Bohdie nodded, and I could tell the lion was real close to the surface.
I swallowed hard. “There’s been an accident. Sammie needs you.”
Bohdie reared back, shock contorting his features as he tried to work out why I would need him. I spotted the moment he figured it out. “No,” he gasped, and I shook my head.
“There were kids. They were scared and we couldn’t just leave them.”
Bohdie just strode past me. “Sounds like Sammie. Let’s go. The longer this goes on, the worse it is for him. But first, we have to find Cara.”
I nodded. That worked for me, because she was in the direction my heart was leading anyway. I had to tell Mouse that her mate was now going to be a cat.
When I pushed open the door, Mouse tried to fly out of bed and into my arms. Only the strong hands of Cara held her down, coupled with her own frailty from her injuries.
“Thank fuck you’re back, I was so worried.” She paused and studied my face. “Is Flint okay? Did you get him? Fuck, Bobby tell me. I’m going out of my mind.”
I reached her in three long strides, kissing her softly. “We got him, baby. He was a bit banged up, but Stacey is looking after him.”
“Then why does your face look like that?” Damn the girl for knowing me too well. “Where’s Sammie? Bobby, where is Sammie?”
I swallowed hard and stood up. “Sammie is fine. But there's been a bit of a problem. He was bitten, and it seems to have taken. He’s going to shift.”
Cara paled, and Bohdie was there, wrapping her in his arms. I couldn’t drag my eyes from Mouse. I watched the emotions race through her eyes. The fear that he wouldn’t make the change. The happiness that he was now long-lived, like us. The guilt that chased that happiness, because we’d stolen his human life from him. Finally, she swallowed, and pushed up on her elbows. “Bohdie will complete the change?”
I nodded, and Bohdie whispered into Cara’s hair, “I won’t let anything happen to him.”
She shifted her body around. “I wanna be there.”
“Mouse—”
“I wanna be there, Bobby. Now find me a wheelchair or carry me like a fucking invalid, I don’t care. But I’ll be there when my mate changes even if I have to commando crawl my way there myself.”
I believed her too. “Dammit. Why are you so damn stubborn?” I growled as I unhooked her from her splints and slings. I hoped she’d healed enough that this wouldn’t do damage to her already mangled bones.
I was careful of her bad arm and leg, but by the gritted teeth I knew she was hurting. She didn’t let out a single hiss of pain though. Stubborn and brave. I carried her down toward Sammie’s room, but I stopped at Enit’s first. Finally, Mouse let out a moan of pain.
I nuzzled her head, wrapping her in my arms and my warmth. “She’ll be okay. Stacey won’t let anything bad happen to her, and Bohdie has been with her this whole time. She’s not alone.”
She choked back a sob. Cara reached out and grabbed her good hand. “I was sitting with your stubborn as fuck brother too before these guys dragged me in to babysit your stubborn ass. Family trait, for sure. But we’ve got you, girl.”
Mouse’s lip wobbled, and I could see her fighting it back. I walked her into Enit’s room and angled her so she could touch her littermate. A small sigh passed Enit’s lips, like she was comforted by the touch, by knowing that Carmen was safe. “Love you, E. Wake up soon, okay?”
I didn’t miss Bohdie touching Enit’s foot like he couldn’t help himself. There was more than booty between these two, but I’d been too caught up in my own relationship drama to pay attention. Still, Bohdie followed us out as we walked to the last isolation room. I keyed in the code to open the doors, and when Sammie saw Mouse, he struggled to his feet.
“Put her on the bed,” he gasped out.
I did what he said, and then pointed to the bed. “There’s room for two on there.”
He gave me a crooked grin, but he was weaving on his feet. He looked past me at his sister, and his face softened.
“Hey, Sis.”
Cara’s face went through a comical range of emotions, before she settled on anger. “How could you get yourself turned?” She shouted, her hands on her hips. “What if you die?” She whispered the last bit, like she didn’t want to tempt fate.
He held out his arms, and she ran into them. “Not gonna happen. I’m Damnation, you know we’re impossible to kill,” he laughed, and she punched him in the shoulder.
