Page 5 of Her Chosen Protector

Every team member took a moment to look backwards to where the night sky burst brightly in an angry inferno. Asher saw his commander’s jaw clench. As their leader, Ash knew that Max took the loss of men on a mission as a personal failure, but every man on the Night Storm team felt the loss just as deeply. They might’ve only met the pilot and co-pilot tonight, but still for a few hours, they’d been members of their team, and they had died.

It hurt.

He could swear he heard Xavier grunting in agreement.

God, how bad had he hit his head?

After an hour of sucking down vomit, Asher heard blessed words from Max.

“Hold up. I want to have Kane give us an updated intel briefing.”

“Good, I think Asher needs to puke and suck down a mint, and Leo looks like he’s limping, so we can take care of that while we’re at it,” Raiden said wryly. That was Raiden—the king of understatement. Asher flipped him the bird. However, when Raiden handed him a tin of wintergreen Altoids, he decided that the man was back on his Christmas card list.

“Thorne and Perez, sit down before you fall down, that’s an order.” Max rumbled. “Kane, your computer tablet still intact?”

“Yep. Take a two-minute breather and I’ll have the latest info.”

Raiden, who had just finished up his advanced medic training, came over to Asher to check out the bump on his head. Ash made sure not to flinch when he probed it.

“See, I told you guys it was nothing.”

“Yeah, sure. It’s just an itty, bitty mosquito bite,” Raiden said sardonically. “For God’s sake, it

looks like you’re going to hatch an egg.” He pulled an instant cold compress out of his rucksack and squeezed it, then handed it to Asher. “Hold that against your bug bite during the briefing.”

“Seems to me that you should be giving the compress to our friend Perez. He’s the one that stuffed a sock down his pants,” Asher smirked.

“Huh?” Raiden looked over his shoulder. “Dammit! How’d I miss that?”

“You were too busy playing nursemaid to me, and that dumbass was trying to hide his cantaloupe.

Do you have another cold compress? Because if you don’t, I think Leo needs mine.”

“Perez!” Raiden might have whispered his shout, but it was definitely fueled with the fury of a pissed-off medic. It was clear Raiden was trying not to call Kane and Max’s attention to the matter.

Nic’s head swung sharply to take in Raiden’s face. Leo took a little longer to turn around. He knew what the problem was. He was busted.

Raiden stalked over to where Leo was sitting on a log with his injured leg stretched out in front of him. Asher ambled over a little more slowly. He didn’t want to admit it, but his head really hurt.

Leo held up his hands. “In my defense, I didn’t know how bad it was until I sat down.”

Asher snorted. “That just makes you stupid.”

Raiden glared at his patient as he pulled out his med kit. “Nic, go get—”

It wasn’t a great surprise to anyone but Nic when Max dropped Kane’s backpack next to Raiden.

“Kane said to grab what you need out of his kit.”

Raiden’s expression didn’t change as he began rifling through Kane’s rucksack. “Asher, cut his pants from the bottom to his knee, let’s see what we have.”

“I think he’s trying to give birth.” Asher cut a slit in Leo’s pants, then moved out of the way so Raiden could inspect the damage.

“Well, it isn’t a big bruise, so that’s something,” he said as he gently prodded Leo’s knee. “I’d say it’s a burst bursa. How painful?” he asked as he examined Leo’s face.

“Nothing I can’t handle,” Leo said confidently.

“You’re so full of shit,” Raiden said as he twisted the cold pack to activate it. He handed that and the stretch bandaging to Asher. “Apply it.”