Bear To The Bone (Bear Claw Security 1) by Terry Bolryder Page A

make her look at him. “Promise me you’ll never, ever go there. Promise me.”
    She was shocked at the harshness of his voice. He was a year younger than her, had no right to scold her like that. Yet the protectiveness there warmed her to the core. “I didn’t want to go anyway,” she said, cutting a length of gauze to tape over the cut on his eye. Then she dabbed a ball of cotton in alcohol. “I have to cleanse your cuts. This is going to hurt.”
    “Okay,” he said.
    She lifted a damp ball in her hand and began to press it to his forehead. He hissed, and she pulled back but was shocked to see the cut was nearly closed. What on earth was going on?
    It was like magic.
    Cage seemed unperturbed, so she kept going, dipping the cotton and disinfecting spots on his face as she cleaned him so she could see what needed to be bandaged. But it was almost like he was healing right in front of her eyes.
    “Why did he do this?” she asked, taping gauze over the small cuts on his hands and the one over his eye. Even if they seemed to have stopped bleeding, she wasn’t taking any chances. Besides, she was kind of enjoying caring for him. The feel of his skin, his male scent beside her.
    She had a feeling this was the only boy she could ever fall in love with.
    “We had a fight,” he said, folding his arms. Then he sighed and lifted his shirt, baring his small chest to her.
    She gulped. Small or not, he was still a boy her eyes, and his lean muscles made her adolescent heart skip a beat.
    “Here’s the worst one,” he said, gesturing to a large burn across his ribs that was blistered and pink. “What should we do with that one?”
    “I don’t know,” she said, trying not to flush at the fact that her crush was shirtless. “Maybe just wait? Your body has an odd way of healing itself.”
    He grinned. “Nah, it just looks less bad under the blood.”
    She frowned and began gently drying the burn so she could apply sanitary gauze. Sadly, they got a lot of abused kids here at Willow’s ranch, so she’d become adept at applying first aid to things like this. But every time she did, she ended up hating humanity just a bit more.
    When his burn was covered, he pulled his shirt back on, grinned, and stood. His grin was more of a grimace due to the shallow cut on his lip that was looking much better but still there.
    The evidence that a grown man could hit a boy.
    “Cage, we should call the cops.”
    Cage had walked to the window but then just turned and looked at her blankly. “And you think they’d do anything about it? When it involves the Aces?” He blinked, and she realized he might actually be blinking away tears. He swiped at them, and her heart broke for him.
    “Don’t look at me like that,” he said. “Don’t pity me.” He sat on the window seat that looked over the yard, his legs in front of him. “Don’t worry about me. I’m gonna get out of here someday. I’m going to be better than him. Stronger than him.”
    That’s right. He should leave this place. Escape. That was all that mattered. She could be happy here with Willow, although she’d miss him. But he’d have no chance if he stayed here with the awful men he lived with at the compound.
    He looked over at her, and she memorized the image. The beautiful dark-haired boy, smiling against his bruises as he sat in front of a window with water streaming down it in all directions. Like the sky was crying for him.
    He held out a hand, and she walked forward. When she got there, he pulled her up on the window seat in front of him and wrapped his arms around her.
    “Can I just hold you for a minute?” he asked.
    She nodded, heart pounding in her chest. She put a hand up over his, letting him know she was there as he rested his head against her shoulder, silent and content.
    She didn’t know how long they sat there, listening to the rain and just not feeling alone because they were together. But eventually, he had to leave before they came after