by Susan Bliler
“And why’d you do that?” Jenny pressed.
“Because I’d just waved Thea through the front gate and then we were attacked. I knew she’d be stranded halfway up the road without protection. The others ran into battle, I ran after Thea.”
Jenny’s disapproving frown slipped, and she inhaled deeply before heaving a sigh and dropping her head to shake it slowly. “I’m sorry, Marko. The past forty-eight hours have frayed my nerves raw.” She lifted her head. “I didn’t mean to attack you.”
He simply nodded and lowered his gaze to Thea. “And Thea?”
“You know I’m gonna do everything in my power to find out what’s wrong and to fix it.”
He nodded again and jerked his chin toward Thea. “You know she wouldn’t let me get her to safety. She was worried about her students. She was adamant about getting up to the estate house to make sure her kids were all okay.”
Beside him, King shook his head and crossed thick arms over his chest. “And then she took a bullet for a Sentry.”
“She’s certainly one hell of a woman,” Jenny breathed.
Yes, Marko thought. She truly is.
***
Marko felt compelled to stay with Thea, but after several hours, Jenny had chased him from the infirmary demanding he get cleaned up and find something to eat. His knee-jerk reaction had been to head straight to the cafeteria, but it was gone. Where the area had been housed in the east wing of the main floor of the manor, there was now only a gaping hole. It was a testament to the devastation wrought at the estate. One of the Sentries working on clean-up noticed Marko and jerked his head toward the stairs with a, “We’re being fed up at the Crow’s Nest or at the common area out back.”
Numbly, Marko nodded his appreciation and exited the manor. He had intended to head to his cabin that was nestled among a few dozen others behind the massive hedgerow that separated the main estate house from the individual living quarters. The scent of grilling meat snagged his attention and had him making a short pit-stop at the numerous barbecues smoking at the commons area circling the brightly burning bonfire. It was cold, but the heat from the towering fire was enough to keep all the cooks comfortable as they beamed at Sentries and served out massive amounts of food on foil covered plates.
Marko accepted his plate with a ‘thanks’ of appreciation and then double-timed it to his cabin. He wanted to eat and shower quickly so he could get back to the infirmary.
At his cabin, Marko stomped the snow from his boot covered feet before shoving his door open. He never bothered locking the place.
The interior was warm because he’d left his thermostat at balmy seventy-five. He hated coming home to a cold place. A cold cabin always reminded him that his home lacked the warm lick of companionship, so he did what he could to make his place feel inviting, which meant keeping the temperature up and a radio or TV always on for background noise.
Peeling off his boots at the front door, he set them carefully on the mat at the door so they wouldn’t melt snow on his polished hardwood floors. Stopping at the counter in his kitchen, he ripped the foil off his plate and scarfed down one hamburger, two sausages, a pile of potato salad, and a mound of still-steaming baked beans. His empty plate and the foil went in the trash, and his fork was rinsed and placed in the dishwasher. He was a stickler for cleanliness, which never failed to get the other Walkers razzing him.
Snagging a beer from the fridge, he padded quickly down the hall to his room where he stripped, tossed his dirty clothes in the hamper, grabbed fresh gear, and ducked into his bathroom for a quick shower.
As soon as he stepped into the shower, the steam ripped the scent of Thea from his skin and blasted it into the room. Instantly, his dick went hard, and he groaned with the memory of being inside her. Funny, yesterday morning he’d been trying to avoid the female and her clear interest and now one stinking day later, and he’d already fucked her every way imaginable.
Aaaah, God! The memories, the sights, the sounds came flooding back, and he couldn’t stop his hand from fisting his cock before it started pumping wildly. With images of a naked, wanton Thea flashing in his mind, it didn’t take long before he exploded all over his shower wall.
Son of a… How as he supposed to handle this now? He felt responsible for Thea, but she’d been drugged. Sure, he wanted to race back to the infirmary to check on her, but part of him wondered if she’d be embarrassed, or even appalled by what they’d done. He wanted to contact Jenny to ask for advice on the matter, but it was shit timing because there were too many injured for him to be pestering her about etiquette.
