“No. I can handle this. I just like to be honest when I can.” His gloved finger rubbed over the pad of my hand, almost absently. Lucas’ eyes met mine, and he said, “Keep your right hand completely still.”
The order pressed down on my will, and, fuck, it was strong. The soft-spoken vet was hiding a wealth of dominance. Automatically, my hackles rose to fight it, but I let the impulse pass.
“It worked,” I whispered as his emotions washed over me. I could feel the spring of confidence and pride swelling up in his chest like he could do anything. With it, his pride laced with a deeper cold shame.
“Lucas, I asked you to do this. You’re helping me. Everyone experiences that ego-boost feeling.”
His eyes narrowed. “You’re feeling my emotions right now?”
“Sorry. I should have clarified that before you started. Whenever werewolves dominate me, I can feel their emotions. I felt the emotions of your alpha and that bartender Ace last night while they dominated me, and they likely felt some fraction of what you’re feeling now.”
“I guess it’s only fair that you feel my emotions, because that means we’re both vulnerable.” It was kind of him to say, but truly, he was the one doing me a favor. “Are you ready? I’ll go as fast as I safely can.”
“I’m ready,” I said.
There was pressure, and then pain sliced through the meat of my palm. I closed my eyes as the sharp ache thrummed through my body. The pain stretched, like nails biting into my skin, and I sucked in my breath.
“Maybe if you talk?” Lucas suggested.
“So, Grayhaven is a supernatural town? I didn’t know that that was a thing,” I said quickly.
“I’m not sure it is a thing. So far as I know, it’s only Grayhaven,” Lucas said, his voice sounding distracted.
That was good. I wanted his attention on the painful, throbbing things he was doing to my hand.
“So, I’m assuming the bus is the best way to leave the town.”
“The bus doesn’t leave town, it only comes here when a supernatural needs refuge—or something along those lines. From what I’ve observed in the years I’ve been here, is that supernaturals only find Grayhaven when they’re fleeing for their lives. Sometimes they run into the forest in New York, run for a mile, and arrive here. Sometimes they drive in and their car breaks down. If there’s a rhyme or reason to it, no one has explained it to me.”
“That makes absolutely no sense. And, fuck that. Fuck a fucking duck. Anyway, what did you eat for lunch?”
Lucas chuckled. “I told you not to make me laugh.”
“I have absolutely no idea what I’m saying at this point.”
“Well, I didn’t eat yet, but I did find your shard of glass.” There was a clinking sound, and I glanced over and immediately regretted it. My hand was split down its length and there was a stretcher to keep the cut open. The blood drained from my face in a rush. Acid churned in my stomach as my forehead prickled with sweat. I was going to be sick.
Lucas’ dominance pressed down on me, keeping my hand in place, which meant that I was trying to move it without meaning to.
I looked up at the ceiling and counted down from one hundred, keeping my breathing even.
Lucas kept working on my hand, and my palm throbbed, pulsing with a sharp discomfort.
“I’m going to stitch up your wound now.” There was a pinching and pulling sensation, mixed with the constant throbbing. “There was muscle damage in your hand, Teagan. Meaning, if you’re heading back to those vampires to heal this wound, my stitches will dissolve, and the muscle damage will remain, scarring under your skin. If you turn into a wolf and try to run on it, it will split, and your paw will become useless to you.” As he talked, he sewed up my stitches and sprayed my wound with disinfectant. “I release my order, Teagan.” The pressure on my hand lifted, and Lucas wrapped up my wound in gauze.
“Thank you...” I tried to slide off the patient chair, but my head swam and stomach lurched. “Whoa. Sorry, I meant to say thank you so much, Lucas.”
He stood and inspected my face. “When’s the last time you ate?”
“Last night, but I’m fine.”
“What did you eat last night?” Lucas asked.
I bit my lip. “Dinner…?”
“That’s what I thought. You’re sharing half of my sandwich,” he said as he gathered his supplies from the table next to the bed. His will pressed down on me, and I felt a pulse of worry from him, coupled with the heady feeling of his dominance. “Crap… I’m sorry, Teagan. Will you share half of my sandwich with me? Ignore any order I’ve ever accidentally given you. I’m asking you.”
“Okay, yeah. I’m fucking starving. Thank you,” I said as I grinned over at him. “Does this make this an official date then?”
“Sure, just let me put away my blades and toss out my blood-soaked gloves.” Lucas shot me another grin as he tossed his latex gloves into the trash.
“Lucas, how does one leave Grayhaven?” I asked.
“I’ve never tried to leave. The forest surrounds Grayhaven. If you go far enough, you end up right back in town. People have left though. One person I know even left and came back.”
“And who was that?” I asked, even though I somehow knew the name he was going to say before Lucas uttered it.
“Jasper, the Alpha of the Grayhaven pack. If you want to know the best way to leave town, he’s the one you should talk to.”
“Where I come from, they call that a trap,” I said as I cradled my hand. “The kind that lures you in and chomps down on one of your legs.”
“If you say so.” Lucas shrugged. “I honestly can’t fathom why a wounded werewolf on the run from the most contemptible alpha in North American history would want to leave an enchanted town that very few can enter. Especially when that town has a dashing local veterinarian who’s offering free surgery dates, which includes aftercare and sandwiches.”
Even though my hand was throbbing in pain, I couldn’t help but smile at the word he chose to describe himself. Dashing. That word probably saw its last popularity while the Sanguine Inn was being constructed. Contemptible was popular right around then too. “When you say that you’re old, Lucas… do you mean like ‘hey daddy-o’ years old or ‘the car is such an amazing invention’ years old?”
“I’m not answering that,” Lucas said as one dimple creased his cheek. “Hold tight. I’ll be right back.”
As the good doc left the room, my mirth faded. There was a very real reason why I couldn’t go to Jasper or be around werewolves for very long, even if they were a good pack. Honestly, I had been craving the companionship of a pack since the moment I became a werewolf. It was a near-constant ache, a wordless loss. But it just took so much as a small demand like Lucas telling me to eat his sandwich to snatch my will from me, and Lucas did it on accident. He clearly avoided dominating others at all costs. Most wolves reveled in their dominance games.
It hadn’t taken me long to realize that only alone would I ever be free.
Chapter Five
Lucas had said the exact words to convince me to stay another few nights in Grayhaven, and those words were “muscle damage.”