She had looked impossibly pale, blood covering every piece of exposed skin. The bandage around her head hadn’t fully covered her long, pale, strawberry blonde hair. Even in this condition he had found her to be enchantingly lovely. Hunter’s shock had begun to fade and was replaced with burning rage. He vowed he would find out in minute detail what the condition of his mate was, then he would hunt that bastard Curtis down and eviscerate him.
Hunter had jerked out of his immobilized shock as they began to wheel his mate away. He had sought out the tall female doctor that he had observed issuing all the orders. He had decided he would get his answers, then he would not leave his mate’s side until reinforcements arrived.
The staff had been a little confused as to why Hunter had not left Melanie’s side, but the uniform had gone a long way to deterring questions.
As relieved as he was that Melanie was now awake, Hunter was also concerned that he had not heard from any of his brothers. He had tried to call Dane as soon as he had all the details of Melanie’s condition from Dr. Smythe, but Dane had not answered. He had then tried all of his brothers and their phones had gone straight to voice mail. What was going on in Eminence? Surely nothing was more important than him finding his mate and their potential mate. Hunter had to focus on Melanie right now, so that worry could wait for now.
* * * *
Trying to talk past her pounding headache, Melanie managed to answer the nice warm man. “I’m sorry, but who are you?”
Melanie saw a lot of the local police while working in the ER. This one was not familiar to her. She mused that she would not have forgotten this huge drop-dead gorgeous officer.
“My name is Hunter Fredrick. I am the Sheriff of a town called Eminence. It’s about three hours northeast of here. I have been waiting on those eyes of yours to open. I’ll ask you again, how are you feeling, Melanie?”
“Please let her rest, officer. She is in no condition for an interrogation right now.” A young nurse walked into the room and began to take Melanie’s vital signs.
Melanie felt so tired. She thought she should answer the sheriff’s question, but she just had to close her eyes for a minute to gather her thoughts.
* * * *
Hunter was sitting by his mate’s bed. Holding her hand firmly, he did not want to ever let her go again. Logically he knew how that was not going to happen, but with her injured, it was the only thought keeping him from howling. She was such a tiny thing, but she had great boobs and killer hips. Curvy and lush, just the way they liked their women. The most amazing thing, however, had been her eyes. They were the palest sea-foam green, not a speck of any other color in them, startlingly different, but so beautiful. Hunter couldn’t help but wish that all their cubs would have her eyes.
The sound of raised voices reached through Hunter’s musings. They were not the sounds of happy voices.
So that is why none of his brothers had answered his calls. They must really have hauled ass to get here so quickly. Nothing like the thought of your potential mate being injured to give you a reason to break the land speed record. He imagined Dane had had the sirens on all the way from home.
With that thought, the three men in question barreled through the door to the room and came to a halt next to the bed. All were tense, jaws locked and with their eyes just showing the amber of a shifter’s changing irises instead of their usual hazel color.
Yep, Hunter knew that look. They had scented Melanie in the emergency bay, and her blood, that sweet, buttery-scented blood of their mate. It looked as though she was indeed mate to all the Frederick brothers. Rising, he tried to allay their fears immediately. It was the state he had been in himself just over an hour ago, and he knew exactly how they were feeling.
“She is going to be fine, guys. Notch it back, your eyes are glowing. I’ll tell you everything I know, but if she wakes and sees you all like this she is going to be freaked. You don’t want to scare her any more than she already has been tonight.”
Hunter was greeted with three looks that would have killed a lesser beast. But really, he couldn’t imagine what she would think if she woke up and saw four huge men in the room with their eyes glowing like flashlights.
“Okay, I will tell you all I know, then you can calm down. She has a deep laceration to her scalp and a concussion.” Finn started to growl, low and deep in his massive chest. Hunter put his hand on his shoulder and continued. Finn was the Alpha for reasons other than being firstborn. He was the biggest and most aggressive male of them all, too.
