“I see you’ve spared no expense in offering the finest for your guests.” I rubbed my eyes, still trying to get my bearings. “I’m still confused. How did I get here?”
“One of my men… found you along the road. Hit by a car.”
I furrowed my brows. “I trust I’m safe in the care of a Packmaster, but don’t fill my ears with lies. No one pulls over for roadkill.”
His boisterous laugh filled the room. Lorenzo stood up and moved out of sight. “Roadkill indeed.”
He returned with a bottle of water and I wet my parched throat.
“Thank you,” I whispered. My body prickled as the muscles began to awaken, and a dull ache radiated across my left leg and hip. When I tried to bend my knee, shooting pain lanced up my side and I hissed.
“What did I tell you about lying still, stubborn wolf?” Lorenzo moved away and sat in the weathered chair by my feet. “My grandmother used to say healing magic could be broken if you didn’t respect it. Think of children who skin their knees. The wounds scab up, but if they quickly bend their knee or run too soon, it will bleed again and never heal.”
“Your grandmother was wise,” I said. “It’s unfortunate you didn’t inherit more from her side.”
“I see your wild wolf is awake.”
I pulled my hair away from my body and tried to situate myself. “I only meant a wiser man would place an injured person in a soft bed. The floor does nothing for my back.”
“Perhaps I didn’t want dog hair on my sheets.”
“Then maybe you shouldn’t allow so many naked women in your bed.”
The wood crackled in the fireplace just as fiercely as the tension between us.
“Can I bring you pain medicine?”
I rubbed my eyes. “Maybe later. I don’t want to go back to sleep right away.”
Lorenzo shifted in his chair, but I couldn’t see him without pressing my chin against my chest. Then I reached behind me and bunched up some of the blanket behind my head like a pillow.
He tilted his head to the side and stared at me so hotly that I felt feverish. “You don’t sleep peacefully. Several times you called out.”
“Do you have a dreamcatcher?”
He steepled his fingers in front of his face. “That’s superstition.”
“And what would your grandmother say about that?”
He lowered his hands, and that’s when I noticed the dark circles under his eyes. Lorenzo must have cared for me the previous night and into the day. He’d nourished me with soup, helped me to shift, and now I felt guilty for my sharp tongue. To my left, a row of tall windows spanned the length of the room. It looked like the last light of sunset had been extinguished not long ago.
“You should get some rest, Lorenzo.”
“Sleep is not something I require.”
I smiled beneath the blanket. “Whatever you say, Thunder Wolf.”
His left pec twitched when he reached up and swept his hair away from his face. “Is that the name you’ve chosen to call me?”
“Perhaps Thunder for short then? It suits you. The only time I’ve ever heard so much rumbling is during a storm.”
“You should have met my grandmother.”
I laughed and immediately regretted it when the pain in my side gripped me like an iron claw. “Maybe you should call a Relic,” I said, out of breath, cold sweat touching my brow.
Lorenzo knelt between me and the fireplace and pulled at the blanket.
“No!”
“How do you expect me to examine your injury if you’ve suddenly gone bashful? Nudity means nothing to me.”
I gripped the blanket angrily. “Well it means a little something to me. You’re not my pack, I’m helpless and under your care, we’re alone, and—”
He leaned so close that our noses touched. When he spoke, his voice was rich and full-bodied. “I have no intention of putting a mark on your purity. But I can’t help if you don’t cooperate. I don’t trust Relics. Healers or not, a Relic turned his back on my mother and let her die.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“A man doesn’t forgive a thing like that. I’ve treated a lot of injuries in my time, and my grandmother taught me enough healing magic to get by.”
“Are you going to smoke a pipe?”
“Maybe,” he said in a smoky voice, his breath warming my lips. “I put some herbs in your soup and that needs time.”
His hair created a dark veil around us and I lost myself in his eyes. “Okay.”
Without so much as moving his face, he pulled the fur away from my left side. My entire left leg and hip were exposed, cooled by the air.
I softly gasped when his warm hand gently covered my hip, his fingers splayed. It traveled down, curving beneath my leg and moving back up again, as if he were stroking me.
“Your skin still feels hot to the touch in some spots. I can feel a knot in two places where I know you’re still bruised. Where else does it hurt?”
“My side.”
His hand slid above my hip, searing my flesh. “Here?”
My face flushed and a ripple of desire swept over me. I licked my lips, which drew his eyes downward. “No, higher.”
Lorenzo’s eyes hooded and he moved his hand just below my ribcage. “Here?”