by Peyton Bogue
“It’s a graze, Kai. A flesh wound.”
“You heard Mikalina, Sage. I’m just making sure that you follow her orders like a good little subordinate,” Kai says, and then he starts to gently push Sage towards a nearby ambulance.
Sage allows himself to be pushed, glancing back at Hazel, who’s moved away from the two dead corpses and started staring out into the night, the blue and red police lights reflecting somberly off of her face. Sage watches her for a moment, feeling his heart tug with empathy. He knows all too well what it’s like to be shot at, how traumatizing the first time can be. He’d barely been able to stop himself from panicking during his first time. Hazel’s only been on the team for three months now. It’s the first time she’s been in the direct line of fire. Sage gets it, but he also knows that she just needs some time to herself to collect her thoughts, for her to force her mind to realize that she’s alive and breathing.
Sage understands that, more than he should, but like all things that never last, that feeling also passes along.
Later, after he’s been manhandled into an ambulance by an overenthusiastic paramedic who's just finished applying an antibacterial cream onto his graze and is beginning to stick a bandage over it, Sage’s mind flashes to Rhys, and he can’t help but let out a displeased sigh.
“Rhys is going to be so mad at me when I get home,” he says to Kai, who’s loyally sat beside Sage the entire time Sage has been examined, waiting for Sage to get bandaged up so he can drive them home.
The paramedic finishes applying the bandage to Sage's shoulder and hops out of the rear with a nod, moving along to another ambulance without another word.
Kai snorts loudly at Sage, laughing sardonically. “Mad at you? He’s going to be pissed at me, dude. Not even two hours ago he’d told me to watch out for you, and then you had to go and get yourself shot.”
Sage rolls his eyes, chuckling. “I did not get shot. The bullet barely grazed me. It’s little more than a scratch, Kai.”
“Well, anyway. . .” Kai trails off, his eyes flickering over past Sage’s head. “Heads up.” He raises his eyebrows, and Sage turns his head to see where Kai is looking.
It takes him a second to look past all of the cops and remaining FBI agents, but he undoubtedly sees Rhys, a stoic expression on his face, stalking up to the two of them, his jaw hardened and his eyes bright with frustration.
“You called him?” Sage asks, surprised. He’s not mad. He isn’t particularly looking forward to this lecture he knows he’s bound to receive, but he isn't mad, and his insides still light up when he catches Rhys’s gaze.
“I texted him earlier. You’re not supposed to drive under the influence of pain medication,” Kai deadpans, but the corners of his mouth curl up, as if he’s trying to stop himself from smiling, and Sage shoves him lightly.
“They gave me one pill,” he replies, scoffing lightly. “And you did not need to call Rhys all the way here for that.”
“Hey,” Kai says in mock offense, lightening his tone. “I was not about to get my throat ripped out the next time he saw me for letting you get hurt. Your boy’s not in control of his shift, dude. Now I’ve got to be extra nice to him so that I don’t get my face clawed off. It’s self-preservation, Sage.”
Sage chuckles at him, shoving him again, and turns to watch as Rhys takes the next few steps towards the back of the ambulance he and Kai are sitting in.
“Hey, Ree,” he says quietly, trying not to let the gooseflesh he feels creeping around his neck swelter over his naked torso. He’s clutching his white t-shirt in his lap, but the right shoulder of it is stained red with his blood, and he really doesn’t want to put it back on.
Rhys eyes the shirt in Sage’s hands, his nostrils flared, before he lays a soft gray cotton long sleeve in Sage’s lap gingerly, and Sage beams at him, moving to pull it on.
His bandage crinkles, and pain erupts harshly over his wound, and he winces when he pulls the collar over his head, trying his best to stifle his grunt of pain.
“How bad is it?” Rhys asks, his eyes unreadable as he stands with his arms crossed, broody and statuesque.
Sage looks at him and grins. “It's nothing I can’t handle, Ree.”
Rhys scoffs at that, shaking his head.
Sage looks around behind Rhys, trying to catch any sign of Rhys’s motorcycle parked somewhere beyond the ambulances and squad cars, and frowns when he doesn’t see it.
“Where's your bike, Rhys?” he asks in confusion. “How did you get here?”
