Page 10 of The Healer and the Wolf: Part Two

Not to mention a whole lot of brothers to deal with.

That thought was daunting, so I pushed it out of my head, and just in time, too, because I realized Ricky was still talking to me. Whoops.

“—hunting again. I’ll have to go a bit farther than usual, but I’m pretty sure there’s an issue with deer overpopulation a couple of hours away from here. I want to help curb those numbers before it gets bad. I imagine with all of us shifters goingmissing, there’ll be more and more issues like that cropping up in the tri-state area.”

Oh. I hadn’t even thought of that. Naturally, shifters, with their high needs for protein, would eat a lot of meat. It would likely make all of them go bankrupt if they had to get it from the store, and I got the impression that their wolf side needed the enrichment of the hunt as well. So, with all that considered, it made sense that they put a dent in the local wildlife population. Man, I very much doubted the brothers cared that they were disrupting the ecosystem, which just showed how their insidious greed disrupted everything right down to the way nature was meant to work.

“Be safe, okay? Leo would kick my ass if anything happened to you.”

Ricky let out a good-natured laugh and gently elbowed at my side. “Please, we know Leo would never lay a hand on you. In fact, I’m pretty sure he’d cut his own arm off before doing something like that.” Then he wiggled his eyebrows. “Except for, you know, in a fun way.”

“All right, that’s enough from you. Off you go,” I said hurriedly, feeling my face heat. What he was saying was true, and I did like the intense bite of Leo’s fingers when he held my hips while fucking me, but that didn’t mean I wanted to talk with Ricky about it.

“But I’m not done with the dishes.”

“I’ll do the rest. Go on. Those deer won’t hunt themselves.”

Ricky was still laughing as I ushered him out. I couldn’t stop the grin that formed on my face. The moment might have started on an awkward note, but it had certainly ended on a fun one. I liked that I could mess around with Ricky. We still had a ways to go in getting to know each other, but I could understand why Leo made him his righthand man. He had a good head on his shoulders.

Once he was gone, I put some water on to boil and finished the rest of the dishes. Not having Ricky here for dinner eased some of the issues of not having enough food, because I wasn’t sure how much pasta my two additional guests could tolerate. While they weren’t on the same B.R.A.T diet that Leo was, it wasn’t like they’d been eating well in the wild, so I still tried to be considerate to their healing digestive systems. That was becoming increasingly difficult to do with the last few dollars I had. I really needed to get to work, but how was I supposed to go back to stocking shelves full time when I was trying to save an entire pack?

That was something I would worry about later. Right now, I needed to take care of Leo.

So, that was what I did. Once the tea and toast were ready, I took them up to him and made sure he drank and ate before falling asleep again. I tried to spend most of the day at his side, which was definitely easier to do since my cats were also lingering on the bed. Except for Goober, who seemed to have decided that Leo’s chest was his territory. The Maine Coon lived on it pretty much every time Leo fell asleep, purring away like there was a motor in his chest.

It was a sure sign that my cats accepted him, and it made my heart swell. If they could accept a wolf shifter as part of their colony, surely there was nothing too weird about a wolf shifter pack accepting a human as one of their pack members?

Was I getting too far ahead of myself? Leo and I had made promises before everything had gone to shit, but what if something had changed? What if me letting him get captured had changed the way he felt about me? What if he had PTSD and that changed the way he felt about me? A million and one questions all flew around my head, but as much as I wanted them answered, I wouldn’t be selfish and trouble Leo with them. No, he needed to concentrate on getting better. Once he wassolid on his own two feet, then we could worry about my massive insecurities and fears.

Easier said than done, of course, but every time the urge to word-vomit on him grew too strong, I would look at the peaceful expression on his face while he rested, and that would give me the fortitude to hold on a little longer. Leo was my top priority. Even if his feelings had changed, I still wanted him to be his best. To be happy, healthy, and whole.

So, my day passed with relatively little drama. The biggest discomfort I endured was sleeping on a pile of blankets on my bedroom floor. I was sure Leo would be more than happy to share the bed with me, but that would make me far too anxious. I was an active sleeper, often tossing this way and that, so the thought of my nighttime antics making Leo lose even a few moments of sleep was simply too much. No, I could sacrifice a few nights of sleep to ensure Leo healed properly.

Ricky arrivedat about noon the next day, hauling two deer carcasses. My mouth watered at the thought of so much fresh venison.

“Please tell me you know how to process that?” I said as he made his way past my greenhouse.

Thankfully, he did know, and by dinner that night I had a whole venison roast in the oven, and Ricky went into town to buy potatoes. It required the last of the cash I had on me, but I took comfort in the fact that my bills were paid, and I still had a hundred dollars in my bank account thanks to the money I had deposited from my time gardening at Chadwicke’s estate. Was that enough for the coming month? No. But I still had time. And once Leo was on his feet, I would go back to working full timeat the grocery store. Hopefully, I’d also be able to pick up one or two extra shifts. The overtime would definitely help me.

Just before dinner, Leo sat up in bed, his nose in the air. “That smells delicious. What is that?”

It was the first time he’d commented on smelling anything or shown much interest in food since we’d brought him home.

“I’m roasting some venison. Ricky brought two deer back from his hunt.” Thanks to his huge haul, I was pretty much set on protein for at least the month if I was smart about it, even with four shifters in my house. Granted, if it was only me, two deer probably would have lasted me nearly a year.

“Venison?”

I swear to God, Leo actually licked his lips. If it were any other moment, I had no doubt my eyes would greedily follow his tongue, but considering the situation, I managed not to be a complete hornbag.

“I can’t even remember the last time I had venison in my human form...”

The sterner, more anxious part of me insisted he was still in far too delicate a position to handle something with butter, so many spices, and the thick gaminess to it. But that part ultimately lost out to the mother hen inside me.

“You know, as long as you have some water with it and chew very thoroughly, I don’t see why you couldn’t have a small piece.”

The smile that spread across Leo’s features made my stomach flip. “Well, if the doctor says so.”

And there I was, grinning back at him like a buffoon, but I didn’t care. Because only a couple of days earlier, I’d wondered if I’d ever joke or laugh with him again.

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