Free Bearly Healed: Pacific Northwest Bears: (Shifter Romance) by Moxie North

spooning sugar into his coffee.
    “Fresh air huh?” Cage said. Not believing his cousin for a second. He’d walked down the hallway looking for him after dinner and paused when he heard Cassie talking to someone. At first, he thought she was watching a movie then, he heard her say Cash’s name.
    “Good for the digestion,” Cash said, coming over to lean up against the fireplace. He took a sip and met his cousin’s eyes. Cage was a crafty one and being Alpha never missed much.
    “Alright, I’ll let you have it this time. Just tread lightly,” Cage said.
    “Plan to,” Cash replied. His eyes telling his Alpha that his intentions were on the up and up.
    The rest of the group was looking back and forth between the two men as they spoke. No one else seemed to have the slightest clue what was going on. There were confused looks all around.
    “Better,” Cage said, low but not angry. Cash understood and appreciated the fact his Alpha was so tuned into everything.

Chapter 12
    T he next day Cassie woke up feeling much more human than she had in a long time. She made it into the bathroom to brush her teeth and took in her hair. It was a disaster. Deciding the least she could do right now was a shower, she opened the door to ask Connie for help but then closed it.
    She needed to figure this stuff out on her own. She pulled back the lavender shower curtain and looked down to see a bath chair had been installed. Dax thought of everything.
    Grabbing the handheld nozzle, she dropped it into the tub and turned on the water. Contemplating her next move, she sat down on the bend and left her crutches propped against the wall. She gently removed her braces then twisted and contorted to get her clothes off.
    She took a moment to pull the curtain closed and looked at her ankle. It was almost normal. The bruising and swelling were gone. But her ankle which was normally thin was now skeletal. She gave her toes an experimental wiggle. Those worked fine. She then tried to move her foot out the flexed position it spent most of the day in.
    It was stiff but only hurt a little. She bent her foot until it was on the floor of the tub, and then pulled it back up. That still hurt.
    Her other leg was not skinny; her knee was swollen. The PT said it was normal for those types of injuries to spontaneously swell. She could bend her knee a little. The hard part was putting her weight on it and trusting it. The PT said he wanted to move her out of her straight brace to one that moved. It was still a scary idea.
    Cassie leaned over and grabbed the sprayer. Covering herself with the hot water, she let her head fall forward. The heat poured over her loosening her muscles. She sat, thinking back over her conversation with Cash last night. It was nice to talk to someone where she wasn’t worried what they were thinking about how she looked.
    His voice had been deep; it had a bass to it that made the hairs on her arms stand up. She knew he was tall and had the same coloring as the rest of the Rochon men. Based on Effie’s description that is. He didn’t sound like he thought she was silly. Most people did, or they thought she was a bitch. Cass always preferred them thinking she was a bitch. It was better armor.
    But he seemed to find her amusing. That was okay; she’d take that. The thought of seeing him had her nerves jangling. She was excited to meet him but scared. It was very overwhelming for her. She’d been numb for so long, not really being happy or sad. Just nothing. Now she was…something.
    Grabbing the shampoo bottle, she squeezed out some soap and worked it into a lather. She dragged her nails over her scalp enjoying the feeling. She continued washing up and rinsing off. Cassie took a few more minutes after she was done to soak again. When she figured she’d abused the Rochon’s water heater enough, she turned off the water. Reaching around the shower curtain, she pulled a towel off the rack.
    She had just started to dry herself off when