In turn, he grabbed my nails and dug them deeper along that scratched up chest. I opened another little line and Leo snarled, his other arm encircling me. He filled me, overfilled me, and I felt the stickiness seep out between us in a flood of stress and exhaustion that left him breathless. Xav still had me by the hair, but he was careful not to hurt me; and he wasn't far behind Leo, either.
Xavion ground against my ass, snarled under his breath, and shudders as he lost control of his form as well. Claw-tipped fingers dug into the joint of my hip, pinning me where I was against him; though it wasn't as if I could escape or if I wanted to. Instead, I leaned back into him and lowered my head, exposing the back of my neck and letting myself lean on the hand tangled in my hair.
It was almost as if I could feel him smile as he leaned down and sank his teeth into that exposed skin, too. Holding me close against him, down against Leo at the same time, he let out a sigh and sagged over my back. They were right; they usually were about things like this. Maybe it was some kind of alpha knowledge or sense that I didn't have. Even the doctors said it. Sex helps you relax. It's something we should all do a hell of a lot more often than we do it, and it's almost always good for us when we have it, so long as everyone is on the same page.
I nestled in between my alphas and reached out for Gabe, who came over to settle in the cuddle pile as well. There, I fell asleep between my alphas feeling safe, wanted, and loved. My last thought before I slept was a hope that everything could go back to normal, that my pack would be just fine without us getting further involved.
Deep down, I knew better than that.
Chapter Thirteen
Leo
There was nowhere else on the planet that I'd rather be than deep in my omega, even if I was sharing her with the rest of my pack brothers.
Unfortunately, there were places to go and people to see. In the wee hours of the morning, just before dawn, I pulled myself out of our puppy pile and snuck back to our bedroom to find clothes that a reputable man such as myself would actually wear to a proper meeting.
See, maybe Sadie hadn't bothered to give me an assignment, but I damn sure had found one to give myself.
I could make a joke about rotten eggs. I could even make it amusing, if I really tried to do it. I cursed as I tripped on a stair at the bottom of the flight and a flashlight's beam hit me square in the face. My lupine pupils took a moment to adjust. I scowled at Lillian. "What?"
"You smell like you just fucked your way through a gallon of lube. Why are you running off?"
She was dressed in a hell of a lot of nothing, but she usually slept naked. Nudity really wasn't as taboo for us as it was for humans, but she'd been some kind of a nun for several years. I had to wonder if anyone had ever walked in at her at the... nunnery? I couldn't remember where you kept a gaggle of those fine ladies. "I'm just going to get some milk. Bread. You know, the stuff you buy before a blizzard."
"There's no forecast for a blizzard, Leo. What're you doing?"
Her tone had softened, but that goddamned flashlight hadn't. I snatched it out of her hand and turned it off, putting it on the side table nearest to us. "You won't run off and tell Sadie if I tell you what I'm doing?"
"Not if it's something sane. You go nuts and to hell with that, I'm telling."
I scowled at her. "I'm a grown ass adult-"
"Debatable."
My scowl deepened. "-And I'll do whatever I want. I own this place. You don't. If I want to run off super early, I can do what I want. It ever occur to you that maybe I'm going to deal with the museum?"
"With them? Or the several lawsuits they're talking about filing against the company?"
I wiped my face and sighed. "I'm going to talk to the phoenixes. I'm going to try to get them on our side of this before things get more unhinged. And then yes, I intend to head off to work with the museum. Because you just know that we can't get a fucking break around here right now."
There was a distinct pause and I thought she might actually try to stop me. She was one of those rare female alphas and I'd seen her in a fight once or twice. It wasn't something that I wanted to get involved in if I could possibly avoid it, but if she was determined to stay between me and that door, I'd be going through them both.
"Fine," she said, finally. "But don't let your kids down. You're Tommy's favorite uncle and the quads adore you. Come back after you're done pissing off the birds."
I gave her a grin and shook my head. "I'm trying to make friends with the little birdies, not that. I'll be back for dinner. If I'm not, tell Sadie I'm an idiot and that I'm sorry. Would you?"
She grunted but moved to the side, clearing the way for me. I nodded to her, headed outside, found my motorcycle, and got on the road.
The last I knew; the phoenixes were nesting up in the cliffs not terribly far from where Eskal's last stand had smashed Hudson to smithereens. I checked to make sure my phone was still in my pocket as I flew past spots where cops would usually be waiting. Thankfully, I'd gone blasting around so much in the past few years that I'd gotten used to their shift change times. The morning always left a good twenty-minute gap for stupidly high speeds and dangerous rates of travel.
Imagine, a billionaire forced to take one of those ridiculous driver's safety classes. Then imagine me, I mean him, turning it into a circus for the teacher.
Look, I know that I come off like a jerk sometimes. I've got a chip on my shoulder the size of a small planet. It's something I'm working on, but it's just so damned cool to outsmart the cops and blow through abandoned traffic stops that I can't help myself. It's almost like you're flying when you're doing way-too-fast on a bike and no one is there to stop you or scold you for it.