“I ran,” Rhys replies, shrugging nonchalantly even as he glares.
“Wait, really?” Kai asks, looking at Rhys with his eyes narrowed. “You ran all the way here?”
“Yes,” Rhys replies, scowling at Kai.
“With, like, two legs?” Kai continues, motioning with his hands. “Or did you actually get down on all four?”
“Malakai,” Rhys snaps, a low growl in his throat. “Enough with the werewolf jokes. I’m really not in the mood.”
“Man,” Kai sighs dramatically. “I didn’t mean to let him get hurt! It was an accident. He was protecting Hazel, and the bullet just grazed him, okay?”
Rhys scowls at him, flexing his jaw, and moves forward to gently cup the back of Sage’s neck, stroking his thumb gently over the tendons he finds there despite his menacing expression. Sage feels that telltale rush of relief course through his veins, emulating at his wound, and when he looks down, the veins of Rhys’s right hand are oily black, disappearing behind the sleeve of his leather jacket, and Sage slumps against him graciously.
“Rhys,” Sage says again, looking up at him and smiling privately. “I’m fine.” He’s not feeling any pain at all as his entire body relaxes and becomes pliant against Rhys’s.
Rhys’s eyes soften at Sage’s words, and his hand squeezes Sage’s neck reassuringly. The blackness leaves his veins slowly, and he moves forward to press a kiss to the top of Sage’s head, inhaling deeply so that Sage’s calming scent will flood his senses.
“That doesn't mean that I like that you got hurt,” he mutters, but there’s no bite behind it, and Sage grins again.
“It’s just a small graze, Rhys,” he replies softly, his hand coming up to rest at Rhys’s waist. “It’ll be all healed in no time.”
Rhys sighs in response, continuing to rub over Sage’s neck in random patterns.
“Everyone here is going to think that I’m a wimp,” Sage says teasingly. “Needing my boyfriend to come take me home when I barely got injured."
“Nope,” Kai says, shaking his head confidently. “No one is looking over at you, man. You’re not that interesting. Besides, no one else knows that you’ve got an overprotective Alpha werewolf as a boyfriend who’d rip anyone's head off if they so much as glared at you.”
Sage chuckles at that even though part of him is ready to scold Kai for talking about Rhys’s secret so easily. He can’t even spare the energy to pull away from the warmth of Rhys’s body to look around to make sure that no one is overhearing their conversation. Rhys just hums against the top of Sage’s head, still inhaling deeply, and doesn’t deny any of what Kai has said. If Sage is honest, he knows that Rhys would do that for him in a heartbeat if Sage would ever ask him to.
“Let’s get out of here,” Kai says after a short pause, nudging Sage’s arm lightly. “We’re both tired, man. We’ve both got some sleeping to catch up on, and we’ve got the day off tomorrow. I don’t know about you, but I’m spending the entire rest of tonight and tomorrow in bed.”
“Sounds like a reasonable plan,” Sage says, nodding.
“You’ve got the day off tomorrow?” Rhys asks, leaning back so that he can look into Sage’s eyes with surprise.
“Yeah, Ree. I’m all yours until Friday,” Sage replies, grinning at the small glint of excitement in Rhys’s eyes.
It’s also Rhys’s day off tomorrow, as he doesn’t work on Thursdays, and the thought of spending the entire day with him makes Sage’s heart swell. It’s been too long since t
hey’ve properly been able to spend a day off with each other.
“Good,” Rhys responds, smiling privately. “I’m not letting you leave our bed until you have to go back into work.”
Sage grins, moving to reply, but Kai makes a choking sound, groaning loudly. “God,” he complains, grimacing, “way too much information about your sex life.”
Sage just rolls his eyes at him, shoving him a third time, before they both get to their feet. Rhys stops him before he can move too far, raising an expectant eyebrow.
“Keys,” he says, holding out his hand.
“Rhys,” Sage chuckles. “I’m really fine, I promise. I can drive us all home.”
Rhys doesn’t move, giving him another hard look, and stubbornly meets Sage’s eyes again. Sage sighs at him, begrudgingly pulling his keys out of his denim pocket, and places them in Rhys’s waiting palm, rolling his eyes fondly.
