by Lacey Thorn
“We found it,” Tony said as he moved quickly into the room with Professor Mueller on his heels.
“It was under my nose the whole time,” the professor muttered.
“What?” Daniel and Tah asked at the same time.
“It appears he was hit with something similar to what was used on Kenzie by Nix,” the professor informed them.
Daniel and Tah both growled at the reminder of the shifter who’d shown up then tried to betray them by kidnapping Kenzie, the mate of Daniel’s brother, and wound up killing Daniel’s father. Not that Isaac Erikson was a great man whose loss had cut deep. Daniel’s father had been an asshole. One who’d wreaked his own form of havoc on everyone around him, including his two sons.
“Except stronger,” Tony added as he glanced at the tablet in his hand. “I’d like to try something to see if we can counter what they gave you. Think of it as a jump start for your lion.”
“Do it,” Daniel said immediately. He needed his lion back. The quicker the better. He needed to get to his mate.
“Now, wait a minute,” Tah began. “What are you thinking of giving him? How do we know whatever it is won’t make it worse?”
“We ran the tests,” Tony answered while the professor passed Tah the device he was looking at. “Several times. They all came back with the same results.”
“This could potentially help Kenzie, as well,” the professor added. “She still hasn’t been able to draw out her lioness again. If this works the way the tests indicate, it’s possible she could benefit from it.”
“How did you know what to test?” Daniel asked.
“My thoughts exactly,” Tah agreed.
“I’ve been working on this since the last time we rescued someone from Talbot. The doctor likes to inject DNA inhibitors that seek out and attach to the animal genetics in a shifter. They work to repress, preventing a shift, dampening the animal senses, but over the long term, they can cause a breakdown in the DNA. One that may not be repairable.”
“Fuck,” Tah growled.
“Give it to me,” Daniel ordered again before glancing toward Tah. “I’m not losing my lion.”
Tah nodded his agreement. “What about Kenzie? Do we know if there’s any permanent damage there?”
“There’s not,” the professor answered while Tony moved toward Daniel. “Luckily, she’d already mated with Gabriel by the time Nix hit her with the second round of drugs from Talbot. Plus, her lioness was already starting to emerge. It was a setback. That’s all.”
“But I haven’t mated yet,” Daniel murmured.
“Yet,” Tony agreed as he slipped the cap off a hypodermic. “This is going to burn.”
There was something in his eyes as he pushed the viscous liquid into Daniel’s vein. Going to burn was a bit misleading. His fucking veins were on fire. His heartbeat accelerated to the point he feared the organ might actually beat its way out of his chest. He clenched his fists, grimacing as he fought the ferocity of what was going on inside him.
“Have you ever given this to anyone else?” Tah asked belatedly.
“No,” Tony admitted with a grin. “Daniel’s my first.”
“Well, fuck me,” Daniel muttered. “Am I supposed to feel like my insides are on fire?”
Tony shrugged as he placed his fingers against the pulse in Daniel’s throat. “Heartrate’s elevated. Any nausea?”
“Things can’t ever be easy, can they?” Tah growled, fingers clenched around the footboard of Daniel’s bed.
“Easy’s overrated,” Tony murmured, gaze glued to Daniel. “I wasn’t sure how much to give you. I forgot you’d lost weight. I based it off your healthy weight.”
“Before I was shot,” Daniel muttered through clenched teeth.
“Before you started running around with a death wish,” Tony countered. “I’m glad you’ve decided to stop that.”
“Daniel, how are you feeling?” Tah asked, shifting his weight so he was closer to the professor.
Daniel’s teeth felt too big for his mouth. He kept flexing his neck and turning his head side to side as he tried to adjust. His tongue was heavy, thick, and everything around him had taken on a strange glow. His fingers hurt, and when he glanced down, claws had replaced his fingernails.
“Should it be working that quickly?” the professor questioned, making notes on his tablet.
“Call Aleksy,” Tony ordered, but Daniel was incapable of doing anything but what his body wanted.
“Tony? What’s up?” The voice filled the room, and it dawned on Daniel that Tony had been speaking to his phone instead of the others in the room.
