do that. I just need to get some rest and I’ll be fine.”
She ignored his male macho crap and applied a second bandage across the wound beneath his left pec, where she’d thought she’d seen his ribs peeking through earlier. Declan laughed at her this time. It sounded strained, but it was still a laugh.
“Kendra, honey, I appreciate what you’re doing. But if you want to help me, then let me sleep. If I do that, my body will heal these wounds enough to let us keep moving.”
She stopped what she was doing and frowned at him. “Seriously? You can just sleep this off?”
“Pretty much. Some of these went down to the bone, though, so it might take a while.” He pointed at his chest. “I need to calorie load, then zonk out for a half a day or so.”
She chewed on her lower lip. “You mean…hibernate? Like a bear?”
“Basically. I am a bear shifter, remember?” He gave her a small smile. “I’ll be completely out of it for a while, though, so I’ll need you to keep watch over me.”
“You know I will.” She chewed on her lower lip some more. What if he was making up the hibernation thing so she’d feel better? “Your file doesn’t mention anything about being able to heal yourself through hibernation. How do you know it will work? Have you done it before?”
He grabbed her hand where it still held the bandage over his chest and gave it a squeeze. “Yes, I’ve done this before—a couple of times on missions. I never wanted anyone to know about it, so the guys kept it out of the official reports.”
She took a deep breath and nodded. For the first time since they’d been ambushed, she actually had hope. “What can I do to help?”
“First, I need to eat and drink as much as I can. Then I need to sleep until my body decides I’ve healed enough.”
Which, according to him, could be several hours.
Kendra dug through his pack and pulled out all the food she could find—three and a half energy bars and a roll of cherry-flavored candy.
“Is that all we have left?” he asked.
“Yes. And don’t even try to talk me into eating any of it.” She gently lifted his head and held the first of the bars to his mouth. “If you don’t get better fast, I’m not going to need any food.”
Declan frowned but didn’t argue. He inhaled the power bars and the hard candy practically without chewing, then followed it up with half a canteen of water. When he was done, she rolled up one of his uniform tops and put it under his head as a pillow. Then she sat beside him and gently smoothed her hand over his forehead.
“My breathing and heart rate will slow down, so don’t be afraid when that happens,” he said softly.
She didn’t like the sound of that. “How long do you think you’ll sleep?”
“It’s hard to tell. Twelve hours, maybe more.”
That wasn’t so bad. “Okay.” She leaned over and gently kissed him. “Sleep tight. I promise I won’t let anything happen to you.”
He smiled at her, his eyes already drifting closed. “I know.”
Less than a minute later, the sound of his deep, steady breathing told her he’d already drifted off. His breathing slowed little by little until she could barely see his chest move. She had to fight the urge to check to make sure his heart was still beating.
Kendra looked at her watch. Ten a.m. That meant it’d be dark before he woke up. It was going to be a long twelve hours.
She took off her bloody T-shirt and put on the only other clean one she had. It was wet, but it was better than being covered in blood. She sat back against one of the boulders and tried to relax. But that was easier said than done. Seeing Declan broken and bloody like this was tearing her up with a pain unlike anything she’d ever experienced. She dragged her gaze away from the bandages covering his chest with a muffled sob and focused on his ruggedly handsome face. She couldn’t imagine a more beautiful man in the whole world, inside or out.
It was no surprise that she was in love with him.
She should have been shocked by that, but she wasn’t. Her feelings for Declan had grown in leaps and bounds every day they’d been out here. It was about time she finally admitted it. She only wished she’d gotten the