River Wolf by Heather Long Page A

and dragged Luc with them? Almost as many as he’d escaped and hitched rides back to Hudson River—at least until he was old enough to borrow the family car. Damn, those had been good times.
    “He had a room on my floor—at the hospital in Maine. Far as I know, he was the victim of a hit and run. Though he didn’t seem to remember anything.” She took a sip of coffee, her fifth since joining them and she still hadn’t cut into her steak.
    When Charles gave her a long look, she made a show of slicing off a piece of the meat. Brett took a swallow of coffee to avoid another smile. Alpha or not, when his father gave him that look, he still found himself wanting to obey the older wolf’s dictates. “It’s really good,” Colby said after swallowing the bite. “Thank you for fixing it.”
    “You’re welcome.” Benevolence warmed Charles’ expression as he gave her an approving nod. “Now, you were saying Luc was on your floor at the hospital? Are you a nurse?”
    Disappointment flickered through her eyes. “Not exactly.” The first bite apparently whet her appetite because she began to eat with vigor. In between nibbles, she said, “I was studying to be an RN when I got into some trouble. Long story short, trusted the wrong people and let them use me. My mistake, won’t repeat it again. I worked at the hospital as an assistant, helped with patient needs, but not actually doing anything medical. Luc was admitted to our emergency room, unconscious—and with the broken bones as you saw. They set them in surgery, I think he might have a pin in his left knee…”
    A pin. It explained the abscess and the infection. His body would reject the foreign matter. Brett caught his mother’s gaze, and she nodded once. Gillian would deal with it when she arrived, but keeping Luc asleep—especially since he shifted—was the plan for the time being.
    “Anyway, he was in a coma, I think medically induced, but I could be wrong. He had a bad concussion and his tests came back odd.” Pausing, she took another bite. Delicate motions punctuated her eating, yet she chewed with gusto. The opposing behaviors reminded him of her scent, divergent yet he’d already begun to associate the antithetical nuances with her. “When he came out of the coma, they moved him to our ward and I met him because none of the nurses liked him. He was a real…” Trailing off, she stilled and glanced around the table.
    “You can say Luc’s a bastard.” Brett couldn’t keep his amusement contained not even when she slanted a look of disapproval his way. The flare of her nostrils to the way her pupils contracted declared her agreement even as she tried to not agree.
    “I would have said difficult,” she admitted.
    “No, you would have said bastard, but you didn’t want to offend anyone.” His mother gave him a sharp look, but Brett ignored her and kept his attention on Colby. “Trust me, we’re not offended. Luc can be an ass when he wants to be and I can imagine being in pain didn’t make him any less surly.”
    Her losing struggle to avoid agreeing with him played out across her face and ended with her lips compressing into a not-smile. The stubbornness added to his fascination. “Most patients in intense pain are disagreeable, Mr. Dalton.”
    Using the formal address pushed him to arm’s length. The effort to shove him away had his wolf prowling forward. Both he and his beast continued to be puzzled by her scent, but they would figure it out. They would narrow the distance, then…
    “Luc was no different. He also didn’t care for the hospital food.” The corner of her mouth quirked and humor underscored her words. “So much he actually threw a tray and it narrowly missed hitting me, but did splatter the wall.” Impatience streaked across her eyes while firming her smile. “I’m not a big fan of having food thrown at me, so I cleaned up the tray then told him I wouldn’t feed him anything for the rest of the day. If he wanted