“Do you think he’s gonna be okay?” Sean asks, quieter now.
I want to lie. Want to tell him everything’s going to be fine, that Killian will wake up any minute now and crack some joke about sleeping through all the excitement.
But Sean would feel the lie through the bond.
And he deserves better than that.
“I don’t know,” I admit. “But if there’s a way, Regina will find it.”
Sean nods slowly. “Yeah. She’s brilliant. Like, scary brilliant. Did you see what she did to that blond guy with the stupid tattoos? One spell and he just—“ He makes an exploding gesture with his free hand. “Gone.”
“I saw.”
“Our mate is a badass.”
“She is.”
Sean perks up suddenly, his eye going wide. “And seriously, can you believe Villeneuve turned into a?—”
I’m across the small space before he can finish the sentence, my hand clamped firmly over his mouth.
Sean makes a muffled sound of protest.
“You can’t talk about that here,” I hiss.
He pulls my hand away. “Why not? It’s not like?—“
“Villeneuve was clearly keeping it a secret for a reason.”
“Yeah, but since when do we care about keepinghissecrets?”
“It’s not forhissake.” I glance toward the curtain, lowering my voice further. “There’s no telling what he’ll do if it gets out. And if people start sniffing around what happened in that meadow, they’re going to know Killian was bitten by a?—“
The curtain swishes open.
I snap my mouth shut so fast my teeth click.
The doctor who enters is a pear-shaped older man with long white-blond hair pulled back in a ponytail. He’s wearing a bowtie—purple with little gold stars—and his glasses are perched on the end of his nose like he’s about to start grading term papers.
Cat shifter. Probably a Persian, if looks and general aura are any indication.
He looks between me and Sean—me still hovering close, my hand just now dropping from Sean’s face—and chuckles.
“Sorry to intrude on you two lovebirds.”
My face contorts into a grimace at the mental image I’m going to have to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind right out of my skull. “We’re not?—“
“Oh, no, we’re definitely not—“ Sean starts at the same time.
We both stop. Look at each other, then back at the doctor.
“Yeah, no romo, bro,” Sean says, recovering first. “I mean, I love the guy, but like a bro-bro, not a ho-bro, you know?”
The doctor’s eyebrow rises slightly.
Sean glances at the bowtie, then back at the doctor’s face, and his expression shifts to panic. “Not that that’s a problem! I’m totally down with the LGBTQ community. My sister works at Home Depot!”
I drag a hand down my face. “I’m so sorry. He does have a head injury, but this is honestly probably not related to that.”
