Luke walked back into the room and I felt my body tense. He must have caught me, because he slowed down and raised his hands again. He waved the phone in his hand. “I just went to get my phone. If you’re okay with it, I would really like to take pictures, so I can include it with my report to Rowan.”
My eyes grew wider. “Rowan?”
He nodded. “The king. I trained to be a doctor in the royal pack. All doctors do.” He came closer. “Can I document this?”
I nodded. “Will you send this directly to him?”
He nodded. “Yeah. I took a little longer grabbing my phone because I already called him. He’s expecting the pictures.”
I sighed and then nodded. “Great. Just what I need.” I sighed. “Go ahead.”
He took pictures of my face from different angles. And then checked my face. He clicked a button and then started talking. “Patient, Amy Maclean, has a broken cheek. Possible broken occipital bone, both eyes have broken blood vessels. Nose is broken, in what looks to be three spots.” He hissed as he checked my lip. “Split lip.” He pulled away. “Is there anything else?”
I nodded. I nodded to my side. “I’d love to help, but I have a rib sticking through my side.”
He cursed, put the phone down on the bed, and grabbed some scissors. He slowly cut my shirt away from me. Then he startedtalking to himself again. “Patient has her six and seventh ribs protruding through her skin.” He sniffed near the hole. “She’s also bleeding into her lung.” He turned back to me. “Why aren’t you healing? Do you know if you have ingested wolfsbane?”
I heard a soft growl, but my head was pounding, so I just hushed Nix. “No wolfsbane.”
“Is that Amy?” I heard a faint voice, but my brain caught up to all the pain. The darkness took me before I could answer.
I woke to see Luke standing over me, and I screamed. I pushed back, surprising both of us. He dropped the scalpel that was in his hands, and the nurse, Goddess forgive her, dropped the tray she was carrying.
“Whoa there.” Luke raised his hands a little more. “You passed out from the pain.”
I settled against the bed. Wrong life. My hand drifted to my flat stomach. There is no pup here. I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths. “Sorry.” I shook my head to clear it, but pain exploded behind my eyes and I dry heaved.
“No apologies needed. You have been through a lot.” He turned and grabbed a new scalpel, then he stepped up to my bedside. The nurse rushed back in with a new tray and the old one was left on the ground.
“Don’t you need to grab all of that?”
The nurse nodded. “I’ll grab it after.” She dropped the tray on the bedside table.
“We have great healing, but werewolf or not, the royal doctor taught us to keep our sterile field.” Luke put the scalpel down on the tray, next to everything else. “Now. I have to cut the skin around your ribs.”
“Why?” My voice was riddled with suspicion, but Luke just smiled softly.
“You are healing, but not as fast as I would like. Your skin healed around the bone. I have to cut the skin from the bone,push it back into place, stitch the wounds with dissolvable stitches and then bind your ribs in place.”
I shuddered. Nix came running out of the forest.Just let us heal you.She screamed at me, and I felt guilty, but I sent her calming thoughts.
Not yet. I need to look shattered tomorrow. As soon as we leave, we can heal.She growled.
This is stupid. As soon as the doctor pushes our ribs in, I’m healing them. And the bleeding.She snarled, daring me to fight her, but I just chuckled.
Wait until I limp out of here and back to the office and heal.
She scoffed and then turned away from me.Stupid humans, and their stupid plans.
I looked up at Luke, and I nodded. “Do it.”
He hesitated. “I would really like to give you something to knock you out.”
I shook my head. “I’ll be fine.”
He swallowed and grimaced, but nodded. “Your funeral.” He looked to the nurse. “I need you to hold her on her side, and no matter what…do not let her move.”
The nurse looked at me and then back to the doctor. “I’ll do my best.” She looked back at me. “This is going to hurt, but please, don’t fight me. I’m not strong.”