Rhys grins at him smugly, moving to turn around and grab Sage’s hand, but Sage stops him. Rhys gives him a questioning look, his head tilting to the side in confusion.
“You two go ahead,” Sage answers, motioning for them to continue. “I’m going to go get a few extra pain pills from that paramedic, just in case.”
“You have me,” Rhys replies, confused. Sage can practically read the I thought you said you were fine right off of Rhys’s face with the way his eyes narrow suspiciously.
Sage just smiles at him patiently and repeats, “Just in case,” before Rhys nods acceptingly, moving to turn back around and walk with Kai around the ambulance towards the Camaro.
Sage turns back around, moving to grab his soiled NYPD jacket and bulletproof vest, and looks around for the paramedic. He finds her a second later, standing by another ambulance, and walks over to ask for more medication.
Once he’s got a few more pills in a little container, Sage turns back around to make his way over to his car and stops abruptly once he realizes that he’s about to run right into Hazel.
“Sorry,” he says quickly, taking a little step back in surprise. She smiles at him, shaking her head.
“I didn’t mean to startle you,” she says, her eyes brighter than they had been half an hour ago. “I just wanted to catch you before you left with Kai.”
Clearly, she hadn’t seen Rhys with them. This conversation would probably go differently if she had.
Sage looks down at her, smiling politely. “Did you need something? Do you want a ride home?”
He doesn’t really want to think about Rhys and Hazel being in the same car together, especially when he doesn’t really have an explanation for how Rhys is even here right now, without his motorcycle or a car. Sage can’t, in good conscience, leave her if she really does need a ride home, though.
Thankfully, Hazel shakes her head again, moving to tuck a lock of her brown hair behind her ear a tad shyly. When she speaks again, her tone is nervous, but there’s an edge to her voice, like she’s trying to gear herself up to do something. “Oh, no. I’m going to stay and help the unis load up the bodies and hitch a ride back to the precinct. My car’s there,” she explains, shrugging. “I won’t be seeing you tomorrow, and I wanted to thank you.”
“For what?” Sage asks, his smile slipping off of his face as he eyes her seriously.
“For shielding me during that shooting,” Hazel replies, nodding back towards the bullet-ridden semi a few yards away. “If you weren't protecting me like that, there’s a good chance I would have ended up like those two over there.” She points to the two corpses by the semi, forever frozen in death.
“Oh, Hazel, you don’t have to thank me for that,” Sage says, trying to keep the exasperation from his voice by motioning absently into the air.
“Yes, I do,” Hazel says, resolute. She looks back up into his eyes, and Sage can see the determination sharpen in them. “Normally, I’d try to make a joke out of it and say something I’ll end up reading too far into like ‘if you needed an excuse to lay on top of me, all you had to do was ask’,” she scoffs at herself, shaking her head again as Sage feels his face heat, “but it’s you, you’re important, and you’re the one who was levelheaded enough to protect me. I was really scared, but you made it better.”
“Hazel—” Sage starts, embarrassed. He knows Rhys can hear them, and his heart picks up slightly when he realizes what this must sound like to Rhys.
“So, thank you,” Hazel finishes, taking a deep breath. She stares up at him with a determined look, before taking a step forward quickly, and before Sage can move, she places an even quicker peck on his cheek, moving back and out of his face with the same pace she'd entered it with. “Have a good night, Sage. I’ll see you Friday.”
And then she’s turning on her heel, walking briskly back towards the other semi-trucks. Sage watches her go, shocked. That is definitely not what he thought was going to happen.
In all honesty, he should have expected this to come. Out of all places, though, it had to happen where Rhys could hear everything she was saying? And especially when Rhys isn't in control of himself and gets downright hostile when anyone shows any kind of interest in Sage?
Another part of Sage is uncomfortable, no matter how sweet the gesture had been.
He turns and begins to walk back towards his Camaro, his shoulders hunched and his pace quick. He doesn’t know what to expect when he sees Rhys, but he really hopes that Rhys doesn’t do anything rash.
The view of the Camaro comes into his eyeline a moment later, and both Rhys and Kai are already inside of the car, waiting.
Sage can tell immediately when he slides into the passenger seat that Rhys isn’t happy as Kai hums along to the radio behind them, oblivious to the tension beginning to build in the car.
