“True. I’m Leo.”
“Briar. And this is Maverick. Mav, you wanna stop hovering and help Leo up off the floor?”
I reached to do so, mind whirling over the fact that our vacation for two had just become a vacation for three, yet as his hand slid into mine, I got the oddest impression that despite the way things had unfolded, Leo belonged with us.
Chapter 4
Briar
We’d barely gotten Leo situated on the couch in the living room when we heard another vehicle pull up. I half expected Maverick to bolt to the door to greet them after the way he’d hurried from the bedroom to grab my phone, but much to my surprise, he didn’t move and instead remained seated on the couch beside Leo.
I reached the door just as the medics were coming up the stairs, the blonde pair so closely resembling each other that I’d have sworn they were twins.
“I hear we’ve had a bit of an accident,” the first one said as they stepped inside.
“More like Leo suppressed a bit of a shock that resulted in a fainting spell,” I explained and gestured towards the couch.
“Really?” The second asked as I closed the door behind him and crossed the room to pull the coffee table out of the way, so they’d have easy access to Leo. “Has that ever happened before?”
“No sir, this was the first,” Leo said.
“How are you feeling right now?” The first medic asked as he knelt in front of Leo and placed his bag on the floor beside his knee.
“Fine aside from the lump on the side of my head from where I hit it on the floor.”
“Let’s take a look at that, shall we?” The medic said as he pulled on gloves. “My name is Philip. Can you tell me what happened right before you fainted?”
I was shocked when Leo glanced in my direction, a questioning expression in his cobalt eyes.
“He saw us shift from our snow leopard forms to human ones,” I admitted, appreciating the way he’d sought to protect us by keeping silent.
He couldn’t have known that one of the reasons I’d felt comfortable booking our stay at this resort was because it came highly recommended in the shifter community. I trusted that the medics they had on staff here already knew about our kind and would not be thrown in the slightest by my words, and sure enough, the only response from Philip was a small smile and a brief nod.
“That can be a bit jarring the first time you witness it,” Philip assured him as he gently slid his fingers through Leo’s hair, searching for the spot he indicated.
When Leo hissed and winced in discomfort, my inner cat hissed right along with him. Not only did that shock the hell out of me, but the urge that came next completely threw me for a loop. My cat wanted to rip Philip away from him and snarl out a warning never to touch him again. Even Maverick appeared a tad riled up, until I noticed his claws digging into the material of his sleep pants and realized 'a tad'was putting it mildly.
He was furious.
“Oh yeah, you’ve got a heck of a knot back there,” Philip said as his partner rummaged in his bag for an ice pack, cracked it, shook it, and passed it over. “Let’s see if this helps.”
Leo sighed when Philip placed the ice on it. “Stings but definitely feels nicer than having it throb.”
“You can refreeze that as needed,” Philip said. “You’ll want to leave it on for twenty-minute intervals until you no longer feel like it’s needed. If you feel the need, you can take over-the-counter pain medication like ibuprofen or aspirin. I’ve got a few packets here I can give you. If you need more, just call over to the reception desk and they’ll send some over, though I can’t promise it will be a speedy delivery, as things are a bit chaotic down there right now.”
“I can only imagine,” I muttered, as Leo carefully shook his head.
“No thanks, I have some in my bag; you’d better save those packets for someone who doesn’t,” Leo declared. “I doubt I’ll be the only one suffering a shock today.”
The medics made eye contact and grinned. “You aren’t even the first. One visitor suffered a sprained ankle after being chased by a grizzly he tried to shoo out of the hot tub behind the cabin they are now sharing, and a porcupine got stuck beneath the bed and had to be carefully extracted after he tried to hide from his human roommate. We’re hopeful that the injuries stay minor to nonexistent while the folks up at registration sort out this bit of calamity.
“I would not want to be the person responsible for double-booking every damn cabin in the place,” I muttered.
Phillip shuddered at that and nodded. “You and me both. I’ll happily stick to the paperwork that comes from bandaging cuts and splinting sprains, thank you very much.”
“I bet.”
“Leo, I just have a few more questions for you, and then we’ll leave you in peace,” Phillip said as the phone his partner carried started beeping.
