by Sara Summers
I grinned through the whole shower, even as I shampooed my hair for the third time to make sure all the dirt and grease was gone. Honestly, I felt better than I could remember ever feeling.
But at about the time I shut off the shower, that feeling had slowly started leaking away. My stomach began to hurt, my mind became cloudy…
I clutched the wall for support as I wrapped the towel around me.
“I have your conditioner.” Ross called out through the door. I was so dizzy I could barely speak.
“I’ll use it tomorrow.” I rasped. My mouth—when had it become so dry?
“Are you okay?” Ross could tell something was wrong.
“Fine.” My voice cracked with the words. “I’m fine.” I murmured, before collapsing on the floor.
“Brooke.” Ross demanded, banging on the door. “Brooke!” he shouted.
While I could hear his voice and hear the banging, my mind seemed disconnected from my body. I couldn’t see anything, couldn’t move even if I tried. I was stuck in some sort of cloudy/foggy land, separated from my body.
On the plus side, I couldn’t feel my stomach hurting.
Ross busted down the door yet again. I heard it, though still couldn’t move. He tried to wake me up, to free me from the foggy world, but there was nothing he or I could do. I felt completely detached from myself.
He left me in the bathroom just long enough to grab his phone. I could hear him calling for Carla, begging her to get to me as fast as she possibly could. He didn’t want to move me, he said. He was afraid of what might happen.
Maybe I would’ve been afraid too if I wasn’t off floating in lala land.
“Stay with me.” He begged.
My mind couldn’t do what he wanted, however, and I lost myself to the pain for a few minutes, or an hour… I don’t know how long it was, but I was gone. I didn’t come back until I heard Ross cry out in pain.
“She’s dying, help her.” He barely got the words out.
I can’t leave him. I whispered to myself, though my mouth didn’t move with my mind. I just found him, I’m not ready to go.
Even as I said the words to myself, I could feel that what Ross was saying was true. I was dying.
“You are the only one who can save her now, Alpha. You must convince the animal and human within her to reach an agreement, she won’t make it if you don’t.” Carla said.
Ross writhed in pain, but he leaned over me.
“Brooke, do you hear me?’ he asked.
“I hear you!” I replied, though he didn’t hear me. He closed his eyes and reached out with his mind the way he had when I was in lion form.
“Brooke?” he begged me to answer.
“I’m here.” I nodded—tried to nod. If I’d been connected to my body, I would’ve been crying.
“I need you to stay with me. Not just with your human body, but with your lion form as well. I need you to lead the pack beside me, I need you to fight for me in more than just words. My brother is coming for me, and he will kill me if you’re not there to stop him. Please, Brooke, come back to me.”
His body trembled with the force of the pain. Ross closed his eyes against it, he closed them to try to keep the anguish from affecting him. I felt myself regaining control of my body, so I thought he’d get better.
I thought he’d be fine.
But only moments later, his unconscious body fell against mine.
I joined him a few minutes later, lost in the abyss of black.
Chapter 16
When I woke up, I was lying half on top of Ross’s chest. His arms were around me, clutching me tight to him as if I was a doll he was afraid someone might try to take away.
My eyelids opened very slowly. When I could see, I noticed Carla sitting in a chair next to the bedroom door. She was looking down at her phone, either reading a book or scrolling through a social media site as far as I could tell.
“What happened?” I whispered.
“You almost died.” Carla looked up from her phone.
“Yeah, I remember that part.” I muttered. For a second, I tried to get free of Ross’s iron grip. It only took that one second for it to be clear that wasn’t going to happen. Ross had saved my life and he wasn’t letting me go and almost die again. “But why did it happen?”
“The lion part of you is a blessing from the Creator. You were meant to cherish it, but you didn’t. You chose your human side over your animal side rather than accepting it for the gift that it is. That decision is what your sickness comes from.” She uncrossed her legs and leaned toward me.