Still… Focusing, he reached out through the Skin Walkers’ telepathic means of communication called the mist and contacted Jenny’s head nurse, Stoney.
“Hey, Stoney, it’s Marko. Do you know if Thea’s come around?”
“Hey, Marko. Uhh, no. Not yet.”
“Any more word from the wolves on the shit they pumped into her?”
“Dell Blackbird has contacted Monroe. I haven’t been privy to any Intel yet, so…”
“Okay.” Marko stalled a moment, “Umm, just one more thing.”
“Yeah?”
“I need to ask you for your personal opinion…as a female.”
Stoney snorted a laugh. “O-kay.”
“Do you think… Well, first did you hear what happened between Thea and me?”
“The sex? Yes.”
Marko cringed. “I was just wondering if you think that Thea would want me there. When she wakes up, I mean. Do you think it’d help or hinder to have me there?”
Silence reigned a moment before Stoney answered. “Honestly, Marko, I don’t know what to tell you. I wasn’t there. I don’t know how bad she was or how things went down. I mean she could be mortified by it all, or she could have formed an attachment to you and really want to see you. I don’t know what to tell you.”
“Well, I don’t know what to do. I certainly don’t want to make things worse, but I’d like to be there. I’d like for her to see that I stuck around.”
“Then go with your gut instinct. It’s usually right. Anything else? We’re pretty busy here.”
“Sorry, no. Thank you.” He severed the connection and exhaled a pent-up breath. Back to the infirmary, it was.
Chapter 7
Dressed in a fresh white uniform with long jacket, Marko stepped into the corridor that led to the infirmary. Halfway down the hall, he spotted Skin Walker Dominant, Monroe StoneCrow.
Arms folded against his chest, one thumbnail pressed to his lips, Monroe stared through the large glass window that looked into Thea’s room.
Marko approached silently and without a word, planted himself beside the Dominant to look into Thea’s room. The space was dark, with one small lamp lighting the interior. Thea slept, but it didn’t appear it was a peaceful rest. Sweat dotted her forehead, and her breathing was increased.
Monroe remarked casually, “Thought you’d be getting some sleep.”
“Just grabbed a bite and got cleaned up. Been a long two days.”
“Tell me about it.” Monroe lifted a hand to the back of his neck before rolling his head from side to side. “How is she?”
Marko shrugged. “According to Stoney, she still hasn’t come around.”
Monroe kept his gaze on the sleeping woman. “Was it bad?”
“Crow…”
“They may use it against us again.” Monroe turned to pin Marko with angry eyes. “I need to know how bad it was. Is it something our Walkers could control? Could one of us fight it off?”
Marko shook his head.
“Dell Blackbird says he’s never seen it in his territory, but he’s heard of its use. He knows an Alpha in North Carolina that’s had it used against a female in his pack. Shifter females can’t control themselves. I was hoping it was something our Walkers could fight.”
“I don’t know,” Marko stared down at the cup of hot coffee he’d brought for Thea. “She’s as strong as they come and she couldn’t�
��” He took a deep breath and sighed. “She fought hard. Hell, we both did.” He snorted and averted his gaze. “I think I was weaker than she was. Her scent was too much. My animals…my instincts took over. I literally could not control myself.”
“This could get bad.” Monroe clenched his jaw.
“I know,” Marko muttered.
He was alarmed at the sudden anger in Monroe’s voice when he snapped, “Do you? This is an attempt at a forced mating. Dell says the shifter female this was used on in Asheville ended up mating the male who…tended her. I don’t know if there was genuine affection involved or how those mutts work, but this could seriously fuck with the Skin Walker affliction.”
“We need more Intel.”
“Yeah.” In an out of place gesture, Monroe scrubbed a hand down his face. “Eleanor and Delano Bowden are the Alpha pair in Asheville. Eleanor was the one shot. I’m waiting for contact information from Dell. When I hear something, you’ll hear something.”