“Head to the labs. I may need you,” Tony murmured. “Now.”
“I’m right here,” Tah interjected.
“Yeah, I’m not stupid enough to risk you,” Tony admitted. “Every member of this pride would have my head. Though, I think you’re lovely mate is the one I’d be most afraid of.”
Tah snorted a laugh, and it dawned on Daniel they were concerned about him. He would have told them not to worry, but speaking was beyond him. Still, his animal was trying to make an appearance, something still prevented it. There was a battle going on inside him, and he wasn’t sure if there’d be a winner when it was all said and done. Then he was nothing but pure burning heat.
“Fire,” he growled as he thrashed, knocking himself from the bed to the floor. He grasped his head as he landed on his knees. He was panting. Hell, even his lungs felt as if they were consumed in flames. Breathing fucking hurt. Everything fucking hurt.
“Tony, what’s going on?”
“Give it a minute,” Tony said, but Daniel was pretty sure he’d been locked in the flames for hours. Maybe days.
“Daniel, look at me,” Tah commanded, but Daniel couldn’t.
“Aleksy, over here.”
Daniel saw a large pair of feet move into his range of vision. Aleksy, the black liger. The man who was always trapped in a primal state. What must that be like?
“What’d you give him?” The new voice had to be Aleksy’s. “Lyra, stay over there.”
“No.” This voice was rough. No, rusty. As if it wasn’t used often. Daniel remembered someone mentioning something about Lyra having been deaf or partially deaf prior to mating the primal liger. He glanced up, and there was no missing she was Reno’s sister. Hell, she was basically a slightly shorter, female version of her brother.
Daniel heard the murmur of their voices, but he didn’t focus on the conversation. He felt his lion. For the first time since he’d woken up, he felt his lion. He reached for it, offering himself so the animal could switch skins and take over. But there was still something there, something preventing him from really connecting, though both sides tried. His lion had been so close, pressing for release, generating brief changes that were already receding.
“No!” he shouted, shaking his head fiercely. He wasn’t going to lose his lion.
The professor said something, but Daniel couldn’t hear over the sound of the blood rushing through his veins. Tah spoke, but it was the same. Daniel shook his head again as Tah crouched before him and put his hand on Daniel’s shoulder.
“Did you hear me?”
More head shaking.
“You’re healing,” Tah stated as if he’d repeated it several times. He probably had.
Daniel glanced down at his body and felt a fleeting hope that Aleksy didn’t mind his mate seeing Daniel in nothing but his boxer briefs. Slowly, his gaze centered on the places he’d been shot. The dull, throbbing pain was gone. Yes, he still burned on the inside, but it wasn’t the hellfire that had robbed him of breath.
“Get a vial of blood.” The professor’s voice was loud and clear as he gave the order. “Tony, get some blood, so I can see what’s going on. Quick.”
“Daniel, can you hear me? Daniel?”
Fuck, he was going to pass out again. The worst part was he knew it, and there was nothing he could do about it. His mate needed him. Somehow, he and his lion needed to get their shit together
, so they could go after the one person who meant the most to both of them. Ariel.
Chapter Seven
Ariel unglued her feet and hurried to catch up with Quinn and the woman. She noted the well-kept house as they passed through it on their way to what appeared to be a connected clinic. Quinn was ushered into a well-stocked exam room. Another woman was there, and she was almost a carbon copy of the one who’d led them in. Ariel inhaled.
“Cougar?” she questioned.
“Yes,” the one who’d met them out front answered then gave a soft laugh. “Forgive me. I didn’t even think to introduce myself. I saw you and…” She trailed off with a shrug as if that explained everything. It explained nothing as far as Ariel was concerned. It only brought up new questions.
“You’ve done it again.” The copy shook her head. “I’m Anna Renquagh, and this is my sister Miriam.”
“You know me,” Ariel stated, reading the same recognition in Anna’s gaze that she’d seen in Miriam’s.
“I saved your life,” Anna said then turned her full attention to Quinn. “I hear you’ve been the guest of hunters. I need you to tell me everything you can. They’re vicious bastards, and one unspoken thing could be the difference between me helping you or putting us all in danger.”