“Lions are not like other shifters, despite what you may think about your friends. We are at the top of the food chain. We refuse to come in second to anyone. You chose to be more human than lion, and because of that, your lion side chose to retreat within you until you gave it the place it deserved, at the top.”
“I couldn’t have put my lion side first anyway, because after I got sick, I couldn’t shift. Every time I tried, I was in so much pain that I couldn’t do anything but lay on the floor. After a few shifts like that, I stopped trying. It wasn’t worth how much it hurt.” I frowned, looking back down at Ross’s arm.
“If you had been persistent, it would’ve returned.” Carla nodded once. She obviously didn’t care what I thought or had experienced on my side of the story. “Yesterday, you almost lost your lion half. She was tired of being locked away, so she left. If you hadn’t mated yet, you would’ve simply become a human.
“However, because you are, her leaving would have killed you. You couldn’t keep your soulmate while losing your lion, the world simply doesn’t work like that.”
“Um, okay.” I closed my eyes and let out a puff of air. “So Ross convinced her to stay and that saved my life?” I checked.
“Yes. You owe him your life.” Carla nodded. Her phone went off, and she looked down. “I have to go in to work, please call me if the Alpha doesn’t wake up within the hour.” She stood up and left the room without another word.”
“Yeesh, she definitely doesn’t like me.” I muttered, trying once again to free myself from Ross-jail.
“Well you have been causing trouble.” Ross murmured, smiling lazily and holding me tight.
“You’re awake?” I lit up, excited to finally get some alone time with my mate. We really hadn’t told each other anything about ourselves yet.
“No.” his eyes stayed shut.
“Alright then, you won’t mind if I…” I reached my hand under his shirt and tickled his side. He laughed and tried to push me off of him, but I latched on to his waist with my legs. “Are you awake yet?” I teased him, still tickling as he writhed and squirmed and laughed.
“Yes.” He tried again to push me off, but I wasn’t letting go. I was having too much fun watching my Alpha freak out while I tickled him.
“I don’t think so.” I laughed.
“Oh, really?” Ross grinned, and the tickle fight suddenly turned into a war. He had me flipped onto my back before I even knew what was happening. His hands pinned mine to the bed, holding my hands down while he sat on my stomach.
“Fine, you win.” I wheezed, not breathing very well with his weight on top of me.
“It’s not over yet.” He smiled slyly, moving one of his arms so he could hold both my hands with one of his. He put his hand on my hip, which was bare thanks to the massive t-shirt that practically swallowed me whole. That shirt barely kept my chest covered, after rolling around with Ross. I was wearing a pair of men’s boxers and that shirt, and as far as I could tell, nothing else.
“Your skin is so soft.” He whispered, trailing his finger over my stomach. “Your body is perfect.”
His touch gave me goosebumps, and I arched my hips up to stop the tickling.
“You’re the sexiest woman I’ve ever seen.” He murmured, moving his hand to my face. “You’re never allowed to leave me.” he shook his head, probably remembering the night before when I almost died.
“
Why would I want to?” I smiled, pulling my arms free and lifting myself up closer to him. “You’re mine, remember?”
Faster than he could’ve replied, Ross’s lips were on mine. He kissed me like… oh screw the similes and metaphors. His arms were hot, his skin was fire, and his kisses burned me to the bones. In a flash, he was the one on bottom. My legs were locked around his stomach again, this time for a completely different reason.
His hand trailed up my back and to the cotie, and when he touched those markings, oh, I shuddered. His desire washed through me—his desire, merged with mine, consumed me. I wanted nothing else, no one else, and for the moment to never end.
“I wanted to do this the second I saw you.” He whispered, pressing kisses to my neck. I shuddered again, and he groaned. I threaded my fingers through his hair and pressed my chest to his.
“Take off your shirt.” I whispered, caught up in the moment and the heat of the desire. I wanted Ross, I wanted him more than anything in the world.
He pulled the shirt over his head and growled, yanking me in close.
