Luc called out before he cleared the last step, “It’s open.”
Pushing the door inward, he chuckled at the sight of Luc sprawled on the bed, his left leg in a splint and his middle finger raised in salute. “Good to see you, too.”
“Where the hell did you find the healer?” The wolf snarled.
“Willow Bend.” Then hardening his tone, he added, “Be nice to her or I’ll let her mate rebreak your leg.”
“How can I not be nice to her? She’s like cotton candy on steroids. My teeth ache from just talking to her.” Despite the gruff complaint, the man looked better. The hard, angular cut to his face remained as did his pallor.
“Just be nice to her,” he repeated, before hooking a chair and dragging it over to the bedside. “How’s the leg?”
“Right leg will be good in a day or two. She wants me off it for at least that long. Left might take a few more days. I need to shift.” His grimace decried the instructions, however. “She made me shift as soon as she got here so she could work on getting the pins out of my leg. Why the fuck did you let me shift while I had them in?”
Metal pins weren’t impossible to shift around; they just hurt like a bitch.
“You needed to shift more than you needed to be human and you were losing it.” Brett straddled the chair and leaned his arms against the back. Overall, Luc looked better. The stench of infection had been washed away. “You were unconscious when you got here, and completely unreasonable when you came to. The fever you were running didn’t help. So getting you out of the casts and into your wolf was the preferred alternative to letting you die.”
“Yeah, yeah. Colby didn’t see, right?” His knuckles whitened as he adjusted his position on the bed. Gillian had strung his leg so it was supported. Both arms looked completely healed. Even the road rash on his right side was gone. Brett didn’t offer him any assistance, Luc wanted to be helped about as much as Brett would in the similar circumstance.
“No,” he kept his tone neutral. “Colby saw nothing. You shifted, I put you to sleep, then Mom and Dad brought you here while she was distracted.”
Relief eased his grimace. “Excellent. And you didn’t let her leave?”
Instead of answering the question, he fired off one of his own. “Why don’t you explain why you want her to stay?”
“It’s good to see you, too, Brett.” Folding his arms, Luc smirked. “Thanks for the help, but I don’t answer to you.”
“No problem. Soon as Gillian signs off on your health, you can get dropped off at the border.” He didn’t flinch away from Luc’s gaze.
Teeth bared, his best friend snorted. “You’re not going to tell me are you?”
He didn’t bother to answer. The sooner Luc left, the sooner Brett had Colby to himself. Why encourage him to stay?
“God, you are such an asshole when you want to be.” The mock sigh didn’t sway him, nor did the half-grin Luc released when Brett continued to stare at him, waiting. “Fine, I’ll answer the question.” A sly gleam entered his eyes and he raised his eyebrows. “Have you checked out her ass? She’s one foxy chick.”
Dislike spread through him at the cavalier tone. “I’m not your pimp.”
“Don’t need you for that, but since she gave me a sponge bath already, I know what great hands she’s got.”
The urge to break Luc’s leg once more bloomed with a violent edge. “Luc.”
“Come on, old man. I get it. You hate the world. But have you really looked at her? Checked out her scent?” Lewd suggestiveness aside, no male referred to his mate in those terms. Not to another male, especially not an unmated one.
“She did you a favor and worried herself about you. What the fuck are you doing, talking about her like some cheap whore you picked up to entertain yourself?”
His best friend grinned slowly. “So, you do like her…”
Asshole.
Chapter Eight
Having a best friend was a three-edged sword in Brett’s opinion. When they were younger, those blades had always pointed away. For damn sure, Luc had always been on his side, had his back, and would cheerfully wade into battle on his behalf. Brett had always done the same. They’d gotten drunk together. Scored with women the first time—together. Hell, they’d even taken an unplanned exploratory trip into Canada together—a wild road trip which had ended with an Enforcer picking their delinquent asses up and delivering them home to their Alpha.
By the time they’d reached adulthood, they’d been inseparable. Though Brett’s dominance edged out Luc’s, it had never been about follower and leader. The third blade of their friendship, however, came into play when Brett’s grandfather decided he was ready to step down. Change came difficult to wolves, no more so than to a young man who’d believed he had years before the need to fight for Alpha occurred.