Without another word, Monroe turned and stalked down the hall, but instead of leaving the infirmary, he turned and quietly entered one of the rooms.
Tearing his attention from Monroe, Marko turned to Thea’s door and quietly entered. There were monitors hooked up to her that beeped and made a variety of other noises, but the screen they were attached to may as well have been in Greek. Taking the only seat in the room sitting just beside the bed, he placed her coffee on the stand beside him and folded his hands together before he rested his eyes on her flushed face. She seemed restless, and he wondered if Jenny or Stoney were aware.
Standing, he was just about to go summon the doctor when the door opened, and Jenny stepped into the room.
“Is she alright?”
Jenny frowned at his question. “It’s odd. She’s having spikes of…of…I have no idea what this is. She’ll be fine a few hours, and then her heart rate accelerates, and she starts sweating. I’ve got the lab working on her blood samples and the small amount of fluid we were able to salvage from the tranq dart, but as of right now, I’m at a loss. Dell tells us that with the she-wolf shifter in North Carolina, the effects of the tranq lasted one night. I was hoping it’d be the same with Thea, but the drugs keep making a resurgence in her system. I’m not sure if it’s because she’s human or if the Megalya altered the drug. Honestly, right now, Thea’s in a pretty scary place.”
Fear filled Marko’s belly until it felt like acid bubbling in his gut. Thea was in jeopardy, and it was all because she’d shoved him out of the way. Guilt bit hard as he agonized over why she’d seen the shooter when he hadn’t. Goddamn it! He knew why. He’d been too busy ogling Thea to be paying attention like he should have been. He was the Walker Sentry, and she was a damn human teacher, and she’d saved him! Thinking about it now, he wondered what would have happened if he’d have taken that shot instead of her. He wondered if he’d have gone feral and attacked the poor woman. Gritting his teeth, he realized that he had, in a way. He should have resisted her, told her no.
As if reading his thoughts, Jenny offered. “You did save her life by seeing to her needs, Marko. At least that much we do know. Don’t worry, Monroe’s looking into whether she was seeing anyone. We don’t need guilt swamping her on top of everything else.”
Without thought, Marko automatically replied, “No.”
Jenny’s brows dipped down as she faced Marko. “No? No, what?”
He swallowed hard and kept his gaze pinned on Thea. “No, she isn’t seeing anyone.”
Arms, covered in the glaring white of her lab coat, crossed under Jenny’s chest as she studied Marko. “And you know this how?”
He sure as hell wasn’t admitting that under the guise of his position, he’d requested her employee file and poured over it. Hell, he’d even shifted and flown over her truck to follow her home after her shift one night just to see where and how she lived. He’d decided that she had a lonely little life. Sure, her house was cute, but just like him, Thea went home to a place that housed no human affection.
He’d followed her in hopes of finding out that she was engaged or at least dating, but in the several covert visits he’d paid to her property, she’d always been alone. Instead of discovering she was taken and keeping himself away, her situation—much like his own—called to him and drew him to her. Honestly, taking her at the cabin after she’d been shot had been no hardship because he’d fantasized—on a near nightly basis—about doing those very things to her.
“Marko?”
Jenny’s voice pulled him from his reverie. “Work. I keep tabs on all human staff. It’s part of my job, Jen.”
The smirk on her lips said she didn’t believe a word of it. “Well, I’ve got other patients to check on. I suggest you go and get some rest.”
“What can I do?” he asked. “Is there any way I can I help her?”
Heaving a sigh, Jenny dropped her arms and faced Thea. “You mind being on-call?”
Marko turned his head to stare quizzically at the doctor.
“She could wake in the same state she was in after she was shot. She’ll have…needs and I don’t want a parade of men in here. This is going to be hard enough for her to deal with, so if we need a male to…to…service her, I’d prefer it be the same one.”
