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    Three Legs
    Three Legs
    Three Legs
    Ebook39 pages36 minutes

    Three Legs

    By Hollis Shiloh

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    When Jacob wakes up in pain, missing a leg, his life changes forever. Discharged from the military, he has to find a way to heal and live the best life he can. It's easier in wolf form, where he has three legs instead of one. Finding a new home and a place of peace for himself takes effort and time, but it's worth it. Only he starts to feel lonely, as if one more piece is missing...a mate of his own.

    ~11,000 words

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSpare Words Press
    Release dateJul 19, 2018
    ISBN9781386105510
    Three Legs

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    • 5/5
      Short, cute story about healing. No trauma, just some melancholy and happines. With HEA.

    Book preview

    Three Legs - Hollis Shiloh

    Three Legs

    by Hollis Shiloh

    When I woke up in the hospital, missing a leg from the knee down, I didn't remember the incident where I'd been wounded at all.  That day—possibly several days before—was a complete blank as my body worked hard to save my life.  Keeping memories wasn't a priority.

    Waking up in that hospital was one of the hardest things I'd ever done.  I was alone, it was after dark, and I could hear the machines, the hurting patients, the hospital sounds near and far.  I couldn't move.  Everything smelled of hospital, and hurt, medicine and disinfectant and crisp efficiency—and underneath, pain and sweat and fear and blood.  Always blood...

    I wasn't awake long, perhaps ten minutes, before I fell back to sleep.  But it felt like an eternity.  It was long enough for me to hurt, to wonder what I'd done wrong, and to know my limb was missing.  And nobody was there to explain it to me.

    I'm not sure why, but I've never told anybody that I'd woken up first alone.  I let them think what they liked, that it was all okay, and I had a friendly nurse to help me, a competent doctor to answer questions, and coworkers who wanted to see me well and explain what had happened.

    But those moments alone in bed were some of the worst of my life.  Well, maybe losing my leg and almost dying were actually worse, but I didn't remember that, so it couldn't compare.

    It was going to be a long road from this point, no matter what happened.

    They said I got hurt saving someone from my unit—young Jeff.  He'd seemed like such a kid to me, half-grown and still searching for his adulthood. I remembered his hero worship.  Had he gotten himself into a bad situation, following me too closely where he shouldn't have?  I was the wolf shifter in the unit; I had more experience and skill than that kid.

    Had I rushed into an untenable situation to save him when a sensible man would've waited for backup?  If so, it had been instinct, and I cursed it.  Not that I didn't want to have saved him, but I hated the thought that losing my leg was my own fault.  Not an unavoidable cost, a roll of the dice gone against my favor, but the awful consequences of listening to my screaming instincts when they didn't apply.  Protect the young.  Save the pup!  He'd smelled more than halfway like a pup to me.  So, therefore...

    Of course, the guys all said I'd been brave, had had no other choice, had acted in a timely manner in a sticky situation to save a life.  But what would you tell a guy who was going home minus a leg?  That he'd been an idiot with poor judgment?

    Until and unless I could remember, I might never know.

    Jeff visited me the third day.  He was pretty banged up himself, bandaged and bruised and patched up.  He'd taken a gunshot to the arm but hadn't lost it.  He'd have scars, and he'd be going home too, but he hadn't lost any limbs.

    He looked at me with such gratitude, I almost couldn't take it.  He still smelled like a pup

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