Hunter continued. “She has had an MRI, no bleeds, no permanent damage. She has some nasty laceration from fangs on her left calf. They are going to be sutured very shortly. X-rays showed no fractures. She woke up a few minutes ago and was lucid, but she drifted off to sleep again before I got any answers to my questions.”
Finn continued to growl, low and constant, looking down at the small injured female who was his mate.
“Thank you, Hunter, for allaying our fears, and for protecting our mate until we could all be here with her. But you forgot a thing or two.”
“No, Finn, I covered it all, honestly.”
“Hunter, would you mind telling us our mate’s name?”
Hunter laughed,
“Asshole,” spat Finn, “our mate is lying injured and you laugh.”
“Cool it, Finn, stop with the daggers. It’s just the tension. Sorry, nothing is remotely funny about this entire night. Her name is Melanie Cook, she is a registered nurse, she is twenty-two years old, single, and she has the most amazing eyes I have ever seen.” There, that was everything.
Dane and Cooper were making their way to the far side of the bed. Dane reached out and covered Melanie’s small hand with his. Hunter watched him smile and heard his sigh of relief.
“I thought I was going to shift, down in that emergency bay when we pulled up and I got my first scent of this little one’s blood. I have never felt anything like that, Hunter. I haven’t been that out of control since we were thirteen and the first shift took us.”
Hunter nodded his understanding, rubbing circles on Melanie’s arm with his thumb. Being twins, Hunter had been certain that he would share a mate with Dane, even if the mating bond hadn’t extended to Finn and Cooper.
“As soon as you called I went and got Finn and Coop and we headed straight here. I knew you would need us here if she was seriously injured.”
Hunter looked at his brother and nodded tightly, keeping his emotions in check. “I am so happy you’re all here. I don’t know what I would have done if she had been killed.”
They all shuddered at that. Curtis had come so close to ending the life of their one and only fated mate, before they had even met her.
“What have you done about tracking Curtis? I couldn’t leave Melanie alone to go track him,” Hunter stated as he looked down at Melanie.
“Of course not,” Cooper spat out. “I would have kicked your ass if you had.”
Hunter saw he was softly stoking Melanie’s leg, having snuck his hand under the cotton-weave blanket covering her sleeping form. He knew what they were feeling. He was still holding her hand, too.
Finn stepped close to the bed and reverently stroked some hair off Melanie’s pale face. “Dane has called in the Wilders. They are on the way. They will track the rogue from here and continue the hunt. You will return with us when we take Melanie home. She will need us all together. We have some things to share with her about our family and we should all be there to hear her decision.”
Finn was speaking in generalities, as they were in a public setting, but they all knew exactly what he was talking about.
“Thank you. Dane, Calder, and Axel Wilder are great trackers and will not stop until they catch that lowlife bastard.”
“No worries, Hunter, you were doing all you could here.”
At that moment an orderly and a nurse came to collect Melanie to take her to the OR for the debridement and suturing of her left calf. They had needed to wait for he
r head injury to stabilize prior to the surgery. The staff had tolerated Hunter’s constant presence, but they were not happy about four huge men following the gurney around the hospital.
“Tough,” Cooper stated. “We are not here to make them happy. None of us are ready to let her out of our sights yet.”
“Well said, Coop,” said Dane, as they all stood around the OR doors, awaiting the end of the surgery.
The surgery took an hour. All the Frederick men waited and glared at anyone approaching Melanie’s operating room. They knew no one here was a threat, but the men felt like they were at least doing something to keep their mate safe.
Hunter was so happy that his brothers were all here now.
Dane had heard from the Wilders. They were tracking the rogue.
Once Melanie was situated back in her room, they all moved back in. When the nurse had announced that they couldn’t all stay, Finn had stopped her midsentence. “My brothers and I are all involved in the investigation of tonight’s incident. Miss Cook, being the only witness, is of the utmost importance to us. We will not be in your way.”
