Page 7 of Catnip

“Don’t move. I’m almostdone.”

Now that she was a little more conscious, she could see that he had some sort of balm in his hands and he was applying it to herwound.

Oh, good. She bit her lip and did her best to stop herself from crying out, letting him do what hecould.

“It hurts like a bitch, I know,” he told her. “Rain had to cover half a dozen of my wounds with thisshit.”

He was talking to her. Moving his lips and all. Which meant she was supposed to somehow make herself talkback.

She carried on staring like alunatic.

“You’re a contradiction,Ava.”

“How do you know my name?” she croaked, her throat feeling likesandpaper.

“Ran through your application to join our pride. I talked about what you did yesterday with the rest of the pride; turns out, Daunte had already seen you, and he remembered you from the prospectivemembers.”

“Is that how you foundme?”

She frowned, concerned about how easily he’d read through the trail of breadcrumbs she’d left. She’d only listed a burner phone on her application, and she’d paid for it with cash. But if he had done it, others might have,too.

She had to get rid of the phone. Her stomach twisted; her brother might know her number. She’d given it to her bank, just in case he contacted them,too.

“Nah. I had a wolf helping me track you down. Figured you might have needed anantidote.”

Now that the pain had receded some, she felt his hands more acutely. They weren’t soft; he had calluses and rough, dryskin.

“So, Ava-no-last-name, who supposedly wants to join our pride, yet never turned up for our trials. What’s your deal? Just based on that information, Rye figured you may be aspy.”

“Rye?” she asked. It wasn’t the first unfamiliar name he threw her way, but she was trying to make sense of what came out of his pretty mouthnow.

“Our Alpha. Anyway, spy potential. But then, you go and warn us enemies were comingandyou saved my life a few minutes later. So, yeah, contradiction is all Igot.”

She shrugged. “I was there. Almost made it to the door, too. Then, I saw the giants you were interviewing and I doubled back,” she partiallylied.

To be honest, she hadn’t needed tojointheir pride; all she’d been after had been an audience with theirAlphas.

But there had been a chance they might just have locked her up, and called her enemies. Staying away and observing them had made sense. After weeks of looking into their little peaceful world, though, she’d found herself wanting to see if there was a place for herthere.

He smiled. “My Alpha picked you to come here in person. Despite the lack of last name. And the fact that you’re five foot two. You should havecome.”

She winced as he tied a bandage around her. Finding herself half sitting up, and ever so close to him, she felt awkward enough to startbabbling.

“So, you’re a designatedhealer?”

He’d done everything the hard way, so it was clear he didn’t have healing powers, but prides without healers had a member who volunteered for first aid. It rarely was an Enforcer, though, and from what she recalled of when she’d observed the Wyvern, that’s what he was. He’d been patrolling often; more often than anyone else in the pride,actually.

“No.”

He left it at that, which meant that more silence ensued, with his face so close she could feel his breath on her nakedbreast.

Blushing like a teenager, she looked around the unfamiliar setting. She was in a large, simple room, much more spacious than the one she’d occupied at the inn. The eastern wall was entirely made of reflective glass, and her eagle approved, enjoying the view, even in thedark.

Someone had removed her jacket, and it lay on a white dresser, next to her shoes andpants.

She’d been naked around other people since she’d first shifted at age thirteen, so about half of her life. It had never been an issue. Right now, she had to fight her instinct to cross her arms across her chest. Not because she didn’t want him to look at her, exactly… but she felt so damn self-conscious.

“Then why isn’t your healer taking care ofme?”

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