Page 17 of An Unexpected Claim

Hmmm. Time for a nap.

Chapter Nine

Peyton

“Here’s your paperwork, sweetie,” Nurse Fawn said as she entered my hospital room with a spring in her step. She smiled and dimples popped in her kind, round face. Fawn had been the only part of my excruciating five-day recovery that made it bearable. It helped that she was a shifter, too. Otherwise, I would’ve been like those patients in movies who pitch their Jell-O cups at stupid people and curse constantly.Loudly and a lot.

To be fair, although I hated it, I understood why I had to be there so long. At first glance, it had appeared as though the damage was limited to the skin and muscle, but it turned out the son of a bitch had also injured my liver and a vessel had been bleeding. Not to mention the other cuts, bruises, and broken ribs. Rather than healing, my stubborn ass would have curled up and died if they hadn’t found me and taken me to the hospital.

Nurse Fawn had also found out what happened to the attacker’s other victim. It turned out she’d saved my life every bit as much as the medical professionals. While the wolf and my panther had been fighting, she’d managed to call 9-1-1 and through yes or no questions and beeps from the keys on her cell, they’d dispatched help. It broke my heart to find out that she’d been declared dead on arrival at the hospital.

Considering the state her killer had left me in, I knew physically hunting him down wouldn’t be the smartest route for me. But my skills would lead me to the evil bastard eventually, and then I’d pass the evidence off to the people who would finish the job.

Nurse Fawn drew me from my thoughts when she held out the sheaf of papers. “Thanks,” I replied with a smile. I waited until she’d left to cringe as I glanced over everything. Even being a nomad, I needed a place to claim as home so I could have a driver’s license. I used New York as my home base and even kept a P.O. box—under another name and social security number—Sam checked it for me from time to time. When I’d arrived for this stay, my license had been about to expire, so I’d renewed it with my current address. I’d given them my real social security number while I was loopy and even Sam and Linette’s information as my emergency contacts. Now the hospital had me in their system.

It would probably seem crazy to other people that I cared about something so inane, but I’d spent my life being invisible. I’d learned at a very young age how to hide who and what I truly was, then I’d discovered my talents with a computer. I’d long since wiped out any records that tied me to my childhood before boarding school. And now, my job depended on leaving no digital trail, which was easier to do without a physical one. Knowing one existed literally made my brain feel itchy.

So yeah, it annoyed me to see the records, but I’d clean it up later.

I grabbed the jacket Linette had brought with my change of clothes the day before and slipped it on. The skin on my back stretched a little tighter than normal because of the scars marring my flesh. Being in the hospital meant that I couldn’t shift—which had made my panther every bit as pissed about it as me—and they’d given me an intravenous antibiotic, so I’d healed even slower (still faster than humans) while my body tried to deal with the drug and my injuries.

There were several doctors in the facility who were shifters, but unfortunately, I’d been assigned to someone else, and they hadn’t been able to sway him into altering my treatment plan. At least he didn’t fight removing my stitches after only a day, but by then the damage had been done and I now sported very visible claw marks on my back from my neck to just above my ass. Given enough time, they would become less and less prominent, but they would ever disappear completely.

The claw marks on Nathan’s arm popped into my head, and I wondered how he’d received them, and if they remained because of similar circumstances. Ugh. I hated when I had random thoughts about Nathan. It reminded me of the decision I’d been putting off and that the longer I did it, the harder it would be. Yet I pushed them away and stuck my head in the sand. My panther didn’t care for my strategy though and she gnashed her teeth at me whenever I forced images of Nathan from my mind.

I picked up the bag the hospital had given me to hold my belongings from the night I’d arrived and fished out my wallet and keys, then tied the handles in a knot.After slipping the items into my pockets, I stared out the window, absently fiddling with the ring on my right thumb.

“Are you ready?” Linette chirped as she waddled into the room.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, my tone exasperated. “You shouldn’t be on your feet!”

She shrugged and pointedly ignored Sam, who glared as he walked in after her. “She insisted she’d be coming whether I helped or not.”

I sighed and threw Linette a wink before saying, “Sam, can’t you control your woman?”

Linette giggled as her mate turned his scowl on me. “Hardy har. Let’s go.” Then he pivoted and stalked out the door, muttering about having to deal with two pregnant women.

With one last look to make sure I’d grabbed everything, I exited the room to find Sam waiting next to the door. He put his arm out for Linette to hold and guided her down the hall.

Hospital rules required me to be wheeled out, but we were making a break for it before a nurse showed up with a wheelchair.

I smiled as I watched the two mates whisper to each other and occasionally chuckle. Seeing their love and devotion always made me happy, but it had never inspired a sense of longing to have it for myself. Even with my cub growing inside me, I couldn’t see myself in their shoes. However, I did feel a rush of tenderness and excitement at the bond I would forge with this little one. I couldn’t wait to cuddle my baby, share our own secrets, and laugh at our private jokes.

I’d never desired much human contact beyond sating my sexual needs and time spent with Sam and Linette. So the emotions shocked me. At the same time, they were a huge relief. I’d been a little worried that I’d never be able to connect with my cub the way a mother should. The lack of experience had built me this way, but it had never bothered me before. I hadn’t missed what I’d never had. Even seeing it all around me, I’d just felt…ambivalent to it all. Then this cub had come along and suddenly I craved the deep, loving relationships I saw between other mothers and their children. Perhaps I wouldn’t be the crappy mother I’d feared when I’d first discovered my pregnancy.

I rubbed my stomach thoughtfully, and my panther purred with bliss as she picked up on my emotional revelation. There had been no doubt in my mind that she would be a perfect maternal figure to our cub, but the baby certainly couldn’t be raised solely by my panther.

A gust of wind broke through my thoughts when a glass door slid open so we could exit the building. The days were shortening quickly this time of year and the sun had almost completely set, though it was barely five o’clock. Sam used the app on his phone to call for a ride and a few minutes later a yellow cab pulled to a stop in front of us. We maneuvered between two of the parallel cars parked along the curb of the one-way street—a feat I swore only a New Yorker could manage with a belly as big as Linette’s—and climbed into the back seat.

Linette insisted, begged, cajoled, and even demanded that I come stay with them, but I just wanted to be in my own space and collapse on my bed, then sleep for a couple of days.I don’t care what anyone says, “resting” in the hospital is exhausting.

They dropped me at my apartment building before heading home, and I trudged inside and unlocked my door before dragging my ass over the threshold. I hung my keys on a hook by the entrance and flipped the lock.

I went directly to my minuscule kitchen and dumped the bag with my torn, bloody clothes into the trash. The refrigerator called to me and my stomach growled, knowing it held the fixings for a sandwich. But in the end, I decided I wanted to sleep more than eat.

However, I did take the time for a hot shower. After using the hospital bathroom for almost a week—which was smaller than the tiniest bathroom I’d ever seen in this city—it was the first time I felt truly clean since the morning of the attack.

I used my towel to dry my hair before I hung it back on the rack, then I padded over to my bed and dropped onto the mattress face down. I breathed in the scent of my fabric softener, another thing I’d missed when everything smelled like antiseptic, except their fabric, which smelled like nothing.Literally nothing. How does one make something lack all smell? And to a shifter nose in particular.

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