by Helen Scott
All that was left was pain.
And confusion.
Hadn’t I been outside? Why was I in a dirty garage? I blinked, and everything went dark, unconsciousness taking me under its wing.
The next time I woke, I heard voices. My mates.
“We need to figure out somewhere to go while she recovers. We can’t stay here,” Micah hissed.
“You think I don’t know that? The doctor made it crystal clear what would happen if we outstayed our welcome.” Roman was pissed about something.
It made me want to keep my eyes closed, but instead, I forced them open, even if it did feel like my eyelids weighed about ten tons. I tried to say something witty, like don’t stop on my account, but it just came out as a grunt. A prolonged, multi syllable grunt.
“Nina, easy. You took a bullet to the stomach, do you remember?” Roman’s voice was calm and steady as though he was worried his statement would surprise me.
I tried to say hard to forget something like that, but it didn’t come out quite right, like my mouth was still partially sedated but my brain was fully awake.
“I think that was a yes, or at least something sassy,” Micah said with a grin as he leaned over me on one side. “Glad to see you awake again, beautiful.” He picked up one of my hands and laid a gentle kiss on the back. Something sparked in my memory. Hadn’t that just happened, but differently? Why couldn’t I remember?
I looked past Micah and Roman, searching for Blake, eager to know he was safe and healthy just like the two of them. He was nowhere to be seen though. His man bun was suspiciously absent.
As soon as I looked back at the guys, I knew that they knew I was looking for Blake, but both of them were keeping their respective mouths shut, as though they had some unspoken agreement on what they should tell me and when. That wasn’t okay. They’d made a plan without consulting me, and I wanted to know what had happened to Blake.
I swallowed as much spit as I could so my throat wasn’t obnoxiously dry and managed to croak out, “Blake?”
Roman helped me sit up slowly, notably putting off answering my question. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he’d been avoiding giving me water because he didn’t want to answer my questions. Fortunately, once I was sitting up, he handed me a cool bottle of water with the cap already unscrewed, which I appreciated. There was even a straw inside so I didn’t have to move as much to drink from it, which was nice since every single breath hurt.
“Where’s Blake?” I asked again when they both remained silent and my throat wasn’t as dry as the Sahara.
Micah rubbed the back of his neck and suddenly found the blanket that covered my legs fascinating, while Roman busied himself with folding something. Were those my jeans? When had our bags been transferred here?
“If you make me ask again, I’ll get up out of this bed and go find him myself.” I tried to put enough oomph in my voice that they took the threat seriously, but that was hard to do when I could barely even breathe, let alone get out of this bed. Even if my threat wasn’t all that serious, whatever was causing the tension between my two mates was. They could barely look at each other. As soon as I found out where Blake was, I was getting to the bottom of what was going on between them. I would not have my family destroyed so soon. We hadn’t even had a chance to really be a family. I wouldn’t give that up without a fight.
Even though they knew my threat was empty, Micah took pity on me and said, “He had to go back to Jaxon’s pack. It was the only way for us to get you away and to the doctor without them catching us.”
“So he’s gone?” I asked, feeling like I’d just been emotionally punched in the gut.
“Not forever,” Micah said as he hurried to reassure me. “Just until he can get away again. Well, get away for good.”
“And how long is that going to take?” I demanded, feeling angry at the whole situation. I knew I shouldn’t take it out on Micah and Roman, but I couldn’t seem to control myself.
“I see you’re awake. Nice of you all to inform me.” The doctor strutted in, clearly unhappy with our presence there, and I remembered him refusing to treat me, but the guys won him over somehow, though my memory started to get foggy around there. “Listen, now that she’s awake, you need to get. Skedaddle. Skidoo. Vamoose. High tail it out of here. You’re putting my business and my clients in danger, and I just can’t have that, I’m sorry.”
“She can barely move!” Roman exploded, waving an arm at me as he stalked toward the good doctor.
Unsurprisingly, the doctor just straight up ignored Roman and came to stand at the foot of the bed, looking at me critically. His eyes looked huge, thanks in part to the thick lenses in his glasses, and the wisps of white hair on either side of his head seemed to stand straight out as though he’d been pulling at them. The white doctor’s coat that he wore was stained with blood on one side, and I both hoped it was mine and was horrified by the idea.
After staring me down for a moment he said, “Listen, you were hit with a silver bullet, one that fragmented inside you. It’s going to hurt for a long time, since you shifters can’t heal from silver as well as you normally do. Your magic just isn’t equipped to handle it, like oil on water. Be careful as you’re moving around, or you’ll tear the wounds open again. Which is even less fun that it sounds.
“The other problem is that you lost a lot of blood. Your younger boy toy here had to give you a transfusion. You’re extremely lucky that he was a blood type match, or you would have bled out on the table. This is no joke. Your body was ravaged by the silver, so it’s going to take time to heal. If you force a shift too soon, then it will only delay the process. You need to wait to shift until you can handle getting up and moving around and all that.
