Claiming Her Mates: Book One

by Dia Cole

  Doc closed the door blocking my view. “She’s suffering from hypothermia, frostbite, and likely a spinal injury. That’s not even the worst of it.”

  “What the hell happened to her?”

  Doc sighed heavily. “She was trying to come see us when she fell in the snow.”

  I whined and pawed at the ground. The female was injured because she’d been trying to see us. Shame and grief tore through me. “We’ll bring her back to Sanctuary.” Fuck Gabe. If he had a problem with it, he could take it up with my front claws.

  “We can’t risk moving her with the spinal injury.” Doc thrust a hand through his blond hair and paced back and forth. “In the very best scenario the injury to her back will heal and she’ll only lose the tip of her nose and a few fingers.”

  Fuck. I lifted my head. “I’ll go back to the infirmary and get you everything you need to treat her here.”

  “It wouldn’t do any good.” Doc gave me a bleak look. “She’s also infected with the Z-virus.”

  “What? That’s impossible.” I shook my head refusing to believe it. “She’s Lykos. She’s immune.”

  Doc looked over at the door. By the expressions playing out on his face, the male was struggling with his emotions. “She hasn’t gone through her first transition so she’s still vulnerable to permanent injury and…”

  “Death,” my inner voice finished for him. “Shit. There has to be something we can do. You’re a fucking doctor.”

  Doc flinched at my accusatory tone. “The only way she'll survive this is if she goes through the transition before the virus spreads any further.”

  “Then we help her transition.” I didn’t know how, but there had to be a way.

  Doc rubbed his temple thoughtfully. There was hope in his eyes when he turned to me. “Go back to the infirmary and get me all this.” He sent me images of various medical supplies and bags of blood. “Hurry.”

  “I’m on it.” My blood pounded in my ears as I bolted to the SUV and shifted back into human form. Uncaring of my nakedness, I jumped into the driver’s seat and sped back to Sanctuary.

  Gabe met me in the lodge doorway where I stopped briefly to throw on my jeans. “Where’s Mason? You were supposed to bring him back.”

  I shoved the head Enforcer out of my way. Panic and worry chewed at me as I rushed into the library and opened the passage to the hidden elevator. As I stepped into the metal box, Gabe grabbed my arm.

  “Where the hell are you going? Where’s Mason?” When I didn’t reply, he snarled. “Talk to me. I’m your fucking superior.”

  “There’s no time,” I growled, shoving the male across the room.

  “You’d better make time.” Gabe bared his teeth and unsheathed his claws.

  I’d long wondered if I could best the legendary Enforcer in combat—his speed and cunning up against my strength and size. But this wasn’t the time to find out. I sent him mental images of Havana’s condition.

  Gabe’s anger was replaced by shock. I didn’t need to read his mind to sense his worry. “We’ll bring the female here.”

  “She’s too bad off. We can’t move her. I’m getting supplies for Doc. He’s not sure she’ll survive. She’s been infected with the Z-virus.”

  “Fuck, no.” Gabe’s face paled. “How can I help?”

  “Grab extra blankets. There should be plenty upstairs.”

  Gabe nodded and, in a rare turnabout, followed my orders. He dashed down the hallway while I took the elevator down to the infirmary. After stuffing a medical bag with all the supplies Mason needed, I stopped at the fridge in the back of the room. There were dozens of blood bags in there. Which ones was I supposed to get? Frantic to get back to the cabin, I grabbed a handful and rushed back to the elevator.

  Gabe was just loading a pile of blankets into the SUV when I ran out the front door. Night had fallen, and the storm was raging. Gabe slid into the driver’s seat while I jumped into the front passenger seat.

  “Hurry!” I pleaded. Havana could be slipping further away with every minute.

  Wind and snow pounded the windshield as Gabe slowly drove out of the compound.

  “Step on it, brother!” I shouted.

  “If you haven’t noticed, the storm of the century is barreling down on us, asshole. Unless you’d like to get stuck in the snow, shut the fuck up.”

  It took far too much time for Gabe to pull up to the cabin. Not even waiting for the vehicle to stop, I jumped out with the bag of medical supplies. I pushed the cabin door open with such force it slammed into the wall.

