by Lauren Dawes
Laithe was having a cigarette when he pulled into the ambulance bay which was goddamn lucky. When he saw Rhett was behind the wheel, he scrubbed out the end of his cancer stick on the heel of one of his Crocs and approached the car.
‘Rhett, long time,’ he said in a slightly accented drawl.
Rolling down the window, he stuck his hand out to the guy, clapping palms. ‘Hey.’
‘You feeling alright? You look like shit.’
Rhett’s lip tipped up in the corner. ‘It’s nothing I can’t handle,’ he replied. Showing another wolf weakness was never good.
Laithe bent down and peered into the back seat. ‘What have we got here?’
Rhett licked his lips and hoped that Laithe was going to be cool. ‘The pack’s félvair.’
Laithe looked up quickly, his wolf peering out of his eyes for a long time. He could sense the longing in its acid-green gaze. The pack hadn’t had one in a long, long time—a good hundred years or so. Laithe had given up on waiting and married the human woman he was with now, knowing that they could never have children, knowing that she would die long before he would. Trans-species breeding didn’t work. Only a female werewolf could give birth to a werewolf child. Any human/werewolf combination resulted in a miscarriage.
Rhett felt light-headed again, his body trying to play catch-up on the blood reproduction. He rubbed his temples as he said, ‘She was attacked by a Sicarii. Drained, but I got her heart going again. Can you help her?’
‘Sure I can,’ he replied in a low, gravelly voice. He disappeared for a moment, returning with a wheelchair and a set of clothes. Laithe shoved the clothes at Rhett, and while he was getting changed, Laithe lifted Indi gently out of the back of the car.
Rhett asked, ‘What are you going to tell the doctors?’
‘That I found her out here on my cigarette break. It happens a lot with ODs and domestic violence. They won’t suspect anything.’
Rhett breathed out a deep breath and gave Laithe his hand. ‘Thanks. I owe you.’
‘Yeah, you do,’ he replied in that same gruff tone. Rhett crouched in front of Indi and pushed some hair out of her face, liking how warm her skin felt now. He kissed her gently on the forehead and stood up.
‘Take good care of her,’ he said, his voice sounding a little choked.
‘You got it,’ he replied. He turned and rushed Indi into the sliding doors where a dozen doctors and nurses were milling around.
When Rhett got back into the car, he tore out of the hospital driveway and started making his way home. He had to stop three times to vomit on the side of the road, which did nothing to ease the pounding in his head that accompanied the dizziness. He just hoped that he would make it back without blacking out. Before he knew it, he was parking the car behind the house. For good measure, he puked one more time before heading inside.
He stepped inside the house, his head spinning so violently that he had to prop a shoulder against the closest wall to fight the newest round of nausea. He was in such bad condition that he wasn’t even sure how he’d managed to get back to the house without killing anybody with his erratic oh-shit-I-just-stole-a-car driving.
A door hinge creaked and his uncle’s mate, Eaton, came from the direction of the kitchen; her apron telling him “Once you go pack, you never go back.” She smiled kindly at him—her wolf acknowledging his with the briefest of flashes—before she walked into the dining room to join the other wolves that lived on the farm permanently.
‘I know you’re there Rhett,’ his uncle’s voice boomed. ‘Come in here please.’ Rhett didn’t want to go, but what the alpha says, goes. He dragged a hand through his hair and staggered through to the dining room, clutching his stomach tightly.
Antain was sitting at the head of the table; Vaile sitting on his right, but there was no sign of Sabel.
‘Yes Uncle?’ Rhett asked, keeping his eyes on the ground as a mark of respect.
‘Vaile’s just told me that our félvair died today.’ Rhett lifted his gaze to his alpha’s dark brown eyes, seeing the compassion and understanding for the gravity of the loss. Antain thought Indi was dead, which meant that he didn’t know what he’d done. ‘He also said that you tried to engage the vampire who killed her on your own.’
His eyes darted to Vaile’s before he answered. ‘Yes, I did.’