“The final thing is that I will not treat you again. You used my wife’s memory against me, which I understand since she’s your mate, but I will not bring down the wrath of Jax or his wolves on my head or the heads’ of my other patients just so that you can survive to piss him off for another day. You will not be able to use Sharon against me again. You will not be welcomed here again. Should I open the hatch and see any of your faces staring at me, I will close it and walk away unburdened. Have I made myself clear?”
I nodded. “Thank you for saving me. I know it was a risk, and I truly appreciate it, from the bottom of my heart.”
He gave me a begrudging nod back before turning and walking out. There was nothing about this man that was soft or caring like I expected a doctor to be, but then if he’d lost his wife and my mates had used her name to get us in the door, I could understand his anger and resentment.
“Come on, let’s get out of here,” Micah said as he held out his hand to me.
I took it, and he helped me inch forward on the bed until I could swing my legs over the side. The scratchy cotton sheets felt rough against my sensitized skin, and I just wanted to go back to sleep. I knew if I did though, the unspoken threat—well, unspoken to me at least—would be put into practice. The doctor would let Jax know I was there with Roman and Micah. He’d probably get a reward for it as well, while Roman and Micah would be executed, or worse, tortured. Asshole.
After just having my life saved, I wasn’t about to put it at risk again so soon, and I knew that going with Jax would definitely put my life at risk. So awake and moving was my only option.
“Clothes?” I asked, my voice still not quite back to normal, even though I didn’t think I’d been out that long.
Roman handed me some leggings and a sweater.
“I need undies too, you know,” I teased.
“You don’t. This will satisfy for now, and underwear, especially a bra, is just going to be more pain for you to get through so you can get dressed. There’s no one you have to worry about seeing you braless, since we’ll be taking care of you and, not speaking for Micah, but I happen to like it when you’re braless.”
“You get a pass, for now, but don’t think that I’m suddenly just going to change things about myself
and the way I dress for you,” I said pointedly.
“I wouldn’t dream of such a thing.” Roman couldn’t quite hide the grin from his face.
The two of them helped me get the leggings on under the surgical gown and then the sweater, with only a brief moment of my body being exposed and then it was just to the wall. Neither of them even peeked at my boobs.
Something wasn’t right. They always looked when I got naked. “What’s wrong?”
“You’re healing, nothing’s wrong.” Roman pulled the sweater down over my stomach and the top of my leggings.
Gently Micah lifted one foot then the other, putting a shoe on each time.
“You two never miss a chance to see the girls, and now you’re not looking, like I’m Medusa and might turn you to stone or something.”
“You haven’t had a chance to see yourself yet, and we haven’t even had a chance to get you cleaned up. I, for one, am trying to respect your privacy and healing process. Believe me, beautiful, as soon as you’re ready, I’m going to worship your body like no one ever has before.” Micah’s voice was low and growly as he spoke, which, even in my pained state, still made my body react.
“We. We are you to worship you and bring you more pleasure than you’ve ever experienced before. But only once you’re ready,” Roman cautioned.
The thought of having the two of them in bed with me again was enough to make my core give a pulse of interest. My body may have been weak, but apparently, my vagina didn’t care. She wanted Roman and Micah to make good on their promises as soon as possible, torn stitches be damned. It was only the doctor’s warning and his refusal to patch me up again that had me pushing those thoughts and needs down.
Once I was dressed, the three of us walked—rather, they walked and supported most of my weight as I was pinned between them—out of the building. When the fresh dawn air hit us, I realized I had no idea where we were going next.
“Where to, boys?” I asked.
“That’s a good fucking question,” Micah mumbled.
“We’ll find somewhere, but first, we need to find some transportation. We can’t stay here and we can’t get anywhere walking, at least not without attracting unwanted attention.” Roman sounded grim and determined. My heart ached a little for how much his life had changed since I’d been thrown into it. “You two wait here, I’m going to get a car.”
And just like that, there were two. Micah and I couldn’t survive alone right now, we needed Roman and Blake, but both of them were busy taking care of different parts of our overall problem. I needed to be patient, but my patience with all of this was running thinner by the day. Soon, there would be none left, and heaven help the wolf that crossed me that day.
26
Roman
Stealing a car was not what I’d planned on doing, but I didn’t have much of a choice. I figured at least picking one that looked like it might last a while was a good way to go. The tan sedan was about as blah as a car could get, but when I’d looked at the dash and wheels, everything seemed to be in decent shape, so that was what sold me on it. When I started it up and found it had almost one hundred and fifty thousand miles on it, I was a little disappointed. I just hoped that the owner kept the engine in the same shape as the rest of the car.
It rumbled to life and had me cruising down the road in no time as I headed to the doctor’s garage, because let’s be honest, that wasn’t a clinic. While I’d been out earlier, cleaning up our blood trail and scavenging our bags from the old house, I’d picked up some burner cell phones, one for each of us, though Blake would have to wait to get his until we saw him again. We could use them to keep in touch without being tracked, not that I really thought either of our packs was sophisticated enough to do that, but better safe than sorry.
I quickly did a voice-to-text telling Micah to be ready. We would be riding in a stolen car, the last thing I wanted was to stop anywhere for too long until I could switch out plates.
