Page 5 of Bad Witch

The husky growl in his voice set off little tingles across my scalp. “Yes, definitely.” I opened the file and scanned my notes anyway because I needed a minute to regulate myself. Stop being a silly goose and get on with it. I was taking a course online, one Magnolia had recommended, that taught different physical therapy techniques, combining the old remedies, magic, and some human advancements, and we’d been trying a few of them on Fender since his situation was so unique.

“What happened to your wrist,” he said roughly.

“Hmm?” I looked down. A purple bruise had already come up where that male had grabbed me. I yanked down my sleeve, covering it. “It’s nothing.”

“Doesn’t look like nothing.”

“I bumped it earlier. It’s fine, really.” I don’t know why I was lying, probably that scary note to his voice. I looked up at him again and found his eyes burning into me.

Oh dear. Taking a calming breath, I channeled Barbara Hogan, the tutor of the course, and cleared my throat. “So, Fender, how has your pain been since I saw you last week? Have you been using the tonic I made you?”

“Yeah. It’s helped.”

His voice always had a bit of a growl to it, and more tingles slid over me in a way I liked very much. It was odd. I didn’t much like males and actively avoided most of them. Often, I feared them. And, at the very least, I was wary of them, especially when I was forced to be alone with one, and recent unfortunate events with an angry wolf shifter had reminded me why. Not that I needed a reminder. With Fender, though, when he spoke with that growl, I barely resisted letting my eyes slide shut and succumbing to a pleasurable little shiver. Be Barbara! “Good, that’s really good. And what about the potion to help you sleep and the oil for your stump?” There were good males though. I’d encountered several since I’d started leaving the cottage. Before that, the only males I’d been in contact with were the worst of the worst. It came with the job. There were, of course, females who were monsters as well, but in my experience they were the minority of offenders, and that included in my line of work.

His jaw tightened. “The potion’s helped as well.”

I noted that down and looked up again. “And the oil?”

Fender had a thick auburn beard, nicely trimmed but thick. Still, it didn’t hide the way his jaw tightened again. “Haven’t used it.”

“Have your scars settled already?” He’d been attacked by a Hell beast months ago, a river monster, to be precise. It took one of his legs, just below the knee, and since then we’d discovered the Vysan’s saliva could continue to attack long after its bite. “I wouldn’t think you’d already be⁠—”

“They haven’t settled.”

“Okay.” I chewed my lip as I studied him. His injury wasn’t something any of us had dealt with before. Our treatment had been a matter of trial and error since it happened. He was also extremely hard to figure out. It didn’t help that I was already at a disadvantage when it came to social interactions and reading people. “Do you want to tell me what your aversion to using the oil is?”

My job wasn’t just about physical therapy and custom-made medicinals, a lot of it was also helping patients come to terms with their injuries, especially if they were as violent and catastrophic as Fender’s had been. I had a lot of experience with severe injuries. I gravitated to this kind of work naturally, but before coming here, I’d mainly worked with females and children, and only directly after they’d suffered those violent injuries, not weeks or months after the fact. I knew very little about adult males, or how their minds or bodies worked. I’d been trying to study up on their physiology, but I was far from an expert.

“Fender?”

He said nothing.

“I’d really like to help you. Whatever you tell me in this room stays between us.” The fact that I was able to sit in this room with a male as big as Fender, offering him help, a male with the ability to shift into a giant hellhound with jagged fangs and glowing red eyes, still stunned me. The power of my ability—the drive to heal, to help—was stronger than the fear and distrust of males that had been instilled in me, first from my own father and his cruelty, then by Matilda W and our work.

He sat forward.

I forced myself not to jerk back.

He licked his lips, rested his forearms on his thighs and cleared his throat before his gaze slid up to mine again and gold shimmered across the amber of his irises. A swirl of nerves spiraled from my belly and up behind my ribs, and I tried not to show any outward sign of just how much of an effect he had. Instead, I smiled, trying to reassure him.

His gaze slid away. “Touching it, the stump…” he said roughly. “It fucks with my head.”

I nodded as my anxiety drained away and sympathy replaced it. “In what way?”

“It doesn't feel like my own fucking body. My foot…” He glared down at where his foot would have once been. “It itches sometimes, and I got a cramp in my calf last night, and before I’d fully woken up, I reached down to rub it.”

Frustration and pain flowed from him. I wished I could take it all away. What would Barbara say? “That has to be a really weird feeling…and triggering. But you need to touch your stump, Fender. You need to get used to it.”

“Why?” he said.

“Why?” I hadn’t expected him to ask that. “Well, if you can’t touch your own body, it could create future issues down the line, especially with…with intimacy.” I’d just finished the module on touch therapy. It had focused a lot on intimacy. I’d found it extremely interesting.

He frowned. “You talking about fucking, Temp?”

My face heated. I’d only learned that term recently, and I was instantly filled with mortification. Be professional. Be Barbara! “I’m talking about loving yourself the way you are now, Fender. If you want a loving relationship, and yes, a healthy sex life.” I didn’t even stutter when I said S.E.X. You got this, Temp. “If you want intimacy with a mate in the future, or other loved ones, you need to come to terms with this change to your body.” I didn’t smile, even though I was extremely proud of myself.

He studied me but said nothing.