Free Wolver's Rescue by Jacqueline Rhoades Page B

what it contained and began eating. She’d never had a
cheese omelet that tasted so good and the bacon, sausage, and ham
on the side were every bit as delicious.
    “ If you’d rather have
meatloaf,” Bull tried again, “Or a roast beef sandwich?
Chicken?”
    He laughed when Tommie kept nodding her head,
but never stopped eating. She couldn’t stop.
    She tried to slow down, knew she was being
impolite, but her stomach was on fire with the need to eat. When
the first container was empty, she reached for the second, ignoring
the fact that Bull had barely started on his own meal, although she
did notice his sunny side up eggs looked delicious, too. She plowed
through most of the pile of fries, enjoying every bite, but her
body craved meat. She was halfway through the order of fried
chicken, when Bull caught the hand holding a wing.
    “ Slow down. There’s no sense
packing it in if it’s going to come back up.”
    He had no idea how close he came to having
his restraining hand bitten. If her mouth hadn’t been so full, she
might have growled aloud.
    He pulled his hand away and held out a carton
of milk. “More protein,” he told her, “You need it. Those cuts and
bruises don’t look like they’re healing as fast as they should. You
had that bruise on your cheek when I found you. It should be gone
by now. Those cuts on your feet should be healing up, too.”
    The container of milk was halfway to her
mouth. She stopped and stared. “How did you know?”
    It was another piece of her weirdness. She
healed twice as fast as other people. She’d broken her arm once,
when she was six. Coincidently, another little girl in her class
had broken her arm in exactly the same way. Tommie’s cast was gone
in three weeks, the other child’s in six. A black eye turned yellow
overnight and disappeared completely in two days.
    “ Because all wolvers heal
fast?”
    His questioning tone made it sound like she
should know that piece of information, but she had no idea what a
wolver was.
    “ Me. You. Us. Me. You. Us.
We have name. Mate!”
    The thing inside her started to jump and
churn. It spun. It leapt. Tommie was pretty sure it did
somersaults. At least she hoped it was her secret friend, because
if it wasn’t, her stomach was about to erupt.
    Bull must have voted for the stomach, because
he leaned over, grabbed the waste basket and held it under her
nose. “Told you, too much, too fast.”
    “ Me. You. Us. Me. You. Us.
We have name. Mate!” The damn thing
wouldn’t leave it alone.
    “ Stop it.” Tommie’s whisper
hissed out between her teeth. One hand went to her stomach. The
other went to her head. “Shut up.”
    Bull’s head cocked to the side. “Was that for
me?”
    Damn it! She’d spoken aloud. She knew better
than to do that in front of people. She gave him her standard
excuse.
    “ Oops, sorry, bad habit.
Comes from living alone.” Thrown off course, she pinched the bridge
of her nose, trying to gather her thoughts. What was the word he
used?
    “ Wolver!”
    “ Your wolf giving you a hard
time?” He was nodding as if he understood. “Never let your wolf
rule your human is easier said than done, yeah? Mine used to drive
me nuts. Always arguing.”
    “ Excuse me? Did you say
wolf? You argue with your wolf?” She felt like a fool even saying
the words.
    “ Sure, doesn’t everybody?”
The big guy shrugged and loaded the last forkful of meatloaf into
his mouth.
    “ Well no, Bull, as a matter
of fact, everybody doesn’t,” she said with exaggerated patience and
just a smidgen of snark.
    “ Shit, don’t tell me you’re
one of those touchy-feely nudist types.”
    Tommie thought his eyes looked a little
hopeful as he wiped up the last bit of gravy and sucked it off his
finger. Watching that finger slide slowly in and out, she felt her
lower abdomen clench and her rear end rise off the bed as she
leaned toward him. Unable to take her eyes from that finger, she
licked her lips and asked weakly,