I never saw the nail in the road and I only learned about it later when they found it in the wreckage of my bike. The tire touched it and exploded like an over-inflated balloon, screaming rubber against the ground. I went over the front handlebars, hit the road, and went spinning along until inertia stopped hating my guts.
The world above me was touched with the first rays of dawn, just tinting the sky grey. Something a thousand miles away was on fire, but mostly I was worried about the fact that I couldn't feel anything below my neck. Nothing seemed to want to move, either.
I'll say this; being paralyzed isn't all that much of a worry for a werewolf. We heal. But the human side of my brain wasn't having it. I wanted to run, to go hide somewhere safe and sound, but I couldn't move and something was burning. That meant I needed to put it out or go away from it until someone bigger, stronger, and smarter than me could do it.
As I laid there, I thought through Lillian's words. I couldn't disappoint the kids; no one else knew I'd been putting together a special holiday vacation for us except for my travel agent. I'd even arranged for some of Sadie's favorite rescue workers to come in and tend to the household pets and the house's rescues while we were gone, though I hadn't told them where we were going.
Goddess, I just wanted the pain to show up somewhere in my body. I wanted to know I was still alive. That creak in your knee when you go upstairs, the spasm in your lower back when you stand up too quick? Those tell you that you're alive and that you might be overdoing it, but at least you were still capable of doing something.
I was there for over an hour before I heard sirens in the distance. I didn't know if a passing car had seen me or what had happened, but suddenly there were three ambulances at the scene and a cop pulling up near them. I squinted up at the guy in blue, realized I didn't recognize them, and that was it. My lights went out and I was down for the count.
They say that when you're unconscious, regardless of the cause, you're supposed to dream. I say they're full of shit, because I didn't have anything in my head while I was floating in that inky darkness, that terrible, confusing place where I wasn't aware of anything.
Wow, did that change when I woke up. Agony seared through me, as if I'd been put face-first through a grinder. My skin screamed, my bones sobbed, and generally spea
king, my body was through playing nice with me. Who could blame it? I knew my bike was dead. You didn't have a tire pop like that and expect a bike to make it.
As much as I love them, they're just pretty unstable when it comes to wrecks. A car has a lot of crumple zone, a lot of places where it can take impact and more or less survive from it. A bike doesn't do that, and that's part of why people feel so free when they ride them. I'd rolled the dice, acted like an idiot, and I... was not in a hospital.
That, more than anything else, brought me to as much wakefulness as I could possibly manage. The shape I was in was irrelevant. I was somewhere other than the logical place I should be after an accident like that. Had I been kidnapped from the scene of a bike wreck?
A phoenix peered down at me. Its face was masculine, the flames wreathing each individual feather a little more than my eyes could take. I flinched away, then flinched again as the motion sent a shiver of pain through me. "How'd I get here?"
"You did a stupid thing. What is it that the humans say? Play stupid games, win stupid prizes? What were you thinking, Fontaine? If you'd run into someone, you'd have killed them and yourself."
I would have recognized that voice anywhere. Kaspard was the leader of the phoenix flock nearest to us, the one who hadn't been present when Alashia had shown up. "Fair enough I guess, but how'd you get me away from the ambulances?"
My voice was strained with pain, not the typically melodic sort that it was most of the time. But hey, you try peeling half your skin off on asphalt and see how you feel afterward.
"We attended your injuries. We bought a medical company some time ago and brought you up here upon realization of who you were. Though I must admit, when you're naked and sprawled in the street, it takes a moment to identify you. The humans would have known you in an instant, doubtless, but their scent senses are better than ours," Kaspard said.
I wanted to sit up, but it wasn't worth screaming about. Everything in me had to gather together to lift a single hand to wave my thanks to him. Most of the skin had repairs itself, but one digit was still somewhat cocked to the side. "I'm not saying I don't appreciate it; I just don't understand it. What's in it for you?"
"A bargaining chip," he said. "Alashia wants your mate alive in exchange for Eskal from the fairy queen."
"You use me to get your hands on Sadie, then you use Sadie to get your hands on Eskal?" I asked, just wanting to be sure that I followed along. My head felt rather fuzzy, and not in the way that meant a fun frolic in the woods was coming up.
Kaspard sighed. "I know. It seems rather convoluted to me as well, but my flock thought it best. It would appear we are becoming something more like a democracy rather than a proper flock with a pecking order."
"Sucks to be you," I told him, simple and sweet.
His flaming bird face didn't seem quite as pleased to have me near it as he had, and it withdrew shortly thereafter. The light of his feathers left my vision and I stared at the ceiling of the... was it a cavern? Wherever I was. I could deal with pain, long-term if I had to, but something else was wearing on me. It was a big, red, bitchy dragoness named Alashia.
I wasn't all for getting into bed with the humans and making alliances with them, but if it meant getting rid of her and her flight? I was starting to get on board with the idea. It'd only been floated last night during the meeting, and by Lillian of all people, but it had potential. I knew one thing was for certain; I damn sure wasn't going to lay there and pretend to be bait for Sadie to show up, save me, and everything go to hell for her.