Marko’s ears flooded with the sound of his heart tearing into a sprint at the thought of other Walkers coming into Thea’s room to “service” her. When he finally got his rage under control long enough to answer Jenny, his voice was still tinged with the snarl of his inner beasts. “Call me. Any hour. Anytime.”
She nodded. “Thanks. I appreciate it. Now let’s give her some peace. She needs all the rest she can get.”
Chapter 8
Thea gasped awake. She shot bolt upright in bed, and her upper body flung forward as she drew in great lungs-full of air. She was hot and achy and disoriented. Her eyes scanned the room, and it looked like she was in a hospital. Looking down, she saw wires and needles attached to her body.
She’d taken nursing in college and had done the job for a year and a half before she realized she wanted to teach, so she knew enough to reach up and turn off the infusion pump to prevent the alarm from blaring before she removed her IV.
Several other pieces of equipment that were beyond the scope of her knowledge were simply unplugged before she removed where their wires were attached to her chest and back.
Once she was completely unhooked from everything, Thea climbed from the bed on wobbly legs. She had no idea how long she’d been in the hospital, or which hospital she was in. What she did know was that she felt off. That all-consuming demanding sexual ache felt like it was simmering just below the surface. It felt like at any moment, the slightest jolt would trigger another attack. Sweat slickened her back and chest as she thought about how mortifying it would be to go into one of those attacks here without anyone to see to her needs.
Wobbling to a window that looked out onto a hall, Thea peered into the dimly lit corridor. Instantly, she recognized the infirmary at StoneCrow Estates. Sometimes her students experienced their first partial or full shift, and she’d have to bring them to the infirmary for Jenny to look at before their parents were contacted. Now though, the realization of where she was had panic nearly seizing her. The only thing that could be worse than having another one of the attacks she’d experienced with Marko was doing it here among Skin Walkers who could scent her emotions and needs!
Turning her back on the window, she scanned the room for her clothes. A closet in the corner revealed her blood-stained shirt and bra. Her jeans and socks were folded underneath.
Thea made quick work of dressing, and as she hiked her jeans up her hips, she gasped when the material brushed her sex and sent a jolt of lust tearing through her.
No! No, no, no, no, noooo!
Inhaling slowly, to steady her heart, she contemplated her options. Inevitably, she decided that she’d rather try to make her escape in her hospital gown than chance forcing herself into a second attack.
/> Striping her jeans down, she kicked out of them and shoved her socked feet into her boots. She looked like an idiot dressed in a hospital gown with thermal socks and hiking boots.
Yanking her coat off the peg in the closet, she shoved her arms into it and stilled as a voice carried down the hall. She held her breath as her heart hammered against her chest while she prayed no one was coming to check on her. For a second, she considered climbing back into bed to pretend she was still asleep, but one look at the tangle of sheets, wires, and tubes dangling all around and she knew there’d be no fooling anyone who came looking. Sudden heat swamped her and had her moving quickly for the door. That was as far as she made it before her breathing turned to sharp little pants from the friction of her panties on her engorged clit.
No! This can’t be happening. Not here!
Bending, she ripped her panties down her legs and stepped out of them before shoving them into her pocket. As she opened the door, she considered peeking out and acting all covert but decided that just waltzing out like she owned the place was probably best. No one would question her if she acted like she was supposed to be leaving…right?
In the hall, she fought the urge to shed her coat.
It’s so hot!
Attempting to seem causal, she tucked her hands into her pockets and headed down the hall. When the heat became stifling, she mopped at her face with what she’d thought was a kerchief before realizing she didn’t carry kerchiefs. Her cheeks singed as she shoved her panties back into her pocket and doubled her pace.
“Thea?”
Dread skittered down her spine as she kept right on walking like she hadn’t heard anything.
“THEA!”
Oh God! Definitive footsteps were slapping down the linoleum hallway toward her. For a second she considered running, but honestly, right now she was lucky to be walking. Each step sent excruciating bolts of electricity straight to her clit.
