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“You’re hurt.” She touched the spot where the blood stained his coat, but she couldn’t get past all the hair to see the cut. He nosed her hands away.
“Don’t be grumpy. You have to be treated. Let’s go back to the cabin.”
She stood up and went to gather their clothing. Both Birk and Kotori stayed in bear form, and she knew it was to be sure there were no other threats.
When they arrived at the cabin, both men shifted. Shiya stood in awe of the way the white hair seemed to melt off their bodies while their bulk decreased as if by magic. One minute they were gigantic beasts with elongated bodies, and the next they were men—very naked men. She hurried them into the cabin and slammed the door. After tossing aside their clothing, she rushed to try getting the fire stoked in the fireplace, but Birk nudged her aside.
“I’ll take care of it.” He nodded toward Kotori.
Shiya dug through their supplies and wasn’t surprised to find a first aid kit. She knelt on the couch beside Kotori. The slash lay on his side, but it wasn’t as bad as she’d thought. “This is my fault. If I weren’t—”
“Stop,” Kotori interrupted. “This isn’t your fault. It’s a way of life for us. Sometimes there will be fights. It’s not a big deal.”
She frowned. Knowing all the facts about the animals didn’t help her to understand their nature. “He shouldn’t have been there.”
Kotori shrugged. He didn’t even wince when she touched the iodine-soaked cotton ball to his skin. “I am more impressed that you weren’t afraid of us.”
“Well, you were protecting me, weren’t you?” She kept her eyes on his wound, embarrassed for some reason.
He stroked her cheek. “I’m glad you weren’t afraid.”
“She also knew us apart,” Birk announced, and Shiya heard the pleasure in his tone. He sat down behind her, his thigh brushing her ass. Neither man had bothered to put on clothes. This was another natural state with them, she realized.
When she finished treating Kotori’s wound, she placed gauze over it, and secured it in place with medical tape. She touched the scars on his neck, a stir of emotion making her throat hurt. “Was this a bear too?”
He stiffened. “No.” Kotori’s gaze flicked to Birk and then back to her. “Another fight, a wolf. I tried making a claim for someone already taken.”
Shiya frowned. Kotori left out a lot of details, but she thought she could piece it together. He didn’t want to say, but the wolf, she guessed, was another shifter. “You went after his girlfriend, and he had a problem with it?”
Kotori’s brows went up, and Birk laughed. “That’s our baby, very astute.”
“Under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t have been a problem for me, but he laid in wait and sprung out on me with his pack. Very nearly took my voice.”
Shiya shivered at the violence he’d suffered and marveled at the calm with which he shared it, again as if it were no big deal. From his hesitance, she knew it was much more than that. Kotori blamed himself for what had happened. “It wasn’t your fault, you know.”
He pierced her with an angry stare, but she blinked at him, not intimidated.
He grumbled, “If I had not let my emotions get the better of me, I wouldn’t have tried to take another man’s woman. We respect the claiming of mates above all else no matter what species of shifter we are.”
“We’re all weak at some point,” she assured him.
He made no response.
“No rules apply when we’re fighting for our mate,” Birk added, and then he grinned. “But we got them back later, ran the entire pack out of town. Haven’t seen them since.”
Shiya shook her head. “I feel like I’ve learned a lot about you today.”
Birk touched the top of her head, and she twisted around to face him. He pulled her onto his lap, and she nuzzled beneath his chin. “There’s always a reason for an attack, Shiya. Remember that.”
Did he say it in reference to her mother’s attack? She didn’t know, but resentment rose inside her. Birk had no right to comment. He couldn’t know the facts or the devastation she felt about how her mother suffered before she died, as well as the rest of them having lost her.
She climbed off his lap and went to the kitchen area. After all the excitement, she was starving. Birk walked in behind her and took the eggs from her hands that she’d just removed from the refrigerator. She said nothing to him, but he went about making the three of them something to eat.
Kotori went to his room, and when she accepted there was nothing for her to do to help Birk, she followed Kotori. In the room, he lay on his bed, an arm thrown across his eyes. She watched him from the doorway.
“Did you love her?” she asked.
He didn’t start at her voice, and she remembered she couldn’t sneak up on them because of their sensitive hearing and their strong sense of smell.
