Alpha's Rescue (Shifter Ops 5)

“And you brought her here instead of to the hospital?” Matthias asks.

“She can't leave,” I blurt without thinking. “Her stepbrother tried to kill her, remember?”

“You think he’s still out there, searching for her?”

“He looked pretty determined.”

“You going to go look for him?”

“She’s the priority. Any idea why she’s still unconscious?”

“The concussion. She did come to for a few minutes, correct?”

“Just under a minute.”

Matthias grunts. He fiddles around in his bag and holds up a vial of dark green liquid. “Hold her head.”

I shift around him to steady the patient. Her head looks so small between my huge hands. She really is a knockout–smooth, dark skin, sculpted cheekbones, cute little nose, plush lips.

Matthias sets the vial to her mouth and pours the contents in. It smells weird, a metallic and herbal combination.

I stiffen. “What's that?”

“Just a little something I cooked up,” Matthias murmurs, tilting the vial so it empties completely. “Come on, swallow. That’s it.”

“What’s in it?”

“You don’t want to know.”

My growl surprises us both.

“It's a healing serum,” Matthias says. “One of my concoctions. It'll help her head.”

All my trepidation vanishes. Matthias is trying to help. “It's not a good sign that she's asleep this long, is it?”

“Not at all. But that should heal the worst.” He tucks the empty vial back in his bag and pulls out a pack of gauze. “It’ll take a moment to work. In the meantime, I can clean this cut. It doesn’t look like there are any other contusions.” He sprays a solution on the gauze and starts dabbing her head. “You need to keep her under observation for at least twenty-four hours. No more moving her or loud noises, if you can help it. She needs rest.” He peers over the tops of his fake eyeglasses at me. “Can you take time out of your busy schedule to do that?” His voice is mild, not a hint of sarcasm as he says busy schedule, but I bristle as if it's a reproof.

The last time we spoke, he accused me of turning into a hermit. Of all my brothers, Matthias is the calm, quiet, thoughtful one. He’s also the one who is most likely to resort to sarcasm and subtle ways of letting me know he's displeased. My other brothers would swing a fist in my direction. We Bad Bear brothers tend to use physical scuffles to sort things out, much to our Ma’s chagrin.

“Yeah, I can manage that,” I say.

“You can check her bag for a driver’s license to learn her name.”

“Lana. It’s Lana.”

Matthias raises a brow, and I scramble to explain. “I may have overheard her and her stepbrother talking earlier on the hike. I was out for a run when they passed by, and you know humans. They’re loud.” I let my voice trail off. The more I try to convince Matthias I wasn’t stalking Lana, the less he’s convinced. Maybe I shouldn’t have called him. He’s the least likely to annoy me, but he’s also smarter than me and half my brothers combined. I can’t fool him.

Matthias cleans up the human’s head wound and bandages it. The whole time the patient is out, her chest rising and falling softly. When he finishes, he checks her pupils again. “Much better.”

“Should she still be sleeping?”

“She's going to be fine. At this point, the sleep is healing. Now, when she wakes up, she might be disoriented. She's in a new place. And she never saw you, correct?”

I hesitate. There’s more to the story I need to tell him, but not here. “I think so, but I’m not sure.”

Matthias tosses the bloody gauze and trash into a small waste bag and removes his gloves.

“Wait, that’s it?” I look from the sleeping patient to my calm brother. “You’re done?”

“I’ve done all I can. The wound is clean, and it doesn’t need stitches. She doesn't have a fever, and her pupils look fine now. No brain bleed.”

Brain bleed? “Maybe we should get her to a hospital.” I could lie, say I’m her husband. Stay close and guard her.

“Only if you want to get her out of your hair. The hospital can’t do more than I’ve done. In fact, they would’ve done far less.”

“What about…I dunno… tests?”

“An MRI and CT won't tell us if she has a concussion. We’ll have to watch her symptoms and how she acts. Keep tabs on any behavior changes.”

“How will I know her behavior changes? I don't know her.”

“You can ask her when she wakes up.” Matthias takes off his glasses and polishes them. I swear he only wears the fake glasses so he can use them like a prop in a play. Maybe it makes it easier to pretend to be human. With his glasses and outfit, he looks like a mild-mannered country doctor. It’s a good disguise. “You have time to sit and watch her? Do you have any flights?” He’s referring to my helicopter business. I do tours and chauffeur businessmen from Albuquerque to Taos in addition to working more dangerous jobs with my special forces buddies in the Black Wolf pack.