Highland Shapeshifter Read Online Free PDF

his lips quirked up. “That was incredible. Did you know the air shimmers around you when you do that?”
    “No.” She frowned. News to her. “I’m usually a little too occupied to notice. Shimmers?” She’d never seen Charity shimmer. Or her grandma. She looked down at the shapeshifter. It could have been an effect from healing him.
    “Yeah. Like looking through the exhaust behind a jet engine.” His fingers skimmed her again. “It was sexy.”
    And he’s back.
    “It work?” Gabe eyed the man between them. “He went all limp all of a sudden. He going to be okay?”
    “Yes.” That came out on a swell of determination. He had to be all right. She wouldn’t let someone with his force of spirit not be okay.
    Gabe leaned back, his gaze far too perceptive.
    She looked away, dropping a hand to the shifter’s forehead and again that spark of—something—trilled between them. Sticking her finger in a light socket would be less electrical. Ignoring it, she tried to sound professional. “I don’t know. I think he’ll be fine. I was able to help his muscles relax and in turn, hopefully lower his blood pressure. It’s up to him now to ride out the drug’s withdrawal.”
    Gabe nodded. “How ‘bout that cup of tea now?”
    “Gosh, yes.” She wasn’t about to move off that bed. Her arms felt like jelly.    
    Gabe stood and padded across the floor, pausing in the doorway to give her another once over. She must look as wrecked as her bones felt. Warmth flushed inside her belly at the thought of Gabe making tea for her, at the thought that he still kept tea in his cupboards since his beverage of choice had always been cola or beer.
    “Mmmmmph.” The shifter’s hand flopped from his stomach to the mattress. Long lashes fluttered and his features screwed up with pain.
    Instantly alert, Lenore scooted closer, resting her palm over his heart, waiting for his muscles to seize and spasm again, though she wasn’t sure how much good she could do for him. Her healing strength was all but depleted.
    His head rolled against her other palm and he cried out, “Edeen, nay,” along with a string of other nearly incoherent phrases.
    “Is that Scottish?” Gabe appeared in the doorframe, a steaming mug in one hand, a cola can in the other.
    “Shhh, shh, all’s well,” she cooed to the shifter, pushing sweat-dampened hair from his face, then to Gabe, “He has a deep brogue. Like my grandmother’s.”
    Gabe set the tea and cola on an overturned crate he used for a nightstand. “Real deep.”
    She scrunched her nose. “His words are slurring with Gaelic and some other language I’m unfamiliar with.” As healers, her grandmother insisted both she and Charity learn the basics of several old languages for the simple spells and incantations sometimes required to enhance a difficult healing. Some of the languages weren’t meant for mortal ears, like the speech pattern he kept slipping into— language of the Fae , her grandmother’s voice whispered.
    Brows furrowed, Lenore tried to make out his distressed muffled words until her sister’s name spilled out on a gasp and all other thoughts were pushed away.
    Charity.
    Lenore met Gabe’s puzzled gaze across the man’s thrashing body.
    What in the world was going on?

    Chapter Four

    Near dawn, the shifter finally quieted. His heartbeat maintained a steady rhythm that Lenore assumed was normal. Most importantly, he slept peacefully, without twitches or delirium. She was pretty sure the tanglewort had cleared his system.
    She was beat. Sometime after things had gotten quiet, she’d used Gabe’s shower, borrowed one of his shirts and gotten an hour’s worth of sleep.
    She woke beside the shifter and immediately checked his vitals. He looked much better, though exhausted. The pale cast to his skin had lessened significantly, giving way to a healthy tan. The guy must spend a lot of time outdoors. He had scruffy stubble, could definitely use a fresh shave and Lenore