“Not this again,” Gerty said, plunging the spoon back into the bowl of enchanted oatmeal she’d made for her patient. “It’s time for you to move on.”
“But how could she justleavelike that?”
“What other choice did she have? Her people need her. She had to go home. Your business needs you. You need to stay here. What type of relationship would be possible under those conditions?
“We could have worked something out if she’d given us a chance.”
“It was for the best, Kyle. She’s a werewolf princess with a price on her head. You’re a hybrid entrepreneur. She understood there was no future for the two of you that didn’t involve putting you in mortal danger. You should be thankful she was brave enough to do the right thing and end it when she did.” Gerty sighed.
“That’s the real reason why she left, isn’t it? To keep me safe. Just like she took that bullet for me.”
“I’m fairly sure that bullet was meant for her, but yes, I believe your safety had much to do with her wise decision to leave. And the fact that if she stayed with you, her presence would likely draw out your wolf. As it is, with the right potion, I can make your animal go dormant again. You won’t have to shift. You can live as a human.” He thought about the pain it had caused him to turn into a wolf. Pain and losing himself to his animal brain. The loss of control was almost as bad as feeling his bones break. The thought of shifting again didn’t excite him, but it wouldn’t have been enough to keep him away from Laina, if she hadn’t left him. “Now, come. You must eat. You’re wasting away.”
He shook his head. “I’m tired. Why don’t you take the rest of the day off?” He curled on his side away from her and closed his eyes.
Gerty made a disapproving grunt and left the room in a huff. Several minutes later, footsteps entered the room again. “I told you I’m not hungry.”
“Move over,” Nate said. “My back is still killing me.”
Although Milo protested, Kyle managed to scoot the mastiff over and make room for Nate’s considerable girth. “You feelin’ better?”
“Yeah. Practically good as new. Can’t you tell?” Nate held up his right arm, still in a cast, and flopped back on the pillow.
“How ’bout you?”
“Gerty says the scars on my face won’t ever go away.” Kyle pointed to a bite mark that ran from his left cheekbone to his jaw and continued under his chin. He didn’t remember the moment the bite happened or precisely when he’d passed out from either pain or blood loss, but after weeks of magical treatments, the shiny silver scars had proved there to stay.
A rumble of laughter bubbled from Nate’s chest. “Don’t worry, kid. You’re still prettier than me.”
“She left me, Nate.”
His brother sighed deeply. “I heard. I had to threaten Gerty with breaking her wand, but she told me. Obviously, she feels this is the best way to protect you. I mean, the chick took a bullet for you. Why? I will never understand. Personally, I’d find that level of commitment suffocating. Not you. You seemed to enjoy monogamy. Bleck.”
Kyle rolled over to get a better look at his brother. “Of course I enjoyed it. I had real intimacy, Nate, for the first time in my life. She loved me for me—not for what I had, not for who I was, for me. I’ll never find that again.”
“Most people never find that at all,” Nate said toward the ceiling. There was a long stretch of silence. “What do you plan to do now with all your free time?”
Kyle furrowed his brow. “Free time? You mean while I recover?”
“No, I mean now that you can’t work at Hunt Club. The board is asking for your resignation. You effectively quit your job before this all went down, and the general consensus is that Hunt Club can get along without you.”
“They can?” Kyle knew damn well that he’d been an integral part of leading the company and not just because he had a pretty face. But what was Nate up to?
“Yes. And actually, I was thinking that since you’re not exactly useful to us anymore, maybe you should take some time off at full pay and go to New Hampshire to manage the cabin Dad left us and the property with Gerty’s trees.”
“Yeah? You think I should?”
“And maybe, while you’re at it, you should stop at this address.” He pulled a piece of sparkly blue paper from his pocket and handed it to Kyle. “I had to pay a pretty penny to the nurse at Tinker Bell Memorial Hospital for that one.”
“Tinker Bell Memorial?”
“Hell if I know the real name of the place. I’m just glad to be somewhere they don’t sprinkle rose pollen on everything. I was still hopped-up on fairy dust when Gerty brought us home. Anyhow, that address was expensive, so it would be great if you, you know, checked it out.”
“Whose address is this?”
“Whose do you think?” The corners of Nate’s wide mouth spread almost to his ears.
“I can’t just show up on her doorstep. She left me. What if she doesn’t want to see me?”
