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“Are these his X-rays?” I ask as I push past two of them to the chart beside his bed.
It’s even worse than I thought. It’s harder to find bones that aren’t broken than bones that are. There’s internal bleeding, lots of it, and for sure there’s organ damage as well. He shouldn’t even be alive.
“What happened to him?” I ask as I try to fight back the tears. I don’t know why I’m crying. I’ve seen worse than this. I’ve had patients die in my care but nothing affected me like this.
I must be getting my period or something.
But no… I had it last week.
“He should be dead,” I whisper as I look at his chart.
The fireman with the gray hair leans in. “He’s a shifter, doc,” he whispers. “Grizzly bear.”
“Oooh,” I say as it dawns on me. “That would explain it.”
I drop the chart and take another long look at him. His breathing is labored, but he’s getting the air in. I can tell that his body is fighting for life. I gently put my hand on his shoulder and send him a few words of silent encouragement.
You can do it, Rylan. Don’t give up.
“Dr. Collins already gave him a couple of PRP injections,” I tell his friends as I study his face. It’s all swollen and broken, but somehow he’s still gorgeous. I can’t look away.
“PRP?” one of them asks.
“Platelet-rich plasma,” I tell them. “It will help speed up his natural shifter healing. The best thing we can give him is a quiet space to heal. His body should provide him with everything else he needs to recover.”
They don’t want to leave and I can tell by the way they keep looking at him that the five of them are really close. Even the tattooed guy who made the insensitive joke looks upset. Sometimes I forget that guys show each other love in that way. The crueler the joke, the more brotherly love there is.
“Rylan is going to be fine,” I promise them. I’ll make sure of that. “The best thing you can do is give him some time to heal. I’ll be keeping a close watch on him and I’ll let you know if anything changes.”
“But I thought that Dr. Collins was his doctor?” the older one says, looking confused.
I’m confused too. On a lot of things. But one thing is for certain—I’m not taking my eyes off of this man. He’s mine now.
“He’ll get two doctors for the price of one,” I say with an encouraging smile. “Now, please. I must insist. He’s been through a lot and needs his rest.”
The four guys each look at him one last time and then leave with their heads hanging low. Shifter healing can do amazing things but I never thought it would allow a guy to survive this. His body is nearly destroyed.
When the last of the firemen leave, I close the door and hurry back to the side of his bed.
I’m even more emotional now as I lean over him and study his peaceful face. Every nerve ending in my body is stirring and tingling as I breathe in his alluring scent.
I gently touch his face, running my palm down his cheek to his swollen jaw. Tears start seeping from my eyes and dropping onto his chest as I continue running my hand down his neck.
“You’ll be okay. You’ll be okay,” I whisper to him over and over again. I’m not sure if the reassuring words are for him or for me.
Geez… What has gotten into you?
I’ve never reacted to a patient like this before.
My eyes roam down his body to his left hand. Relief floods through me when I see no ring on his finger.
He’s connected to a heart monitor and I can clearly see the reading on the screen, but I want to hear it beating. I want to know the sound it makes. I want to hear it echoing through me.
And to be honest, it’s also an excuse to touch his big chest.
I grab my stethoscope and put the ear-tips in as I lean over him. His massive chest is slowly moving up and down with every breath.
I slide the drum under his shirt and drag the side of my hand over his warm skin. He’s all hard abs down there and my body reacts strongly. I’m lightheaded with a fluttering in my chest as I slide the stethoscope over his heart.
The sound of his breathing gets louder and I notice that he’s sucking in long deep breaths. His lips twitch and a tremble shakes through his body as he inhales like he’s smelling something really good.
I press the drum to his warm skin and gasp when I hear his heart. It’s pounding.
My body is filled with warmth as I remove the stethoscope and replace it with my palm. I can feel his heart wildly thumping away…
…just like mine is.
Chapter Three
Rylan
The pain is excruciating.
Every cell in my body is on fire. My skin is searing. My insides are smouldering red-hot.
The pain is so bad that I can’t think of anything except it until her image comes jutting back into my brain.
I’ve found her.
The blonde goddess.
My mate.
My everything.
I try to open my eyes, but they’re glued shut. I can’t move my arms. They’re broken. Everything is broken.
The pain is blinding. Every movement I try to make sends me teetering toward the edge of blackness again.
I should let myself fall into the black bliss of unconsciousness again. I can’t feel this intense all-consuming pain when I’m out cold.
But I fight the darkness. I need to stay awake.
I’ve found my mate. She’s in this world.
And I have to do everything I can to get to her.
My bear is whimpering inside me. He can feel the pain too.
He’s scared. He’s shaken. But he feels the urgency as well.
He fights off the whimpers and steels himself.
Get up, he demands.
Claim her.
Mark her.
Breed her.
Make her ours.
My bear can’t form words, but his intentions are clear. I can understand exactly what he wants.
I want the same thing.
“Open your eyes,” I whisper to myself. It’s the first thing I have to do.
They flood with tears as I force them open. They’re swollen beyond belief and throbbing with pain. I’m still not sure what happened to me.
My mind is fuzzy in most places and where it’s sharp, it’s entirely focused on her. The blue car. The blonde hair. The hands gripping the steering wheel that looked so smooth and delicate.
The truck.
Right.
Shit.
Now I remember. It came out of nowhere.
I saw the grill and then I saw nothing. It must have clocked me good.
It takes some time, but I finally get my eyes open and my hands moving.
Every movement is pain, but I have to find her.
I’ve waited twenty-eight years for this moment and now that it’s here, nothing is going to stop me from getting to her.
I still don’t know her name. I don’t know what she looks like. I don’t know where she is. Who she’s with…
My heart starts pounding as panic builds within me. She can be anywhere. With anyone. Another man…
Christ…
The thought of her with another man sends my adrenaline spiking. It causes my bear to drop his whimpering and start growling instead.
“I have to… get to… her.”
It’s dark in the hospital room. I have a window and it looks like it’s after midnight by the height of the moon in the sky.
Even if I can crawl my way out of this bed, there’s nothing I can do.
Yes there is, my bear howls. Get up and do it.
I fight through the pain and swing my legs off the bed and sit up.
“Fuck,” I hiss through gritted teeth.
It feels like there’s lava flowing through my veins. My bones are broken. How many I don’t know, but there’s a lot of them.
I know that Blake and the boys would have fixed me up before they dropped me off here. Broken bones
have to be set quickly or my shifter healing would have sealed them back together all wrong. It probably took all four of them to realign my limbs before they put me on the stretcher.
Fuck… I’m glad I was out cold for that.
“All right,” I say as I place my feet on the floor and hold onto the bars on the bed. “Do it for her.”
A whiff of her scent flows into the room and my back perks up.
My heart starts racing. I get goosebumps all over my torn-up, blood-stained skin.
I recognize it as her scent immediately and so does my grizzly bear.
All these questions are going through my brain. Why is her scent here? Was she the one who brought me to the hospital? Maybe she saw my accident and helped?
None of it matters. The only thing that matters is that she’s somewhere here and I need to get to her as quickly as I can.
I push off the bed and an involuntary scream rips out of my throat when my feet hit the floor. Pain tears through my legs. It’s agony.
