Did he remember? Uriah didn't remember much of anything right now, but the redhead had green eyes just like Ivy, and he smelled sad, not horny.
He didn't want to take Uriah's mate away. He said, “Brother,” but with his misshapen jaw and teeth too big for his mouth, it was barely understandable.
“That's right,” Juliet murmured with an encouraging smile. “Her brother. He doesn't want to hurt Ivy, but those thorns are in there deep.”
Uriah understood the vine needed to come off, and it was going to hurt. He tucked himself around Ivy as though shielding her from seeing her injury could somehow keep her from feeling the pain of what had to happen.
“I'll be careful,” the redhead told him, and true to his word, slowly pressed the razor-sharp blade through the thick green rope that coiled all the way from Ivy's ankle to just below her knee.
“When she wakes up, is Ivy going to go all feral and forgetful on us, too?” the lion asked, cuddling the dazed and exhausted looking females to his chest.
They didn't smell of sex, only blood and concern, so Uriah didn't think they were part of the lion's harem.
Uriah had no idea why, but his bear had conflicting feelings about the other naked shifter. One minute the bear liked and respected him; the next he envisioned ripping the lion's body apart and stomping on the pieces.
Uriah didn't understand it, so he focused on watching the redhead cut into the vine. His brow was furrowed in concentration, focused on his task to cut the thorny rope and not Ivy's already shredded flesh.
“Unlikely. The Twin Blade has been known to cause unpredictable side effects in those who are not Fae,” said the redhead. He cast a quick, uncertain glance up at Uriah before getting back to his task. “It should wear off in a little while, and Uriah will be back to his normal self. I need something to pick these pieces off; I don't suppose there's a pair of tongs in that bag, eh?”
There were two more females, one with short red hair leaning tiredly against the other with pale blonde hair. The blonde one leaned over to rummage inside a leather bag. “Doesn't look like it. I can make chopsticks out of some branches.”
While a discussion happened around him on what the quickest and safest method was to get the prickly, thorny vine off Ivy's leg without causing further damage to her or anyone else, Uriah looked at his hands.
Well, they were more paws than hands, which was good. Prickly Pear had been some of his most favorite treats, and bears were experts at picking berries off thorny bushes. He clacked his claws together before carefully reaching out to slowly pull the pieces away.
“That's great, Uriah,” Juliet praised.
He grunted in answer, tossing the pieces away, hating the blood that coated his claws. Ivy's blood. His mate's blood. There were a few thorns that stubbornly clung to her flesh, and with a grimace of regret, the redhead carefully extracted them one by one.
“We have to set the bone now, and it's going to hurt like hell. Ivy might wake up screaming, but we have to do it to help her.”
Uriah waved his hand for them to just get on with it and stop talking to him like he was slow. He got the picture. The lion gave a snide grin, wiggling his fingers at his own face.
“I hate to say it, buddy, but she won't be screaming cause her leg hurts. It'll be ‘cause she's terrified of that whole business happening with your face. Think you might wanna take a deep breath and get your shit together, huh?”
His face. Right. Uriah shut out the sounds and smells of everyone else, focusing on Ivy. On breathing in the beautiful smell of his mate deep into his lungs. He heard someone counting, and knew when they reached three, his mate would feel inescapable agony.
The asshole lion was right. She didn't need to wake up and see a monster looming over her.
Go to sleep, Bear. You’ll scare her.
The bear grumbled, but retreated, hesitating only for a second when the redhead jerked on Ivy's leg to set the bone with a hideous squelch. Ivy came awake with a wild scream that made Uriah feel like his insides had been scraped to ribbons.
She would have thrashed and kicked if not for the redhead holding her legs in place and Uriah's arms cuddling her as close as he could.
Ivy twisted to wrap her arms around him, holding on so tight he could feel her shaking. Her tears soaked his throat, and over and over, she whispered, “You're here. You're here.”
“I am. I am here. It's alright, shhh.” Confused why Ivy would be more worried about him than the pain in her leg, Uriah looked to the other women around him.
The only one not nearly unconscious from exhaustion was the other blonde. He knew her name. Didn't he? He knew all of these people, but he couldn't remember how or where he knew them from.
The redhead wanted Ivy's attention, but Uriah didn't want her to do anything but stay right where she was. Uriah must have been making threatening grumbles because Ivy went from desperately clinging to him to combing her fingers through his hair in soothing strokes.
Ivy tipped her head back to look up at him, smiling even though there were tears in her eyes. Her lips pressed softly to his, a sweet, far too brief kiss that left him aching.
“I'm alright. It doesn't hurt that bad anymore.”
“Doesn't hurt,” Uriah echoed, wanting to find a soft, safe den to take her away to. Away from pain and blood, where he could spend hours with her lips on his skin. Where he could give her pleasure to drown out the pain of what she'd suffered today.
He saw concern in her expression as she searched his face, voices faded in and out as he focused on her, memorizing the elegant slope of her cheeks. The mischievous tilt of her nose. The pattern of freckles on her skin. How her rosy lips wrapped around each word she spoke.
“Uriah? Are you alright?”
He grinned at her stupidly, just because he loved the way she said his name. He twirled a lock of hair around his finger. “I never thought you'd be this beautiful, mate.”
Ivy framed his face in her hands, her thumbs moving back and forth across the skin just beneath his eyes.
She was worried, he could smell it, and those lips that belonged only to him called for another male. Brother or not, the seething jealousy was an immediate burn.
“Ilex, why is my man acting like he's never seen me before?”
“An unexpected side effect of the Evlinkuin. I swear to you it was unintentional, and it should wear off soon. I was thinking only of saving his life.”
A trickle of tears rolled down her cheeks, her lips gave a tremulous wobble, but she nodded firmly and seemed to get hold of herself. “He's alive, that's all that matters. We can figure the rest out later.”
“Don't cry, honey,” Uriah soothed, never wanting to see her cry anything but happy tears ever again. He palmed her hair and held her close, not sure what had gone wrong, but he would fix it. He was good at fixing things. Wasn't he?
“I'll remember. Whatever it is, I promise, I'll work really hard to remember. Everything will be alright.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Cracks snaked across her heart. Deep and painful.
Ivy forced herself to accept that memory loss was better than death. Turning her cheek to Uriah's chest, listening to the steady drumming of his heart, she chose to believe her brother told the truth. The side effects of saving Uriah's life would wear off in time, but even if it didn't, Uriah was still here.