Phoenix (2 page)

The office was actually rather more spacious than it had looked like from the outside. Bookshelves lined the right-hand wall, filled with medical journals and textbooks. Her desk was straight ahead from the door, but immediately to his left he noticed an examination table. The left-hand side of the room was mostly blank except for a few poster, but there was a door, through which he glimpsed a much larger room filled with exercise equipment.

“A PhD? That seems a bit more on the theoretical side of the education spectrum for such a hands-on job, no?” he asked sincerely. He would have figured some sort of practical certification would be necessary.

Sydney looked at him for a moment, trying to discern his meaning. Eventually her pursed lips pulled back into a smile, divining his true meaning. “It’s four years of study in a hands-on situation, believe it or not. Would you accuse a chemist who invented a new compound for their PhD of not having done something practical?” she challenged gently.

Bowing his head, he acknowledged defeat as gracefully as he could. Her hand waved him to the chair opposite her desk and he obeyed, sliding into its stiff fabric. The one she sat in was made of soft brown leather, likely forming a much more comfortable seat than the one she reserved for guests.

“Do you normally only see people you hate?” he asked before she could speak up.

“You’d be surprised,” she told him with a grin. “The chair bothering you?”

He blinked in surprise. “How did you know?”

Her smile widened. “It’s a common complaint. Before you ask, it’s so uncomfortable so that people don’t come in here and waste my time. There’s an epidemic of people who have normal aches and pains who feel like they need my help, when really they just need to realize that everyone hurts. A sore knee doesn’t mean you blew out your ACL,” she finished with a snort.

Uriel nodded. “Sick and tired of people wanting to be coddled?” he asked with a knowing smile.

Sydney didn’t have to respond; the sarcastic eyeroll told him exactly how she felt.

“I completely understand.”

“Anyway,” Sydney said, shaking her head gently and focusing back on the present. “I keep the chair uncomfortable because I know if someone truly needs my help, then they won’t give a damn about the comfort. So,” her eyes narrowed in focus at him, “do you want my help Uriel?”

Now there was a loaded question. Uriel did not mention aloud how she had switched from referring to others who
needed
her help, to asking if he
wanted
her help. Nor did he say anything about how she knew his name. After all, there could only be so many shifters walking around with one arm who might come to see her. He wasn’t going to question the intellect he could see burning behind the hazel eyes that were staring at him intently.

Answering her question wasn’t as easy as he wanted it to be. Uriel tried to force his mouth open, to give her a nonchalant “yeah” or “yes.” He didn’t want it to be a big ordeal that he was here. But no matter how hard he tried, his jaw stayed clamped closed. Pain shot down the arm he didn’t have as he tried to force the words out yet again. The harder he tried, the more he felt pain from a limb he no longer had.

He felt incredibly embarrassed, but to her credit, Sydney didn’t say a thing. Finally, giving up on making any sound, Uriel jerked his head downward quickly before he could think twice about it.

“Why do you want my help?”

Uriel didn’t have to use any words this time. In fact, the ridiculousness of her question caught him off guard. Before he could catch himself his eyes crept down to his right arm where the shoulder ended abruptly. Sydney wasn’t stupid. She knew more than that. That was why he
needed
her help. But she hadn’t asked that, he reminded himself. She had asked why he wanted her help.

Admitting weakness was the first logical step. Uriel knew that. What he hadn’t been prepared for was how hard it actually was to follow through. Steeling himself, he licked his lips nervously and began to speak.

“I need your help to teach me how to function again.”

He couldn’t exactly explain to her that the beating he had taken at the hands of Nash’s goons up in the mountains at a remote cabin owned by Gabriel was to blame. Nor did he want to explain to her that more fighting was likely to come. She worked for Lionshead Mining Consortium, so Uriel assumed she wasn’t completely in the dark about what had been happening lately.

Still, he owed her a better explanation than that. “You know my job title?” he asked.

She nodded, still not having said a word.

