in the empty waiting room. The dark waiting room. Or was that her vision?
No light.
No air.
Crying out, she pushed away from the chair and stumbled forward. The world was listing, like she was out to sea. Heat surged into her skull. She grabbed the first thing she could find. Door handle. She turned and pushed. Where was the cool air? She wanted out. But all that met her was warm, hard, solid. Her legs buckled.
“Hey. Hey.” A male voice entered her consciousness. Low timbre. Concerned.
And then she was being lifted or carried or helped. Eased down. When her back felt the steady support of the wall, she sagged against it and released a breath.
“Are you a patient of Mackenzie’s?” the male asked.
No. No more Mackenzie.
She must’ve shaken her head because he asked, “Dante? Suja?”
His voice, it was like a drug. The kind that instantly soothed, made you want to cleave to it, curl up against it.
“You’re all right,” he assured her. “Can you look at me? Talk to me?”
She felt her chin being lifted, and she opened her eyes. Blinking a few times, the world came back into focus. A room, office, but not like Mackenzie’s. This was like…nature inside.
“What’s your name?”
She turned to the man. No…to the male who was crouched before her. Like the Pantera cat he no doubt hid inside him. His black hair was closely shaved to his skull, and his face was starkly, brutally handsome, all sharp angles with a heavy mouth. But his gray eyes were the kindest, most sincere she’d ever seen.
He reached for her, his hand coming to her cheek. “Breathe, female,” he said as he stroked her skin. “In and out.”
Hypnotized, she stared at him. She knew many of the Healers. But this one…this gorgeous, gentle, yet no doubt deadly creature was a stranger to her.
“My name is Reaux. Do you want to tell me who you are?”
His voice…whatever properties it contained, was a balm to her wounds. It cocooned her. Made her feel safe. Understood. Cared for. It made her feel like she could finally trust—
Tears broke from her eyes and she started to cry. Deep, heaving sobs that had refused to come for days, weeks, years. They weren’t the kind that stemmed from fear or agony—those had dried up long ago—but the kind that came from intense release.
She couldn’t stop.
She didn’t want to.
And when the magical creature called Reaux pulled her into his arms, and held her close, she let the downpour come.
***
He was an idiot.
A reckless male.
Holding this female. Stroking her cheek.
But he couldn’t let her go. Steady tears, her heart bleeding in front of him, her fingers wrapped tightly around his shirt sleeves? This was what he’d wanted from the first moment he’d been confirmed as a Healer. To clear the pain, to define the ache.
To heal the heart and mind.
As her grip on him tightened, his lip curled. Mistakes like him—curses of the blood—they didn’t get to see their dreams or their desires realized. They were happy with what they got. And speaking of desire, he mused darkly, he needed to detach this female from his body and send her on her way before wet eyes turned into a wet sex. She might be human, no doubt one of the rats who’d been rescued and brought to the Wildlands, but she would still very much be affected by him.
That was the last thing he wanted—to have his colleagues think he’d allowed a single, female patient near him.
He eased her back, hoping it wasn’t already too late. He’d been incredibly reckless. Hoping that when he looked into her eyes, he wouldn’t see that customary stain of arousal. But he was lucky for once. Beautiful light brown, almost amber orbs stared up at him. Tear-heavy to be sure, but clear. He breathed a sigh of relief.
“I’m sorry,” she said, wiping her eyes.
Goddess, don’t apologize, female. Not for your tears or for clinging to me like your very breath depends upon it. You have no idea how it feels. How long it’s been since a female’s touched me for anything other than their own sexual pleasure.
“No need to apologize,” he said finally, his gaze moving over her pale, exquisite face, and the heavy fall of copper hair that framed it. “Not for your pained heart, your tears or that you needed another’s strength for a moment.”
Even as he said the words, his mind was telling him to disentangle himself from her, leave the office and go find one of