The Bear's Healing Touch

Sven had given up on love, but in the midst of crisis, it showed up at his door.

Sirena has been gravely injured by an evil sea monster and put into the care of Grizzly Cove’s only doctor. Sven is a retired soldier, like most of the other guys in Grizzly Cove, but he’d dedicated his life to medicine and helping the new town get on its feet. He doesn’t think he’ll ever find a mate, but he’s content to let the others settle down and find happiness, while he tends to them all… Until they send a gravely injured mermaid his way.

Sirena gets under his skin. She brings out all sorts of protective instincts and desires. She infuriates him and beguiles him in equal measure, but most of all, she worries him. She’s not getting any better, despite his best efforts. He calls in magical reinforcements and the best experts he can find to try to help her, but the evil creature still has its hooks in her and it won’t let go without a fight.

At least she was alive. That was something to be thankful for, but she lost sight of that during the tedious hours spent in bed, bored out of her mind.
“And how are we feeling today?” The deep voice of the bear shifter doctor came to her from the doorway of her prison cell-like room.
“We are just fine, doc,” she told him, annoyed that she’d been so lost in thought he’d managed to sneak up on her. Again.
Her senses were really dulled here on land and especially since she’d been injured. Nobody had ever managed to surprise her before. Not in years, at least. And now, this bear shifter got the drop on her pretty much every time she encountered him. It was vastly annoying. Infuriating, even. She was losing her edge, and it was pissing her off.
“How’s the pain level? Tolerable?” he asked, seemingly unfazed by her sarcastic tone.
“I’m fine,” she repeated through clenched teeth. She loathed being so weak.
The doctor—all six feet seven inches of him—regarded her critically. He really was too damned handsome for his own good. Blond with icy blue eyes, he had that Nordic thing going on, with just a hint of Native American influence that showed in his tanned skin and high cheekbones.
“Let’s just take a look at those dressings,” he plowed on, moving closer as he flipped through papers on a chart he’d been keeping of her progress. She’d tried to read the little notations he’d made, but she couldn’t make heads or tails of his abbreviations and codes.
Sirena was still swathed in bandages that had to be changed every day. The worst was around her midsection, where the creature had gotten hold of her and thrashed its head. She figured the evil thing had been intent on breaking her in two. Sawing her in half with its rows of teeth…or something equally sinister.
She held out her arm grudgingly. They’d settled into a routine where he did her arms first, then her legs, then saved the worst for last, checking out the wounds on her abdomen and back that wrapped all around her body. It wasn’t pretty. She was sure of that.
For a male, he had a surprisingly gentle touch as he unrolled the gauze from around her forearm. The dressings on her arms had gotten smaller over the past few days, the skin gradually healing. When she looked at what he uncovered, she was pleased—and a bit surprised—to find only scabs left on what had been deep gashes on her right arm.
“I think we can leave this uncovered now,” he said, surprising her again. Was she making progress? Slow-as-molasses progress, but still progress? Goddess be praised. “It’s coming along nicely. How about the other one?”
Mutely, she held out her other arm, and he repeated the unwrapping procedure.
“Hmm. We can leave off the lower part, but that gash on your upper arm still needs a bit of protection. We can go with a smaller bandage though.”
Putting actions to his words, he reached over to a supply drawer and pulled out a large adhesive bandage. He cleaned the area around the wound before applying the new dressing, working quietly and efficiently, as always.
He finished up there, then went to the foot of her bed and lifted up the sheet that covered her feet. He unwrapped her left foot, which had taken a direct hit on the instep that made walking not much fun. There was progress there too, which he rewarded with a smaller bandage, though she still felt a bit like a mummy. Her right foot was deemed in better shape, and he left off the wrappings, choosing a few large adhesive bandages instead.
He replaced the sheet over her feet and tucked it in gently, which was an odd gesture for such a manly man to make. She would have been touched, if she wasn’t so mad about being banged up this bad.
“Lie back, Sirena,” he said softly, coming to her side.
They’d worked out a system for this particular check over the past few days. She would lay flat, and he’d lift the gown to just below her breasts—the monster’s teeth had nicked the bottom of one, which the doctor treated with the utmost circumspectness, only baring the skin he needed to see to work. He’d then lower the sheet to just below her hip bones.
The majority of the damage was to her midsection, front and back. He’d see to the front side first, then help her roll onto her side so he could examine the back. He’d put extra cushions under her to make the otherwise hard hospital bed softer on the shredded skin of her back. He had some kind of gel-filled cushions that kept her cool and comfortable, almost making her feel as if she was floating—which was especially comforting to her, considering she had spent at least half her life in the ocean.
His touch was healing, even if his eyes were hard. He never spoke much while he worked on her wounds, but as she’d started to regain her strength, little by little, he’d become a little more talkative. Not much, but a bit. He’d make the odd comment now and again, which was more than he’d done in the beginning.
“This is coming along. I think some of your magic is returning, but we’ll have to talk to Gus or a priestess to be sure. I’ve always thought it was our innate magic that aids in our healing abilities. Whenever I’ve seen a shifter unable to heal normally, it’s usually because he’s expended a great deal of his magic and it needs time to rebuild. The creature was still feeding on you, Sirena.” Those glacial blue eyes met hers, and she saw the outrage she experienced at those words reflected in his eyes. “But you weren’t an easy victim for the monster. You fought back, and you lived to fight another day. Take heart in that.”
It was as if he knew how bad she felt about needing to be rescued. Needing someone else to fight her battle with that cursed sea creature. She was a failure. A false leader. A fraud.
“Easy for you to say,” she mumbled, turning away. She heard him sigh.
“How about you roll over so I can check your back? Any discomfort?” he asked as if he hadn’t just reopened her worst emotional wound.
“My whole body is one big discomfort, doc. I feel awful,” she admitted.
“But better than you were before, right?”
Grudgingly, she agreed as she sucked in a breath at the pain rolling to her side caused.
She felt his warm touch on her back, and just that touch eased the pain a little. He had magic in his fingers, this bear doctor.