When Cassia woke up she did not immediately open her eyes. Not only did her head still hurt but her whole body felt bruised and beaten. Wiggling a couple extremities reminded her she wasn't a human at the moment, but rather a great grey-white polar bear all the way down to the tail. This would come in handy though. She didn't know where she was. The last thing she remembered was seeing Huck's limp wolf form floating in the river. Then there were strangers in the water pulling her out. She didn't know who they were or where they were. She didn't recognize any of them but that didn't mean they weren't her Kings men.
The exhausted polar bear held still and focused on her heightened senses. First, she could feel that she was laying on something soft and there was a cover of some sort over her shoulders and middle. Where ever she was, it was warm. The crackling of a nearby fire could be heard and it smelled lightly of smoke but stronger of some type of food that Cassia imagined must taste delicious. Her polar bear nose could smell more than that though. She tilted her head just a little to get a better smell from what ever she was laying on. There were smells of people but none she recognized. Round bear ears moved ever so slightly as she listened for voices. She could hear some but they were too muffled and far away to make out what they were saying or if she knew them. Bracing herself, Cassia slowly opened her eyes.
The girl found herself in a small room in what was a brown clay house. There was a fire in a fireplace beyond her feet with a little stone pot beside it which must have been where the wonderful smell was coming from. Inhaling deeply now, her stomach growled loudly. She may get better senses as a bear but she also had to eat so much more to keep from starving. She was laying on furs and a pallet of some kind. Shifting her sore body around a little she felt that it was some kind of straw or something similar. There was a knitted blanket laying over her but at her polar bear size it didn't cover even half of her. There was a small window across the room covered by a hide but she could tell the sun was probably just starting to go down.
It was then that the dancing shadows from the fire flickered across something in the far corner she hadn't noticed. There, curled on a similar pallet of furs, was an enormous black wolf. Something like a gasp came from her bear mouth as she watched him very closely. Was he alive? Then, barely noticeable, she saw his chest gently rise and fall with his steady breaths. Unable to control her excitement and relief, she scrambled to her feet. Cassia had not taken into account how weak and tired she was or how much her head hurt for no sooner was she up than she crashed back down with a thump.
Cassia froze, realizing with the noise of her fall, the muffled voices had gone silent. She looked opposite of the fire, down the wall from Huck's corner, and saw a doorway with a tanned hide taunt in a square frame making up a door. She forced herself to roll into a bit more of a defensive position in case these strangers from the water were out to harm her or worse, from her Kings land. When the door eased open, she found herself face to face with a lean man with chocolate brown eyes and dusty brown hair. He looked somehow nervous and confident at the same time as his eyes stayed on hers. She glanced down, looking away first and taking in the sight of him. He was barefoot as everyone normally was except if they were in their human form in the winter. He wore cream colored breeches and a dark brown, long sleeved tunic hanging open. Cassia recognized his from the river but also somewhere else she thought although she couldn't put her finger on it.
"Hello," he said in an unexpectedly deep voice, "You don't need to be afraid. We don't intend any harm for you or your mate."
Mate. If a bear could blush, Cassia would have been. She hated it when people referred to she and Huck as mates. They were best friends since they were children and she loved him deeply. In all their lives though Huck had never once asked her to be his mate even after all they had went through together and she had never asked him either. It was just something they didn't talk about. He was the person she loved most in the world though and she knew she was that for him as well. She assumed one day they would be mates but for now they were happy as they were.
Cassia glanced over at the sleeping form of the wolf and was surprised he had not stirred at the sound of this strangers voice. Normally he was much more on guard, always seeming to sleep with "one eye open" as the saying went. She wondered if this man had spoken to Huck already. She looked him over again and saw he held no weapon. Her polar bear senses told her he wasn't lying about not wanting to hurt them. Cautiously, she eased out of her position and relaxed back onto her pallet, still keeping her eyes on the stranger. A small smile of relief came over his face and he eased farther into the room. Once he was positioned more directly in front of her, he folded his legs and sat on the ground in front of her.
"My name is Nico," his smile was shy now, "I would be happy to know the name of you and your mate but I can tell you have both been through a lot and will need time to heal before you shift back. In the meantime, I brought you here to the home where I live with parents and two of my younger sisters. My Father says you can stay until you're better if you'd like." He paused here and looked over Cassia and then glanced behind him to take in Huck. "I don't know that he'll be able to leave anytime soon," he continued softer now, "My mother is a healer and she looked him over. She used a bone needle to stitch up a deep gash on his belly and one on the side of his throat. She has him bandaged now. She says he'd lost a lot of blood and is really weak. I guess she thinks his ribs may be cracked and he's really bruised kind of all over. After being in the river he was so cold we had to work to warm him back up. We thought he was dead until we tried to pull your bag out of his mouth." He stopped to chuckle look down at his hands, "He probably used the last bit of energy he had to try to bite our heads off. That's how we knew you must be his mate."
Cassia looked past him at the sleeping wolf and now noticed the strips of bandage covering his wounds. She imagined him angry and afraid and trying to attack this man, thinking he was a threat. If he had been at his normal strength she had no doubt Huck really could have bitten Nico's head off. Her heart warmed thinking about how Huck loved her so much he would always protect her. As if sensing their serious subject, the sleeping wolf coughed and wheezed in his sleep. Cassia sat up and studied him intently, worry filling her.
"Yes," Nico hesitated, uneasy as he looked back at Huck too, "He's been sick as well...since being in the river. My mother says the cold nearly killed him and now he's going to have to work hard to make sure it still doesn't. We've been feeding him broths and water, as much as he'll take...." They were both quiet then, watching him sleep, on edge as if they were expecting something terrible to happen. "Don't worry," Nico said again then turning back to her, "I think he's doing better. The first say he was so weak we held his head up and poured things into his mouth. Now, he's been lifting his head enough to drink out of the bowl himself. Mostly he sleeps which means his body is working to heal. I think it'll take a while but I know he'll get better." Nico gave her an encouraging smile then as he stood. "I'll go get you something better than broth. I'm sure you're hungry. Then you should get some more rest as well. The sooner you're better the sooner you can shift and tell us all about you if you want."
He left the room then. As soon as the door was closed, Cassia pushed herself up as much as she could and slowly made her way across the room to where Huck slept. She laid down beside him and gently buried her nose in the thick fur at his neck. She inhaled the familiar smell of him and listened to the steady beat of his heart and let it calm her. When she pulled back and looked at him again, she found familiar golden-green eyes on her. Her heart leapt in her chest and she rubbed her head against his excitedly. He was weak but he lifted his head and tilted it into hers, closing his eyes. Her heart felt like it could burst with how happy she was to see him awake and alright. He may be sick but he was a strong man and she knew he would fight and recover.
When Nico came back carrying a wooden tray loaded with meats and a bowl of warm broth, he found the two of them together in the corner. The bear was curled around the wolf and the wolf was resting his large head on her shoulder as they slept. He smiled at them and sat the tray down a bit in front of them. They would eat when they were hungry enough. They needed their rest too. He turned to leave the room, looking at them once more. If anything would help the wolf get better, the care of his mate was certain to.