I didn’t get it, but it made her smile. “You better fucking be, or I’m calling Judas and you can explain why you died to him.”
She stepped back and he swayed a bit more violently. I put my hand on his elbow, ready to catch him in case he face planted. “Into bed, big guy.”
He laid down gently around Mouse, and kissed her uninjured cheek. “Love you.”
She closed her eyes as she soaked in his words. “Love you too.”
I stepped back, and let Bohdie in to do his thing. “Have you ever seen this done before?”
He nodded. “Yeah, I accidentally bit my adopted mom as a kid, and my Pride turned her. I’ve got this, Alpha.”
I let out a deep sigh, and stepped toward my Packmates wrapped around each other on the bed. All I wanted to do was climb onto the bed with them and keep them both safe. But I couldn’t just yet. Soon.
Instead, I kissed both of them gently. “I have to check on Flint and track down Monster, then I’ll be back. Be good.”
My future stared back at me from the pillows, but I still managed to drag myself away. Stepping into the hallway, I knew it was time to be a real Alpha, and that meant make sure my whole Pack was fine, even though my heart screamed to be back in that room.
Flint first.
44
Carmen
My whole body screamed in pain, but not even close to the pain in my chest. Seeing Enit like that, like a broken porcelain doll, had carved a ragged wound through my heart. Now, the anxiety was going to eat me alive as Bohdie stepped toward the bed.
He looked down at us both, his normal cockiness disappearing in the face of the last twenty-four hours. Cara hovered behind him, valiantly trying to hide her fear but I could smell it on the air like arsenic.
“So, I’m just going to give you some of my blood. It's a pretty simple process really, but don’t tell your sister. She’s been trying to become a pretty lion since she saw my parents in the woods.”
Cara punched him in the bicep again. “Shut your face, Simba.”
Sammie’s mouth curled a little at their antics, then he frowned. “Am I going to be a lion shifter too?”
Bohdie shrugged. “I don’t know. Normally you’d take the blood of the breed of shifter that bit you. But you can’t take it from a kid and I don’t know any other panthers so...?”
Sammie nodded, and Bohdie grabbed a scalpel from the trolley beside the bed. He sliced a line across his wrist, tilting it slightly so blood welled to the surface. He held it to Sammie’s lips, but then the door slammed open and Stacey rushed in.
“Stop! For the love of Socrates, did none of you listen in shifter biology class?”
Bohdie pulled his wrist to his chest and stared at the tiny girl who was scowling in front of him. “Shifter what class?”
She hefted a bag of blood by her side and huffed. “I forgot you guys were new.” Her eyes slid to me. “You and Bobby should have known better. You don’t just give a turning shifter any old blood unless you want him to get super sick, as the different venoms would war inside his bloodstream for supremacy. He needs the blood of the shifter who bit him, or at least someone of the same genus.”
She strode to the side of the bed, still mumbling to herself. “I had to find the kid that bit him, work out if he was a jaguar panther or a leopard panther. Panther isn’t a breed, you know, it's a melanistic variation of the different species. So congratulations, Samuel, you’re a jaguar.” She began hooking up the bags of blood beside the bed. “You’ll also be happy to know
that Flint is fine. Banged up to all hell, and probably pretty sore and sorry for himself, but judging by the old scars and x-rays, it wasn’t his first beating, and probably not even his worst.”
She said it completely emotionlessly, like she was stating a fact that Flint had been so abused, that being beaten nearly to death wasn’t a new experience for him. If you didn’t know her, you’d think she didn’t care, but I’d known Stacey since kindergarten. She cared, but all her emotions were filtered through logic. She didn’t need to be sad for him anymore because he was free. He’d never be beaten again. Feeling sad for the man in the past was a waste of energy, that kind of thing.