“Danger?” Quinn asked.
“From what Gideon was able to tell us, you met with Ariel at Thomas’ trading post. Most know Thomas is no longer there. No one’s been there in a long time. So either someone on the inside didn’t know that, or you were sent there intentionally to lure someone else.”
“Oh, God.” Quinn paled, her frantic gaze meeting and holding Ariel’s. “I’m sorry.”
Ariel gritted her teeth while she swallowed the nausea that rose inside her at Quinn’s words. Quinn seemed to pale further, and Ariel automatically reached out to grasp her hand, squeezing. When had she become a person who offered comfort? Her, the one who couldn’t stand for others to touch her? And why did she feel a kinship with a woman she’d never met until today? One who’d been manipulated and placed in danger by Daniel’s father?
“Let’s get you on the table, Miss.” Anna held out her hand to Quinn, offering her help onto the table. Ariel watched her eyes widen as she got her first good look at Quinn. “You’re pregnant.”
“Yes. The baby takes precedence over me. If the choice ever has to be made, the baby lives.” Quinn darted her gaze between Anna and Ariel. Anna’s lips thinned as she pressed them together. Ariel gave a slight nod, hoping it never came to that.
“Let’s have you lie back, so I can see how baby is doing. How far along are you?” Miriam asked as she came up beside the exam table and helped Quinn ease down.
Quinn held her breath as they lifted her shirt. Ariel barely managed to hold in her gasp as Miriam lifted Quinn’s shirt. Her belly was taut over the swell of the child she carried. There were cuts on her stomach that oozed blood. What the hell had they done to her? Ariel glanced back to Quinn’s face in time to watch a solitary tear streak down her cheek before she closed her eyes.
“Eight weeks,” Quinn murmured. “I’m halfway through my pregnancy.”
Anna assessed her visually for a moment. “The father is a lion?”
“Yes… He was.” Another tear followed the path of the first.
“The father’s dead?” Anna asked softly, and Quinn nodded.
“Did they give you a transfusion of his blood while you were in the lab?”
Ariel understood why they were asking. As the human mate of a shifter, she would need her mate’s blood to help her through her pregnancy. The gestation period of cat shifters was rapid and took an extreme toll on the human body. With a lion, Quinn would reach full term at close to fifteen weeks. That was less than half the time of a human pregnancy. Without her mate’s blood, Quinn could die during delivery, if she made it that far. Her baby would be at risk, also.
“Not recently.”
Anna continued her visual assessment. “What else did he do to you, child?”
Quinn shook her head. “I’m fine. Check the baby. Make sure the baby’s okay. Please.”
Anna sighed as Miriam moved around the office, rolling over an ultrasound machine. Ariel stood silently, watching as the life inside Quinn’s belly appeared on the screen and the steady whomp-whomp of the heartbeat filled the air.
“Strong. Baby looks healthy. For now. I’m not going to lie to you. If the father is no longer in the picture, the next six to eight weeks could be very hard for you. We could try another lion’s blood. It’s been done before. You’ll need to find one when you get home. The baby will need it. So will you.”
“We have lion shifters who will help,” Ariel answered for Quinn. Daniel was a lion. God, the thought of his blood nurturing another woman’s child shouldn’t have her tiger on edge, but it did. How could she be possessive of a man she’d never possessed? God, she was a fucked-up mess. Her glance fell back to Quinn’s face. Weren’t they a pair?
“I can put something on these open wounds to help them close up.” Anna spoke softly as she put aside the wand she’d been running over Quinn’s belly while Miriam wiped off the gel she’d squirted onto Quinn’s stomach.
“Yes,” Quinn agreed as another tear fell.
Ariel watched Quinn visibly flinch as Anna touched the wounds. She knew what they represented. It was as if they were the elephant in the room. Everyone knew what they meant, but no one stated it aloud. As if saying it would make it worse than the horror it represented. Quinn’s belly had been left with open wounds so the bastards could have access for whatever reasons they wanted. It made Ariel sick. Why couldn’t shifters be left alone to live their lives? It wasn’t as if they randomly picked up humans and did unspeakable things to them. Fucking hunters.