“I’m currently on administrative leave. My friends are going out there, exposing themselves to risks and they’re doing so without me. That’s unacceptable. I may never be the shifter I once was, but I can still help out.” His eyes fell, unable to meet hers. “Hopefully.” Anger flared within him unexpectedly and he continued, his eyes blazing as they snapped up to meet hers again. “I may not be complete, but right now I’m helpless. That needs to end, and it needs to end now. I’m done crying about something I can’t change. I’m here to change what I can.”

Sydney gave him an appraising look. “Why do you need
my
help?” she asked simply.

Uriel rolled his eyes. He was past the games. “I need to relearn how to operate with only one arm. You help people recover from various injuries by re-teaching them how to operate and growing muscle strength where there wasn’t any.” He continued as she opened her mouth to speak, “That’s one of your abilities, at least, and one that relates most to what I need. Not only do I only have one arm now, but it’s also my off-arm. I need to learn how to live again. I have a new center of balance, my body’s muscles will work differently as I learn to balance myself again. I need exercises to help me increase the usefulness of this arm, make it more dexterous. I need agility and coordination drills to teach my body how to move quickly in various situations with only one arm.” He raised an eyebrow at her. “Shall I go on?”

The gorgeous woman across from him bowed her head in defeat the same way he had done only a few minutes earlier. “Very well, Uriel. I will help you.”

He sat back with a sigh. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet. You’re in for a lot of pain, both physical and mental. You’re going to experience failure at the simplest of things unlike anything you’ve experienced since childhood I would assume.”

His mind raced back to the first few years of his training to become a Stone Bear. There had been plenty of failures there, and Valen Kedyn had not been a kind teacher even then. A wry smile crossed his face. “You’re likely correct on how bad it’s going to be, but I may have more recent failures than you think.” His eyes hardened and his tone became like that of ice. “I also have the proper motivation.”

In his mind he felt the punches landing all over his body again and again as Kierra’s cries echoed through his head. He hadn’t been able to save her. Everything had worked out in the end, but Uriel made himself a vow then and there. Never again.

Never. Again.

He looked up to see a smattering of concern play across Sydney’s face, but she quickly hid it behind a mask of professionalism.

“Very well. Are you free to start now?”

He looked around the office, wondering if she meant right then and there. Because he couldn’t go on any runs with the Stone Bears, he was effectively on administrative leave. Uriel shrugged. “Sure.”

“Stand up,” she ordered.

His eyebrows knitted together at the firm command in her voice. Not in confusion, but at the way she instantly dropped into that persona.
It was interesting
, he thought to himself.
She doesn’t order, she
commands. It was like the way the Alphas commanded their mining crews. In the case of a shifter command was a physical thing, something that they could summon that spoke to the most basic instincts of their animals.

It wasn’t like that with Sydney, yet when she spoke in that sort of voice, Uriel knew she expected to be obeyed without hesitation. That’s why he stood up immediately, without questioning her. He would never obey her if she gave him a command to do something that went against his training, but right then, they were in her environment, and she was the boss. He did as he was told, moving until the chair was in front of him so he had space on either side.

Her eyes evaluated him, then she gave a short sharp nod to herself. “Stand on your left leg.”

Frowning, he transferred his weight to his left leg and raised the right in the air. His body flailed around slightly without his right arm to balance him, but after a few close calls with collapse, he found the balance point.

“Now switch,” she said.

He moved smoothly, placing his right foot down and leaning to his right, easily switching his weight and lifting his left leg off the floor.

It was wrong. All wrong. There was no counterbalance; he was falling back to the left, but his foot wasn’t there. Abruptly, and without warning, Uriel felt himself falling. He wrenched his body forward, reaching for the chair in front of him. With his right arm. The one he didn’t have.

His face hit the chair solidly and he rebounded off it, landing on his left side in a pile.

“Ow,” he said through the swelling of his bottom lip. It would go down shortly, but for the next few minutes, it would puff up beautifully. The bleeding where his tooth had punctured it was already slowing, thankfully.

“Are you okay?” Sydney cried, rushing around the desk and falling to her knees next to him. There was a legitimate look of concern in her eyes.

Uriel nodded, rolling awkwardly onto his left side as she scrambled back from him. His arm found the floor and pushed him back onto one knee. Using his legs, which both worked fine, he hauled himself back to his feet. The entire time, Sydney hovered by his side, arms outstretched to help him.

