Page 1 of Healing the Leonid Doctor's Heart
Chapter One
“Talos, stay in place and hold your wife’s paw. Hand. I meant to say hand.” Marcus wanted the glowering, panicking Tigerite to have something to do, something at the opposite end of the surgical bed so the big Felid wouldn’t start snarling at him. Or faint. You never knew with the big, scary ones, thought Marcus.
“That doesn’t seem very important.”
“It’s incredibly important. Ask Wendy.”
Wendy, to her credit, was the calmest Queen he’d ever seen in all of his years delivering cubs, her face peaceful and composed, her hair pulled back in a silk scarf to keep it off of her perspiring neck and face. She lay back on the bed, radiating serene determination.
She was calmer than he was. Why did Bastet, Durga, God, or any other deity see fit to put the biggest Felid on the ship with the most fragile-looking human? Wendy was a petite sweetheart who had mellowed the hulking Tigerite security officer—somewhat. Maybe that was why. A spoon for every bowl, as his grandmother would have said.
But what a mismatched set.
This cub was huge, despite having a tiny human for a mother. There was precious little room to cut without cutting other things that shouldn't be cut, even with the most advanced laser scalpels and all the guiding imagery.
It was times like this that Marcus had to shut off his brain. Not think back to his own wife. The four cubs she was carrying—four! A miracle.
Stolen by the cursed Queen Fever.
But I am fighting it. I am winning. This will be the third Felid-Human cub that I have helped bring into the world, and that’s... That’s something. One more, and I'll have returned the four that were taken.
No. Not replacements. None of them are mine.
But I can pretend.
“Okay, Doc, all ready to catch!” Dax, the curly-headed blonde human, held out heated blankets.
“It’s very important,” Wendy was telling Talos in a soothing tone that seemed to melt him. He was bent over her hand, nodding seriously, practically purring. “This isourbaby. I need you to be here with me when they hand him to us.”
“Or her. It could be a her,” Talos tried to pace, but Wendy held his paw firmly in her small hand.
“Stay here, honey.”
“You’re going to hold your cub in ten minutes, Papa. Stay still and keep telling your Queen how strong and amazing she is. Wendy,” Marcus kept talking as though his mane wasn’t starting to get damp with nervous sweat, “I’m going to warn you that you can’t carry this little bundle for at least six weeks. You can hold him, but you can’t carry him around.”
“Or her.” Talos’ eyes were wide. “Why can’t she?”
“I’m thinking this little one is going to be over twenty pounds, and this is going to be a big incision. Heavy lifting is a no-no. Don’t worry, it’ll heal up nicely. No scarring, not with the latest derma bonding seal techniques.”
Wendy smiled, eyes starry. “I wouldn’t care if there were a thousand scars. Nessa or Skyla will carry the baby for me, won’t they?”
“All of us will, sweetie.” Skyla, the Canid medical assistant with dark reddish fur, came up and mopped Wendy’s brow. “Are you kidding? I wouldpayto carry the baby.”
“Well, you’re going to help me catch in a minute,” Dax said. “This is my nephew or niece. I can’t believe that. That’s gotta be the coolest part of being a med assistant when both of your sisters are on board.”
Let them talk. Let them talk and let me worry in silence. Sweet Bastet, this is a big cub. Well, look at his father.“Nice and numb, Wendy? Can’t feel this?” He asked, tapping her belly with one gloved paw.
“Feel what?”
“You’re going to feel pressure. No pain, though. Just pressure. Skyla, show time. You’re going to work retractors; I’m going to cut. Dax, you catch and monitor Mama.”
“On it.”
“Yes, sir.”
And then, it all happened fast, like it always did. The laser scalpel burned and left a shining, small trail of blood, nice and neat, and he went down through layers of muscle and fat fast. Everything was pushed to its limits, so there wasn’t much digging or visualizing that needed to be done. The cub was a cinch to pull free, but he couldn’t even revel in that moment. Sealing time, searching, clamping, making sure no stray bleeding was occurring, nothing nicked, nothing spurting. Keep Queens alive.
“It’s a girl!” Talos crowed as the tiniest wail started from the cub’s throat. “A little Queen! Wendy, you did it, you did it, my love!”
