The fact that they knew nothing about the people behind it offered the only problem to that enticing idea. It might be the foxes. The foxes hated changed humans. He wouldn’t put it past them to target those who hadn’t completed the transformation.
On the other hand, if they were after her, why were so many whyr also dosed with it?
The elitist bastards had been known to run other foxes out of dens if they mated with a human. The police didn’t know what the purpose of this dose had been. When he considered the effects, killing might have been their goal.
Her fingers twitched in his hold. He looked up, wondering if she was dreaming again. It wasn’t the first time her grip had tightened. She’d pulled against his hold on a few occasions, but she hadn’t woken. This time, her brows drew together and her eyes tightened.
He stood and combed her hair away from her face. “Hey, Chloe, have you decided to wake up?”
A small moan rolled from her. Her eyelids scrunched tighter, flicking open before closing again. He frowned at the action. She was awake. The tightening of her muscles made that clear.
His shoulders sagged as the tension slowly released. He exhaled heavily. His woman was back.
“Come on, baby. Let me see your eyes.” He stroked his thumb across her cheek. “I’ve waited all night for you to wake up.”
“The light… It hurts my eyes.” She shook her head, and her voice lowered to a whisper after the first word.
Judging by the way she grimaced, more than her eyes hurt. He grabbed the call button and pushed it. Perhaps they could do something to help her pain. In the meantime, he lowered the lights until a soft glow remained. To help further, he released her hand, turned, and closed the blinds.
Her eyes opened to small slits first before she relaxed enough to expose those brown orbs. “Thank you.”
Her voice emerged at a bare whisper.
“How are you feeling?” He lowered his voice, hoping to ease her pain.
“My head feels muddled. I have the worst headache ever, and my eyes are burning. My stomach feels sore, and my body feels heavy and disconnected.” She moaned. “Did I throw up on Logan or something? And Tony, where is he?”
“You didn’t throw up on Logan. You collapsed outside of the bathroom. Tony’s also in the hospital. Logan’s sitting with him. There was something in the beer you drank. Something strong.” Jase squeezed her hand.
“Is he all right?” She drew in a sharp breath and her eyes widened.
“He’s stable, but he hasn’t regained consciousness. They’re monitoring him more than you because of the way the drug affected him. I’m glad you’re awake, but now that you’ve reminded me, I should text Logan to let him know you’ve woken up. He’s worried, too.” Jase pulled his phone out of his pocket when two nurses walked into the room.
“Oh, good, you’re awake. How are you feeling?” A redheaded nurse walked over to the bed and started taking her vitals.
Jason watched and listened. Chloe told them how she was feeling. The nurses called in a doctor. Jason expected it to take an hour for the physician to arrive, but he arrived within ten minutes.
Jason watched the man. His eyes tracked the movement of the doctor’s hands while he checked her vision and reactions. Jason didn’t like the other male near her. He allowed it to get her out of pain. When he considered the amount of strain and the sensitivity she’d experienced earlier, he wanted her treated.
“We’ve negated the effects of the drugs we know are in the toxin you drank. There were other chemicals that we don’t know. The lab is working on it. In the meantime, we’ll treat the pain and keep watch over you.” The doctor entered something on the tablet he carried with him. “They should bring you some pain medicine and something to eat soon. Perhaps that might help your stomach.”
Jason nodded. It might at that. She hadn’t eaten anything since lunch yesterday. He grimaced. He should have thought of that before.
The urgings of the bear part of him to care for his mate pushed against the knowledge he should wait for the word of the physician. The conflicting impulses pulled at him and were giving him a headache. Tension tightened the muscles of his shoulder and back.
Jason saw the doctor closing the program he used and figured he planned to leave soon. He couldn’t let that happen without talking to him.
“How soon can she be released, Doctor? Or at least go down to see her other mate? If he wakes up and can’t get to her, that might cause a significant problem in the hospital.” He needed her cleared to at least go see Tony before the man left the room.
“Other mate? I don’t see it noted on her chart that she’s mated. She’s human.” The doctor glanced up and frowned.
“We told the nurse who admitted her, but the place was a madhouse at that time. It wouldn’t surprise me that they missed it. The mating is days old.” Jase looked over at her with a smile. He let his hand rest on her blanket-covered leg.
“We’ll correct that and move her to a room near his. She should get out tomorrow if she continues to improve. We want to observe her for a short time to make sure the drugs clear her system. I don’t know about him. He’s not my patient.” The doctor nodded. “The nurses will take care of it.”
Having both of them on the same floor would be great. It would make staying with them and in touch easier. Even better would be in the same room, but that wasn’t possible. Tony might not be awake now, but he would wake up. When he did, he’d demand to see Chloe first thing. He’d known that she wasn’t well before he felt the effects of the drug.
She’d been placed on the floor where humans were treated. Whyr and humans were kept separate in the hospital as part of normal practice. Sometimes whyr changed if they had a serious injury. It helped with healing. However, seeing an animal roaming through a hospital could freak out the calmest person.
