Page 18 of The Broken Wolf's Redemption

He didn’t say anything, but the way she drove was nearly maniacal. It was one hair short of a miracle that they weren’t in another accident. Maybe it just felt like the car was going way too fast and half out of control because his head was a swampy mess, his stomach was worse, the pain was starting to register in his brain, and the car was a micro mobile next to all the regular sized vehicles whizzing past them.

“Bikes are dangerous,” Seren chided. “I always wanted one, but my better judgement won out.”

“It’s not bikes, it’s everyone around them.”

“Exactly. You can’t trust anyone else not to kill you, so you shouldn’t be driving anything that if you crash it, will make you look like this.” She waved a hand down the length of him.

“I had protective gear on.” On top, at least. “People look a lot worse after some vehicle accidents. Should everyone stay off the road?” That was a damn fine motorcycle jacket that was probably gone for good. He didn’t have it on. Just his t-shirt, jeans, and boots. The jeans might be half gone, but at least they hadn’t stuffed him into one of those backless gowns.

“Are you going to throw up again?”

He did a mental inventory. The pain was just starting to creep through the morphine haze. It was either wearing off or the pain was intensifying. “Not right now.” Was right now the right time to ask her for a huge favor? “I need… there’s a healer…”

“Yeah. I figured. That’s why I had Becka move my appointments for the next few days. I thought you’d need to go to someone who probably doesn’t live here. Someone from your past who can fix you without your wolf tearing out their throat. When we get to your place, just stay in the car. I’ll run in and get Waverly. I’ll pack her a bag and get you a few things too. Whatever you want. You shouldn’t be moving around. I’ll get a blanket to cover you up so Waverly can’t see any of this, and a barf bucket.”

“Where do you assume that you’re taking me?”

“Somewhere outside the city where it’s safe for you. You clearly weren’t raised the way I was, which is to avoid hospitals and doctors unless it can’t be avoided. My wolf understands that human healers are there to help. Even through medications and surgeries, my wolf has been tamed down to understand that a hospital is not the kind of scenario we need to be protected from.”

Her powers of deduction made his brain feel like it was swelling in his skull.

That might also be the drugs. It might be a concussion. He might be wrong about the internal bleeding. No, he hadn’t been raised the way she’d been.

“We have a pack healer.”

“I imagined so. Injuries like this can’t go untreated. You won’t heal right.”

“She’s close to my family, but on neutral ground.”

She didn’t say anything, although she was clearly bristling with questions. The quiet lasted until she pulled into a guest spot in the parking lot that circled the condo complex. “I don’t know the way.” Seren turned off the ignition. “You should write it down for me.” She blew a lock of hair out of her eyes and sighed when she looked him over. “Never mind. Just tell me and I’ll put the directions in my phone. If you go into shock or lose consciousness, you’re not going to be reliable.”

He closed his eyes, tracing back the route in his head. He’d been to Brooke Wind’s small cottage so many times over the years. He’d always gotten his ass beat in fights with local wolves. If there was a brawl to be had, he was definitely there to instigate and participate. He remembered the day, just over two years ago, that Kieran dragged his sorry carcass there after a particularly nasty fight and got the surprise of his life. It turned out that his angelic younger brother, the favorite of the family, the most upstanding wolf in the Nightfall Pack, his parents’ choice to be alpha, had been seeing Brooke’s daughter Zora in secret for years. She’d vanished, gone to the city a decade before, but she’d had his brother’s twins there. It was a complicated story, but that day started everything for Kieran. A new life. A new dawn for their pack. A new alpha.

He gave Seren a play by play on the backroads so he was certain she could find her way, even though he had no intention of passing out.

“What about the garage?” she asked when he was finished.

“The guys will pick up the slack.”

“You need to call someone. Tell them what happened and that you’ll be out for a few days.” She passed him her phone. Their fingers never brushed. He tried not to think about the way her touch still lingered from the hospital, but her fingertips felt like they were embedded into the skin of his neck. Her face shuttered and she practically dropped the phone into his lap. “What about our agreement?”

He’d seen that coming. “I can boss you around anywhere.”

“You expect me to stay with you?” she scoffed. “Out there, in the middle of nowhere, just abandon my work and my clients? No way. Not without compensation.”

“I’ll pay you.”

“No. You’ll cancel this Monday’s session and the one after that. I’ll need to open my Mondays up to make up for the clients I’m going to have to move around. I’ll need the full day, well into the evening and probably half the night.”

“Done,” he growled.

“Do I need it in writing or is your word good?”

He didn’t dignify that with a response. He managed to punch in the garage’s number. He’d leave a message there on the machine for the guys. He’d tell them his phone was gone and not to worry if they couldn’t reach him. He’d be back.

When he started talking, Seren threw herself out of the car. The condos were tall and narrow and his was a top level one. She walked up the narrow metal stairs, back straight, like she was marching into a warzone.

She was undeniably strong. A warrior. The weapon. He’d bought her body and her time, but he hadn’t broken her pride. She had more integrity in one cell than he had in his whole body. She’d come when he’d called. Come when no one else could. She was there when he needed her. She pretended to be annoyed, but she’d already anticipated that he’d need a ride somewhere and that it wouldn’t be a single days’ job. Even hating him as much as she did, he knew she would have done this for free if he asked.

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