‘You could have been killed,’ Antain replied in his booming voice although Rhett heard how it had softened from the last time he spoke. Even if he hated how he was treated in the pack, he couldn’t deny that having his uncle and aunt in his life was still a blessing. Without them, he would have been dead.
‘I wish he had been killed,’ an enforcer named Colton sneered from the end of the table. Rhett pinned him with a dangerous look, waiting until he dropped his eyes. Rhett had had to fight his way up the ranks. He was about fourth in line at the moment, having seriously injured all the other wolves he had challenged. Colton was the last one he’d fought, and yeah, he was still a little bitter about the beating he’d received from Rhett.
‘Enough!’ Antain snapped before rubbing his chin in thought. ‘Rhett, let me speak to you without the audience. Come into my office.’ Antain pushed out from behind the table and walked past him. Rhett dropped his eyes as he passed and followed him out.
With the huge mahogany door shut behind them, Rhett relaxed a little. Antain hadn’t wanted Vaile to come with, so this was more personal than it was pack-related. His uncle parked it behind his desk, steepling his fingers under his chin in thought all the while staring at Rhett like he could see what was going on inside his head.
His eyes flashed yellow. ‘She’s not dead, is she?’
Licking his dry lips, Rhett shook his head. Their blood relation ensured that only the truth could be uttered between them. ‘I saved her. She took my blood.’
His uncle sat back in his chair and carefully regarded Rhett. He was quiet for a long time, a little too long for Rhett’s nerves to take. Eventually he said, ‘Would you like a drink?’ The question caught him off-guard.
‘A drink?’
Antain nodded to the whiskey decanter on the sideboard set up against one wall in his office. ‘A drink,’ he repeated smoothly.
Rhett licked his lips and got up, fixing them both a stiff drink each. He put the squat glass near his uncle’s hand and sat down again, taking a deep sip from his glass. Antain leaned forward in his chair, rolling the glass between his fingertips as he thought.
‘Are you sure she’ll survive the attack?’ he eventually asked.
‘Maybe. I left her with Laithe who made up a story about her being found dumped out the front of the hospital. Her DNA is still human,’ he shrugged, ‘so, no red flags should be up if they take blood samples.’
His uncle sat back into his chair, still doing the ocular skull-invasion thing. So far Antain had been too calm about what he’d done. The giving of blood to vampires, full- or half-bloods was strictly prohibited. Firstly, there was a high chance of addiction on the vampire’s behalf, which automatically spelled death for the wolves. And secondly, werewolves had once been hunted nearly to extinction for their blood, organs and pelts to be sold on the supernatural black market, so to willingly give it up was seen as a serious crime against the species, although that didn’t stop a select few from doing it anyway.
‘Thank Christ for that then,’ he eventually murmured. Rhett blinked; once, twice, but still thought he’d misheard his uncle.
‘I’m sorry?’
Antain shifted forward in his seat again. ‘Rhett, there’s something you have to know.’
‘Okay.’
‘About Indi. It was what the Seer wanted to talk to me about, but since you are her Guardian, you should know too. It would be in your best interests if you did know and it will help you to protect her a little better.’
Anything that concerned Indi, he wanted to know. ‘Tell me,’ he demanded, suddenly not caring about rank and seniority. His uncle stared back at him until Rhett’s skin bega
n to itch. For something to do, he threw back the rest of the whiskey in his glass and swallowed the burn.
‘She is the last of her kind,’ Antain said in a slow drawl.
Rhett’s eyes had been focussed on the glass, but darted to his alpha’s face quickly. ‘Are you sure?’
He nodded. ‘The Seer told me about the True Death of the last incubus at the hand of the queen about twenty or so years ago. She is the last félvair and our pack’s last hope. You must keep her safe Rhett. You did the right thing tonight—giving her your blood to survive. She is our most precious asset right now and we cannot afford to lose her.’