They tried to keep human mates, no matter how newly claimed, close to the injured whyr. It would reassure Tony to have her close, even if he couldn’t be in the same room. Chloe would be more vulnerable than a whyr. On the other hand, her body seemed to have handled the poison better than Tony’s.
“Do you think they’ll move me down to Tony’s floor?” She glanced up at Jason when the nurses left the room.
“Yes, no one wants to have to deal with a bear who’s panicked over his mate if they don’t have to.” Jason shook his head. That was true. Other whyr hesitated to get in a bear’s way when he was trying to get to his mate.
“I was worried about him waking up before you regained consciousness. Logan would have problems stopping him. Tony might hesitate to hurt Logan, but he would go over him.” Jason shrugged. “I would have been happy if I could have taken you down there to see him.”
“Do they put mates together in the same room when they’re both shapeshifters?” She wiggled around a little, tried to sit up, and groaned. Her hand fished around on the bed, searching for the bed controls.
“Are you uncomfortable? In pain?” He put his hand on her shoulder.
“I want to sit up. And what about mates in the same room?” She grimaced.
He used the bed controls to ease her into a sitting position. A nurse came in with her medication. She injected something into Chloe’s IV. Jason kept an eye on the woman. He didn’t expect her to hurt Chloe, but he couldn’t trust anyone fully at the moment.
The smell of Chloe’s pain roused his protective instincts. She’d been poisoned while they were with her. That infuriated and scared him. The bear within him stayed close to the surface. It watched anyone who drew close to her.
The bear was so frustrated that the one thought the bear sent was “mine.” Normally, most communication between them happened with images and emotions. Communication with words took time to develop.
Being a whyr was an exercise in balance. The animal within was part of them, but also separate, in ways independent. Most of the time there was a steady relationship between man and animal. They were distinct yet connected.
The
animal did communicate and cooperate with them, but it also had a drive to fulfill its own drives. It craved the freedom of the forest and cool air, needed to socialize with others, and the opportunity to play or run. If that was withheld, it would take over to fulfill those desires.
“Is that for the pain?” Chloe asked.
“Yes, it shouldn’t be long before you’re feeling better. Once you’re out of pain and they have a room ready, we’ll move you down near your mate.” The nurse smiled.
After the nurse left, Jason began gathering her clothes. “They don’t put mates in the same room. It could be dangerous if they had to do something that caused pain. The whyr might attack the nurses.”
“He might attack a nurse or doctor?” She frowned and looked like she didn’t believe him.
He could understand her doubt. Generally, a whyr had control over the animal half of him. “If he’s hurt or is under the effects of medication, it can lessen his ability to keep the animal back. No one wants that type of accident.”
She nodded. “Why did that drink hit so hard after a couple gulps?”
“They added a few things to the toxin Logan was dosed with the night you met him.” Jason brushed his fingers over her shoulder.
He trailed his fingers up her neck. He’d like to slip in beside her and feel her body against him. The closeness would ease some of his tension. He stayed where he was. Her health came before his comfort. He remained standing at her bedside.
“Why is Tony not awake and I am? Shouldn’t it be the other way around? After all, unless he took a huge drink after I left the table, he had less than me.” Her eyes blinked fast and she shook her head.
“He did take another drink. It’s the metabolism. The drugs traveled into his system faster than yours, even though you showed symptoms before him. They pumped some of the poison from your stomach before it digested.” Jason leaned down and dropped a kiss on her forehead. “Rest, baby. Soon they’ll move you down to Tony’s floor. After we get you out of here, you’ll have to deal with some overprotective bears.”
Chapter Eleven
Chloe’s eyes narrowed in annoyance when the door opened. Tony again. She didn’t need to look up from her laptop. The deep spicy musk of his scent drifted into the room, disrupting her thought processes when she’d gotten them under control.
The fragrance increased every time he walked into the room. It was slowly driving her crazy. A few times, she’d wanted to push him up against the door and maul him. Damn pheromones.
She lifted her eyes and gave a slight nod. Tony stepped into the office. His white shirt and black pants looked crisp after a few hours of work.
The unrumpled state seemed unnatural. She wanted to wrinkle his shirt, maybe give him a smudge or two. He almost looked too perfect. The mussed state of his blond hair though saved him from that.
“How are you doing?” Tony asked.
She resisted the urge to say what popped into her head. She was the same as she had been when he entered the office thirty minutes ago. The sarcasm wouldn’t have any effect. He’d missed it the last time.
“I’m doing good, Tony.” She leaned back in the plush, super comfy black office chair.
“Do you need anything to drink or eat, baby? We’ll be here a while, and Jase and Logan won’t be off work for hours.” Tony walked over and leaned a hip against the big wooden desk.
“I have some of the peach-lemonade that you brought me.” She gestured to the pitcher on the far end of the desk. “I thought maybe if you get time, we could eat together.”
The checking irritated her, but she did understand it. They worried someone might come after her again. Not that she thought she’d been the target in that drugging. She had been the one human drugged that night, and she didn’t think it was intentional.
The police had checked the video of the bar area. Nothing had been done to the drinks there. The waitresses brought the drinks to the tables and had no opportunity to taint them.