  Doc jumped to his feet. “There you are. Do you have everything?”

  “Yes.” I ran over to the bed where Doc was standing over Havana’s body. He’d removed her wet clothing and bundled her in the comforter.

  I stared down at the female, my insides shredding. Her beautiful dark hair fanned around her too-pale face. She can’t die. I sucked in a breath when I caught sight of her left hand—it was black from the tips of her fingers all the way up her arm. “Is that from frostbite?”

  “No.” Doc slowly turned over her hand revealing dark veins spidering out from the cut on her palm. “This is where the infection originated.”

  The memory of Havana cutting her hand and then fighting off the creature in the alley flashed in my mind. Fuck. She’d been infected because I hadn’t gotten to her in time. I’d failed her, and she'd pay the price.

  Gabe walked over to stand beside me. He wore a resigned look on his face. “She’s infected. You know what needs to be done, Mason.”

  “Let me try this first,” Doc said, hooking a bag of blood to the collapsible IV pole I’d brought from the infirmary.

  “Is that Lykos blood?”

  Mason nodded.

  Gabe tensed. “Don’t you remember what happened the last time you tried to use Lykos blood to cure the virus?”

  Mason paled. “This is different. She’s one of us.”

  Gabe gritted his teeth. “No. She hasn’t gone through her first transition. Our blood will kill her. Maybe you don’t care if she suffers, but I won’t watch her bleed out in front of me. I’ll show her mercy even if you won’t.” Gabriel reached for his gun, only to find it missing. Seeming to remember he’d given it to me back on the interstate, he looked over. “Go get my gun.”

  I shook my head. “Let Doc do his thing.”

  “She’ll die in excruciating pain,” Gabe muttered as we watched Doc find a vein on Havana’s right arm and start the infusion.

  Gabe’s wrong. He has to be wrong. I held tightly to that hope as the minutes went by. The flames from the open woodstove danced over Havana’s still face while the wind beat against the windows outside.

  The roaring storm shook the tiny cabin.

  “Let’s hope it holds,” Gabe said as we looked up at the roof.

  An anguished cry made us both jerk our heads toward Havana.

  “It’s working,” Doc shouted, yanking the IV out of Havana’s arm.

  Gabe and I both stepped forward to see Havana thrashing on the bed.

  “She’s succumbing to the blood poisoning,” Gabe cried with a tortured expression on his face.

  A familiar popping noise rang out.

  “No, she’s transitioning,” Doc said, pointing down at Havana.

  Before our eyes her jaw and nose lengthened into a muzzle and her body took a lupine shape under the comforter. In less than a minute an enormous black wolf lay panting on the bed.

  I blinked in surprise. She’s massive. Although I was one of the biggest wolves in the faction, this creature dwarfed me. She might’ve been bigger than even Tasha.

  “What the…?” Gabe murmured.

  At the sound of his voice, the black wolf opened her eyes. The bright gold gaze of an Alpha female pinned us to the floor.

  “What did you do to me?” Havana’s hysterical voice rang through our minds. “Why am I like…like this?” She frantically gnawed at the comforter with her razor-sharp teeth.

  “It’s okay,
Havana. You’re okay,” Doc repeated in a steady voice from behind her.

  She scrambled to her feet, her paws tangling in the bedding. “I’m not okay!” she screamed into our minds. “I’m a goddamn wolf!”

  “Settle down,” Gabe ordered.

  She snarled and snapped her teeth at his face.

  I stepped in front of my friend and held out my hands to the massive wolf. “Shh. Calm down.”

  She blinked those large gold eyes at me, snaring my soul. “What’s going on, Liam? Tell me!” Her plea rang through my mind with so much power it made me clutch the sides of my head in agony.

  Gabe gasped. “She’s compelling you.”

  Before I could respond, Doc plunged a syringe into the wolf’s neck.

  Havana twisted around. Her pointed ears flattened as she snarled at the blond male. She took a step toward him and stumbled. A heartbeat later her head drooped, and she collapsed back on the mattress.