Alphas were supposed to protect their omegas, damn it, not put them in more danger. And look at what I'd done. One stupid move ad I'd become the perfect bait.
"Psst."
Oh?
"Psst!"
The sound came from my right, the opposite direction that Kaspard had gone. I slowly turned my head to look over at whatever was making that sound, only to see a man all in black waving at me. How the hell was I going to get to him? I recognized Julian, a member of the mix crow and raven shifter flock, but I could barely shake my head at him. There was no way I was going to be able to get up, walk over, and sit myself down beside him.
"What are you doing? If you get up, we can get away from this before the stakes raise any higher. The birds are busy hunting," he whispered, his voice grating against my ears.
I scowled at him. "Do I look like I'm capable of doing anything other than laying here?"
"Did they disable you?"
My mind reeled at the absolute stupidity of that birdbrained-. "I disabled myself like a dumbass. What do you care? Are you suddenly all buddy-buddy with us?"
"We are attempting to be but you are making it exceedingly difficult. Get up, if you are any sort of a man, and we will fly you home."
That was something I wanted to see; a bunch of little birds lifting me up and carrying me off in some kind of modern flight miracle. Besides, weren't there only four or five of them? I hadn't seen anyone else with them at any of the full moon meetups we'd had as a community, and they always tended to hang out by themselves. What did they have to gain by trying to take me under their wing and fly me off into the... whatever time of day it was? It wasn't like I was certain, though it was certainly still dark wherever I currently was at.
"Listen to me," Julian said. "You have to get up. You have to. We can come no closer without the phoenixes sensing us. They know we are here, know what we feel like. All bird kin can sense one another, you know that. And with Alashia right outside-"
"With what now?" I whispered, my heart jerking to a staccato tempo in my chest.
If I could get my paws under me, maybe I could sneak attack her. I was a pretty stealthy guy when I wanted to be, though probably not when I was as injured as I was. The smart move would be to attempt to make my way to the corvids and escape, but with the dragoness so close it was hard to be tempted away from getting a cheap shot in on her. I ground my teeth, shuddered at the agony that spiked through me, and looked over at Julian, who beckoned me again.
Okay, time to be the badass alpha that momma raised me to me.
First came the worst part, turning over to get my arms and legs under myself. I accomplished it with only a very manly whimper, a sheet of skin crackling as I did so. I was healing, sure, but it wasn't as fast as I needed to. I got myself up on my elbows and the world went white with pain. Okay, the elbows were a no-go. Got it.
Instead, I tried sliding my wrists under myself. With that leverage point, my body still cried out but it wasn't as bad as it had been. I slowly lifted myself, clenching my jaw the whole way, and managed to get to my hands and knees as my stomach demanded I bring up every ounce of bile and food in it. Did you know that you evacuate everything when you're hurt badly enough? I puked across the floor, head lowering, and heaved as silently as I could, hoping that the phoenixes wouldn't notice.
Her Light was with me, or I'd gotten awfully lucky. I dragged my poor, broken body over to the side of the cave; it was definitely a cave, that Julian was in. He wrapped an arm around me, which made me want to kill him even more than I wanted to murder Alashia, and hauled me against his own body. There, he shoved something into my mouth and forced it closed.
"Swallow it. This will make you one of us, something that we may carry," he said, stroking my throat.
I growled at him, swallowing and pulling away as best I could. "I'm not a dog. You could have just told me I needed to take the pill. Do those work on shifters of different species? I thought we had to keep them same species only."
As the words left my mouth, the air left my lungs. Tortured bones and skin tore themselves apart to restructure me as a tiny, black bird. The alien body, the strange sensation of being so light compared to my heavier werewolf form; I didn't care for it at all but I was willing to cope with it if it meant keeping Sadie safe.
Julian reached down and picked me up in careful, gentle hands. He tucked me in his pocket and away we went. I felt us surge up and down several times, as if cli
mbing rock outcroppings or perhaps some sort of stairs or ladders. Once, he accidentally bumped me on something rough and the world went dark for a while, making it impossible for me to figure out what he was doing.
At last, he pulled me from his pocket and put me on a table in a terribly bright place. My tiny, beady eyes focused on a group of men. We were all in a car, going at a decent clip if the windows were reliable in this ridiculously tiny body.
I said nothing. I couldn't. Instead, I passed out in the cupholder they left me in, broken and exhausted, a failure in every possible way. I'd put Sadie in danger, maybe the whole family. I had to change.
It wasn't going to be easy. But it was worth it.
Chapter Fourteen
Sadie
Leo returned to us relatively unscathed after a week in the hospital, healing faster even than Hudson was. We'd been to visit several times over the past few weeks, but the doctors were pretty certain that Hudson was going to be fine; in time.
Puppy Problems: A Reverse Harem Werewolf Romance (Her Secret Menagerie Book 3) Page 12
