“You can thank me later,” Chrismer crooned, throwing me a mock salute.
“You’re very fortunate, Riley. A dose that strong could have done irreparable damage to the wolf bond,” Alyssa went on, ignoring Chrismer’s interruption. The sound of my name on her lips was the sweetest thing I had ever heard, the way her lips caressed the syllables of my name making me swoon.
Damn, she’s powerful.
Shaking my head to try and clear the fogginess in my mind, I focused instead on trying to sit up, feeling far too vulnerable lying flat on my back. Still, all I wanted to do was run my fingers through her hair and taste her strawberry lips.
It took more energy to sit up than I would have thought possible, every muscle in my body seeming to chime in at the same time, all of them adamantly telling me that moving was a bad idea.
“So, what’s the damage, Doc?” I asked, resisting the alluring pull of her presence.
“You’ve got a pretty nasty concussion, a laceration on your left side that I’ve stitched up, a few broken ribs and a fractured cheek, but other than that you escaped pretty unscathed.”
If that was her definition of unscathed I didn’t want to know what she considered bad, but I just nodded in agreement with her assessment.
“Luckily there doesn’t appear to be any internal bleeding, but I want you to call me if you feel anything out of the ordinary. We won’t know if there are any lasting effects from the wolfsbane until it’s all flushed out of your system, so you need to take it easy for the next few days. Can you do that?”
Fat chance of that happening when I’ve got two psychos out to get me.
“Sure,” I lied, smiling. The narrowing of her violet eyes let me know she didn’t buy it for a second, but thankfully she chose not to push the issue.
“I’m going to give you another shot for the pain, but after that all I have for you is some general painkillers.”
I flinched when she pulled a syringe out of her pocket, the overhead lights gleaming on the viscous liquid inside, bringing up memories of Johnson jabbing me in the ass with a wolfsbane laden needle. Breathing deeply, I tried to calm the sudden spike in my heart rate, hoping that she really was one of the good guys, but it didn’t stop the panic that flared to life as she bent to examine the IV trailing out of back of my hand.
I turned my head away and squeezed my eyes shut as she connected the syringe to the IV, my arm tingling with a wave of coolness as the drugs filtered into my blood stream, instantly making me sag into the thin mattress.
“All done,” she said, her voice taking on a dreamy quality.
Blinking slowly, I turned my gaze back towards her, her hair appearing as a fiery halo through my blurred vision. She was breathtaking, and I would have been content to simply lie there and stare at her.
“So beautiful,” I murmured.
“Just rest now, Riley,” she replied with a smile, though even in my heavily drugged state I didn’t miss the soft flush that rose in her cheeks.
“Whatever you say, Doc,” I slurred, closing my eyes. Sleep was already waiting for me in the darkness and quickly wrapped me up in its warm embrace.
***
A grating, ear-mangling yowl cut through my drug-induced haze. Opening my eyes slowly, wincing at the gumminess of my eyelashes, I looked up and could barely contain the relief that swept through me. If I hadn’t already been laid out on my back, it would have knocked me off my feet.
“Loki!” I said, as Holbrook paused in the doorway, my errant furry companion appearing perfectly content draped across his broad shoulders. “Where did you…how did…I can’t believe…” I stammered, my eyes growing watery. Confusion flickered over Holbrook’s face.
“What do you mean?” he asked, moving towards the bed. “He was in your room. I got your message and went to talk to you and found the door open. Loki was just sleeping on your bed. I was about to leave to go looking for you and he practically tackled me. Haven’t been able to get the damn thing off my shoulder since. It made driving…interesting,” he added with a lopsided smile.
Sliding into the empty chair beside the bed, Holbrook grimaced as Loki launched himself off of his shoulders to land heavily in my lap, his deep purr rumbling through the room before I even laid my hands on him. The familiarity of him was like a soothing balm, the scent of his fur and the weight of him on my legs sending waves of relief through me.
“Hi, buddy,” I whispered, cupping his angular face in my hands, tilting it up to rub my cheek against his. Purring contentedly he returned my greeting, his huffing breath stirring the hair behind my ear.