  Doc wiped the sweat from his brow and looked up at us. “I gave her a sedative.”

  Slowly the dark fur on Havana’s body disappeared as she shifted back into human form. She’d healed completely. No black veins or cuts marred the skin of her hand and arm. Her thrashing had thrown off most of the comforter and the sight of her bare breasts and the tempting cleft between her legs made my breathing hitch. She was the most beautiful creature I’d ever laid eyes on. And she’s one of us now.

  Noticing that Gabe was also staring, I growled.

  Doc readjusted the comforter, hiding her body from sight.

  “She’s an Alpha,” Gabe said incredulously. “How is that possible?”

  “It’s not,” I replied. Everyone knew the rarest of our kind were born, not made, something Tasha reminded us of all the time. If Havana were an Alpha female, she would’ve had bright yellow eyes from birth.

  Doc shook his head. “I’d theorized the transfusion of Lykos blood would accelerate her transition and healing, but I never expected this.” He walked over and inspected the bag of blood still hanging on the IV pole. He looked over at me, his eyes widening. “You brought me Tasha’s blood, Liam.”

  “I-I didn’t look at whose it was. I just grabbed a few bags,” I stammered. Shit. What have I done?

  “Damn it.” Gabe scrubbed a hand over his face. “You know what Tasha will do to another Alpha female in her territory.”

  She’ll kill her in the most painful way possible. I swallowed hard. “By saving Havana’s life, we’ve condemned her to death.”

  “No, we haven’t.” Doc’s voice rang inside my head. “I swore to keep Havana safe and I intend to keep that oath. I won’t let Tasha hurt her.”

  “Neither will I,” I declared, deciding then and there that this female was more important than anything else, including my family at Winterhaven and my own life.

  “And neither will I,” Gabe added.

  Mason and I gaped at the head Enforcer. Never would I have expected treasonous words to come from his lips.

  “Tasha lost my loyalty when she destroyed my family.” Gabe looked at us with a fierce expression on his face. “From now on, I serve a new Alpha female.” He bowed his head in the direction of Havana, and then got to his knees beside the bed.

  Doc and I followed suit. As we took turns verbally pledging ourselves to her sleeping form, we established a new faction. We just needed to keep our ruler alive so she could lead it.

  17

  Havana

  A pinprick in my arm woke me. “Ouch.” I tried to move and found I couldn’t. A hand held me down. What the hell? Adrenaline spiked my blood. Where am I? What’s happening? The smell of rubbing alcohol assaulted my senses.

  “Just relax,” said a familiar accented male voice.

  Mason. All at once the tension eased out of my body.

  I opened my eyes to find the handsome blond doctor standing over me. As I looked up, he pulled a needle out of my arm. “What are you giving me?” My voice sounded dry and raspy.

  “Something to rouse you. You’ve been unconscious for several days.”

  “Several days,” I echoed feeling dazed. The fluorescent lights above me burned my eyes. The buzzing noise from what resembled a refrigerator in the corner of the room rang in my ears like a chorus of cicadas. My head swam as I tried to knit together the fragments of my recent memories. I remembered falling in the snow. It’d been so cold. And the black veins on my hand. “I’m infected,” I cried out, pushing Mason away.

  The doctor flew into the next hospital bed. He looked as stunned as I did. “Easy there. You're no longer infected with the Z-virus.”

  I looked at my hand. There wasn’t a trace of the virus there, nor was there even evidence of the cuts on my palm. “H-how?”

  Ignoring my question, he studied me with a pensive expression on his face. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

  “You finding me and bringing me back to the cabin.” I paused and looked around at the white-on-white space that could double as a triage room in any hospital. “Which we clearly aren’t at anymore. Where are we?”

  “We’re at Sanctuary. Well, more specifically, the infirmary at the lodge.” Mason bent down and recovered the syringe that had flown from his hand to the floor. He turned and disposed of it in a red container on the counter by a stainless steel sink.

  A sink meant running water and that meant showers and toilets. Thank God. “Okay,” I said slowly. “I thought Gabriel didn’t want me staying here.”