“Doc,” he said, reaching out to brush aside her arms. “It’s okay.”

Their hands made contact.

The jolt of electricity jerked through his system, contracting his fingers around her palm. Air practically whistled through his nose as he inhaled sharply. Blue eyes met her hazel orbs and time stood still.

Is this how it works? Did Gabriel feel this way when he met Caia? Is that even what I’m feeling?

None of the shifters he knew had felt such an instant connection with their mate. Not from what they’d told him, at least. The realization had taken some time to percolate through their brains, as if they’d been slow to recognize what they had in front of them.

Uriel knew it right then, however. Sydney Hightower was destined to be his mate. He looked into her eyes, searching for the answering look of realization that he knew must be evident in his own.

His ice-blue eyes blinked rapidly in confusion. Sydney was staring back at him, her eyebrows raised as she glanced down at their hands. It wasn’t even a look that said she wasn’t sure what she was experiencing. It was a “Please move your hand before it becomes awkward. Okay, it’s now awkward” look.

Snatching his hand back as if he’d been burned, Uriel fought down his panic. Could she have not felt it?

But it was so strong. So clear to me.

Another thought played itself through Uriel’s head. It was his bear that would recognize a mate. He knew that much. But Uriel and his bear hadn’t spoken at all since the injury.

So what had he just experienced then? The hairs on his arms and neck still stood on end from the shiver that had run through him as he felt her soft skin for the first time.

What the hell is going on?

Sydney

The calm and collected face of a professional was locked rigidly in place on her face. She was sure of it. That was about the only thing she could be sure of at that particular moment. There was a lot she was rather unsure about. Such as what the fuck had just happened when they touched.

His hand jerked away suddenly, and she lowered her own slowly, determined not to be the first to bring it up. Sydney had given and received static electric shocks before. She knew what those felt like and wasn’t fazed by them in the slightest. Even when they happened with a stranger, it was rarely awkward.

But what had just happened with Uriel? That was new. The surging desire that rushed from somewhere in her body straight between her legs, while simultaneously electrifying every nerve ending had done more than just shock her. It had scared her. Shifters were different than humans; she was mentally aware of that. This, however, this was the first time she had truly
experienced
it. Her only defense now was to retreat behind the veil of professionalism until she figured out what it meant.

“I can see we have some work to do,” she said, making light of his unexpected tumble earlier.

A shaky laugh from Uriel told her that she hadn’t been the only one who had felt it. Swallowing hard she pressed on, vowing to make it through at least day one. Part of her screamed out to voice her concerns and questions with him. She clamped down on that hard and overruled it. If it signaled something, that something would come on its own.

She had seen and heard of the way women basically tripped over themselves to sleep with shifters, especially bears. For all she knew, this was just part of the act, part of the subtle power they managed to exert over humans. Sydney wasn’t going to let herself fall into that trap. Her position was tenuous enough within the company. She didn’t need to go risking it any more by opening herself up to being caught sleeping with a patient.

“Where do you suggest we start?” he asked, still standing next to the chair.

She moved herself behind the desk while she thought. “I can see that you’re already dressed for activity, so let’s start with some basic balance drills.”

Leading the way, she showed him into the fully equipped studio next to her office. Uriel followed, slightly closer than she would have been comfortable with, but Sydney didn’t say anything. She felt oddly comfortable when he was nearby, despite the intellectual knowledge that he was almost inside her comfort zone. He was that close.

Uriel whistled. “This is a pretty fancy setup Doc. Do you actually see that many patients that HQ thought it was worthwhile to equip this?” His hand swept out to encompass the neat and orderly rows of free weights, machines, mats, and other equipment that filled the room.

“You’d be surprised,” she said honestly. “The company as a whole employs over four hundred people, believe it or not. That does include a large amount of you shifters, who never seem to need medical attention. In fact, I think you’re the first one I’ve ever seen in here except on the operating table. We seem to get at least one a month who we need to cut open to remove a branch or something else that can’t just be yanked out.” She frowned. “You sure are a violent bunch.”

