes made it easier to enjoy the excitement of having a man tear them off her body.
That was something she only ever saw in the movies. That was fantasy stuff, not real life sexy-time action.
And yet, he was doing it, and her jeans were off. Like a gentleman, he pulled off her socks instead of ripping them, however, her panties were probably ruined. There was no way that small slip of material had survived Dane's claws.
Lois sat up a little, her hands moving quickly to her bra. "I'll take this off," she said. She liked this bra and didn't want it destroyed.
Dane grinned as if he'd read her mind.
With her bra and shirt suddenly gone, Lois was as naked as Dane was. Part of her thought this would have been easier if she'd kept something on. Maybe her shirt, or even her bra. There was no guarantee Dane would have destroyed it.