by Moxie North
“Any changes? Creepy doctor show up?”
“No unauthorized personnel. He fluttered his eyes twice today. Not fully conscious but it looked like he was trying to come around.”
Eden was looking past Zion to the man in the bed. The nurse had pulled the curtain halfway and she could still see his dark head on the pillow. She brought her eyes back to Zion, her eyebrows hitching up. “Did you say fluttered?”
“Fuck you,” Zion replied with zero menace as he tasted his coffee.
“Fluttered,” Eden mumbled as she sipped her coffee. Clearing her throat she looked around and lowered her voice as she said, “I talked to King. Have you?”
“He texted me. This doesn’t seem like it’s the simple theft that Odal thinks it is.”
“I know, I also know that a powerful Clan like Odal needs a scapegoat for something like this.”
Zion shrugged. “Not our problem.”
“No…” Eden knew it wasn’t their problem. Still, it felt like she was involved in the investigation. Curious about the outcome and what it would mean for the unconscious human on the hospital bed beside her.
She’d never once in her life been attracted to a human on anything more than a surface level. She only dated shifters, and she always made sure to let them know that it was just for fun. No expectations. Nothing had ever really clicked with her. Certainly not around human males that couldn’t hide their discomfort around her. Eden wasn’t awkward; she was tall and athletic, and took pride in her skills. She trained in Krav Maga daily to maintain her physique. She wasn’t the kind to sit back and rely on being a shifter to keep her body in shape.
“I’m out.” Zion announced before walking away.
Eden didn’t bother giving him another look; her eyes were on the room.
When the nurse came out she smiled and nodded at Eden letting her know she could go back in. Pulling up the chair next to Kellan’s bedside, she watched him, each breath, the rise and fall of his chest. The dark lashes that were lying against his cheeks. Even in a faded hospital gown, she could see that he worked out. His chest was broad, the muscles in his arms still firm and shapely. He had the forearms of someone that lifted weights. She wondered if his hands were callused. It was a weird thought, but it flashed through her mind all the same.
With Zion’s account of Kellan’s fluttering eyes, Eden couldn’t help but watch him intently. A few times she saw him attempt to blink. Each time the doctors and nurses would come in and do an assessment. They got him to squeeze their hands which the nurse assured her were huge steps in his recovery.
Once when Eden had let her mind wander, the nurse came in and quickly called out to Kellan, “Kellan? Can you see me?”
Eden saw his eyes open for a moment to look at the nurse before they closed again.
“It’s okay. It means he’s waking up slowly. He’s only been unconscious a few days. He’ll keep having more lucid periods, don’t worry,” the nurse assured Eden like she was a family member instead of his bodyguard.
Eden was worried she was failing miserably at keeping her distance. Maybe Zion had it right. Stay standing, keep your focus on the job, and don’t get attached.
When the afternoon nurse came in, Kellan’s eyes opened towards the nurse and she smiled at him, told him he was okay and in the hospital. From Eden’s vantage she could see his eyelids fluttering. She wondered what color his eyes were, but they closed before she could come around the bed. Feeling a sense of frustration with the situation, she felt before she saw Dr. Wilson come in. The doctor gave her a quick glance, but not before Eden caught a narrowing of his eyes. He put on a practiced smile and went about checking on the patient.
Kellan opened his eyes briefly for the doctor. Again, he looked at the doctor and Eden resisted the urge to push Dr. Wilson out of the way to see the man for herself. After the hours of staring at him, she didn’t know what he looked like awake. It was a vital piece of information that her bear was clamoring for. Instead, she shot a message to Zion that Kellan was waking for brief moments so he’d know during his shift.
“You’re doing fine, Kellan. We’re taking very good care of you,” Dr. Wilson said with slow stilted words.
Eden took her spot back on the side of the bed away from the doctor. She watched as Kellan frowned, before he closed his eyes and slowly shook his head.