She opened a cannula and grabbed the back of Sammie’s hand, pushing it in with expert precision. Then she connected it all together, and the blood flowed down the tube and into Sammie. “Because we are a school filled with shifters and other supernaturals and sometimes one of you has a little oopsie and bites a human, we keep the blood of a lot of the different shifter genuses here in the medical wing, in a charmed refrigeration unit to maintain the magic.” She frowned as she moved away from the bed. Grabbing her stethoscope, she checked his vitals once more. “So we had some jaguar Alpha blood on hand, though most big cats don’t adhere to social group structures, so there's really no such thing as a jaguar Alpha per se. I hear that sometimes getting the transitional blood from the bag and not directly from a living being can make the transition rougher, so I apologize for that. Every transition is different, some can take minutes and some can take hours, so I’ll leave you to it. Once you’ve had the full transfusion, I’ll return to check on you. Now, Alistair needs me to do the observations on the rest of the patients, and if I see your shapeshifter Alpha I’ll send him back, after I give him an earful.”
I lifted a hand to stop her. “Can you put Flint in here too? We’d both feel better with our Pack around.”
Stacey nodded. “I’ll get your bed sent in here too. You need to get back into traction.”
I swallowed hard. “Stacey.” The girl stopped beside the door and looked at me. “Enit…?” I whispered.
The first hint of true emotion crossed her face. I saw the fear and the worry, and it softened her face until she looked like an entirely different person. “The surgery went textbook perfect. The rest is up to her. But she will be okay, Carmen. I refuse to let her be anything else.”
With that, she strode out the door.
I looked back at Sammie, watching his face for changes. But he looked just the same, his hair a little floppier, his cheeks flushed with fever. He reached over and stroked my cheek, and it was hard to miss the tube coming from his arm. “It’s going to be okay, Sweetheart.”
I rubbed my face against his head, my nose twitching at how much his scent was changing already.
True to Stacey’s word, one of the seniors appeared with my hospital bed. I snarled when they tried to lift me from Sammie’s bed, but the wolf seemed okay with Bohdie doing it, like it recognized Enit’s scent all over him. I got them to push the bed right up against Sammie’s, and I could tell the change was beginning to ride him hard.
He had gone pale, and the sweat was starting to bead on his brow. He shook, and I reached out and gripped his hand.
What felt like hours but was probably only minutes later, the door slid open and Bobby walked in, Flint in front of him in a wheelchair.
Something in my chest relaxed with all three of them in the room with me. I still needed Monster, but my wolf was content with three of her mates in one room.
Bohdie squeezed Cara tight. “I’m going to sit with Enit. I don’t want her to be alone.”
Tears welled up in my eyes and I blinked them back rapidly. “Thank you, Bohdie. I promise not to cut your dick off.”
He gave me his brilliant grin, and I saw briefly what had Enit so enamored. He was a bit too shiny for me, but still, there was something about him. He shook his head. “Crazy bitch. I’m going to hold you to that.” He slipped from the room, slapping Bobby on the back as he walked past them.
I saw Flint, his face an absolute mess, and I burst into tears. It was too fucking much. Too much.
“Sugar Plum, Carmen baby, it’s okay, don’t cry,” he said in a raspy pained voice that just made me cry harder. He struggled to his feet and lurched toward me. He climbed onto Sammie’s bed, and I could tell every movement was painful. But eventually, he was situated between us, able to touch us both.
We soaked in each other's warmth, Cara on the other side of Sammie, and Bobby sitting beside me. We were crammed into that tiny room, but I needed everyone. Like a switch, being nestled amongst my mates, my body finally gave up to a healing rest.
When I woke again, the deep even breaths of the men beside me told me that everyone was asleep. My eyes flew open, drifting over a sleeping Flint. Sammie looked okay. I watched his chest rise and fall, assuring myself that he was still alive. I cataloged his body parts, and he looked like average old Sammie. Maybe the bite didn’t take after all?
I tried to squash down the disappointment at the idea, guilt riding the feelings heels. I should be happy he hadn’t lost his humanity, that he was the same man I’d fallen in love with. I left him sleeping, looking over at a dozing Bobby.
I tried to work out what had woken me, and then Monster stepped from the shadows. Months ago, that would have scared the shit out of me, but right now, all I felt was relief that he was okay too.
