Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 88048 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88048 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
“Well, there’s less of them now than there were,” Lynx reminded the dark Monstrum comfortingly.
“That’s true—we killed plenty of the fuckers. Ow! What are you doing?”
“Cleaning out your wound. I’m sorry if it stings but shouldn’t a big, strong warrior like yourself be able to handle a little pain?” Miri arched an eyebrow at him as she poured more antiseptic into the nasty looking wound on his shoulder. It was jagged and the flesh was torn—the Cast-offs must have used one of those ugly, serrated knives to make it, she speculated.
Lynx let out a laugh.
“She’s got you there, Brother!” he exclaimed.
Saxon only grumbled but held still as Miri continued to clean his wound. His skin was gray with a silvery tint to it, she noted. Whereas Lynx’s tones were dark tan with golden tints. She wondered what kind of animal the light Monstrum turned into and if she would ever get to see it. The two of them seemed touchy about their “Fur Forms” as Lynx had called them, so it might be better not to ask.
She got out the wound glue and leaned close to be sure she applied it correctly. With a cut this jagged, she wanted to be certain she was getting the edges of the wound aligned just right as she glued them back together.
This close to the big Monstrum, she couldn’t help noticing two things—first, he smelled really good. He had a dark, smoky scent—like fur and bonfires in the forest at night. And second, he was hot—he was radiating heat like a furnace!
This made Miri frown. Was he sick? Had he gotten some kind of infection from the dirty knife blade that had cut him? Was he already spiking a fever?
She finished closing the wound and straightened up. Then she put a hand to the dark Monstrum’s forehead.
“Hey! What are you doing?” he growled, attempting to dodge away from her hand.
“Seeing if you have a fever—you’re burning up!” Miri fixed him with her sternest, most professional Tier Three Healer look. “Hold still! How can I treat you if you keep moving around like that?”
Saxon subsided in his chair but his pale blue eyes followed her as she held a hand to his forehead and then reached in her kit for a thermometer. Unfortunately, her laser temp reader was out of order, so she had to resort to the primitive, old-fashioned one with mercury in it that her father had given her as a gift from Earth. Well, at least it still worked and it was reliably accurate.
“Open your mouth,” she commanded.
“Why?” Saxon growled, eyeing the thermometer in her hand as though it might be a deadly weapon.
“So I can see if you’re sick. Open your mouth!” Miri insisted.
Reluctantly, the dark Monstrum opened his mouth and Miri promptly popped the old-fashioned thermometer under his tongue.
“Now hold it there with your mouth closed until I say so,” she commanded.
His blue eyes burned but he did as she said, scowling mutinously around the slender thermometer.
Miri consulted the chronometer on her wrist and finally took it out of his mouth. But when she read it, her eyes grew wide.
“One hundred and five? Oh my Goddess—that’s not good. We need to do something to get your temperature down right away!”
She started digging in her Med Kit for fever reducers and ice-gel packs but then a warm hand on her arm made her look up.
“Lady Mirabella, I don’t think you need to worry about Saxon,” Lynx purred gently.
“Yes, I do! He’s running a really high fever,” Miri protested.
“No—I think you’ll find his temperature is normal for a Shifter Monstrum—we run hot,” Lynx said simply. “Here—see?”
And taking her hand, he pressed it gently to his own broad forehead, which was also quite warm, Miri noted. And he smelled good too—though in a different way from Saxon. He had a warm, delicious, wild scent—like cedar and sunshine.
“See?” he said again, softly. “You can take my temperature with that gadget of yours if you want, but you’ll find I run about as hot as Saxon does.”
“Oh, um…all right,” Miri murmured.
Suddenly she realized she was just standing there, with her hand on the light Monstrum’s forehead, looking into his golden eyes and thinking how good he smelled. Also, her body seemed to be reacting to his scent—or maybe she was reacting to the combination of both their scents. Her nipples had gone tight and between her legs she felt hot and wet. What was wrong with her?
“Is…is there anything else wrong? I mean—any wounds I should check out?” she asked him, taking her hand away and trying to regain her professional demeanor.
“I think I have a laser graze, but it’s not a big deal,” Lynx offered.
“Everything is a big deal,” Miri said firmly. “Let me see it, please.”
“All right.”
Shrugging, he opened his black vest, baring a broad, golden chest. There was, indeed, a small but nasty laser burn just above his right pec. Miri tried not to notice how muscular the light Monstrum was as she spread a healing salve gently over the burn.