“He can’t go to the hospital Delilah,” I murmured as I pulled the gauze back to see that the bleeding seemed to be slowing down. I looked over small wounds and shuddered when I realized what I was seeing, “Is that a nail?”
“Most of this doesn’t look like it’s from the actual truck,” Delilah murmured as she picked up her tweezers to remove the offending nail and drop into the bowl with a clink. “I’d guess there was shrapnel placed in or around the bomb to inflict as much injury as possible. What was in this large gash?” She pointed at the place that was still covered with gauze.
“I think it was the gas tank door,” Alex panted as Delilah pulled the guaze away and probed the wound. She used the tweezers to pull out small bits of metal from the angry looking wound. Heat rushed through me and I fought the urge to throw up. I was definitely not the nursing type. I distracted myself by looking at his eyes. They seemed like a safe place, even though they were amber and full of pain. From the corner of my eye I saw Delilah reach for her needle to start stitching him up, but Alex shook his head, “Jut tape me back together the best you can. No stitches, it will heal too fast for that.”
“Don’t be silly,” Delilah sounded furious, and I knew I was going to have to tell her the rest of this. My logical little sister would not handle this well. She was still fussing at him, “This will take weeks, more like months to completely heal.” Alex’s eyes faded back to light brown and he looked sad as he nodded his head at me again and closed his eyes.
“It will heal Delilah, just do what he wants,” I couldn’t look her in the eyes. Instead I reached out to brush away some hair that had fallen across Alex’s forehead. He gave me a small smile before he grimaced again at something Delilah was doing. I heard the steady tink tink tink of metal and glass she was pulling from his torso dropping into the bowl. “You aren’t going to believe me, because really it won’t make a lot of sense. Alex is a werewolf.” Delilah gave a very un-ladylike snort and I looked back at her. She looked ready to start laughing but my face stopped her.
“You’re serious?” Delilah’s asked, “I mean, come on Zee, a werewolf? What have they done to you? I know you love your fantasy world with your drawings and books, but werewolves don’t exist, Zee.” She was acting like I was stupid, and I opened my mouth to yell at her when I felt Alex’s hand on mine. I looked down at his face and found him watching me.
“It’s okay, Zee,” his thumb stroked lazy soothing circles around the back of my hand. “She’ll see for herself. I’m already healing. My back doesn’t hurt as much, and my head isn’t pounding anymore.” His gaze slid over to Delilah who was starting to remove the glass from his face. “I know it’s hard to imagine a world where werewolves exist, but your sister hasn’t been tricked by us. I wouldn’t do that to her.”
“Sure, that’s fine,” Delilah waved his comments away, and she didn’t speak again as she worked on him. She finished cleaning up his face and moved on to his burned hand. The skin had been black, but it was redder now. After cleaning it and putting burn ointment she started scouring his body for any shrapnel she had missed. Then she went back over him with antibiotic cream and bandages where they were needed. Whether she would admit it or not, many of his small wounds looked days old. The large gash was no longer weeping blood and she taped gauze over it before wrapping his ribs tightly.
“I wouldn’t suggest moving around much,” Delilah’s voice was cold, and she still didn’t look at him. “I taped your ribs as well as I could, but they’ll hurt for a good long time. What you need is to go to the hospital and be treated.” She finally looked at him, glaring as if she dared him to tell her differently. He gave her a small nod of acknowledgement before he turned to me.
“I have to get home,” his voice sounded stronger and I could almost see him mental steeling himself to get off the table. “We have to find out who did this.” I shuddered at the thought of him putting himself back in danger. I’d have to suck it up if I wanted to keep seeing him. Being alpha would mean the possibility of danger. Not something I ever expected to even need to consider. I pulled my keys from my pocket and handed them to him.
“Take my car. I won’t need it until late tomorrow for work,” I told him as I helped him stand. I waited for a moment to see if he would stay upright, and I was pleased when he did.
“I’ll get it back to you by morning,” Alex brushed a kiss against my cheek and I was dying for more, but Delilah was already an unattractive shade of burgundy, and I didn’t think she could handle much more. She completely ignored Alex when he thanked her, but the moment the door closed behind him she turned on me.
“What is wrong with you Zipporah?” She was throwing her first aid supplies into the bag instead of looking at me. “He is obviously a criminal. Who the hell gets hurt from a car bomb in upstate Michigan?” Delilah’s voice rose to a screech at the end of her question. The jerk downstairs would be pounding on the ceiling soon.
“He isn’t a criminal Delilah,” I retorted, “and I’ll thank you to not raise your voice at me. He is exactly what he claims to be, even
