But damn it, I was a healer. It wasn’t in me to sit by and let someone injured go untreated.
“I know. You’re a little hellcat underneath all that innocence, aren’t you?”
The way he purred the nickname had me melting, the heat that started with his kiss going from campfire to inferno in no time at all. I swayed toward him, bracing my palms on his bare chest. It was warm and solid and safe somehow under my fingertips. It was real. And I liked it.
It felt like the first moment of my entire life that was in full color, digital surround sound as I stared into his amber eyes, which burned with the same heat I felt inside.
He put his fingertips under my chin, guiding me up until I was staring into his eyes, seeing the devilish smirk he wore.
I was completely lost for words as I stared into his gorgeous amber depths, his gaze lulling me into complacency like a cobra in a basket. Until it finally registered in my brain that he was very, very nude and I was pressed up against a whole lot of bare skin and rippling muscle, not just his pecs.
A hard swallow was my only response, though he waited expectantly for me to answer.
Harsh pounding on the thin bedroom door saved me.
“Lucien! I’m coming in!” It was Kane, and he sounded pissed, with that alpha double timbre to his voice that meant trouble.
I leapt back like a teenager caught doing something naughty with her boyfriend, which wasn’t terribly far from the truth. Except for the fact that I was a grown-ass woman and Lucien was my fated mate. You know, minor details.
Kane pushed through the door with the fury of an avenging angel. He looked rapidly between Lucien and me, as if gauging without words what was happening. When his stormy eyes finally landed on mine, I wished I could crawl under the bed and hide. It was like he could see straight through me.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine.” It wasn’t a lie. Physically, I was totally unharmed.
Emotionally? I was reeling from the sudden change in Lucien from indifference to over-the-top alpha protective. Possessive. Passionate.
I shuddered at the memory of our bodies pressed together, his lips hot and soft on mine, then blushed.
Kane shifted his gaze to Lucien, a dark scowl settling over his features. “Come with me. We need to have a chat about the appropriate ways to treat a female in our pack.”
“Yes, Alpha.” Lucien was the picture of compliance, but as he trailed Kane out of the room, he cast me a heated look over his shoulder that told me he was remembering the exact same moment I was.
And he liked it as much as I did.
Holy shit.
I sat on the edge of the bed, my legs suddenly shaky, when not even ninety seconds after the males left, the door to the tiny jet bedroom flew open a second time.
“Damn, girl. You’ve got that boy on lockdown. That was impressive.” Leigh strode through with an unapologetic grin. “You’re reminding me how much fun it is to piss Gael off. It’s been a while, but let me tell you, the sex is never better than when I’ve been pushing his buttons.” She fanned herself dramatically, and I blushed for the second time in as many minutes. Much more and I’d be a sentient beet.
“Leigh, don’t be embarrassing. Nobody wants to hear that,” Brielle huffed. “Especially not Gael’s sister, who needs the healer.”
“Fine, but I’m just saying…” She turned to me, waggling her eyebrows suggestively, thankfully in lieu of telling us any more about her sex life. She quickly found a spot to lean against the wall so Brielle-and Galyna, whose arm was slung over her shoulder-could shuffle past and into the small bedroom.
“Here, set her on the bed,” I offered, jumping up and out of the way.
“Thanks,” Galyna said with an uncomfortable wheeze as she exhaled. Her face was pale, her lips slightly blue.
I studied her with concern as she lay back on the duvet. “You don’t look so good.” Her entire demeanor was significantly worse than when we’d been standing outside. That was a rapid decline. Her usually hale complexion had vanished under the weight of the magical attack. Her dark hair was usually kept in a sharp, tidy braid, but now it was disheveled, as if she hadn’t bothered exerting the energy to tuck the errant strands away where they belonged.
“Gee, thanks. You medical types always know how to make a girl feel all warm and fuzzy inside.”
Brielle snorted. “Don’t talk, you’re wasting breath you don’t have. Where did he hit you?”
When Galyna pointed to her upper left chest, I bit my bottom lip between my teeth. That was not a good place to take a magical hit, even for a wolf.
Fiona was half shifted and Elodie was as mussed as Galyna and twice as filthy-though otherwise healthy-when they walked in a second later and shut the door on the sound of males arguing in the main seating area of the jet. We all jolted on our feet as the plane began to roll forward, taxiing into position on the runway, no doubt.
“Oli, can you grab me whatever medical supplies are in that back cabinet to the left, there?”
I jumped into action, my worry of no use to anyone. “Of course.” It was a pleasant surprise to find a fully stocked traditional first aid kit, but also a well-labeled herbalist kit, with all the most common herbs used to treat shifter injuries. There was also a bulky surgical kit, but I really hoped we didn’t need that while we were in the air. Or at all, actually.
Though, I might need some of it to dig a tracker out of Lucien.
Shit.
I hurried over with the supplies, grimacing when I saw the blackened, burnt-looking flesh on Galyna’s shoulder and chest now that she’d stripped out of her gore-spattered and slightly singed tunic.
“Is there any burn salve in here?” Brielle asked, hands bracketing the area as she let her omega healing powers flood into the wounded warrior.
“No salve, no, but there are two herbs in the pack that I could make a quick balm with.” Not that I knew what they were, but I rarely had to know an herb’s name to be able to sense how it could help or harm. Thankfully, this time I didn’t zone out, as that was embarrassing.
“That would be great, thank you.” She never opened her eyes, too focused on her work, but she did smile.
I quickly mixed the herbs into a rough-and-ready balm with some almond oil. It had soothing properties for shifters, and whenever my hand hovered over the few oil bottles in the kit, my instincts told me that was the one. I only waited a moment after the blend was done for Brielle to open her eyes. As soon as she did, I proffered the container.
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