“Good, good. Don’t try to move him yet,” Ty instructed, coming over next to him.
What he saw reassured him. Zeke wasn’t conscious, which was a bad sign, but his neck was at a normal angle, there wasn’t any obvious blood, and when Ty checked his pulse, it was strong and even.
He sat back on his heels. “Okay. So far, so good. It’s not great that he hasn’t woken up, but I don’t think his neck is broken.”
Ryder blanched at the idea. “Can I—what can we do?”
“We’re still not going to move him—better to wait for the emergency crews for that. But you can talk to him, touch his hand if you want.”
Ryder leaned over his friend, grabbing his hand roughly. “Hey. Zeke. Hey, idiot—wake up!”
“He might not,” Ty cautioned softly. “But don’t think the worst if he doesn’t. He’s a shifter, he’s resilient. Takes a lot to put us down.”
Ryder sat back, then shook himself, blurred, and became a wolf. He nosed at Zeke’s palm, sniffing him. Then he sat back on his haunches and howled.
Zeke’s eyes snapped open.
Ty started, and then immediately leaned forward. “Zeke, hi. Hey. Don’t try to move just yet. Can you talk?”
“What—” Zeke tried.
Ryder was frozen in place, staring down at him. Then he growled and shifted back. “Zeke! You goddamn—I thought you were dead!”
“What?” Zeke repeated, blinking hard. “Ryder—what—what’s this asshole doing here?”
“Watch your language,” Ty said easily, feeling much, much better about being mouthed off to than he usually did.
“He’s saving your dumb life,” Ryder snapped.
“All right, all right. Zeke, how do you feel? Can you feel your fingers and toes?”
“Uh...” Zeke said, sounding startled. His hand twitched, then his fingers moved. His toes were in boots, but after a second, his feet shifted in place. “They feel—really, really cold.”
“That’s fine, it’s cold out. But you can feel them?”
“Yeah.”
“How about everything else? Anything numb? Anything hurt?”
“Um, I have a headache. A really, really, really bad headache.”
“Okay. You probably hit your head. But if your fingers and toes work, you’re likely going to be okay.” Head injuries could still be dangerous for shifters, but the likelihood of an unhealed brain injury going unnoticed was much less than it would be for a regular human. “We’ll get you to the doctor just in case, though. Anything else hurt?”
Zeke lifted his hands gingerly, stretched his legs carefully. Ty recognized the tentative movements from occasional mishaps he’d had himself, the slow dance of Am I okay? Will I fall apart if I move?
“Shoulder,” he said finally. “Left shoulder. It hurts a lot.”
Ty went around to Zeke’s left side and took a look at it. It was swelling, but didn’t seem to be dislocated.
“Probably landed on it and your head when you fell,” he said. “We should be careful—whoa, hold on there!”
Too late. Zeke was pushing himself up into a sitting position. He stopped halfway up, one hand coming to his forehead. Ryder darted forward to support him, and Ty sighed. Well, if he was sitting up okay, he was probably good to move.
Shifter healing took care of a lot. Ty had a feeling that if Zeke had been a regular human, the fall would’ve been a lot more serious.
As it was, though, Zeke was grumbling about being able to sit up by himself, thanks. Ty took a few steps away and looked up.
Misty was crouched at the top of the hole, looking down at them. Ty had been too distracted until now to notice the dramatic way the tall, craggy stone walls rose up around them, the world blocked out except for a slice of star-spattered sky...and, of course, his mate.