“Just keep resting. I’ll be back soon.” Dr. Wilson patted his knee then shot a look to Eden before leaving.
Eden stayed back as the medical staff worked. The nurses checked his vitals and straightened his bed before replacing his IV bag and saying, “Press the call button if he wakes up again.”
It was obvious that Kellan was getting better, staying awake longer, and she could feel relief course through her at knowing the worst was over. It wasn’t one of her brothers lying there. It was a stranger. A human. His health and welfare should be no concern of hers. But every sign that he was getting better changed how she viewed him. It was confusing.
The strange scent was gone with hardly a trace left; it was fitting into the puzzle now. His body was working through something and he was coming back. The staff left, all smiling like they had something to do with his recovery. Eden didn’t doubt their skills, but this was just a watch and wait game. The nurses did all the work. The doctors would take the credit for his recovery.
Eden was starting to the think there was something bigger afoot. The universe was sending her the very clear message that she was supposed to be here. Eden had faith. Faith that there were signs that you needed to follow.
Even when nothing in her life made sense, she never doubted the signs. Not that her crew knew, but Eden was a hopeless romantic. She’d become one after she realized that she might be one of those shifters that never had a mate. It happened, not very often. Probably half as often as a shifter finding their mate in another shifter. It was a small group that had a different path in life.
When Eden had come to terms with that, she focused her attention on ways she could help others. She wasn’t immune to feelings, she had lots of them. She read romance novels whenever she had downtime, they were her escape from the daily grind of her job. Being with Bliss meant she traveled a lot, and it was easy to grab her e-reader and escape into a love story that she could never have. Her favorite author was the Kindred author Delilah Grant. Whenever her book club read one of her books, she felt like it was the Solstice celebration. That was her fantasy life. Real life wasn’t as glamorous, and didn’t always come with a happy ending.
Unable to contain her curiosity any more, Eden stood and approached Kellan’s bedside. Something was drawing her towards him, and after a quick glance to see there was no one at the nurses’ station, she slid her hand into his.
She ran the fingers of her free hand through his hair. It was soft and silky, and she decided that they must have washed it while she was gone. His eyebrow twitched and she stopped. Bringing her thumb to his forehead she smoothed out the wrinkle from his brow. It relaxed under her hand. His chest rose and dropped like a sigh, the tube in his mouth not allowing any sound to escape.
Realizing she was overstepping, she released his hand and went back to her post. She sat on the edge of the chair and rubbed her palms against her jeans, the tingle of touching him made her hands feel numb.
What was she doing? Touching a client? Then again, he wasn’t the client, he was the target. That didn’t help her confusion. There was zero reason for her to ever touch him. He wasn’t even conscious. For sure, that fell under weird things you don’t do to the comatose unless you were family or friends. She was a stranger to this man. Big no-no.
He was under investigation and she had no place to go against a Clan, but Eden’s gut was telling her that Kellan had already been investigated and convicted without ever being allowed or able to speak for himself. That thought pissed her off. Her bear reared up in her head and let it be known how shitty that was.
Kellan groaned, and without thinking, Eden jumped up and picked up his hand again. A ch
oking sound came from his throat and she brought her hand to his head.
“Kellan?” His head was moving against the pillow slightly like he was in a bad dream and trying to escape.
“It’s okay. You’re not alone,” she whispered, trying to calm him. His agitation was growing and she looked over her shoulder to see if there was someone she could call out to. The hallway was still empty. Turning back to the man in her hands, she saw blurry brown eyes looking up at her. They didn’t see her, she knew that.
But Eden saw him. She saw him.
Eden sucked in a breath as she felt the force of a strong wind hit her. She staggered from the force, and the sound of the most beautiful chorus sank into her soul. It was beautiful, it was divine, it was a once in a lifetime song just for her.
Her mate was in her hands. She was holding the man of her heart and soul. It took a few seconds for all of it to happen.