All of the customers who were drugged had ordered one of three varieties of beers. The police thought that something had been done to the beer itself. They were testing the beer from the tapped kegs. They had a problem discovering when it had been tampered with. Logan and Jason’s attitudes hadn’t given her much hope of finding a lead from it. It was enough to put a girl off beer.
“That sounds great, Chloe. How about you take a look at the menu? Next time I’m around, I’ll get your order and put in for us.” He reached down and opened one of the drawers near her right hip.
He pulled out a menu and put it on the desk. She glanced down. What else did he have in there? She’d managed not to snoop by focusing on her work, but that one glance roused her curiosity about the rest of the drawers. It pulled at her. She’d resist the temptation, but couldn’t stop turning her gaze to those mysterious drawers.
He left. She tried to get back into work. It wasn’t easy. She’d planned to get some designs done. It hadn’t happened. Every time he came into the room, she began thinking of the interesting positions they could try on the furniture.
With a long sigh, she pulled out her headphones, plugged them into her phone, and cued up some music. After a few moments, she managed to put her irritation aside and get to work.
When Tony stepped in front of her, the sudden movement drew her attention. She gasped. Her heart thudded in her chest. Damn, he’d startled her. She pulled off her headphones and stared at him.
“Baby, you need to be more aware. We don’t know who drugged you.” Tony shook his head.
She decided to try to turn his attention away from that. “Do you have any screen wipes? My screen is grungy.”
His eyes narrowed, but he reached down and opened a drawer. She looked down. Along with a pack of screen wipes, she saw a plush purple dinosaur, a ball, and a box of pens.
“If you need anything out of here, feel free to take it. Treat this as your own office. The distraction isn’t going to work.” He put the box on the table.
“What’s the purple dinosaur for?” She wasn’t going to stop just yet.
“To entertain my nephew when he’s here. That’s better than him grabbing a handful of staples in the top drawer. Now, how about we get back to the danger?” His tone turned serious.
She waved her hand and rolled her eyes. “You know I wasn’t the target of that drugging. It was more likely you.”
“We don’t know who they targeted. On top of that, there are foxes after you.” Tony took a deep breath before he spoke.
He probably hoped to remain calm. They’d discussed it a little before. He didn’t see it the way she did. She could live with that.
The constant watching, that she didn’t know if she could live with. She hadn’t been alone since she’d been released from the hospital earlier this week. The constant guard made her crave alone time. The urge built more with every day that passed.
“Yeah, I don’t think they’re after me.” She shook her head and grabbed the menu.
Rather than start an argument now, she looked over the menu choices. She didn’t want to get into it again, because they’d gone over this before Tony brought her here. None of the men would change their minds. The inevitable fight would only heighten her agitation.
She tamped down the surge of irritation, anger, and hope. Part of her wanted to read more into their actions. She fought the tendency. Their continued protectiveness wasn’t some sudden proof of emotion. It was possessiveness of what they considered theirs.
Tony plucked the menu from her fingers and stepped around the desk. He turned the chair to face him and knelt in front of her. His hands stroked over her thighs, drawing her attention downward.
“The food can wait. You don’t see the danger. I can understand that. You haven’t grown up among shapeshifters. I bet you’ve heard nothing except the bits that make it to the public.” His hands eased upward.
“Tony, there hasn’t been an attack on me since they found me in the store. I think they’ve backed off and
this a waste of our time. I know that still leaves the people doing the poisoning, but they haven’t gone into anyone’s home. I should be safe there.” She folded her arms across her chest. Obviously, there was no avoiding another rehash.
With every stroke of his hand, her flaring black skirt edged up her thighs. The heat of his palms seeped through the skirt heightening her awareness of his every move. She licked her lips and met his eyes.
“With whyr, it’s not as simple as that. We learn to stalk our prey and that’s what they consider you. They’ll wait and try to find you at a vulnerable moment. We’re going to try not to give them that time. This world is new to you and there’s so much you don’t know.” Tony’s fingers tightened a little on her leg.
Hunger burned in his dark chocolate-brown eyes. He would see the desire mirrored in hers. His scent seemed to increase. Every inhale of his spicy musk enhanced the ache building within her. Her nipples tightened.
She fought the urge to part her legs and show him where she needed his touch. The muscles within her pussy clenched. The lack of anything filling her made the rising desire hotter.
She gripped the arms of the office chair to stop herself from guiding his hands underneath the material. “Has something been hidden from the public?”
“Not in the way you mean. There are a lot of small things that don’t make the news or gossip. The foxes fall into that category.” His hands lifted, but he settled them on the exposed flesh of her legs.
“What’s so bad about the foxes? From what I’ve seen, whyr people are like humans. Most of them are good people who try to do the right thing, but there are a few asses among the bunch who make things difficult.” Chloe wriggled in the chair.
He inhaled. A deep groan rumbled from him. “Um, I love it when your cream begins to flow for me. Would you like me to push this up and taste you, Chloe?”
Oh, yes. She sat there staring at him, knowing that if she opened her mouth those words would tumble out. They needed to talk. That wouldn’t happen if she let him distract her with sex.
Latent Desires (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 9
