“It’s time to check your vitals and give you more pain meds.”
Jason’s head jerked up. He got to his feet, walked over to her, took her hand. “How do you feel?”
“It hurts.”
His brow furrowed, his thumb stroking the back of her hand. “I bet it does.”
“I dreamed that a shark tried to eat my leg, and you fought it off.”
He smiled. “Shark wrestling, huh?”
The nurse wrapped a blood pressure cuff around her arm. “From what I hear, that’s pretty close to the truth.”
While the machine took a reading of Winona’s blood pressure, the nurse checked her temperature and then handed her a little paper cup with two pills. “Here’s your Percocet.”
“Thanks.” Winona swallowed them with a gulp of water.
“I’ll get you more water and then let you sleep.” The nurse left them alone.
“Chaska went home, right?” It was the first time since arriving at the hospital that she’d felt clear-headed enough to have a conversation.
Jason drew the chair up to the bed and sat beside her, taking her hand once again, lines of stress and fatigue on his face. “I think he felt torn between staying here with you and going home to Naomi and the baby. I promised I’d keep him updated.”
The nurse walked in with a full pitcher of water and ice and set it on the little table. “Press the call button if you need anything.”
“Thank you.” Winona waited until the nurse had gone. “You saved my life.”
He frowned. “If I’d just been a second faster…”
“Don’t blame yourself. I should have watched where I was walking. We all knew there might be traps up there, but I was looking at the wolf, trying to gauge his responses. Did you dart him, or was that the ranger?”
Jason explained what had happened in that last hour, how the wolf had crept closer, and how Jason been afraid the scent of her blood would provoke it. “I kept tossing it chunks of meat. Every once in a while, you would wake up and talk to it in Lakota. It tried to get closer to you. I think it felt safe with you. When the helicopter came, it ran. That’s when I darted it.”
“Thank you. I was so afraid it would be scared away and starve or get shot.”
“I won’t lie. Being that close to a predator of that size was … intense.”
She couldn’t help but laugh. “Was my big, bad Shadow Wolf scared?”
She thought he would laugh too, but his expression crumpled, his eyes filling with the anguish of someone who’d known too much grief.
“I’ve never been more afraid or felt more helpless in my life. When I saw how heavily you were bleeding… God, Win, I was afraid I’d lose you.”
She blinked back tears, reached up, cupped his cheek. “I was afraid, too, and then you told me you wouldn’t let me die. You kept me alive. You made me feel safe.”
“I’m glad.” He gave her a sad smile, turned his head, kissed her palm.
Then something occurred to her that hadn’t before, and her heart sank. “I’m going to waste the rest of our time together in the hospital, aren’t I?”
He chuckled. “It’s not a waste of time to heal. I’ll be here every day. I’ve got almost two weeks before I have to drive back. The hearing is on the ninth of October.”
“Twelve days.” That was nothing.
It was everything.
“I’ll stay in Scarlet as long as I can.”
She was starting to get sleepy again, probably from the drugs. “I want you to know that I don’t regret any of this—you and me. We’ve only known each other for a short time, but I…”