Page 29 of Loan Wolf
He ran faster, his paws beating on the packed trail, his tail tucked behind him, but he knew the terrain too well. He’d never get there before Clara did, not even if he scaled the bluff to cut her off. All he could do was be there when she fell.
24
CLARA
Clara felt stupid long before she opened her eyes.
Great.
Drink too much, get a hangover, fight with your mom, go for a careless bike ride, and break a limb taking a tumble.
That’s the perfect way to prove that you’ve got everything under control.
“Clara?”
Gabe was there. Clara had no idea how he’d gotten there, but his voice was worried, and his hands touched her face very gently.
She was both relieved and disappointed. He shouldn’t see her this stupid. But his fingers felt so nice. She’d heard a crunch when she landed, but she thought now that it sounded more like a phone, not a bone.
“Clara, angel, can you open your eyes?”
“I’m fine,” Clara said, even though she still wasn’t entirely sure. “Just…dumb.”
She could feel Gabe doing a clinical inspection of her whole body. “Nothing’s broken but my phone and my pride,” she insisted, and she wiggled her toes and fingers to make sure as she finally opened her eyes.
She blinked.
“Why aren’t you wearing any clothes?” Maybe she was delusional? Clara didn’t think she’d hit her head, but nonsensically enough, Gabe was stark naked.
“Why aren’t you wearing a helmet?” Gabe countered furiously.
Clara winced. “I had a fight with my mom and left without grabbing it.” She struggled to sit up and Gabe frowned and helped her.
From a sitting position, Clara could see that she was a little scuffed up and pretty bloody, but frankly lucky it wasn’t worse. There was a raw rash on the side of one knee, and when she twisted her arms, she could see that her elbow had gotten skinned, too. She tested the range of her wrists and ankles. Nothing was sprained, though it would shock her not to find plenty of scrapes and bruises later. There was a soreness to her left shoulder that she thought she could work out if she was diligent.
“I’ve fallen down before,” she said, shrugging. “I’m fine.” Twiller would say otherwise, given the unsightly road rashes she was sporting.
“You’re fucking lucky!” Gabe snarled. “That could have killed you. I told you not to do that trail on your own. It’s a buddy ride for an expert, you fluff-headed idiot!”
Then, to Clara’s shock, he gathered her into his arms for an embrace that was surprisingly platonic for being stark naked. He was trembling.
She’d scared him.
He cared.
His unexpected vulnerability alarmed Clara more than the fall had. They weren’t supposed to get close. This wasn’t supposed to be a relationship. She was waiting for her mate; this was just a brief, naughty sidetrack in the plodding plotline of her life.
“Why are you naked?” she asked again, more firmly. Was he a shifter? Was she his mate after all? It was so unfair that she didn’t know.
“I was going skinny dipping since we didn’t have a chance last night,” Gabe said with a shrug. He let go and leaned away from her. He seemed entirely comfortable about being nude. “It’s a hundred degrees out and you’re lucky that I decided to do that because I was close enough to hear you skid down the bluff like a fucking moron. Can you stand up?”
“Yeah. Probably.”
Gabe half-lifted her onto her feet and Clara was relieved to find that nothing hurt more than it ought to. She’d sprained her ankles enough times to know what that felt like. “I’m okay,” she assured him, taking a test stride. She patted her pocket and drew out her phone. The screen was shattered and black, and didn’t respond to her attempts to turn it on. “Well, that’s toast.”
Gabe seemed to realize he was hovering and he drew his hands back, making a motion like he would put them in his pockets if he had them. “Come on, I’ll drive you back to my house and get you cleaned up before your ice-faced dancing instructor can chew you out.”
“What about Daisy?” Clara suddenly realized. The bike had fallen clear of her, which was probably good, because landing on a handlebar or pedal would have made everything worse. She’d squashed a small bush that had cushioned most of her impact, but Daisy was not so lucky.
