Page 34 of Legally Mated
“Staying.” Laine glanced at Holland then back to Bram and Duke. “Thank you for picking me up. I know you don’t owe meanything.”
Bram screwed up his face at that. “I don’t know. We owe you for Jason, and for not being completely broke paying for him. We owe you for letting Garrick feel like a lawyer and letting him earn outside the pack.” He looked up at Duke. “Anything else you can think of?” He didn’t wait for his mate to answer, instead turning back to Laine. “Look, I’m not saying there won’t be blowback over this but talk to Holland. HeisQuin’s mate and if you suck up appropriately enough, he might tell Quin not to eat you forsupper.”
“Bram!” Duke’s exasperated expression saiditall.
The young shifter shrugged. “Let’s go. I want a nap, and food. And I have to be at work tonight.” He threw Laine a glance. “If you’re staying, let me know if anything happens? Holland might be too busy to call, but I’ll come if heneedsme.”
“After you’ve rested,” Duke said in a tone that brooked no argument and put Bram into his jacket in a manner that reminded Laine forcibly of dressing atoddler.
“Yes, dear,” Bram told him and rolled his eyes in Laine’s befuddleddirection.
Then he was alone with his guilt, and Holland, who was walking toward him with the grace of a hunter, apparently oblivious to the admiring looks he wasgetting.
Holland settled down beside him. “I honestly don’t know what to say to you right now. So don’t open your mouth, youunderstand?”
Laine nodded and sat back to stare at the ceiling andworry.
Chapter27
Holland never saida word to him until the doctors came to find them. The rest of the shifters came out from wherever they’d been one at a time and Holland settled them in a corner until he could call Duke to come pick them up. The entire time, he had an expression on his face like a man dealing with an unsolvable problem, or at least one where he liked none of the solutions. At one point, he got up to speak to the nurse, arms wrapped protectively around the baby, and left with her, only to come back again a half-hour later with the sameanxiouslook.
Laine was the first to notice the humans, a man and woman dressed in clean scrubs, when they walked through the door of the waiting room. The nurse from the station pointed them out and he touched Holland’s arm to get his attention before they both stood to greet thesurgeons.
“Which one of you is his packmate?” the man asked, then his eyes fell on the tabs gleaming on Holland’s collar and his mouth twisted in what Laine read asembarrassment.
“Me,” Holland said easily, smoothing over theawkwardness.
“Perhaps you’d like to come down the hallway while we explain. Someplace moreprivate.”
Holland’s posture never changed at all, but Laine almost thought he felt him stiffen slightly at those words. Just as Laine had stiffened, wondering if they were about to receive some reallybadnews.
“Of course,” Holland said warmly, and smiled at the doctors. The woman’s eyes widened and took on an almost lovestruck appearance—Laine hadn’t really thought about it before, but Hollandwasattractive, though it took a bit more than looks to keep Laine’s attention. Kind of like Garrick. But it was interesting to watch Holland use his appearance to manipulate thesituation.
They were shown to a small, comfortable room with a couple of couches and some chairs, all sturdy and well-stuffed. A television was mounted on the wall over a small table, currentlypoweredoff.
Holland took a seat on one of the couches at a gesture from the male doctor and Laine followed him. His pulse raced, readying itself for an emergency that he could do nothingabout.
The doctors sat in the chairs opposite them. “I’m Dr. Henry Bensing, your packmate’s thoracic surgeon. This is my colleague, Dr. Sophia Warnell, his trauma surgeon.” With the occasional interjection by Dr. Warnell, he went on to describe where the bullet hit, what it hit, and what they could expect over the next several days. “He’s going to be tired, and you’ll find he gets full faster, since part of the stomach was too badly damaged to leave in place. We had to remove his spleen, which will have implications for his immune response over the course of the rest of his life. As well, we’re going to be watching his left kidney, but the odds are better than even that it will eventually regain, if not full function, then close to it. He won’t be running marathons or anything anytime soon, but he will eventually be nearly as good as new. Does he have a primary carephysician?”
Laine could just barely hear Holland speak over the blood roaring inhisears.
“We have a nurse practitioner in the enclave who looks after our needs, and we have another one who’s planning to become one, though it won’t be for awhile.”
The doctor glanced down at his clasped hands then back up. “This is going to be a lifelong thing, so as long as your medical personnel are informed, that shouldn’t be an issue. There’ll be an information packet to go home with him once he’s released, and he’ll have to come back here for a check-up a couple of times after that before I’ll be happy leaving him to his regularmedicalcare.”
“Understood.” Holland put a hand under Laine’s arm and tugged him to his feet when the doctors stood. “When do you think we’ll be able to takehimhome?”
“A week at the earliest. It depends on if we have to go in again, but things looked good when we closed, so I’m not expecting him to be much longer. Does he have someone to stay with when he goes home? And does he have to use stairs to get around in hishouse?”
“Someone to stay with him isn’t a problem. And as for getting around, we’ll find him space in the main building, something without stairs. The building itself has an elevator,” Holland said. “But if he needs anything, we’ll see it gets to him. He won’t have to do anything morethanheal.”
Laine could almost see Holland’s mind working as he sorted through where Garrick should go. He leaned in and whispered, “He can stay with me if you want. Closer to the hospital if anythinghappens.”
The look Holland turned on him was as feral as anything Laine had ever seen in a nature documentary, cold fury that froze Laine’s heart for one painful moment, until the startled organ gave a great bounding leap and started beating again. He stood frozen, the primitive parts of his brain screaming that he needed to run or attack orsomethingbefore he waseaten.
Then Holland turned away from him to ask a few more questions of the doctors, his voice as sweet and smooth as the ice cream Laine and Garrick had eaten only a few nights ago, and Laine was left wondering if he’d imagined the silent threat in the shifter’s gaze. Or if he was losing his mind with worry and guilt forGarrick.
The frantic pulse beating through his body, though, advised him that perhaps he was underestimating Garrick’speople.
