Tiger closed his hand around Carly’s wrist, feeling it slender and fragile, bones covered with silken skin. “If you stay.”
“I’ll stay.” Carly turned her smile on him, and suddenly the world was right.
Tiger said nothing. He stroked his hand up and down Carly’s forearm, mesmerized by the softness of her, the sweet scent. The doctor walked away, still annoyed. The other Shifters remained outside a certain perimeter around the bed, as did the soldiers behind them.
It didn’t matter. Carly had said she’d stay with him. Tiger would make sure it was forever.
* * *
Carly watched the doctor clean Tiger’s wounds, medicate them, suture the biggest ones, and steri-tape the others, with bandages for all. Tiger lay quietly while he worked, making no noise, holding Carly’s hand but not squeezing it.
No way could Carly have withstood someone poking and prodding tender wounds without sedation. She’d have flinched, fought, cried out, or at least snarled some swear words. Tiger did nothing, said nothing, didn’t move. The commander of the soldiers watched him, but kept his men back.
When the doctor finally walked out, leaving the cleanup to the nurses, Tiger pushed the sheets aside and rolled out of bed, stark naked except for his bandages. Carly tried not to look, but it was sure hard not to. He was a big man, and not just tall and wide. He was big all over. All over. She averted her gaze, but she had to force herself. He was . . . mesmerizing.
“Where do you think you’re going?” she asked him.
“Home.” The word came out with strength, but also with a wistfulness.
“You can barely walk.”
“I can do it.”
Tiger looked stronger, that was true. But, crap, he’d been shot. In the stomach.
Liam, who apparently was Sean’s brother, started to put his hand on Tiger’s shoulder, then lifted it away before he touched him. He turned to the head soldier. “You can release him to my custody now. He’ll be fine.”
The soldier frowned, light-colored brows drawing down. “Give me a minute.” He turned away, signaling his men to keep watch, pulled out a cell phone, and made a call quietly in the corner.
“We can take it from here,” Liam said to the nurses. “He’s good at healing himself, truly.”
“He can’t do any lifting, bending, running, anything stressful,” the head nurse said in a severe tone. “He has to keep the wounds clean, the dressings changed, and he has to take all the antibiotics. Every single pill. Can you get him to do all that?” She looked at Carly.
“Me?” Carly said, touching her chest. “I don’t—”
“We’ll look after him just fine.” Liam took the piece of paper with the prescription and gave the nurse a smile that would make any woman melt. The nurse, middle-aged, hard-faced, experienced with difficult patients, held out a few seconds before she thawed.
“All right, then,” she said, her tone softer. “You call if there are any problems.” Now she spoke to Liam and Liam alone.
The soldier turned back, his frown even more formidable. “My commander told me to let you take him,” he said to Liam. The man obviously disagreed—strongly—with his commander, but he didn’t look the type to disobey orders. “But if there’s any more trouble with him, I’ll have to take him in.”
“Right you are,” Liam said, not sounding worried.
Tiger was already heading out of the room, pulling Carly behind him. Connor stepped in front of them and held up an armful of folded clothes that smelled newly washed. “You’re forgetting something.”
The nurses didn’t hide their need to stare at Tiger’s body. They’d seen their fair share of naked flesh, but Tiger was different.
He was all muscle, with a liquid tan on his torso and arms, pale below the belt. Large all over, but not too bulging, tight and strong rather than overly bulked. Tiger wore his nakedness casually—Carly noticed that the other Shifters hadn’t seemed to remember he was unclothed until Connor had stopped him at the door.
Tiger slid on the jeans and T-shirt without bothering with underwear. Connor insisted Tiger put on the combat boots he’d brought instead of going barefoot, and Tiger growled impatiently as he tugged them on.
Tiger kept hold of Carly’s hand as they walked through the corridor, down the elevator, and out to the parking lot. Patients and hospital staff stopped what they were doing and stared as the contingent of Shifters moved through.
Liam led, giving a smile and a nod to everyone he passed. The tall tattooed man with the shaved head followed him, drawing more attention. Behind him came Tiger and Carly, then Connor and Sean bringing up the rear. Kids stared, women’s lips parted, men moved to stand protectively in front of women and children.
No one said a word, but again, body language spoke volumes. The Shifters were feared. Even tamed, controlled, and regulated, humans sensed the violence barely contained. Humans pretended to despise or be fascinated by the creatures, but the adult humans who watched these Shifters walk by and out of the building exhibited basic, watchful fear.
Carly had never thought much about Shifters one way or the other. She knew the ones in Austin lived in the Shiftertown, which was out by the old airport, but she rarely had cause to drive that way in the course of her day-to-day life.
“Look at this car, Liam,” Connor said when they reached the Corvette. “Isn’t it awesome?”
“And not mine,” Carly said. “I need to take it back to Ethan’s.”
She stopped, the words sticking in her throat. Carly never wanted to drive up his driveway again, to see the house that she was supposed to have moved into next week. She’d never look at it again without experiencing a vision of Ethan, pants around his ankles, thrusting hard and fast into the woman on the counter.
A knife-edge of pain went through her heart. She gasped for breath, and then Tiger’s hand was on her arm, turning her to him. He laid a large hand gently between her br**sts, right over the hurt.
Carly looked up through tears at him. His golden eyes held sympathy, understanding. “You were never his,” he said.
“I guess not.” Carly tried to laugh. Tiger’s hand was warm, his touch over her heart soothing. The image of Ethan blurred, the pain still there but moving away from her immediate focus.
Connor broke in. “Hey, if you need me to drive the car back, I’ll do it.” He held out his hand. “I’ll be careful. Honest. Or, I can wreck it for you, if you want.”