Rhett slumped back into his chair; the truth hitting him with full force. Indi was the last félvair in existence. The Helheim pack was by far the smallest pack with the largest territory. What they really needed was numbers, but his uncle would not accept any old Bitten wolf into the pack. Sabel was the only one to date admitted fully into the pack, and even Rhett thought that it had been a mistake.
No, the only way the Helheim pack would grow was if their bitches started having pups, but that was a whole other issue. They had a grand total of three: Eaton—who was too old to bare children, Grace—who was only ten and Saskia who was only just of breeding age.
‘I will not punish you for what you’ve done Rhett. You have single-handedly saved the pack and you should be rewarded for that.’
Before Rhett could answer, there was a huge bang outside the office door followed soon after by a thud. Antain rose from his chair and moved around his desk, but Rhett stopped him—his instinct to protect his uncle and alpha stronger now there was a threat.
‘I’ll see what it is,’ he said, stalking towards the door. All he could smell was pack, so it wasn’t an intrusion by another wolf. Grasping the handle, he pulled open the door, ready and tensed for a fight. Outside, one of the benches that sat against the opposite wall had been destroyed. Splinters of wood and huge nails stuck out of the wreck, and when Rhett’s head swivelled to the left, he found out the reason.
Sabel stood with his arms crossed over his chest, his eyes shifting colour each time he blinked. ‘I want to see Alpha,’ he growled between clenched teeth. Before Rhett could respond, Sabel pushed past him and into the office. Rhett stalked after him and shut the door.
‘Sabel?’ Antain asked calmly as soon as Rhett was in the room.
‘I heard everything,’ he said.
Antain was sitting back behind his desk, a fresh whiskey sitting in his glass. He picked it up and slowly took a slip before placing it back onto his desk. Rhett wondered what Sabel had heard. Was it the first part of the conversation, or was it about him not getting punished for what he’d done? Antain was dragging the suspense out and Rhett could hardly stand it. He ran his hand through his hair enough times to make it stand up on end.
‘And what did you hear exactly?’
‘Rhett gave his blood to her.’
‘And?’ his uncle prompted.
‘You aren’t going to punish him for it. If it was anyone else, you would have slapped them with a punishment straight away. You can’t have double standards. Is he part of the pack, or not?’
‘You know he is,’ Antain replied in a cold, hard voice. Rhett knew that you couldn’t push Antain into anything he didn’t want to be pushed into it.
‘He broke a serious rule. He must be punished.’ Antain’s eyes found Rhett’s and he saw the regret in them. Sabel was right. If it had been any other wolf, punishment would have been meted out swiftly.
Antain sighed. ‘You’re right. He did break a rule and he will be punished.’
Rhett couldn’t see his face, but he was sure Sabel was wearing an evil grin. ‘I’ll go and get set up,’ he replied.
‘No,’ Antain boomed. ‘This crime is serious and must be witnessed by the whole pack. We will convene again in three night’s time and punishment will be decided on then.’
‘Fine,’ Sabel eventually said, grinning as he walked towards the door. He met Rhett’s gaze and his wolf slipped; curling his top lip away from his teeth before slamming the door shut after him.
‘I’m sorry Rhett, but he’s right. If it was anyone else, I would have come down on them like a ton of bricks. It’s only fair.’
Rhett waved his apology away. ‘You don’t have to apologise to me Uncle. Sabel would have pouted until he got what he wanted anyway. And besides, I knew what I was doing. I’ll take whatever is coming to me with pride.’
His uncle finished his drink in one swallow and walked Rhett to the door. ‘Go and eat now. You look a little pale,’ he said with a smile.
Chapter 18
The sound of beeping woke Indi up. Irritated by the noise, she swung her arm out to turn off her alarm clock, but when a small pinching sensation near the crook of her elbow turned into a scream of knock-it-the-fuck-off, Indi’s eyes cracked open to see what the problem was. With her heart in her throat, she opened up her other eye just to make sure she wasn’t seeing things.
Bringing her fingers to her arm, she lifted the edge of the thin opaque tape hugging the huge needle sticking into her skin, deciding that it wasn’t a dream as she thought, but something very, very real. Panic formed a lump in her throat. With her eyes, she followed the small tube that came out of the needle up to a baggy of clear liquid hanging from a metal pole above her head.