  Mason flashed me a strained smile. “Your almost dying changed his mind. From now on you stay with us.” He walked back over to my side. “All your injuries should be healed. How does your back feel?”

  Gritting my teeth against the inevitable pain, I sat up. To my surprise, I didn’t feel even a twinge of discomfort. The bed sheet tangled around me as I twisted from side to side. “My back doesn’t hurt at all.” I blinked in amazement. It’d been forever since I’d had this range of motion. “What did you give me?”

  “A blood transfusion. The blood helped accelerate…your healing process.”

  I started to ask him how a transfusion could heal a person so dramatically when he brought my hand to his mouth and brushed his lips across my knuckles. The sensation of his mouth against my skin made me shudder. Heat moved low into my belly and I forgot everything except for how delicious he looked in the burgundy polo he was wearing.

  He inhaled deeply and groaned. “Christ, you smell amazing.”

  “I doubt that,” I said, brushing back my tangled hair. I looked down at myself, realizing that I was wearing a hospital gown with nothing underneath. “Where are my clothes?”

  “Back at the cabin. They were sopping wet. I had to remove them.”

  “So you stripped me naked?” I gave him a teasing grin.

  “Um, yes. And I admit I gave you a sponge bath or two.” Mason rubbed the back of his neck as a hint of red crept over his cheekbones. “I promise I took no liberties.”

  “Maybe I want you to take liberties,” I said in a husky voice. Another pulse of desire swept through me. I reached out and caressed his handsome face.

  His beautiful blue eyes widened. “You shouldn’t touch me.”

  Oh, I would touch him. All over. Licking my lips, I reached back and undid the ties at the back of the gown, baring myself to his gaze.

  “No,” Mason whispered. As if on their own volition, his hands reached for me. At the last minute he pulled them back and took a step away. “I can’t.”

  “Yes, you can.” My core throbbed, aching to be filled. “I need you, Mason.”

  Mason swallowed hard. “I promised the others.”

  At that moment, I didn’t care about anyone else but him. “This is about you and me.” I tore off the hospital gown and slid to the end of the bed. “Come to me.” My voice rang with a strange unworldly tone.

  Wearing a dazed look, he walked straight into my embrace.

  I wrapped my bare legs around his waist and kissed the column of his throat. His fresh rain
scent teased my senses, making me burn even hotter for him. When he didn’t move, I whispered, “Kiss me.”

  He lowered his head and claimed my lips in a drugging kiss.

  “Touch me,” I whispered against his lips. I placed one of his hands on my breast.

  He caressed my nipple.

  Moaning, I arched into his palm. “Harder.”

  He pinched the hardening peak making me cry out in pleasured pain.

  “Yes,” I hissed as he did the same to my other nipple. “Now here.” I slid his hand between my legs.

  He sucked in a shaky breath and stroked my damp folds. “Bloody hell.”

  I moaned and bucked under his touch. “Ah, yes there.”

  His eyes seemed to glaze over as he found my clit.

  “Yes, yes,” I cried as he worked my nub. My thighs quaked as pleasure streaked through me. “More.”

  He slid two fingers inside me and I nearly came undone.

  “Oh, God!” Unable to stay upright, I fell back over the bed.

  He pushed my thighs farther apart and suddenly his mouth was on me.

  I screamed his name as he thrust his tongue inside and catapulted me into a mind-shattering orgasm.

  Not even letting me catch my breath, he continued his erotic assault, licking and sucking me mindless.

  Quaking and trembling against his lips, I was on the razor’s edge of another orgasm when there was a loud crashing sound.

  “Motherfucker. Doc, you’re dead.”

  There was a blur of motion. Mason was ripped away and hurled into one of the cabinets. Glass shattered and medical supplies flew across the room.

  Mason lay on the floor staring up at the giant of a man who stood over him. “Liam, I can explain.”

  Liam’s chest heaved. “Explain it to my fists.” He picked Mason up by the throat and punched the doctor in the face.

  Liam will kill him! My desire evaporated under an onslaught of fear. “Let him go!” I scrambled off the hospital bed.

  Jerking his head around to look at me, Liam dropped Mason to the ground.

  I rushed over to the smaller man. “Are you okay?”