Kellan started choking against the tube and Eden forced herself to look away, “Help!” she called out and a nurse rushed in.
There was chaos as Dr. Wilson followed and they worked to remove his breathing tube. They covered his face with an oxygen mask as they kept talking to him. They were telling him to be calm, that he was safe, that he was okay.
Eden really needed someone to tell her that. She could have used the oxygen too. She backed herself into a corner and started counting the pounding beats of her heart to try and keep herself calm.
It wasn’t possible. It shouldn’t have been possible. She didn’t need a mate. She was happy in her life. Never once had she begged the universe for a partner. Never. It wasn’t something she felt she had a right to demand.
How could the man in the bed be the one and only match for her? Eden knew how in love her parents were, her brothers and their mates. The mating call was different but just as strong for everyone.
It wasn’t going to be for her. That beautiful call that had echoed through her ears and mind was something she’d never even wondered about. All Eden could do was remind herself to keep breathing. Her mate was there, he was ill—but even worse, he was in danger.
She knew now why she had wanted to touch him. Wanted to watch over him. Her bear wanted to shift and stand guard at the door to his room. That wouldn’t cause any problems, she thought sarcastically.
Eden would have to tell King. She’d have to tell Zion. Oh, Great Mother, she’d have to tell her brothers. Kellan would have to square up to four huge bears. Eden would kick each of their asses personally if they even thought about hurting her mate, even if it was just his feelings.
Shit, shit, shit! She had a mate. A human mate.
In all her life she hadn’t thought much about having a mate. The moments she did think about, she just assumed it would be a heartbound mate, another Kindred. Even then, the desire to be mated wasn’t as strong in her as it was with so many others. Now, a split second later, her life and her future were turned upside down.
She might not have wanted a mate before, but now she wanted to shift and roar and tell the world, hell, the universe, that she had a mate.
A fragile human mate that needed his name cleared. He was in danger; he was being accused of a crime that could put him in prison for years. Now she not only had a job to do, she had a mate to protect, and she wasn’t going to let anyone get near him.
Leave it to her to get the complicated mating.
Chapter 5
Kellan’s mind was a fog. He couldn’t seem to swim through the darkness. He didn’t want to be lost anymore. He knew that much. He’d been in the dark for what felt like forever. It was heavy and suffocating. His mind would wander, and then there was nothing.
He occasionally heard things, but couldn’t tell if they were real, or just more of his dreams. For a time, he thought he was dead. He couldn’t feel his body. It was as if he was floating. Then the weight became too heavy. The brief moments of pain confused him. Sharp moments that he couldn’t explain.
Today, the blackness that surrounded him had started to lift. There was something that lightened the crushing weight. Something that came and went and he was almost waiting for it to come back.
For the first time in what felt like forever, he’d felt a touch against his hand and head. It wasn’t in the dark, it was on the outside. There was a voice. Soft and kind. He liked that voice and he didn’t want to be in the black where it didn’t reach.
Struggling to the surface he fought like he was battling against the strongest current until he could feel his eyelids. He used all his strength to open them.
He saw an angel. Fuck, he was dead.
An angel in black? Maybe he was in hell.
No, nothing that beautiful could be in hell, he’d rationalized.
She knew his name, yet he’d never even met her before. He would have remembered. She told him he was okay, that she was there with him.
That was really nice. He had no idea why she was there, maybe she was a nurse. He could smell the hospital room. He wanted to ask her who she was, but then he choked on the tube in his throat.
After that things happened quickly. He couldn’t keep track of the people and the light that suddenly came on in his room. They were all talking, there was a buzzing in his ears. The tube scraped as they pulled it out of his throat and he choked against the removal.
His throat was dry and raw and the first breath he took on his own hurt like wildfire. His eyes darted around the room looking for her. There were too many people asking him questions, they blocked his view. She’d made him feel better, and now he couldn’t see her. He felt the aches and pains in his body. He tried to answer their questions, but he didn’t know what day it was. He knew who the President was, he’d voted for her. But how he’d ended up in the hospital he had no idea.
