Wolf Shadow’s Promise by Karen Kay Read Free Book Online Page A

upon it.
    Next came a compress, which she applied pressure to, until the bleeding subsided. Then she wrapped the area up with soft bandages.
    Her breathing coming in short puffs, she spoke to the wolf, who hadn’t moved. “I’ve done all I can,” she explained, as though the wolf sat in judgment. “There’s little more to be done now except wash away the sweat and the dirt that clings to him. But that can wait. And I’m exhausted. I promise, however, that I will check his bandages in a few hours.”
    Glancing down at the man, she continued, “I hope you don’t run a fever, Mister Wolf Shadow. Just the same, I’d better brew a dandelion tea”—she lay her head down on a pillow, which she had placed next to him, her eyelids closing almost at once—“first thing tomorrow.”
    Â 
    His groaning awakened her.
    She sat up and ran a hand over his forehead. He was burning up.
    Quickly, she felt the temperature of the water she had hauled down into the cave. What had once been boiling was now cool. Good.
    Tearing off another strip of material from her ruined petticoat, she dipped it into the water. A nice cool bath should bring his temperature down. Of course, she’d have to change the blanket under him once done, but first things first.
    Removing his wolf headdress and setting it aside, she brushed cooling water over his face and hair, the black paint coming away and onto the cloth.
    â€œOh,” she uttered, the sound barely audible. Little by little his features were revealed, his look achingly familiar. To be sure, the boy who had once infatuated her young girl’s heart had certainly become a man.
    â€œSo, Mister Wolf Shadow,” she spoke to him as though he might hear her, “your secret is at last unmasked. I only wonder if you will remember me and the proposal you once made to a young, impressionable girl. I, for one, have never forgotten it.
    â€œI suspected,” she continued to speak to him, “that it might be you who was terrorizing the merchants of this town when I saw your trail come into the cellar. I covered your tracks, Mister Wolf Shadow, that you might be safe, but I am uncertain if I approve of your use of my caves. It is something we will have to discuss when you awaken. And you will awaken, Mister Wolf Shadow. You will.”
    Of course he had known about the caves, she told herself silently. He’d probably explored them in detail by now. She wondered briefly about his sister. Was she a part of the revenge upon the town’s merchants?
    Somehow she doubted it. The man, or rather the boyshe had known, had carried an air about him, even as a child, which would have tolerated no interference.
    She began to wash his face with delicate care, smoothing back his hair, her fingers reaching out to run over his cheeks much as he had once done to her, so long ago. It was as though she were memorizing by touch the look of him.
    Oh, how she had weaved dreams around this man, or rather around the boy she had known. She realized that he was probably nothing like her fantasy warrior, and yet wasn’t he one of the main reasons why she had yearned to come home? Not that she had really expected to meet up with him again.
    Still…
    She rinsed her cloth and set it to his neck. He moaned slightly.
    â€œMiistap-aaatoo-t annomce!”
    She glanced up quickly toward his face, watching as he shifted his head from side to side. What had he said?
    It didn’t matter.
    The more important issue was, would he live?
    Well, he would if she had anything to do with it.
    Down each arm, she washed away the dirt and grime. Down his chest, her fingers itched to search at a more leisurely pace those masculine contours. Down further, over his hips, closer and closer to the wound, to that part of him that blatantly declared his masculinity.
    Tempting as it was, she ignored it. She had no right to examine this proud man that way.
    Down each leg,