“Rhys—” Sage starts but stops when no other words come to him.
Rhys’s eyes turn sharply to his, and Sage feels a flash of alarm run down his spine when he sees that Rhys’s eyes are glowing Alpha red in the dark interior of the car.
“I know it’s not a big deal,” Rhys tells him quickly, exhaling deeply as his fingers tighten on the wheel.
“What’s going on?” Kai asks, suddenly alerted to the shift occuring in the front seat. He looks over at Rhys confusedly, before his eyes widen and he gasps, “Holy shit, dude! Are you wolfing out right now?”
“Rhys,” Sage says calmly, placing a hand on Rhys’s shoulder and gently rubbing his thumb over Rhys's leather jacket.
“What happened?” Kai asks, turning to Sage.
“Hazel,” Rhys bites out, trying to hold back a growl, “kissed him.”
“On the cheek,” Sage says firmly, not wanting Rhys or Kai to think it was anything more than that, “as a thank you for trying to shield her from the bullets.”
“Yeah, I’m sure that’s what it was,” Kai mutters, and Rhys turns back to him sharply, growling. Kai raises his arms up in a mock surrender, hastily replying, “I’m kidding, Rhys.”
Rhys faces the windshield, his hands clenching the steering wheel again as he growls, “I know I seem like a jealous asshole. It’s no excuse, but my wolf is right at the surface. I can smell her all over you, Sage. It’s taking everything in me right now not to jump out of this car and track her down so I can rip her throat out.”
“Damn,” Kai says from the backseat, grimacing. “That’s what jealousy does to you, man?”
“Kai, you’re not helping,” Sage hisses at Kai, moving to place both of his hands on Rhys's shoulders to try to get him to relax. “He’s like this right now because it’s got something to do with his control over his shift.”
“And because he’s jealous,” Kai adds, pursing his lips. Rhys snaps back around to him, snarling.
“Rhys, you don’t need to be jealous,” Sage says softly, getting Rhys to look at him.
“I know,” Rhys bites out, frustrated. “But my instincts are. . .” he pauses, before growling out, “all over the place.”
“Take a deep breath,” Sage replies, inhaling and exhaling deeply. “I’m right here with y
ou. You’ve got to calm down, Ree.”
It takes a few minutes, but Rhys’s breathing eventually evens out, and he closes his eyes for a few seconds, opening them to reveal his gorgeous gray irises, all traces of the fluorescent red gone.
“We’ve got to figure out what’s causing this, Rhys,” Sage says, running his hand up to stroke his fingers through Rhys’s hair.
Rhys sighs, leaning forward and starting the Camaro.
“Yeah, no shit,” Kai replies, snorting lightly. “We’ve got to get you back under control, dude.”
“Tell me about it,” Rhys mutters darkly, and then he’s putting the car into drive, steering them past the semis with a deep sigh.
EIGHT
The next morning, Sage blinks up at the ceiling blearily, squinting his eyes in the sunlight as he moves his head out the gray rays. He can hear the distinct sound of soft rain patter echoing off of the window, and he snuggles further down into bed, sighing contentedly.
He feels the bed dip below him on the left side, and an arm settles around his waist as he opens his eyes again. Rhys is leaning above him, smiling softly, his eyes bright and warm. All residual annoyance and jealousy from last night is clearly gone.
“Good morning,” Rhys mutters, leaning down further as Sage lifts his arms up to wrap them around Rhys’s neck.
“Morning,” Sage replies, his voice still thick with sleep. He blinks a few more times, trying to rid the sleep from his eyes, and tightens his hold around Rhys. “What time is it?”
“Eight,” Rhys replies, placing a small kiss on Sage’s pulse point.
“What are you doing awake?”
“I could ask you the same thing,” Rhys chuckles, moving to kiss the other side of Sage’s throat. Sage exhales slowly, warmth emulating through his bones. “You’re supposed to be catching up on sleep.”
“Come here, then, and I will,” Sage says, and Rhys grins at him as he moves to wrap his arms under Sage’s body, tugging. Rhys falls back onto his side of the bed, pulling Sage close to his chest.
Sage sighs happily, cuddling into the warm skin of Rhys’s shirtless torso and closes his eyes.