Chapter 4
Melanie started to wake up, feeling very woozy, too. She opened her eyes slowly, remembering the headache last time her eyes were open. Her leg was a little sore, but her head had hurt so much before she had hardly noticed her leg. Her ribs were still causing her problems with breathing though. Melanie remembered being thrown against a wall by a huge mountain lion. Damn, she wished for some memory loss. That was too scary by far. The room lights were dimmer than before, but she could see she was back in a hospital room.
Looking over at the IV line, she noticed a big bronzed hand covering its entry into her hand. She remembered that nice warm man, too. He was tingly and yummy looking. She followed his arm up to his face and let out a small gasp.
“Who are you?” she asked in a small startled voice. This was not the same man from before, she was sure of it. He looked similar, but he was even bigger and with no uniform.
“It’s all okay, princess, I’m still here with you. Do you remember me?” asked a voice from the end of the bed.
Melanie looked toward the foot of the bed, and sitting by her feet was the nice warm man. He was huge, probably six and a half feet, with a wide chest and massive shoulders. She remembered his soft amber-tinged hazel eyes in his very handsome face, topped with cropped golden-blond hair.
“Yes, I remember you. You are the nice warm man.” Melanie felt her checks heat. “No, I mean, did you tell me your name? I am so sorry if you did, I have forgotten it, but I recognize you from before. The sheriff with the questions, right?”
“Adorable,” stated the man holding Melanie’s left hand, and, lifting their joined hands, he placed a gentle kiss on her palm, causing more tingles to run up the skin of her arm.
“Oh, you are warm, too,” Melanie blurted. “Sorry, even when I haven’t hit my head I have no brain-to-mouth barrier.” Her cheeks were getting hotter now. The man leaned close to Melanie’s face in the dim light.
“I am Hunter’s brother, Finn. Hunter is the nice warm sheriff. It is nice to meet you Melanie, and Hunter is correct, you do in fact have the most beautiful eyes.”
“Yours aren’t so bad either, Mr. Finn, really pretty amber bits in them. Oops, sorry.” He was a huge man, even bigger than the sheriff, with a strong masculine face, not classically handsome, but good-looking all the same. His hair was a dirty blond, cut stylishly short.
“Just Finn, sweetness. Our surname is Fredrick. These are our other brothers, Cooper and Dane.”
Turning her head toward the other side of the bed, Melanie found there were indeed two more men there.
There was another huge policeman holding her other hand, and a huge man wearing jeans and a black T-shirt standing by her knees. The one in the uniform had exactly the same color hair as the sheriff, and their features were almost the same. His hair was also cut short. The man in the jeans was sporting shoulders as wide and muscled as a weight lifter. His black T-shirt stretched tight across them. They tapered down to a flat stomach and slim hips. His golden hair was longer though, with a fringe that almost reached his amber-speckled hazel eyes.
Their gene pool was amazingly gifted in good looks. Wow.
Melanie decided to bite her lip to stop herself from saying something embarrassing about how massive they all were. But wow, seriously, were they descended from giants?
Finn chuckled, drawing her attention to him. He kissed her fingertips and said in a deep, soft voice, “No, just good country cooking made us grow this big and strong.”
“Oh my God, I am so sorry, did I say that out loud? It must be the drugs. Please, I didn’t mean to be rude.” Melanie could feel her eyes start to tear up. She didn’t mean to insult people who were being nothing but kind to her.
The policeman holding her other hand brought it up to his lips and kissed it softly. “I’m Dane, and you weren’t rude, just honest. We are huge. We should interview her now, Hunter. Doesn’t look like she would be capable of a false statement with whatever they have given her in the OR.”
Hunter smiled, nodded, and started to rub Melanie’s feet very softly through the blanket. Cooper smiled at Melanie, lifted the blanket, and placed his palm softly on her bare thigh.