A few moments later, I was pausing while Nina eased herself into the car and Micah threw the bags into the trunk. I couldn’t help but watch my mate shift her weight around in the rearview mirror. I’d come so close to losing her. If Micah’s blood hadn’t been a match, then she’d have been dead right now. The thought sent a shiver down my spine.
Brecken had been a friend. I’d trusted him with the life of my mate, and he’d betrayed me. Worse, he’d brought his girlfriend in on it. As much as I hated being the one to bring the violence and darkness into someone’s life, I wouldn’t have had any issue tracking Brecken and his lady friend down. Their days were numbered.
Vengeance crawled through my body like a rat in the dark, looking for a place to burrow deeper. I would get the blood I was owed. I’d fucking bathe in it until my mate’s pain was avenged.
The longer Nina sat up and the more she shuffled and fidgeted around trying to find a comfortable position, the paler she got, her skin beginning to remind me more of fresh cream than anything else. I knew the pain had to have been getting worse. We needed to find somewhere to stay that was out of the way, but not so much so that we would be memorable guests. I knew the city was our home, but some of the suburbs that were farther out, that were their own towns really, would be better for us in terms of anonymity, yet we needed to be close for Blake.
I didn’t want to think about what was going to happen when he broke from Jax’s pack. We didn’t even know when he’d try, or if we should go after him, though I knew what Nina was going to demand as soon as we got to the motel.
Micah and Nina were both silent on the journey over to the Mountain Moon Motel. It wasn’t on Jax’s territory, but it was fairly close to their compound, which was what we needed if we were going to try and get in touch with Blake. Or worse, try and rescue him.
When we pulled up, I was relieved to see there were plenty of other cars in the parking lot, so we wouldn’t stand out. I eased the car over to the side of the lot and parked so the clerk at the front desk couldn’t see us and got out. “I’ll go get us a room,” I said before closing the door softly so it didn’t shake the car too much. Nina had tried not to let it show, but I knew every time we went over a pothole or a bump in the road, she was in pain.
The exchange with the clerk was quick and painless, cash deposit to secure the room for three nights with the option to extend. I didn’t think the kid was more than twenty and had been distracted by some football game he was watching on his phone. No doubt breaking the rules with that, since when he saw me looking, he’d quickly tucked the phone in his pocket. I was fairly confident that he’d paid me even less attention after that since he seemed to be trying to make the floor open up and swallow him as he practically threw the room key packet at me.
Fortunately, I hadn’t had to harass him to get the first floor, and since the motel’s rooms on the first floor all opened directly to the parking lot, we didn’t have to try and get past anyone. We just had to get Nina from the car to the room without anyone noticing that she looked like death warmed up.
Finally, I was able to take a deep breath as I closed the door behind us. I wasn’t quite done yet though, as I walked over to the window that was open to the parking lot, only a sheer piece of material blocking us from view, and drew the thicker, blackout curtains over from each side, effectively blocking anyone from spying on us unless they were listening or had thermal cameras.
“So when are we going after Blake?” Nina asked as she sat down, trying to keep the wince of pain from her face.
“You’re not going anywhere. Your only job is to recover,” I said, trying not to sound too harsh, but at the same time, I was furious that she was willing to risk herself again so soon. It was like she didn’t understand how close she’d come to death, or maybe she was just refusing to acknowledge it. Probably the second one, that seemed much more like my Nina.
“Roman’s right, beautiful—you need to stay here and rest. We have nowhere to go if you tear your stitches. Unless you think a human hospital will help you
and then just let you walk out with no questions asked?” Micah challenged.
“I don’t want you to go alone. You need backup. If Jax catches you, then we’re fucked. Well and truly fucked. Plus, I don’t think you’d get the red carpet rolled out for you, if you know what I mean.” She winced again, and I wasn’t sure if it was because she was in pain or because she was thinking of us in pain.
“If you mean torture, then yeah, we know.” Micah shrugged as though torture was a risk he took every day.
I took a deep breath and said, “Listen, how about this? You need to heal and you don’t want us to go alone, so we’ll just wait a few days until you’re ready and we’ll all go then. Unless you’d prefer that we go now, which would mean you staying here. Those are our options.” I spread my hands before me and tried to keep the concern I had for her response from showing on my face. I didn’t want to fight with my mate, but I would to make sure she stayed safe.
“Look at it this way,” Micah began as he sat on the bed next to Nina. I felt a pull within me, and I had no choice but to join them. It wasn’t sexual, it just felt good to be together. “Blake might still be fine. We don’t actually know what happened. They may not have figured out that he was leading them away and what his goal really was. They might not have any idea that he’s mated to you.”
“Or they have, and he’s trapped there while they beat on him,” Nina countered.
“Wouldn’t we be able to tell if that was the case though? I know I could feel an echo of your pain when you were shot,” I said, scooting closer on the bed. “If you feel for the bond you have with Blake, do you feel any distress?”
Nina seemed to retreat into herself for a moment until finally she said, “No. I don’t feel anything out of the ordinary.”
“Okay then. He’s probably fine. We just want to go and scout around, give him an escape route if we can, that kind of thing.”
