Chapter Twenty-Two
Pain radiated from Aeslyn’s hip to her ribs. For a few minutes, she laid quietly trying to figure out where she was and what had happened. She could smell Sebastian so she knew he was close. Another spasm of pain jolted her memory, the gunshot, passing out, vague memories of Sebastian’s friends hovering over her.
Her eyes fluttered open, looking around she could see it was morning, the sunlight coming in through the window showed her she was in a bedroom. The man she was supposed to be protecting was asleep in a chair in the corner. His gun was laying loosely in his hand, his head slumped back and his mouth wide open. The poor guy was out cold, he must have taken care of her all-night long.
Realization suddenly dawned on her, he had to suspect something about her if she wasn’t in a hospital. She ripped the bandage off her stomach and found a ragged two-inch gash almost completely closed up. Silently, she went into the bathroom and ripped the bandage off her back. An identical wound was almost healed. The only way he wouldn’t have called an ambulance is if he knew she was a shifter.
She went back to the bed and laid down with the blanket over her. She didn’t know how late he had gone to sleep, she owed it to him to let him have his fill. The silence of the house penetrated the hundreds of thoughts swirling around in her brain. She remembered the boys had been asleep when everything happened last night. She grabbed the blanket from the bed, wrapped it around herself and went to check on them. Maybe if she got them breakfast she could entertain them long enough to let Sebastian sleep in, who knows the last time he was able to do that.
She was surprised to find their room was empty, after a quick search of the house she realized they were gone. He must have taken them somewhere while she was passed out. She prayed the boys hadn’t seen her bleeding on the floor, no matter how young you are you likely would remember something like that.
Her stomach growled, reminding her she had a very high metabolism and it had been hours since she had fed the beast and she didn’t mean the animal inside her, she meant her human self. She could be a serious bitch when she was hungry.
Shifters aren’t known for their modesty and that included Aeslyn, she set the blanket on the couch then went to make breakfast. She liked the idea of pampering him, she didn’t know when she became domesticated but she was quickly getting to like the idea of having a family. The closest she had come to taking care of another person was throwing frozen waffles at Ash when he had the flu.
She hoped Sebastian wouldn’t mind but she made herself at home. She had poured the last bit of pancake batter on the griddle when she heard Sebastian running down the hall.
He slid to a stop in the doorway, out of breath. “Jesus Aeslyn, you scared me. I wake up and you're gone. You realize someone was outside last night and shot at us. I thought you left again without waking me up.” He sat at the kitchen table and ran his hands through his hair. “You have a bad habit of doing that you know, it’s kind of rough on the confidence to wake up alone.” He gave her a sheepish smile before glancing down and seeing her stomach. The medic side of him kicked into gear, “Why the hell are you up anyways, you need to rest, at least until I can’t see your insides any longer.”
Seeing her insides was a bit of an exaggeration, the gashes were nearly closed. She shut off the griddle, grabbed the food that was done and sat down. She wasn’t sure what to say, or what he knew. “Thank you for taking care of me last night. If you are going to get shot, doing it in the arms of a medic is a smart place to do it.” For a few seconds neither spoke, it was obvious he was struggling with what to say too.
“Do you want me to get you some clothes, I can’t imagine that chair was very warm to sit on.”
“I’ll put something on if it will make you more comfortable, otherwise I’m content.” She paused to let him answer, he shrugged. “Maybe we should address the elephant in the room, well in my case the Liger.” He visibly relaxed, relieved that she brought it up first. She was surprised to see he didn’t really react to her announcement, apparently, he did know what she was. “When did you figure out what I was?”
“Honestly, it wasn’t till an eight-foot-long cat was laying in my entryway that I figured it out. I have seen a lot of crazy stuff out in the field but I admit I thought I was going to shit myself.” He laughed at his admission.
Aeslyn only knew mortification, if she had shifted while unconscious then she must have been bad off. It must have been worse than she first thought. “I am so sorry you had to find out that way. Thank you for still taking care of me though. It must have been serious if I was phasing in and out.”
“It looked like a Quentin Tarantino movie set in here. I knew how to take care of you as a woman but if it weren’t for Connor coming over I’m not sure I would have known how to treat you.”
“Right, Connor,” She paused, did he know what Connor was?
“You’re okay, I didn’t know he was a shifter but he told us last night after we questioned how he knew so much about treating you.”
This story was going from bad to worse, first she bled all over him, then she turned into a liger then she unintentionally outed his best friend. This was definitely going down as the worst second date in history.
“I do have a question though, you said Liger, what is that?” He chewed a piece of pancake waiting for her to respond.
“My father is a lion; my mother is a tiger so that makes me a liger. Yes, it’s as unique as it sounds. I’ve only ever met one other liger and a couple of tigons,” she could see she confused him further, “that’s when the mother is the lion and the father is the tiger.”
“I suddenly feel the need to binge Jack Hanna or Jeff Corwin all day. I’ve never heard of ligers or tigons.” She could see his mind wander for a second then he chuckled, she waited for him to share his inside joke, “I was just thinking how trippy it would be for them to redo the Wizard of Oz and change their chant to ligers and tigons and bears, oh my. That would kind of work, we need something else in place of bear.”
Aeslyn was never surprised by how easily men’s minds can wander, but she was used to it from living with Ash for so long. “Well there are pizzly’s and grolar’s which are combinations of polar bears and grizzly bears but neither of those would flow really well.”
“I’m pretty sure this is the coolest and weirdest breakfast conversation I’ve ever had.” He winked before digging into the rest of his food.
They fell into a comfortable silence finishing their meal. Once their plates were empty he grabbed them from the table and started to wash them. “We did a good job of cleaning you up but honestly you have a lot of blood in your hair. Why don’t you shower while I clean up? I’ll put some sweats on the bed while you are in there.”
The idea of a hot shower sounded heavenly, she was hiding it well but she was still in a lot of pain. “That would be awesome, thanks.”
She made her way to the bathroom and hummed quietly while she waited for the water to warm up. She replayed their conversation in her head, it went so much better than she expected, she was relieved he seemed to be taking the news of her being part animal really well.
A thunderous roar echoed through the house, the mirror shook from the vibration.
“Shit.”