Our lips intertwined again and I arched into him, loving the feel of his skin against mine. I wanted him—I needed him. I pressed my hand to his cotie to give him a taste of my feelings, and he groaned again, squeezing my hips tightly.
Just as his hands were going for my shirt, we heard the front door open and shut.
Ross froze, gripping the edge of my t-shirt so tightly I was afraid he’d rip it.
“Alpha?” a man called out. Ross swallowed, and we both looked to the bedroom door. Crap. It was open, and we were in quite the compromising position.
Still, neither of us moved.
“Ross, are you… Oh, hi.” Two men stopped outside the bedroom door, freezing in place and gawking at us.
“Hey.” I waved at the men, who were getting an eyeful of bare Brooke-leg. “Maybe knock next time.” I shrugged. Ross looked down and saw how much of my legs the guys were seeing. He growled and glared at the men, his arms going back to my waist and holding me tight.
“We’ll just, uh, wait outside.”
They scurried down the hall, probably feeling incredibly awkward. Ross and I looked at each other, and then I laughed.
“What do you think was going through their minds?” I whispered. Ross grinned and ran his hand down my leg.
“They were wishing their soulmates were as sexy as mine.” He pulled me closer for a slow, lingering kiss. “You have really nice legs, by the way.”
“Thanks. I do lunges every day to get them to look like this.” I put a hand under my chin, giving him a pouty face.
“No you don’t.” My mate’s grin grew, and he kissed me on the forehead. “I have to see what’s going on. I’ll be back in a minute, and when I get back…” his grin morphed into a sly, sexy smile.
“Can’t wait.” I gave him my most sultry, “you-know-you-want-me” smile. He yanked my body to his again and kissed me like I was the water to his fire. Ross growled when I pulled away. “Go talk to your boys. Make sure you lock the door when you come back in.”
Ross didn’t even bother putting his shirt back on when he left. I grinned and fell back to my pillow—gosh, having a soulmate was fun.
Chapter 17
I was trying to comb through my severely-knotted hair when I heard Ross say,
“He did WHAT?!”
And then I heard a roar, and a sound that could’ve been clothes ripping off of someone’s body as they shifted to lion form. Someone probably meaning Ross.
“What’s going on?” I hurried outside, comb-in-hair, still wearing just the big t-shirt and boxers. Sure enough, my soulmate was a massive, angry lion.
“Calm down, it could be a trap. He’s probably banking on you running into the graveyard so he can shoot you or grab you.” One of the men said. The other guy was just shaking his head.
“Will someone please explain this to me?” I put a hand on my hip.
“You don’t have to go alone. You won’t be able to protect anyone if he kills you.” The second guy argued.
“Especially me.” I folded my arms, leaving the comb trapped in my rat’s nest of hair. “I assume we’re talking about your brother.” Walking out onto the porch, I eyed the men who were finally looking at me. “I don’t know the story between you guys, but I’ve seen him more recently than anyone else so I have more information than you.” I shrugged, taking a seat on the wooden planks that made up the porch.
“What information?” one of the men asked. He seemed afraid to even talk to me.
“Oh, nothing. This is obviously a boys-only meeting. Just pretend I’m not here.” I looked back to my hair and refocused on trying to get the comb out. If the guys were going to be sexist, fine. Two could play that game. Or four in our case, I suppose.
They gave me funny looks but went right back to their conversation. I heard Ross’s voice (he was furious) a moment later and looked up from my hair-knots.
And then I quickly looked back down, my cheeks heating up. Yes sir, that was a naked man. My naked man, but, uh, let’s change the subject.
Cough, cough. Right. Back to the story.
They continued to talk as if I wasn’t there. Despite the offer of information I’d dangled, none of them thought to grab it.
I couldn’t help but wonder what the Omega was even supposed to do in their pack. Did she just stand there and look pretty? Comb her hair while who knows what drama was going on? And what about her second and third? Were they just the ladies who happened to be in on all the gossip? Ross said the Omega was a big role.
