“Brace yourself, though. The inside is totally different.”
He wasn’t kidding.
Whereas the outside of the building looked like it belonged to another century, the inside was modern, stripped of anything remotely relating to the period it was built. He wondered what the house and garden people would think of that.
A huge bear of a man met them at the foot of the impressive staircase. Logan was used to well-built shifters, but this guy was massive. Ruggedly handsome, with short dark hair—greying slightly at the temple—Isaac Mothecombe fit the outside of the house more than the inside. Logan could easily picture him as the dark, brooding hero of a romance novel.
“Isaac.” John nodded his head in greeting. “How is she?”
Isaac’s expression softened, giving him a slightly less foreboding appearance. “Absolutely fine despite the day’s excitement. I’m trying to persuade her to rest for a few hours, but you can imagine how that’s going.”
“I can.” John smiled, gaze darting up the stairs as if he could see her if he tried hard enough. Then he sighed, adjusting Aaron’s weight a little. “Where do you want these two?”
Frowning, Isaac eyed the unconscious forms of Arron and Cole and hummed. “One newly bitten, Max said.”
“Yeah.” Logan held Cole closer as Isaac walked towards them, unable to help himself. Isaac raised an eyebrow but didn’t comment.
“Neither of them look in the best of shape. Better bring them through to the back.”
Logan let John go first, following slowly behind as he took in his surroundings. The wolf in him itched to have a good explore, find all the exit points and see who else was in the house, but that would have to wait. He was going to have to trust that Mothecombe was who John said he was.
The whole back of the house had been converted into something that reminded Logan of a very small private hospital.
“That’s the operating theatre,” Isaac said, pointing to a room off to the right.
Logan found it hard to imagine those huge hands carrying out delicate surgeries. “Where are the staff?” A place like this had to have nurses and everything else a hospital had, right? No matter how small.
“Around. I don’t need to use this place very often, thankfully, so they come when required.” He glanced at Logan. “And yes, if you’re wondering, they’re all pack.”
He led them to a room with two beds in it, and Logan gently set Cole down on the nearest one to the door. He didn’t move away though, choosing to take Cole’s hand in his and sit down next to the bed. Let them try and move him if they dared.
Isaac went over to Aaron first, examining him with a surprisingly gentle touch. The bruising had come out all over Aaron’s neck and chest, whereas normally it would’ve healed by now. The skin was a mottled purple, tinged with brown at the edges.
“Why is he taking so long to heal?” Logan asked, getting impatient for Isaac to say something.
“Internal injuries take a lot out of the body. From the looks of things, Aaron incurred some nasty ones.” His fingers traced over Aaron’s ribs and around his pelvis, gently prodding and poking as he went. “Seems to be healing nicely, though.” He met Logan’s gaze. “He should be conscious in the next few hours, or I can wake him up sooner if you need me too?”
Yes, pleasewas on the tip of Logan’s tongue. He desperately wanted to know what was going on with his pack, where he stood with them, but he didn’t want to stop Aaron’s body from doing what it needed to. “Will it affect his healing if you wake him up?”
Isaac looked back at Aaron, studying him for a second. “Maybe slightly, but not a significant amount.”
“Leave it then, but if he’s not awake in an hour, I might take you up on that.” Seemed like a fair compromise. “What about Cole?” he asked, impatient for Isaac to come take a look at him. The bleeding had stopped, Logan could smell that much. Although the tang of blood was all over him still, it was old blood.
Isaac left Aaron’s side and turned his attention to Cole. “Max said he was shot twice while they were hiding in the crates. One bullet grazed his side, the other is still lodged in his thigh—that’ll need to come out before his body heals around it fully.” He looked at Logan. “Any other injuries sustained on your trip out of London?”
“There was a fight at the cottage. A bullet grazed his shoulder. He banged the top of his back and neck against the wall and got clawed by a wolf on his leg. That got infected too, so we were giving him antibiotics.” Logan winced. He’d done a shit job of keeping Cole safe.
Or even human.
Isaac peeled open Cole’s shirt and with deft hands, started to remove the bandages on Cole’s shoulder and side. The wounds had scabbed over. They still looked sore and angry but not half as bad as they had done before. “When did you say he was bitten?”
“About an hour ago, roughly.”
Isaac hummed to himself and reached for a pair of heavy-duty scissors off a nearby table. He cut up the leg of Cole’s jeans, removing them easily and exposing the wounds on Cole’s thigh and shin.
The stench of infection had lessened somewhat, but it was still there. Logan had no experience with this. He’d never been present when a human had received the bite and certainly never seen one who’d been so badly injured. Was this normal?
“Should he have healed more? Is the bite not taking?” Testing positive for shifter compatibility was almost always a guarantee that the bite would be successful. But there were exceptions, albeit rare.