Anna finished then cleaned Quinn’s abdomen again before helping her sit up and pull down her shirt. She cupped Quinn’s face in her hands as she spoke. “What did they do to you?”
“Anything he wanted,” Quinn repeated the words she’d told Ariel earlier.
Anna brushed her finger under Quinn’s eye. “You need to rest. Miriam will take you to a room where you can do that while we wait for Gideon to arrive.”
Quinn’s gaze flew to Ariel. She opened her mouth to promise she’d still be there with Quinn when Gideon arrived, but the truth was that she wasn’t sure. She wasn’t ready to see him again. She wasn’t ready to go back to Oklahoma with Quinn, Gideon and Vic. Especially not with Gabriel who would blame her for Daniel getting shot. Rightly so, but still. Ariel wasn’t ready for that. So she said the only thing she really could.
“Rest. They’ll be here soon, and we’ll get you home. I’m going to speak with Anna for a bit. I’ll check on you when I’m done.”
Quinn opened her mouth then closed it without saying anything. Ariel wasn’t sure if she suspected anything or was finally giving in to her exhaustion. Either way, Quinn let Miriam lead her out of the room. Ariel waited until they were gone before turning back to find Anna watching her with that avid gaze that seemed to read everything without ever asking anything.
“You look better than the last time I saw you,” Anna admitted softly. “Broken and—”
“Don’t,” Ariel interrupted. She knew what she’d looked like that day. She had the reminder every time she closed her eyes. Hell, sometimes, when they were wide open.
Anna nodded. “Thomas wasn’t sure you’d make it. He was bleach white when he carried you in. Terrified you’d die at any moment. I had to work around him because he refused to leave you.”
Ariel was sure her face showed her surprise. Thomas Walker? He’d been terrified? For her? That didn’t sound like the man she’d known.
“I see your doubt. Maybe even resentment, though I’m not sure why you’d feel that way about the man who saved your life.”
“I thought you said you were the one who saved my life,” Ariel countered.
Anna lifted a brow. “Only because Thomas was able to get you here. You were in and out of i
t. Feverish. I had to slow your natural healing so I could…help first. Thomas stayed the entire time I worked.” She paused, her intense gaze holding Ariel’s prisoner. “Holding your hand. He kept talking to you. Telling you to hold on. To fight. To live.”
Ariel shook her head. It made no sense. “Thomas hated me. I was nothing more than a pain in the ass to him. He couldn’t wait to pawn me off on Gideon and get away from me.”
“Thomas takes the world on his shoulders. He always has. Even as a boy, he thought it was his job to watch over and protect everyone. Especially his younger siblings, Michael and Elizabeth. When Elizabeth was taken, it nearly killed him. Losing his mate the way he did afterward… I was sure we were going to lose him, too. But he kept working. Kept searching for his sister. Kept saving those he could. He and Michael were constantly putting themselves in danger. Gideon too when he joined them. Then he lost Michael. He was never the same after that. But he still cared, and he still saved as many shifters as he could. Thomas’ only fault is that he cares too much. For everyone but himself.”
Ariel shook her head. “No. Sorry, but I don’t believe that. He cared? Seriously? You know what happened to me. You saw me. Want to know what your precious Thomas, who cares so much, said to me when I woke from a nightmare so vicious it was like I was back there in that clearing staked to the ground? He told me we all get what we deserve in the end. That things happen to us because of who we are, what we’ve done. Some of us are victims and that’s all we’ll ever be. That was what your compassionate man said to me.”
“Oh, child.” Anna shook her head sadly. “Did you think he was talking to you?”
“We were the only two people in the room. Who else would he have been talking to?” Ariel demanded.
“Himself,” Anna stated softly. “Thomas blames himself for all of it. Every death. Every disappearance. Every shifter he was unable to reach in time. He heaps it all on his shoulders and struggles to carry the weight. I watched him when he brought you here. I saw him cry when he thought we were losing you and again when we knew you’d survive.”
“No,” Ariel swore, denying that Thomas would have cried over her. Why?