Melanie knew she should have felt appalled that four strangers were all touching her, but puzzlingly she found she just didn’t. She had always hated to be touched, so this situation was very strange. She just felt warmed by their touch on a bone-deep level, and the tingly feeling was coming from all of their touches. It was nice. She decided it must be a symptom of her head injury.
“Melanie,” stated Hunter, “I’ll ask for a third time now, how are you feeling? Try not to pass out on me this time. The doctors can only tell us so much. I really need to hear from you, exactly how you are.”
“I was wondering why you’re all here. It’s nice, as you are all so warm, and I feel so cold. But why are all of you here?” Melanie asked.
Hunter looked at Finn, Melanie looked at Finn, and Finn just shook his head, placing Melanie’s small hand flat against his warm but rock-hard chest.
“Can you please answer Hunter’s question, sweetness? We are all quite anxious for your reply. Then we will answer all of your questions.” Finn looked at her in a way that brooked no argument.
Cooper gently squeezed Melanie’s thigh, smiling at her in encouragement. Melanie thought that it did wonders to soften his features.
“You look so different when you aren’t scowling, Cooper. You should always smile. If you weren’t about seven feet tall you would look positively pretty. Shit, I just said that out loud didn’t I?” Melanie now wished she could be unconscious again, right now.
Dane and Hunter let out a startled, choking laugh, looking at Cooper and mouthing “pretty.”
Cooper just opened his mouth, but no words emerged.
Finn gently tapped Melanie’s arm, drawing her attention to his now scowling face. “Answer the question, sweetness, and I think that at a later date we need to discuss your use of profanities.”
If she had had the use of her hands Melanie would have covered her face in embarrassment. “What in the hell kind of drugs have they given me?”
With her head clearing a little she tried to form some sentences that would not make her blush with mortification. But these men were making that very difficult. They were H-O-T. So she looked at Hunter, and tried to minimize any further embarrassment.
“I am feeling a bit sore to be honest. Thank you for your concern, Hunter. You must have been here a while and you have been very patient with me.”
“No need for any thanks, sweetness. The responsibility is mine. I would also like a more detailed description of your injuries than ‘a bit sore.’ You have been through a lot tonight. Unconscious for several hours, into theatre for surgery on your injured leg. So if you please, answer my question honestly.”
“Of course. You must need that for your report of the inci
dent. How stupid of me. Well, I have a killer headache, but it is not as bad as it was earlier. My vision is not very clear yet either. My ribs on the left side are very sore when I breathe. My left leg is stinging at the moment, but I think that it will really hurt when whatever they gave me for the pain starts to wear off.”
Melanie felt quite proud of herself. A top to bottom summary of her pains, and no mention of their good looks had emerged from her mouth.
* * * *
Hunter looked at his brothers. They were all clenching their teeth. No one had looked at her ribs. What if they were broken? If they had moved her she could have punctured a lung.
Dane must have been thinking exactly the same thing as he gently placed Melanie’s hand in Cooper’s outstretched palm and walked off, stating he was going to get the attending doctor.
“Thank you, Melanie. We’re all sorry for your injuries, and that you are in pain. We’ll do everything we can to keep you comfortable. Are you feeling up to answering some more questions?”
“Of course, Hunter, whatever you need for your case. Have the paramedics and Dr. Jelowitz been able to help you at all with any of the details? My account may seem a little hazy, as I hit my head as soon as the ambulance doors were thrust open.”
Hunter looked kindly at Melanie. Cooper sat on the side of the bed and put Melanie’s hand on his thigh. Finn started stroking up her arm soothingly. Hunter knew she was about to need all their support.
“What is it? Did they not see anything? Please, what is it?”
Hunter continued the interview.
“I am sorry if Dr. Jelowitz was a good friend of yours, but I’m afraid he suffered injuries that caused his death tonight. As did the two paramedics. You were the only survivor, and the only witness, to what actually happened down there. I am very sorry to have to put you through this, Melanie. But you can see now why it is very important that you tell us what you can.”
Melanie [Eminence Shifters] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 2
