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“What? Wait,no.”
Bee had already steamrolled toward the rear. I left the tea behind and rushed afterher.
Santos appeared from the room, his attention sailing to the box of dried tobaccoleaves.
“We’ll be in the back for a moment,” Isaid.
He nodded. “I’ve got this.” He didn’t seem worried in the slightest. Then again, he had no reason to believe the guy was anything but someone in danger, and he had zero idea about mypowers.
Once I entered the storage room, I found Bee leaning over Mr. No Pants, who sat on a chair, her index finger pressed against his chest. “Where are your trousers? This isn’t a peep show kind ofstore.”
“Bee. Give him space to breathe.” Without waiting for a response, I collected my medicine box from the shelves and flipped the lid open. “Now, let’s examine yourwound.”
“How did you get hurt, hmm?” Bee towered over him, her hands gripping her waist. Geez, the girl should train as aguardian.
“I’m not here to harm you. You can relax.” He lifted the tunic up and bunched it at hisside.
My gaze dove to his midsection like a desperate hound dog. Except the guy wore blackunderwear.
Beesighed.
He peeled away fabric stuck to the mess underneath, wincing, and I cringed at how much it must havehurt.
Three claw marks tore across his side, bloodeverywhere.
“Holy shiitake mushrooms,” I said. “What did this toyou?”
He cut me a strange look with a raised eyebrow as if he’d pull away from my touch if I tried to treathim.
“Crapping balls, Scarlet. This requires a fuck me, not mushrooms,” Bee blurted out. “But really, dude.” She turned to the stranger. “This is bad. Like you’ll die, that kind of bad. If you want my friend to cure you,talk.”
Bee was the queen of exaggeration. The guy only had a few scratches and would survive. “Bring me a bowl of boiling water,” I asked her because tact wasn’t her forte. I grabbed an old towel from the cupboard and cleaned around his wounds. They didn’t requirestitching.
“Don’t listen to her,” I said to Mr. No Pants. “What’s yourname?”
“Better you don’t know.” He didn’t keep my stare, but instead studied the room as if attempting to appear busy. Yep, right there was the warning Bee hadmentioned.
“Look,” I said. “I’m happy to help you, but are we in danger if we do? Do you work for thepriestess?”
He scrunched his nose. “Godsforbid.”
Bee returned with a bowl of water she set on the table, and I drenched the stained fabric before continuing to cleanse theinjury.
“Where are you from?” I asked. “The mountains? The wolf Den? Oh, maybe you’re one of those desert dwellers.” The thought had crossed my mind. The human world was comprised of a massive town with several hundred thousand people. Farms dotted the outskirts, but this man wasn’t a local. There was an air about him every girl in Terra would have sniffed out by now, especially if he was single. And I would have heard about it at the monthly town gatherings. The ones where the priestess reminded us of our blessing to be pure along with the latest attempts by other factions to infiltrate our territory. In particular, Terra’s number one nemesis, the wolves to our east. “Barbarians who attacked anything that moved,” she calledthem.
“I’m not from Terra.” He held his head high, as if having nothing to hide, and his admittance didn’t surprise me because it wasn’t the first time someone had snuck into Terra for help. And humans did the same all the time, leaving behind our land and entering others for various reasons like falling in love with a lion shifter, or at least that had happened to a bookshop owner back intown.
“Are the guardians after you?” Iasked.
Bee gave me thetold youlook. But if you followed the rules, Terra was a safe place most of thetime.
“No. There was a wolf. In fact, a pack chasedme.”
“In Terra?” I asked, squeezing the towel into my fist and returning to wiping his wound. I dabbed a mixture of my pre-made antiseptic onto his injuries, and he didn’t grimaceonce.
“Nope. On wolf territory, in the Den. I was passing through and took a shortcut across their land and yours.” He paused and wiped his mouth. “But a vicious pack found me and hunted me. I barely escaped with my life before they ripped my pantsoff.”
Bee burst out laughing, her hand pressed over her stomach. “You sure it wasn’t a pack of she-wolves?”
