“Incredibly tired, more than ever before after an injury,” Cal confessed.
“Might be the whole cat thing or the morphine having flushed out of your system,” Noah mused as he took off the bandages and poked and prodded the bites. “These look better. Do you want another drip?”
Cal thought for a moment. “Nah, I think eating and drinking will be better at this point.”
“Okay, you know your body best.”
Kit left the room to get dressed and Noah looked at Cal more seriously. “How do you feel about the withdrawal? Do you need morphine for the pain?”
Oh. Right. Cal hadn’t thought of that.
Morphine was the only real thing that helped a shifter out when it came to pain. If he needed pain relief, he had a tough decision to make.
“I… I think I’m good for now. I think I need to be pretty fucked up with the pain to actually want morphine at this point.”
“Yeah, I thought you’d say that. Just….” Noah glanced over his shoulder toward the main area of the house where Derek was clanking around, fixing them dinner. “Take comfort in your mate. Your cat will recognize him as a source of comfort. Let him close, it’ll help you heal and hopefully you won’t need the meds.”
If it were only that simple. The expression on Noah’s face seemed to suggest the jaguar knew exactly what Cal was thinking, so he said nothing.
Noah rummaged around his medical bag and lifted a tube. “So, here’s a thing I really like to use for bites and scrapes. It’s spruce resin salve, it’s great stuff.”
Cal nodded. “You know what you’re doing, so go ahead.” He winced when Noah made sure the salve penetrated some of the deepest bites and felt relieved once he was done with it.
After redressing the wounds, Noah patted his arm. “I’ll come check you tomorrow. If you feel feverish, call me. Otherwise, just try to handle the pain. It’s not going to be easy, but you have Derek here.”
“Yeah, thank you.”
Noah grabbed his stuff, talked to Derek a bit, and left the house.
Kit came back to Cal after a while, looking bashful. Cal didn’t say anything, but he didn’t need to. Kit walked over to the other side of the bed, faceplanted, and groaned.
Cal chuckled, reached over and patted Kit’s back.
Kit mumbled something into the covers.
“What?” Cal smiled.
Kit lifted his head just enough to say “He has a mate for fuck’s sake.” Then he flopped back with another groan.
Cal’s smile got bigger. Kit wasn’t someone who cussed a lot, so Cal hadn’t seen a point in scolding him about it.
Derek appeared in the doorway, looking at the scene on the bed thoughtfully.
“What’s going on?”
“Kit has a crush.”
Derek did the math, even glanced over his shoulder in thought, and then smiled, shaking his head.
“Oh,” he said. “Well, we all have inconvenient crushes growing up. It’s part of that process.”
“Derek’s right. Mine was Miss Eabha, the school nurse around Year ten, that’s… fifteen-ish.”
Kit whined, most likely because he was a few years older now.
“Mr. Wagner, the father of my best friend,” Derek commented. “All through puberty.”
Kit lifted his head to look at Derek. “Well that must’ve sucked.”