I didn’t know if that only applied when the Omega wasn’t me, but from what I saw and heard, they didn’t care what the frick the pack’s women thought about whatever had happened. All they cared about was their man crew, never mind the Omega chicks.
I heard them mention, “lots of blood” and “Monty waiting”. Based on the way those guys were yapping, I figured they wouldn’t even notice if I left. Monty had been nice to me when it sounded like he hated everyone else, so if I went to talk to him, I’d have the best chance at getting information from him.
Like, you know, what his evil plan was.
It wouldn’t be hard to smell out a ton of blood, so I pulled my shirt off over my head and then shifted. A quick glance backward told me the man clan hadn’t even noticed the shift, so I was good to go.
I picked my shirt up in my mouth, then ran for the smell of blood. They were right, there was a ton of blood. Not my favorite thing to smell on any random day, but you know. It got me where I needed to be.
And as it turned out, where I needed to be was in the middle of a graveyard. There was a dead human on the ground at Monty’s feet. He sat on the top of a gravestone, happy to desecrate the resting place of the pack.
On second thought, it was weird that they even had a graveyard. Most shifters I’d met buried people without headstones. Ross’s pack was just extra sentimental I guess.
“Ah, Shifty Chick.” Monty raised his hands up. I shifted behind a big gravestone and then pulled the t-shirt over my head. It had some slobber-marks on it and three tiny holes on the left side of my waist, but it was better than nothing.
“Good to see you again, Evil Twin.” I gave him a charming fake smile of the sort I had perfected through my years as a sicky.
“I take it my brother doesn’t know you’re here.” His smile was sly. I shrugged.
“We’ll probably know when he realizes.” I stepped closer to him and his new chair. “Now, care to tell me what’s going on here? Why are you messing with a graveyard? I’m all for trying new things, but that just seems sort of disrespectful to me.” I folded my arms, and Monty slid off the gravestone.
“Disrespect is why I’m here.” He said coolly. “This grave,” he patted the top of the stone, which was the only blood-less part of the whole gravestone. “Belongs to my mother. She killed my soulmate, and Ross got in the way when I tried to kill her for it. Of course, I killed her anyway,” he rolled
his eyes, “But every year I come back here to make sure she remembers how much I hate her.”
“Oh.” I nodded once. A patch of grass in the far-right corner of the graveyard caught my eye. The yard wasn’t too big, and we were fairly close to that grass. It looked pristine, even had flowers growing over the top of it. Since it was the only completely blood-free grave, I knew who it belonged to. My heart softened toward Monty a bit. “Your mate was buried there?” I asked softly.
When Monty’s gaze fixed on the headstone, I saw the longing in his eyes.
“Yes.” Monty swallowed hard. “She was my best friend, and my mother killed her.” His words were hard, but I knew his heart wasn’t quite as solid yet. There was still a chance he could come around.
“I’m so sorry.” I stepped closer to him. He let me get closer, and even let me put a hand on his arm. I led him away from his mother’s grave and we stopped in front of his soulmate’s. “What was her name?”
Monty’s face contorted as he tried not to cry.
“Delilah.” He whispered.
“That’s a pretty name.” I smiled. “I bet she was beautiful.” It was very apparent to me now that Monty was fragile, very, very fragile. Mentally, emotionally, and maybe even physically, the man was only moments away from breaking down completely.
If I could get him talking about his wife, though, he might get more stable.
“She was.” Monty swallowed again and nodded. “I didn’t even want a baby.” He shook his head. “I worried she was too weak. She’d been sick for a long time, like you.” He looked up and met my eyes. The man was vulnerable, completely vulnerable.
He could snap in an instant, I knew, but for now I had to try to help him.
“She even looked like you. Long, dark hair. Light skin like she’d never been outside. She was smart like you, too, and opinionated.” An unsteady smile flashed across his face and then disappeared. “She was even beautiful when she was pregnant, I didn’t even think that was possible.” The corners of his mouth twitched, but most of his face kept smiling.