Her charge had the good graces to look embarrassed at the accusation. “We all have our problems,” he said, though he refrained from explaining any further beyond that.

Sydney was aware that most of the shifters in Genesis Valley tended to be the “rejects” from the outside world. The theoretical knowledge of that hadn’t stopped her from being surprised by just how brutal life in the little valley between the mountains actually was. Like many of her colleagues, she had taken the job for the money. As a human, she was relatively safe among the vicious giants, as she knew if they harmed a hair on her body, they would be killed, or ended, as they referred to it.

She resolutely ignored the fact that several humans were killed every few months. Living in a big, normal human city could just as easily find her killed crossing the street. It was a tradeoff that she was willing to risk for the money that the mining consortium paid her.

“Okay, come over here,” she said, motioning to a set of bars mounted to the floor and wall. “Now grab here, straight out in front of you,” she instructed after positioning him facing the wall. His hand stretched out in front of him at shoulder height and gripped a bar. “Good. Now transfer your weight to one leg and slow let go of the bar as you find your new balance point.”

She stood behind him, her hands stretched out on either side of his muscled torso. It was rather ridiculous looking, because if he began to topple over, there wasn’t much she could do. Looks could be deceiving however, and as she saw Uriel begin to fall, she simply placed a hand on his side and gave him a slight counterbalance, evening out his balance point. His hand was much slower to release when he switched to the opposite leg. It took him almost fifteen seconds to find the balance point.

They repeated the drill over and over again, switching from one leg to the other. “The goal, not today,” she told him sternly, “but over the next few weeks, is to get you to the point where you’re able to release quickly. Finding your natural balance point is something that takes babies months to do. So don’t be surprised that having to relearn all your muscle memory will take some time as well, okay? No getting frustrated if you aren’t perfect by next week.”

She felt her stomach flutter at the wry grin he gave her.

“Yes ma’am,” he said, though there was no sarcasm at all. He meant the title purely out of respect.

“This, and several exercises I’m going to give you for increasing your finger strength and control are things that you’ll be able to do at home. In fact, I suggest that you try to incorporate them into your daily routine. If you can do them once an hour for a few minutes at a time, your progress will increase exponentially.”

“Perfect.” His shoulders shrugged helplessly. “The one thing I have right now Doc, is plenty of time.”

“I expect to see you in my office daily in that case,” she replied. Part of her wanted that because it would be something to do. Although she saw patients, her days as a whole were generally filled with doing research and increasing her knowledge. Having an actual patient to practice on would be invaluable to her. “I’ll have to do some more research into other drills that will help you learn to function with only one arm,” she admitted. “It’s not something I’ve ever had to deal with before, but I do know there are plenty out there.”

Sydney clamped down on the question that almost slipped out afterward. Curiosity would be the death of her one day. Knowing how he had come to lose the arm was something she desperately wanted to know. In her time in the Valley, the healing and restorative powers of shifters had come to shock and then amaze her. It must have been something horrific that actually tore the arm off. Shifters were also notoriously strong, which reduced the options of what might have done it. Part of her hoped that one day Uriel would confide in her what had happened, but for now, she was reluctant to even ask.

“That’s okay. I’m going to have to live with this forever, so time is not really a factor on that scale,” he told her, turning away from the bar where he had been continuing his exercise of shifting from left to right. She had stepped back to think of other drills he might be able to do.

“I’ll have some ready for tomorrow,” she said, forcing herself not to bite down on her lip as the glaciers set into his face focused on her.

The attention made her feel attractive, as if he was devouring her the way ice absorbed anything that came near it in time. Despite the nature of his eyes, there was nothing but warmth radiating from them, and from him as a whole. Every time he smiled, despite the pain she knew he was harboring, the smile touched his eyes. It didn’t melt the anguish in them completely, but she knew it represented his inner strength, the ability to accept what had happened
was
in there, though she could just as easily tell he hadn’t done so yet.

“Should I keep doing this?” he asked, looking over his shoulder at the rack.

“Not quite, we’ll switch it up.” Absently she placed her hands on his shoulders and turned him ninety degrees, so that his left arm, the one he had, was toward the wall, with several of the mounted bars stretched out vertically and horizontally both between him and the wall and straight ahead.

