Page 6 of Lost Fate

She’s probably a hell of a nurse. I bet, though, that she’s probably just good at whatever she puts her mind to. She has a confidence and an air about her that’s competent. Efficient. Sexy as hell.

I shake myself. This woman literally found me in a forest. I can’t think she’s sexy. That feels wildly inappropriate, and I’m not a wildly inappropriate kind of guy. I think.

“Okay,” she finally announces. “I think that you probably lost about five months of your memory. I think you might also have some loss for other details that are coming back as well. I don’t want you to go out into the world like this… Brains are weird. You could be totally fine one second and then having a brain bleed the next. Plus, I don’t know how permanent the amnesia is, and it would literally go against my entire life philosophy to let someone walk into the world when they could collapse at any second. So, I think you should stay here. With me,” she adds.

I look at her. “Here?”

Her face makes a pensive look, like she’s thinking. “Yeah, definitely.” She nibbles at her full bottom lip, and the image sends a growl of desire through my chest.

I swallow it. Don’t be an ass, Leander.

I have a feeling that I talk to myself like this a lot.

Her amber eyes glow. “We’re going to just wing this, okay? But I promise I’m not some kind of psychopath. I mean, I didn’t knock the tree down on you. I found you like that,” she says with a little conspiratorial wink.

“You’re not worried about a complete stranger staying in your house with you?”

“No,” she says succinctly.

Damn if that confidence doesn’t turn me on like nothing else. I gulp, another question floating to my mind. “But your pack… won’t they know?”

She nods. “Yeah. We’ll just tell them you’re my cousin or something.”

I have a strong reaction to that. The things that I want to do to her are not things a cousin should think of. I know that, at least.

“I…”

She cuts me off. “I guess I should tell you my name so we can get this whole cousins story straight.”

I can do nothing but nod.

Her eyes glitter. She stops pacing and looks right down on me. Her lips curl in a smile, and she says three words that change my world forever.

“I’m Ember Greene.”

Chapter 3

Ember

In the past three days, I’ve had to have a mental conversation with myself about not lusting after my patient multiple times. Am I a little disappointed that I need to keep doing this? Absolutely. I, for one, thought I was a professional when it came to this stuff. I swore a damn oath when I got my nursing degree, after all, and I’m not going to break it just because my patient is so attractive that just being around him makes my insides melt.

But damn. Leander Payne makes it really, really hard.

He’s just… hot. There’s no other way to put it. He’s tall, with broad shoulders and brown hair that’s as thick and lush as his wolf’s coat.

Clearly, I’m highly invested in him. I mean, the man is a five-alarm fire, and I am in no way, shape, or form equipped to handle it. I’m a nurse. Not a firefighter.

Leander’s injuries have definitely gotten better. I’m pleased with the amount of progress he’s making. He’s healing up well, except for one thing.

He can’t remember shit about the past five months. And some of his long-term memories are hazy, too.

I’m hopeful that will change someday soon, but I’m still skeptical.

Brains are weird. Even with shifters, despite the fast healing, we often take just as long to heal a brain as a human would. Sometimes they are up to the speed that you’d expect from someone who can recover from basically anything except dismemberment, and sometimes…

Not.

I’ve had to keep Terra away from my place, which has been hard. We usually do girls’ night once a week, and I canceled on her earlier today, claiming that I wanted to just read my book and hang out alone. Terra was suspicious. I am neither a huge bookworm nor someone who particularly likes to spend time alone, but she eventually let me off the hook.

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