Page 77 of Bosse
Not a woman he’d call pretty. Too light of a word for her. Attractive in a no-nonsense way. She hadn’t beamed a polite or nurturing smile at him, which he liked. He didn’t trust overly happy strangers.
While she dragged a wooden chair over from where it had been next to the wall, he said, “Thank you for healing us. I don’t know who you are, where I am, or what’s going on, but you and that Justin guy are the first decent people, especially shifters, I’ve met in years.”
“You’re welcome. I’m Jaz. Justin is a friend who brought you to our pack house in North Carolina.” She sat and held her hand above his damaged arm.
Then she put her fingers around his wrist as if checking his pulse, but she was not listening to his chest like he’d seen other healers do. He felt energy begin to flow through his arm. The sensation was comforting, and the pain in his arm eased. She must be a healer as Titan thought.
The door opened. She didn’t turn or stop her healing when she said, “This is Adrian, my mate.”
Adrian moved around to the end of the bed. His thick head of black hair appeared scattered in a different way than Jaz’s. Adrian’s hair looked to be growing out from a short cut and had locks sticking out in different directions as if he’d been fighting someone. With his build and being a dominant shifter, plus having power similar to Jaz’s, Bosse would rather not have to battle either of them.
Even so, he fought against the need not to rise from a vulnerable position. When he started to sit up, pain lashed through his arm.
“Stay down,” Jaz said in a firm but calming voice. “Adrian is not a threat as long as you’re not a threat to any of us.”
“I’m not.” Bosse dropped his head back to the soft pillow, glad not to hold it up any longer. He stayed silent while Jaz finished whatever she was doing with her energy. Better to let these two start the conversation.
“You’re healing fast now,” Jaz announced and sat back. She glanced at Adrian, who cocked his head at her and then nodded.
That was strange.
He addressed Bosse. “Justin said you’d been imprisoned in Slovakia by a crazy shifter.”
“That’s correct.” Bosse kept his answers simple, waiting to see where all of this would go.
“Are other captive shifters there?”
“Yes, but most do not last long.” Bosse watched their faces for any reactions but couldn’t read these people.
Jaz asked, “Why not?”
“We were captured to be Krol’s entertainment. That’s the name of the lion shifter who rules a castle in a remote area. I don’t know if that’s a real name or just what he wanted to be called because I have heard it translates into king.”
Jaz snorted at that. “No ego there, huh?”
Bosse’s lips twitched. He hadn’t felt like smiling in a while. Definitely not since walking away from Alifair. An urgency to reach her pressed on him. “What else do you want to know? I’ll answer any questions and only ask you not to lock me away again.”
Adrian said, “There’s a good chance of that not happening if we find we can trust you and your wolf. Do you have good control of your wolf?”
“Yes, but I wouldn’t call it controlling my wolf so much as partnering. We are a team in everything.”
At that, Adrian cocked an eyebrow. “That’s good to hear. We have a pack of wolves with varying degrees of control, mostly not very good.”
He caught Bosse by surprise with that statement. “Why not? As alpha, they must listen to you, right?”
“No, they don’t because I’m not alpha. She is.”
Bosse swung his attention to Jaz. “I apologize. No insult meant. I made an assumption based on other alphas I’ve known.”
“None taken.” Jaz ran a hand through her hair, raking locks in all directions. “I’ll give you the short story of what we have. We took this pack over not long ago. I was looking for a missing female shifter and discovered the male alpha here and his son were trafficking female shifters. In confronting the alpha about a woman who I was hunting, I had to battle him in defense. He died. His daughter was the only remaining direct heir to the pack and did not want to be alpha. She pretty much ordered me to take it.”
Bosse said, “I find it hard to imagine anyone ordering you around.”
“You nailed that,” Adrian murmured.
Jaz sent her mate a narrowed-eyed but sweet look and then turned back to Bosse. “We’re working to heal this group and help them gain control so they can have productive lives. We want them to be able to work and eventually have mates. We’re willing to invite you to join the pack, but we value honesty above all. Do you have plans to run as soon as you’re healed?”
Her question stalled Bosse’s brain.
