Page 33 of Once Upon A Bear

She should have tried harder to protect him.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, resting her hand on the clean fur above the wounds. It was so soft, the strands gently tickling her fingers as she stroked it in an attempt to soothe the pain she knew he must be feeling.

Gideon’s eyes were closed, deep breaths wracking his body as a low growl rumbled through him.

She shouldn’t have let him leave. If she hadn’t let herself get emotional earlier, if she’d maintained the healer and patient boundaries she’d always maintained before, maybe he wouldn’t have gotten hurt.

This was her fault, and Gideon was paying the price.

Guinevere swallowed hard and took a deep breath. Wallowing wouldn’t help him. “Can you move your leg?” she asked gently.

Gideon began to gingerly move his leg.

“Keep it away from the trap,” she warned, pulling the metal as far away as she could with the chain still trapped underneath him.

“How bad is it?” he asked, pain lacing his words. “It feels bad.”

It looked pretty bad.

“I think it should probably be stitched,” Guinevere said with a grimace as she parted the fur to look at it better.

It didn’t look good. Large, jagged cuts laced the whole way around his paw. If they were lucky, the trap had been too small to break any bones, but she didn’t want to try to feel for that yet. She had to get him back to her cabin first, where she could examine it without getting dirt in his wounds. And if the wounds would follow him to his human self…it needed to be properly tended to.

“Do injuries transfer to your human form?” she asked quietly.

Gideon sagged against the dirt. “Unfortunately, yes.”

“Then we should definitely stitch it. Do you think you can walk back to my cabin? I’d like to be as sanitary as possible.”

And she’d like to trim the fur away before attempting to stitch it, and she had left her scissors on the table.

“I will try,” Gideon answered as he lumbered to his feet.

“You can do it,” she encouraged, resting her hand on his shoulder as he gingerly tested putting weight on his leg.

She wasn’t sure he could…but they didn’t have a choice.

A whimper escaped him and her shoulders slumped.

“If I could help, I would,” Guinevere said miserably, “but I don’t think I’ll be much good for your back leg.”

Gideon let out a barking laugh. “No, I don’t suppose I can expect you to carry the weight of a large bear.”

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “If I knew who put a trap out….”

“Well, I imagine it wasn’t Alexander,” he pointed out as he began limping back toward her home.

“I know, but I think maybe we should let him know.”

“Why?” Gideon asked. “So he can make it seem as if he’s a lord who doesn’t care about the safety of his tenants by forbidding bear traps on his land? No. I shall simply have to be more wary. Hopefully we won’t have to worry about it again.”

Guinevere nodded as he continued limping toward her home, lifting his back leg off the ground, walking on only three. “Once I’m done taking care of you, I’ll start the next potion right away. I already have an idea of what I want to do next—that’s what I was working on when I heard you—but now we need to hurry.”

Because if he got hurt again, she wasn’t sure she could live with the guilt.

“I’m glad you heard me, Sunshine,” Gideon said as her home came into view.

Guilt choked her throat and she rested her hand on his head for a moment before hurrying ahead to open the door.