“Bobby said you were shot.”
He shook his head. “Just a bullet. It takes more to kill a Wendigo.”
I smiled softly at him, wishing I could pull him into my arms. “I’m glad you’re here. That you’re okay,” I whispered softly.
He nodded, and his face was achingly tender as he stared at me all trussed up in bandages and traction. He stepped closer, and my nose twitched again at a familiar scent. Blood.
I frowned. “Are you sure you’ve healed?”
He nodded. “You’re smelling this.” He produced a red cloth-wrapped bundle. No, not red cloth. Blood-soaked cloth. He handed it to me and as I unwrapped it, part of me already knew what it was.
Inside the cloth was a heart. It wasn’t black like I’d imagined.
“The heart of your enemy. He isn’t a threat to our—I mean, your Pack anymore.”
There was a low rumble beside me, and I realized everyone was awake except Cara. “Our Pack, Monster. You have more than earned your place in our Pack,” Bobby corrected softly.
I looked at the body part in my hand, and I knew it meant more to Monster than just a piece of our enemy. It was a declaration. Unlike most shifters, there were three parts to Monster. There was the human, the Wendigo and the wolf shifter he used to be. I was the wolf's fated mate, but this heart was proof that his Wendigo considered me his mate also. A creature that was perpetually starving had just handed me its primary food source, gift-wrapped at that.
It was romantic as hell, and I smiled at Monster with watery eyes.
“Thank you, mate. You’ve protected our Pack well.” The words were more formal than our normal interactions, but this was important.
I handed the heart to Flint, who was wide awake and staring at the heart like it was going to grow limbs and come back from the dead.
“It’s time to end this once and for all. Turn it to ash, and then the last of the psycho will be gone from our lives forever.”
Flint nodded at my words and cupped the blood-soaked package in his hands. Within seconds, it went up in a fireball until not even ash was left. I looked past him to Sammie, and yellow-green eyes stared back at me. The eyes of the jaguar.
Seconds later, they melted back into Sammie’s normal dark brown and I shook my head. “You’ve turned. Do you feel different?” I asked softly, and Sammie nodded but didn’t elaborate. I reached across Flint and held out a hand. Our fingers curled together on Flint’s chest, and I felt our magics intertwining, trying to work out who was more dominant.
I turned back to Monster, who was standing there a
wkwardly, the longing on his face so damn painful. I smiled and waved him forward.
“Come here. My wolf wants to scent her mate.”
I swear, I saw his whole body ripple with desire. Not sexual desire. Surprisingly my broken, swollen face wasn’t overly appealing. No, the desire to be loved or held or something emanated from Monster in waves. This I could give him.
Bobby scooted back, and Monster filled his space. He folded his huge body into the hard molded plastic seat.
“Closer.” He leaned forward, but he was still too far away. “Closer, Monster. I promise I don’t bite. Well, I do, but you’d like it.” I grinned at him and he looked at me bamboozled, but still, he leaned closer. He wasn’t even breathing. I lifted my face up and captured his lips with mine, and they were surprisingly soft.
The kiss was gentle and brief, and he closed his eyes reverently for a moment. When he lifted those midnight eyes to mine again, I was trapped in his stare once again. “Thank you for bringing my mate back to me. Thank you for returning to me. I can’t wait to be your bonded mate.”
He reared back like I’d punched him in the chest. I frowned, making grabby hands, until he was close again, then I pulled his head down to my chest, right over my heart. I stroked his hair, and let our proximity ease us both. His body went loose as tension escaped his body, and I looked over his head and met Bobby’s eyes as he took me in with my other fated mate. “I love you,” I mouthed and he mouthed it back.
I didn’t deserve that man.
In a room filled with the men who I would one day call mine with irreversible bond marks, and the threats to our Pack nothing more than ash, I finally let myself go to sleep again.
45
Monster
I watched Mouse from the side mirror of Sammie’s car as she all but hung her head out the window, the passing wind picking up her long, dark hair like streamers. For a second, I forgot how to breathe.
Rebels and Runaways: Eden Academy Book One Page 28
