Page 32 of Shifters Awakening (Shifters Destiny: Willow Creek Shifters #1)
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
emma
Tuesday Afternoon
L ogan.
He’d been there, in my head, leading me out of the stupor I’d been stuck in, and now my heart felt squeezed. He’d had to get away from me the minute he’d been sure I’d woken up. A few words and then… nothing. How fucking disappointing, frustrating, and irritating.
Instead of spending time sorting out why his fresh absence bothered me, I searched the faces now surrounding me as I slid off the table the elders had been seated behind the night before.
I felt more naked than I’d ever felt before.
My tongue felt too large for my mouth, and my throat had been coated in sand.
My empty stomach churned, and I swallowed, trying to keep the bile where it belonged.
Dr. Wise stood against the wall of the large den, taking it all in.
Flynn now huddled with Giselda, whispering, while everyone else stared at me, brushed my skin, and spoke in hushed, wondered tones as though I were a lucky charm or a relic.
I wanted to scream the truth at them: I don’t know how to repeat the primal energy trick .
The whole act had been instinctual. I still barely knew how to shift, and they had to understand they couldn’t pin all their hopes on me. I needed Logan to lead me out of the confusion around me, and he wasn’t here anymore.
Dr. Wise approached with a hypodermic needle about an inch and a half long.
I took a step backward. “What the hell is that?”
“B-12.” She blinked and glanced down at the syringe she held. “You don’t want it?”
I probably needed a whole damn IV bag of vitamins, electrolytes, and saline, so I offered my upper arm. At this point, I doubted Dr. Wise would inject me with anything meant to kill me, and I was too tired to give two shits.
“It’s fine. Go ahead.”
She swiped my skin with an alcohol pad, angled the needle down, gave me a little prick, and then stepped away and safely tucked the empty syringe into her bag. “That’ll help your recovery.”
“Yep,” I said, now irritated that all these Red Tail shifters had watched me get an injection but not Logan. No, I wasn’t his problem anymore, and he wanted to be gone .
Jasper appeared with a crocheted cover and moved through the small crowd. The weave didn’t hide much, but he draped it around my shoulders, and I tugged it closer like a kind of coat meant to protect me from the shower of awe.
“You ready to get out of here?” Jasper asked, glancing at his brother, who nodded. “Some place quieter?”
“Yeah, I should be studying,” I rasped, not caring whether I made anybody here feel like I was angry at them or fleeing from them. Even though I was.
Jasper’s eyebrow quirked, and the corner of his mouth pinched, but neither he nor Flynn vetoed anything I said.
Jasper extended his arm, and I tucked myself against him as he ushered me out of the den, through the exit tunnel, and into the sunshine.
I paused and turned my face toward the light streaming through the leaves before he brought me back to his much smaller, more intimate den.
“Have a seat,” he said. “I’ll bring food.”
“I’m not sure I can keep anything down.”
The couch creaked as I settled on the far edge of it, unwilling to get comfortable.
My thoughts flew through the last day. I knew training would be hard.
It should be difficult, but I hadn’t expected to accidentally knock myself unconscious.
I tucked the cover around my body, not caring Jasper could see through the blanket.
“You should try to eat.”
“Do you have something to drink? I’m thirstier than anything.” My dry-mouthed smack put an explanation point on my parched throat .
“What strength?”
“What strength?” I echoed. I frowned and studied the ground as I tried to decipher the meaning of his question.
“Then it’s water strength for you.” He chuckled. “Ye’re exhausted, Emma. Ye need food and sleep.”
“I’d like to think I’m doing well with all this,” I said.
I thought of Riley and Shannon. I needed to check in with them and make sure they hadn’t been bothered by anyone.
His previous words suddenly made sense, and my gaze cut to him. “Oh, you were asking if I wanted something stronger than water,” I said.
“Ye guessed it.” He marched into the kitchen and rattled around before walking back out, carrying a tray with a bowl and a large glass of water.
I downed the water and handed the empty glass back to him. “Can I get another?” The next one went down as easily as the first. Then I eyed the stew in the bowl. “Bone broth?”
“Aye. Me ma’s best magic for what ails ye.” He settled in an armchair beside the couch and shrugged. “In other words, leftovers are easier to make than something new.”
“Listen, I need to talk to Riley and Shannon.”
“They’re fine,” he said.
“How do you know?”
“We have people watching their homes. Neither one has been bothered.”
“Well, my mom has to be losing her mind over my continued absence from Willow Creek, so I need to check in with her. Then I need to check on my patients and make sure everyone’s referring over to the other vet easily. Shannon would know to transfer the patient files, but?—”
Jasper waved his hand. “We’ll get it worked out. Maybe this afternoon. After you get a nap.”
“I’m not a child. You don’t have to treat me like one.”
Mostly, I had to check on Sully-Boy. I wasn’t about to let Callie down.
“No, but ye’ve proven ye don’t know when to go easy on yerself. Ye push harder than anybody I’ve ever met, and ye do things…” His voice trailed away, and he shook his head. “Nobody should be able to do after so few days.”
“Yeah, well, everybody you know has been shifting for years and isn’t expected to save the shifter world from some bad magic wizard asshole named after some river in Greece.” I groaned and pinched the bridge of my nose. “How the fuck did this asshole wind up in Louisiana, anyway?”
“I never asked him.” His face twisted into a beaming smile. “Maybe Logan knows. You could ask him next time ye see him.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I wasn’t in the mood to be teased about how fast Logan had abandoned me.
He shrugged and glanced toward the door.
“Got somewhere to be?” I snapped.
I was edging into bitch-to-a-nice-guy territory even though Jasper had been nothing but kind since I’d woken up.
It made me feel like a fit-throwing toddler.
Maybe I did need a meal and a nap. Maybe I needed a big-dicked dose of Logan.
Hadn’t he been there? I’d been so sure I would wake up, staring into his eyes, maybe even held in his arms.
“Nowhere else for me to be but here,” he said, adding nothing else. He grabbed a book from a small table beside his chair and opened it.
When I picked up the stew, the warmth from the bowl spread to my hands and down to my bones, and the aroma reminded me that I had been ravenous before I’d passed out in the middle of the clearing.
I lifted the bowl to my lips and drank half the broth before taking a bite of the meat, glad for Jasper’s current lack of chattiness.
The bowl emptied, and I got myself another glass of water, unwilling to ask Jasper for anything.
A knock startled me out of the kitchen back into the living room, and Jasper winked at me as he hopped up and made his way toward the entrance to his den.
“What the fucking hell do they want from me n—” I started.
Logan stepped into the living room with a grim expression on his rugged face, every blessed inch of him bare. His longish hair looked as though he’d been repetitively shoving his hand through it, and several strands hung over his eyebrows.
“Emma,” he said, his voice strained as his eyes flicked down over me. His eyes narrowed, and his expression darkened. “Are you well? ”
I flinched when I realized the crocheted blanket had fallen open, both of my breasts were mostly exposed through the holes in the weave. Every inch of me was essentially bare, and it seemed to impact him as much as he did me.
Oh, how I wanted him to fuck me. He was Mr. Fuck Me Right and Mr. Right Now.
Right here. Right now.