When the beeping became a little faster, she looked to her right, finding the machine responsible for all the noise. A new wire snaked down over the blankets to her right index finger, ending in a plastic peg-looking thing. The lines on the monitor’s screen were jumping in time to the thumping of her heart.
Against her will, she forced her eyes to look down the rest of her body. The snug-fitting blankets around her torso felt like they’d been dipped in acid and made with sheets of sandpaper. Her heart started pounding harder, making her deaf to everything else but that sound. Pure fear made her sit up while every nerve ending was firing, begging her to get out of there, to save herself. Licking her dry lips, she pulled the tape off her arm quickly and ripped the needle from her flesh. Her whole arm began to throb as blood pumped out of the vein she’d just unplugged. It oozed from the huge hole in her arm, dripping down onto the white blanket.
She pulled the plastic peg from her finger, and when she did, the machinery went berserk. Alarms were sounding in her room and out in the hall. With sluggish movements, she threw the blankets from her body and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. Someone was yelling out in the hallway, but the buzz of their words was at war with the machines in her room.
Breathlessly, she lowered herself onto the ground, grabbing onto the side of her bed to stop herself from collapsing when her knees gave out suddenly. She was wearing a johnny, her back exposed to the recirculated air from the air conditioning. Her teeth chattered as she surveyed the room, the alarms still ringing in her ears.
‘Indigo?’
Indi turned to find a man wearing a white coat approaching her. He wrapped his hand around her upper arm and helped her up although she was trying to fight him off.
‘No,’ she murmured, her head spinning like she’d just jumped off a malfunctioning tilt-a-whirl.
He looked down at her arm. ‘Shit,’ he muttered under his breath. His head swung around towards the door he’d just come through. ‘Nurse! Nurse!’ He turned back to Indi. ‘You need to get back into bed.’ He pushed her shoulders back to emphasise his words.
She pulled against his grip, but she was weak. She couldn’t fight him. ‘Let me go,’ she demanded in a small voice.
‘Now!’ he told her, raising his voice. Another hand came up under her arms and lifted. She was pulled back into the bed, her legs swung back over and covered with the itchy blankets. The doctor pulled her arm away from her body and looked over the newly-made wound. She tried taking her arm back from him, but his fingers dug in to hold her still. She could smell her blood escaping her body too quickly. A flash of an image she couldn’t decipher seared her frontal lobe
before black fuzziness started to eat her vision.
‘We’re trying to help you. You’re bleeding out too quickly. We need to stop it before we’re slipping in it all over the floor. Relax, okay? You’re in good hands.’
Indi’s eyes darted around the room. There were more people in there now with plastic-gloved hands and serious expressions. Her anger didn’t like it. It wanted to protect the body. The cat inside raked its huge obsidian claws against her ribs demanding her to react. It told her to find the main danger and get rid of it.
Her eyes fixed on the threat. A wad of gauze was being held against her skin while another needle was being lined up for her other arm. She couldn’t let this happen. She wouldn’t let this happen. With her fist bunched up, she swung out, hitting the male nurse trying to do the slip-and-run on her arm square on the jaw. He went down like a ton of bricks, hitting the floor with a fleshy slap.
‘Can we get a sedative in here please!’ the doctor screamed over his shoulder as he tried to hold her down by her shoulders. Another pair of hands was at her ankles, holding her to the bed, but only just. Indi’s instincts to fight were running at one hundred and ten percent as she fought every single pair of hands reaching for her. There was a sharp pinch on her thigh before all the lights went out.
*
Indi woke up suddenly, her body tense and ready for a fight. She raised her hands, but only managed an inch or so off the bed. She tried again, and the same thing happened. A jangling, metallic sound echoed in her ears with each jerk of her body until she realised that she was responsible for the sound. She looked down and cursed. They’d restrained her wrists and ankles so she lay spread-eagled on the bed under the blankets.