“What now?” he pressed eagerly.

She laughed at his desire to learn. “Slow down tiger, I have to go get something.”

Moving to the other side of her room, she opened up a storage unit on the wall and retrieved a balance board from one of the racks.

Wordlessly she placed it in front of Uriel. He looked down at the plastic half-ball that supported a circular platform.

“Well get on already,” she scolded when he didn’t move. Instantly he stepped forward, putting one foot on, then the other. His arm automatically grasped the bar in front of him to ensure he didn’t go over.

She watched, interested at the way he moved only when she told him to, not doing anything unless he was expressly told. It reminded her of something, but she couldn’t quite place it.

“Now, try to balance without holding on to the bar,” she told him.

Obediently, he released his grip on the bar, though his hand still hovered nearby while he tried to learn to balance himself with only the one arm.

“Good,” she approved as both of his feet stayed off the floor, balancing on the board. “Very good. Now, you had your left foot in the air and your right foot on the ground last time. Reverse that.”

“Yes, Doc,” he said and complied with her orders. He unbalanced himself so that the left side of the board was on the ground and the right side in the air. There he waited.

Shaking her head, she smiled from beside him. “Now, balance yourself again.”

Immediately he worked to balance himself back upon the board.

“You take instructions well,” she commented, still trying to discern what it was about his methods that felt odd to her.

“Orders,” he said, his voice thick with concentration as he tried to let go of the bar and stay balanced.

“What?” she asked, momentarily distracted at the flexing of his forearm.

“Not instructions, orders.”

Then it dawned on her. “We’re not in the military Uriel,” she said with a light laugh.

“Maybe not you, but close enough for me.” He shrugged, his hand inches clear of the bar.

The shrug threw him off balance, as his one arm moved, but nothing counterbalanced him on the opposite side. He threw out his hand to grab the bar, but it was too late. Even the length of his giant frame was too far away as he toppled over, all semblance of control gone. Right toward her.

Sydney cried out, trying to get out of the way of the titanic form descending upon her. His shoulder sent her to the floor where she lay on her back, looking up as he fell upon her. A massive thud shook the ground almost on her head, accompanied by a strained grunt from Uriel.

“Move,” he gasped. “Please.”

She opened her eyes to see him hovering above her, his one hand firmly planted on the ground less than an inch from her head. His muscles strained to support him in the awkward position with only the one arm for strength.

She scrambled to the side, snatching her arm out from below him just in time as he collapsed onto the thin mats that covered most of the floor. Their faces were mere inches apart, and his eyes fixed on her as he searched for any sign that she had been hurt in the fall. Sydney became uncomfortably aware of their proximity to each other as the heat he naturally generated reached out and enveloped her, taking the chill off from the cold floor she was lying on.

Get up.

She couldn’t. Okay no. Truthfully she told herself it was that she did not want to get up. Something about Uriel made her want to get closer. She smiled shyly at him, enjoying the look he gave her in return.

“Okay,” she said from where she lay on her side next to him. “Let’s take that a little slower, shall we?” She reached out to pat his arm, which he currently had curled under his head like a little pillow.

The same electric shock that had run through her before materialized again. This time it hit Sydney like a brick wall, slamming into her. Her blood, already up and pumping after the excitement a few seconds earlier, went into overdrive as it burned through her. Heat exploded along her cheeks as she realized her body was rapidly preparing itself to be taken by him.

She wanted him. Right there.

Okay girl. Get ahold of yourself. You definitely can
not
have sex with him on the floor of your office. That is just a no-go. Leaving out the part where you just met him, you can’t do it here.

Sydney snatched her hand back as if she had been burned as the thoughts ran through her mind. She didn’t want to have sex with Uriel. Okay, part of her did, but not the logical part of her brain. Hell, not even her heart was sure it wanted that. The two of them could win out in a battle against the raging furnace between her legs that desired the attractive shifter lying so close to her.

She hoped that they could, at least. It wasn’t that the idea of having sex with Uriel disgusted her. In fact, he seemed like a good guy, but she had barely known him for half an hour. Sydney Hightower was not that sort of woman.