Karly gasped in shock. “You don’t want to?”
“Nah. I just…love the outdoors, I love a challenge, and I wanted to get out of the lab. I’m here for the adventure.”
Karly fell into silence, but that could have been because we were at the medical tent and it was time for her to be seen. Unfortunately, the prognosis was a little more dire than Karly was expecting.
“You are going to have to be bandaged up for a while,” the doctor informed her. “And you’ll need to use crutches for a few days to rest your leg.”
“That’s not the sort of look I’m going for here,” Karly lamented. “It won’t be a great look on TV. It won’t bring in views.”
“I know, and I get that,” the doctor replied with ease. “But you don’t want to push that leg so hard that it won’t heal. I’m afraid you don’t have any choice in the matter.”
She might not have wanted to accept it, but she did in the end because it was what was best for her. I remained right by her side the whole time as she was cleaned up and treated, worrying about her and how she was going to cope with this. Of course I offered to walk her back to her room, because I wasn’t going to leave her alone if I didn’t have to. Not just because she was magnetic and I was intoxicated by her, but because it was the right thing to do.
“Well, this is going to be a nightmare,” Karly grumbled as she tried to get used to her crutches. “Ben is not going to like this at all. Especially because it’s an injury I got while running…”
Her words of complaint trailed off as she spotted the two most feared players from the game glaring at one another. My bear bristled because at the animosity in the air. Drew and Alek were part shifted, ready to go full bear at any given moment depending on what the other one did. Violence could erupt at any given moment. I needed to stop it, or if I couldn’t do that, then I at least needed to keep Karly safe.
“Come on,” I muttered to her while trying to usher her in another direction, towards the doors where I could take her inside and keep her safe. “We need to get out of here. It’s dangerous…”
But it quickly became obvious that Karly wasn’t listening to me. Despite my warning, she took a step toward the other bears, determination on her face. If she wasn’t careful, her leg wouldn’t be the only injury she had to deal with.
“Karly…” I touched her shoulder, but she pulled away.
“Alek, what are you doing?”
The anger that had been balling up in shoulders dissipated in an instant. It was almost as if Drew didn’t exist to him anymore, only Karly. This was something I had only ever seen in paired mates before. Women always had the power to calm down their mates so things didn’t get wild. I was truly amazed.
“Asshole,” Drew muttered snidely under his breath, shaking his head. Clearly, he wasn’t as impressed by this as I was. But he also knew this wouldn’t get him anywhere. He stalked off, and Alek didn’t even care.
“What the hell happened to you?” Alek gushed, accusation in his tone. “Your leg…”
The glare he gave me put me on edge once more. I didn’t want to shift and fight, but I would if I needed to. Not that Karly would allow this to happen. She stepped in front of me firmly.
“Hatcher saved me,” she told Alek. “He’s been caring for me.”
The way her voice affected Alek like a paired mate, was affected me the same way. What the hell did that mean? Alek and I exchanged a knowing look. Whatever Karly was doing, we were both in it now.