Chapter Three
The Alpha looked pissed at first but that morphed into curiosity and astonishment. Nix could work with that.
"You're my… what?"
"Your mate. Sorry to drop in on you like that."
He wasn't sure what had happened. March had imbued him with enough energy to make the transition and hold it until he'd found Orion but they must have underestimated, just a little. He'd lost his form in mid-air, with almost no warning, and had plunged to the ground. His whole body ached and his shoulder felt and looked strange. He craned his neck to get a better look at it as he spoke to the Alpha. He had half expected the bear to bat him away like the annoyance he was sure he was. Or snap his neck. But the Alpha's hands had been careful as they'd helped him up.
"It's dislocated."
Now it was Nix's turn to show confusion. "Huh?"
"Your shoulder. It's out of its socket."
So that was why it looked so strange. He tried to move it, hoping it might just slip back into place, but that sent a wave of agony through him.
"Ow."
"We'll need to reduce it, get it back in place." That sounded like it would hurt.
"Maybe if we leave it awhile…"
"The sooner, the better, if you want to get full use of your arm back. Even a shifter can suffer permanent damage if an injury like that is left too long." The Alpha stared unwaveringly at him.
"How do we…"
"Sit down. I'm not doing this with you on your feet. You'll pass out, and I'll end up dragging your unconscious ass through the forest."
Nix glanced around the open valley they were standing in. "What forest?"
"Don't get smart with me," Orion snapped. "Sit your ass down, now."
Nix knelt instead, folding one leg then the other beneath him, making the movement as graceful as he could. He was supposed to be wooing the Alpha after all, not antagonizing him.
"This is gonna hurt, isn't it?" he asked, looking up at the shifter through dark eyelashes before dropping his gaze submissively. March had said the bear would respond well to his subservience.
"Not for long, if I do it right."
The Alpha's tone drew his eyes back up. His expression was skeptical, one eyebrow raised.
"Here's how we'll do this. I'm going to take hold of your arm, bring it to rest against your side, bend your elbow, and then rotate your shoulder. The joint should slip back into place during rotation."
That didn't sound too bad. "Will it hurt?"
"Yeah but the key to this is to do it nice and slowly. Most of the pain you'll experience is from the muscles and tendons spasming. So we go slow, stop when it gets too much to give time for the spasms to ease and you to relax. Okay?"
Nix didn't see any way around it. He nodded, then tried a grin on for size.
"I bet you never thought your mate would know how to fly?"
Orion snorted. "How to fall badly, you mean? You hit the ground like a sack of potatoes."
Nix bit back his retort as the Alpha took hold of his arm, holding it against his side. The pain flared and Nix took a few deep breaths.
"You try shifting in midair and see how gracefully you land."
The bear didn't rise to his bait this time as he bent Nix's arm at the elbow.
"That's it. Keep taking slow breaths through your mouth. It'll help control the pain."
A spasm hit his upper arm and he hissed, turning his head away and tucking his chin down as if that would help him. The bear's hand on his shoulder moved lower, kneading the muscle gently until the cramping eased.
"Let's go again, keep breathing."
This time the pain was strong but manageable as the Alpha began to slowly rotate his arm.
"Ah, ah, ah…" he said, hissing under his breath as the spasming intensified.
Orion slowed his movement.
"No, keep going, please." He wanted it over.
The Alpha took him at his word, bringing his arm upwards. His arm was just brushing past his ear, guided by the Alpha's strong hands, when he felt the ball of his shoulder slip back into place. The agony eased and his eyes fluttered closed as he sank closer to the ground.
"Don't pass out on me now," the bear groused. "I was so sure I'd be picking you up off the ground before I got the joint back in place."
His words held a challenge and anger surged through Nix. Straightening, he met the Alpha's eyes.
"Better," the Alpha said, looking him up and down. "Can you stand?"
Determined not to be shown up by the bear, he rose in one swift, graceful motion. His poise lasted only seconds as a wave of dizziness overtook him. He nearly sank to his knees again but the Alpha grabbed his good arm, holding him in place. His energy was never great, but changing form and all the traveling had wearied him, even with March imbuing him with power before he departed.
"Stop trying to show off. I'm not carrying you home. Either you make it there on your own two feet or you stay here."
The Alpha sounded like he'd reached the end of his tether where Nix was concerned. He dropped his head in response to the sharp tone, crouching a little.
"I'm sorry, Alpha. I can walk, though I might be a little slow."
He left out the fact that he could probably siphon off some of the power that was spilling from the bear in waves. Just the thought disgusted him and he feared the Alpha would reject him out of hand if he knew.
"Good, because we're half a day's walk from my destination."
"I can come with you?"
"What kind of Alpha would I be if I left my mate alone and injured?" He echoed Nix's own words back at him.
Nix had referred to the bear as his Alpha once or twice so far but this was the first time he had acknowledged the awkward truth. Progress, of a sort.
"Come on, let's get a move on while there's still daylight."
Nix took a step back as the bear stepped towards him. The Alpha gave him that look again, the one that told him that he thought of Nix as annoying, as an inconvenience and somehow, a disappointment. He wasn't what the bear had been expecting in a mate. And despite his purpose, the fact that he was there to get revenge on the man who'd destroyed his family, destroyed his people, he felt an inexplicable pang of sadness that, once again, he hadn't lived up to expectations. The story of his life.