The nurses got him settled, offered him sips of water and they changed out his mask to a nasal cannula and told him to continue to rest. When they all left, he looked for her again and found her tucked back against the corner.
“Who are you?” he asked, his voice rough and unused. The removal of the tube in his throat had left him feeling weak. He didn’t like it at all.
The woman stepped forward. He moved his eyes over her briefly, taking in her long dark hair and her smooth, creamy skin, but came back to her eyes. He couldn’t seem to look away from them. They were hypnotizing. The silver reflection that passed over her green eyes gave away that she was shifter. Even if he hadn’t seen her eyes, there was something about her that made him keenly aware she wasn’t human.
“I’m Eden, I work for King Security. I’ve been hired by Clan Odal to watch you.”
“Oh, wow, that’s nice of them. Did I get hurt?” The doctors had rattled off something at him when they were removing the tube and he didn’t understand what they were saying.
“No…” Eden hedged
Kellan’s forehead wrinkled. “So, no accident.”
“We’re not sure. I was hired to watch you because Clan Odal believes you stole from them.”
Kellan was sure he didn’t hear her right. There was no way he would ever steal from the Clan. They were like family to him. At least Beau was. Ritch tolerated him, but it didn’t bother him. Never had. Even when he’d forget Kellan was there during family dinners and events.
“Stole from them?” he tried to yell but his voice wasn’t up for it.
“Apparently, there are millions missing. The transactions came from your terminal, your log-in. Ritch is out for blood. They want their money and, more importantly, they want you to pay for it. And I’m not talking about a payment plan. This makes Ritch look like he doesn’t have control over the Clan. Why did they let a human take on that job anyway?”
Kellan didn’t like her question. He’d answered it so many times in the last few years. Clans usually hired within their own. They had plenty of shifters and human mates to cover all of their internal jobs. Hiring from the outside was almost unheard of.
“Because they can trust me. I’m good at my job. I’ve made the
Clan millions. Why would I steal from them?” His voice was quiet, not yet having the strength to give a full defense.
Eden stepped closer to the bed and he could see her chest rising and falling as if she was almost out of breath.
“Kellan, you have to remember what happened. You had a… chemical compound in your system. I don’t think you took it yourself. It almost killed you.”
“A chemical?”
Eden frowned and nodded. “It’s a form of amnesiac. It was being tested as a mind-control drug. It was found to be dangerous and wasn’t supposed to be out of the hands of the military.”
“You think that’s what I took?”
She stepped closed and her hand opened and closed like she was going to reach for him. He wished she had.
“I don’t think you took anything willingly, especially not this stuff. If you had stolen the money, you’d be dead before you had a chance to run off with it.”
That made him pause. Kellan licked his lips slowly and tried to make sense of what was being said. “You think someone did this to me?”
“I think that you were available and had the access they needed.”
“Who’s they?”
“That’s what I’m going to figure out.”
“Is that what you were hired to do too?”
She hesitated before answering, “No. I’m only here to make sure you don’t disappear before you face Clan justice.”
“Clan justice?” Kellan swallowed. The Clans weren’t allowed to just administer their brand of justice on humans. There were rules in place. But the Clans were powerful and they could have influence over how a human was treated in the court system.
“I’m not going to let anyone hurt you,” Eden said, her voice growled and her eyes became golden with anger.
“Why do you care? You’re not Odal.”
“No, I’m Dagaz. I’m a bear and I don’t think you’re a thief.”
“Why not? I could be. You don’t know me.”
Eden sat on the edge of the bed and her hand rested on his leg. It was a very intimate gesture for someone that he’d just met, but he couldn’t deny liking it. She smelled nice and she had a habit of licking her lips. That was the only thing that pulled his gaze from her eyes. Her lips were plump and soft looking.
