Page 144 of Fangs
“What thefuckhappened?” Wolf snarled as he reached the rover,
“I’m fine,” I said firmly.
“You’re fine? You have claw marks down your face!”
I expected him to yank me out of the rover, but he simply steadied me as I hopped down. He continued ranting and insisting Sable examine me, and eventually, I caved and agreed, hoping it’d make him shut up.
I glanced up at Mac as we headed back to the clinic. “See you later?”
“I’ll come by after I get things sorted with Lana and Nemo,” he promised.
“Good,”I replied mentally, and he smiled.
Sam was at the other rover talking to Raven and Griz, but his worried eyes followed me. I gave him a little wave, trying to convey I was okay. I let Wolf lead me away, and Lee and Scar joined us, demanding to know what happened. So I explained itagain.
Wolf muttered something I didn’t catch. He was still holding my arm but was more supportive than forceful. My back ached in a way that made me feel slightly nauseous. When we arrived at the clinic, Sable, Tuck, and Kai sat on the porch. They stood as we neared, their eyes narrowing on my face.
“I’m fine,” I repeated for the third time, annoyed.
“Sable, can you—” Wolf started.
“Of course,” Sable interrupted him.
All of them followed us into the clinic. I tried to insist on standing but was bullied into sitting in the damn exam chair. Sable scrutinized the scratches, even pulling out a special pair of glasses that magnified his eyes and made him look like a giant owl so he could check to ensure no dirt or foreign substances were lodged in the cuts. Hewasa good healer, thorough and gentle, which made me even more uneasy around him. Why the fuck was that?
“Does anything else hurt?” he asked after picking a few things out of the cuts with tweezers.
My back twinged, but I ignored it. “Nope.”
He started cleaning up the supplies he’d used, and I slid out of the chair, realizing I was alone with Wolf and his entire crew for the first time since the cabin. The urge to flee to the loft swelled, but I was tired of hiding upstairs in my own clinic. All of them were looking at me, though, and I desperately needed something to do, so I turned and went back to my old failsafe, re-organizing the damn tincture bottles.
After a while, they stopped standing there staring at me. Kai moved to help Sable clean up. Wolf sat in a chair and started taking apart his gun. Tuck and Scar went back outside, and Lee appeared at my side.
“You want help?” he asked, grinning.
“No,” I muttered.
“How are you plannin’ on reaching the ones on the top shelf?” He leaned on the hutch, crossing his arms.
“I stand on a chair.”
“Or you could take advantage of havin’ someone with longer arms,” he countered, reaching up to pluck a bottle off the top shelf and waving it at me.
Gods, this was way too familiar.
“Fine,” I said, the word coming out shorter than I meant.
He raised his eyebrows but didn’t comment as he pulled the bottles off the top shelf for me. He even got a rag and dusted it, and I tried not to think about the last time I organized the hutch while my body hurt and Trey tried to get me to sit after Pike and Dale?—
I shoved that memory away where it could fester somewhere quietly.
“What sort of sickness did Lana have?” Sable asked after he finished cleaning up.
I glanced over at him to see him leaning against the counter. Kai stood beside him, his arm wrapped around Sable’s waist as he gently kissed his temple. I quickly looked away, my heart aching.
“The same one that hit the hold last fall.”
“Fever?” Sable asked.
