Chapter 6 Savage Unbridled Power #2
Only then did she see the young man cradled in his arms.
‘Oh my,’ she said, the word leaving her as breath. ‘Bring him in.’
She bustled forward, leading Idan into the clinic and then into the emergency ward.
‘Place him on the triage cot,’ she murmured, waving the long-haired man in.
Idan carefully placed the injured man onto a bed.
‘What’s he called?’
She got silence, and she raised a brow as she moved in at once.
Tugging a hover tray of instruments close to her, cutting fabric away, assessing angles and swelling.
‘I remember his name from the bar the other day, Lago, is it?’
Idan jerked his chin in assent.
‘It appears he’s broken his leg and I’ll need a doctor to help set it.’
She tapped her neural comm and summoned Toma from the medical sleep cubes.
The doctor appeared at her shoulder moments later, harried and half asleep, pulling on gloves.
Together they worked in silence, setting the ankle and fibula with practiced coordination.
They secured the injured limb in an open-lattice fiberglass cast filled with a fast-hardening compound.
It took shape as a structure both strong, light, and flexible, designed for movement and healing rather than confinement.
Toma grunted. ‘I’m happy with the set, sante Nurse Munene. You got it from here?’
She nodded, and he strolled off, raising his chin at the ever-vigilant Idan, skirting the potent man with respect as he exited.
When the young man’s vitals steadied, Sheba finally turned to his khan.
Idan stood against the far wall, arms folded over his chest, his posture not unlike that of a panther braced to attack.
In the harsh clinic light, he appeared savage, carved out of muscle and unbridled power that rippled off him in waves of heat.
She crossed to him without comment and pointed him into a chair.
‘Sit,’ she said.
He arched a brow, then did as she asked.
Finding swabs, she cleaned the blood from his extremities and torso, her hands firm and professional.
‘You’re not hurt; most of the stains belong to your man Lago. How did he get injured?’
He still offered no answers to her questions, nor explanations, nor protests.
He let her work, eyes following her movements with quiet intensity.
‘I never did say thank you for the rescue the other day,’ she ventured. ‘So here it is; sante.’
He jerked his chin, but other than that acknowledgment, he remained silent, eyes intent on her, palms loose on his thighs, breath deep and steady.
Yet his rises contracted every so often, and his pulse jumped as did hers around him.
Damn.
Still, she soldiered on, and she soon narrowed her attention to the eye motif glyph spread over his heart.
It shifted under her stare, pulsing with contained force, alive and sinuous.
The air arced with a wild charge, and she shivered.
She sensed his gaze before she met it, a warm and insistent pressure against her skin.
Each time she lifted her eyes, she found his already resting on her with a quiet intensity that made her breath hitch.
The clinic seemed to narrow around their shared awareness.
Sounds dulled, the hum of equipment faded into the background.
She caught the scent of him wafting from his honey-gold complexion.
His musk and foil were so enticing she took a deep inhale of it, shivering as it sparked a wild, savage heat in her.
Her pulse thickened. Her nipples hardened, and her hands went clammy, as though the air itself shifted in density.
She drew back, unsettled and yet drawn to him in equal measure.
‘I’m done. As you were,’ she muttered to the muscled man.
He rose with fluid grace and returned to his perch, leaning against the wall, hands crossed over his massive, rippling chest, one leg braced behind him.
Sheba stayed as well, charting the other patients in the ward and adjusting monitors, even as her perception kept drifting back to him.
When their eyes met, they never held long enough to become improper.
He glanced away first, always, releasing her just before the moment tipped too far, only to find her again minutes later.
The back-and-forth push-and-pull kept her on edge.
As she sat down at the nurses’ station, Idan chose to remain standing by Lago’s bed, yet in her direct line of sight.
She ignored him, focusing on her admin.
Still, her mouth felt dry, and she had to force herself to stay composed even though her muscles were tight with a restless, heavy energy.
At one point, she caught her reflection in a mirror in the room; she scarcely recognized the woman looking back: eyes bright, breath shallow, cheeks flushed, curly hair escaping her braided ponytail.
When dawn came, and the first birdsong threaded through the tents, Idan stirred.
He inclined his head to her once, in acknowledgment, and prowled out into the thinning dark without a word.
‘The fokk?’
In the bed, Lago’s eyes flew open, following her gaze to the entrance.
‘He’s gone to mind the animals,’ he murmured in a raw whisper still hostage to his lingering sleepiness.
‘Mind?’ Sheba asked.
Lago nodded. ‘He needs to feed, water, and check on the young lambs.’
‘What else does this mountain god not do?’ Sheba quipped, not expecting an answer.
She got one regardless.
‘He’s more than a farmer; he protects everything that can’t defend itself across ranges, the gorges, and the Silent Desert. This time, he saved me from a basilisk bull in musth who charged me.’
Sheba arched a brow, gave him a dose of pain meds, and held her skepticism.
Until later that day, when she sat with Toma and Linh on the mess veranda, cold beers sweating in their hands.
‘Idan’s been saving this village for years,’ Toma said, tipping his can back. ‘From predators, raiders and rustlers.’
‘He’s a wild one,’ Linh added, watching the horizon. ‘But he’s also a diligent self-appointed sentinel.’
‘Does he ever speak?’ Sheba asked.
Toma grinned. ‘Not that I’ve heard. Why, you hoping he’ll talk to you?’
He waggled his brows in a loaded suggestion.
Sheba snorted. ‘Nada. I’m done with dating.’
Linh arched a brow. ‘You sound burned, Nurse Munene.’
‘I’m jaded,’ Sheba said. ‘The last man I dated was a polished charmer who turned out to be one of the worst creeps I’ve met. I’m not interested anymore. I’m de-centering myself from the nonsense of romance.’
Toma laughed. ‘Maybe the wild one is exactly what you need to tame your savage disinterest.’
Sheba hummed, unconvinced.
Still, her eyes drifted to the mountain ridge beyond the clinic.
A shiver traced her spine, and sensation arced over her cheek, as if a finger brushed it without touching her skin.