Page 20 of The Healer and the Wolf: Part One

“Thank you,” I managed to ground out. “So much.”

“It wasn’t too much of a challenge,” Ven said, giving me that same smile.

Lord on high, had I managed to fall into the presence of a saint? Or maybe a real-life angel? That was the only explanation that made any sense to me.

“Do you need anything else?”

I shook my head and eagerly lay down on the sheets she’d tucked into the couch. They were like sheer silk along my skin. Such comfort!How was it possible for something so simple to feel so good?

“Goodnight, Leo.”

“Goodnight, Ven,” I said, so full of emotion I was sure she could hear it in my voice. But I didn’t care. Ven had seen me nearly dying and had never once judged me. Although she wasn’t a shifter, she seemed to understand why my situation was so confounding.

I listened as she went upstairs with all three of her cats in tow, then heard a click that had to be her locking a door.

She was afraid, which I understood, but she didn’t need to be. She didn’t know it yet, but I was resolved to keep her safe no matter what. Nothing would ever harm a hair on Ven’s head while I was alive.

With that thought in mind, I waited until I heard her breaths even out into the rhythmic falls of sleep before passing out myself.

10

VANESSA

So, the wolf was really a man.

Insanity.

I woke up having to deal with the fact that my entire view of the world had been inverted overnight. Not only were werewolves real, but one was sleeping on my couch. Oh, and apparently there wereothertypes of magical beasties that could just flick between human and animal at a whim, too.

Absolute insanity.

No way in hell would I ever have believed such a thing if it hadn’t happened right in front of my very eyes. But even though I’d literally witnessed it, a huge part of my brain still wanted to deny it.

Groaning, I slid out of bed, half-hoping my living room was empty and I’d only had the world’s most vivid dream. But Goober wasn’t in his normal spot on my bed, which was just about the last little blip of freakishness I needed.

My cats had a very specific system with how they slept. It was all part of our little colony’s hierarchy. Mudpie was always stretched out above my head, Fork slept half-off the foot of the bed or between my calves, and Goober always liked to cuddle in my arms or at the small of my back. They were all consistent, which helped me when my depression really made me want to rot in bed.

But Goober was missing.

With everything going on, it didn’t surprise me that concern rushed through me. After throwing on a robe, I hurried downstairs. To my absolute shock, my giant cat wasn’t just hanging out with the strange man crashing in my living room. He wassleeping on Leo’s chest.

I couldn’t believe it. While I hadn’t had manyvisitors to my home, I’d had enough to know that while my cats were relatively friendly when they had to be, they were stand-offish when they met new people. Yet Goober was right there, rumbling away on a stranger’s chest.

It was pretty damn sweet.

All my anxiety fizzled away, and I was struck in a very poignant, domestic way. I didn’t have anyone with whom I could share my cats and their amazing—and maybe a little dramatic—personalities. Leo had been a human for only a night, and he’d already made friends with my family.

My heart ached, but I didn’t know what to do with the sensation, so I just let my eyes drift.

And drift they did. Over Leo’s body and how it took up all the space on my thrifted couch. Over his muscled arms, his broad chest, his handsome face. And although he wasincrediblyattractive, I couldn’t help but notice just howwornhe looked.

Poor guy.

Somehow, I had found myself caught up in the strangest version ofThe Princess and the Frogto ever exist, considering I certainly wasn’t royalty, and I very much doubted Leo was, either.

He was rather intense. Not in a bad way, just a… well,intenseone. When he’d looked at me the night before, it felt like there were thousands of things going on behind those beautiful green eyes of his. Things even he didn’t understand. It was intimidating, in a way, but also incredibly intriguing. I wanted to know more about him and all the impossible paradoxes that came along with him.

Since I’d helped him as a wolf, I might as well help him as a human. Trying to walk softly, unsure of how sharp the man’s senses might be, I went to the kitchen and looked around. After feeding a wolf for several days, I didn’t have a ton of food left, but I had far more human fare to work with. He had to be ravenous. Magical transformations seemed to take an awful lot of energy.

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