by Paige Tyler
Some of the tension in Selena eased as she realized that maybe she wasn’t the monster she’d feared. She was still considering that when she heard a familiar voice calling her name. She looked up and saw Marguerite squeezing through the crowded hallway, tears in her dark eyes.
“Thank God you’re here, Ms. Rosa. I’ve been looking for Ruben everywhere and was starting to think maybe he’d left, but a friend told me they saw him heading up to the roof with a bunch of Locos and Riders. My friend said Ruben looked really out of it. Like he was high.”
“Was he drinking that energy drink in the colorful can?” Jayden asked.
Marguerite looked up at him in suspicion, but then her eyes widened in surprise. “You’re that cop that saved Ms. Rosa.”
They really didn’t have time for this.
“Yes,” Selena said. “He’s here to help. But before he can do that, we need to know if Ruben was drinking the stuff in the cans.”
Marguerite nodded. “Yeah, I saw him drinking a couple of them. He’s probably had a lot more since then. I can’t imagine how many. There are coolers full of them all over the building.”
Jayden turned and headed for stairs, Selena right behind him. She thought about yelling back to Marguerite to call the police and let them know there was a kid about to overdose. Probably more than one. But before she could even consider getting the words out, she heard shouting coming from somewhere overhead.
Crap. The roof.
By the time they reached the last flight of stairs heading to the roof, they had to fight through a stream of humanity coming down, most of them looking freaked out and a few commenting about the whacked-out guy on the roof trying to kill himself. Selena didn’t know what they were talking about, but her insides were screaming it had to involve Ruben.
She and Jayden came out onto the roof to find more than a dozen guys standing around, laughing and pointing as Ruben walked precariously along the parapet of the roof. The men shouted at him to jump, accusing him of being a coward for being too scared to do it. Even from halfway across the roof, Selena could see Ruben was completely out of it as he moved along a concrete coping that couldn’t be much more than six inches wide. Her heart nearly jumped out of her chest as she saw him stumble over his own feet, almost going over.
Between seeing Ruben on the edge of the roof and the jackasses shouting at him to jump, Selena was already on the verge, her claws threatening to extend at any second. She fought for control, but then she saw a group of men converging on Jayden as he tried to reach Ruben, telling him to stay out of it. That’s when she stopped worrying about controlling herself and decided those assholes deserved anything she did to them.
When one of the men pulled a knife, Selena growled and tore across the roof after him. There was a thud as she slammed into the man’s chest. She felt a dull pop in her shoulder, but it didn’t hurt, so she didn’t care. She snarled at the man as he tumbled away, his knife skipping across the rooftop. Dismissing him, she then turned toward the next man. That one must have seen something he didn’t like, because his eyes widened to the size of golf balls as she leaped on him and drove him to the edge of the roof. She slashed his face once with her claws, wanting to do it again but knowing she didn’t have the time. Jayden was fighting at least ten drunk gangbangers by himself, and Ruben was barely staying atop the parapet.
Selena jumped up just in time for the first man she’d knocked down to come running at her, the knife once more in his hand. She felt the tip of the blade slice through her right forearm, instinctively knowing the stinging wound was deep. But she ignored the pain, reaching out with a claw-tipped hand so fast, it was nothing but a blur, and grabbed a wrist that snapped easily under her grip. Then she was slinging the man aside. She saw Marguerite’s wide-eyed expression as the man crashed into the doorframe the girl had just run through. Marguerite looked terrified, but Selena didn’t have time to worry about that, either.
“Get Ruben!” Jayden called out to her.
He wasn’t fighting as many men now, but the ones still standing looked furious. Something in Selena urged her to go after them first, to protect her mate at all costs. But she fought those instincts, turning toward the edge of the roof where she’d last seen Ruben.
He’d stopped dancing around on the parapet now, standing in one place, swaying back and forth like there was a breeze moving him. His eyes were so glazed over, Selena doubted he even noticed her approach. His skin was ghostly pale, and his heart was thumping like a tiny bird. Selena knew he was about to die.
His knees collapsed, and Selena threw herself forward to grab him as he tumbled over the side. She was stronger than she’d ever been in her life, but Ruben was a big kid. On top of that, he was unconscious and falling fast. She got an arm around his chest, growling in frustration and anger as his weight pulled her over with him.
She grabbed the coping of the roof with her free hand, getting her elbow locked over the edge as his weight snatched at her, trying to rip her off, too. She looked down at the pavement three stories below, wondering if she could live through the fall, knowing Ruben couldn’t.
She fought for a better grip, sure they were both going to fall, when a big arm looped around her, dragging her and Ruben back to the safety of the rooftop. She knew without looking it was Jayden. Even if his scent hadn’t filled her nose, no one else would have been strong enough to lift two people up like this.
They all thumped to the graveled roof hard. Then Jayden was doing CPR on Ruben, yelling for Marguerite to call 911, to tell them they had a fentanyl overdose.
Marguerite did as he ordered, her terrified eyes locked on Selena the whole time. Selena knew her fangs were out, but there was nothing she could do about it. She only hoped the paramedics would get here in time for Ruben, to somehow make everything that was about to happen worth it.
* * *
Ruben looked confused as hell when he finally came around, his glazed eyes darting around the hospital triage room like a man desperate to understand what was happening to him. When he saw Brooks standing beside the bed, he looked relieved.
“You’re that cop who saved Ms. Rosa the other day in school, right?” the kid croaked out, his voice dry and rough. Then he frowned, as if remembering something else. “You were on the roof, too. Fighting with the Locos and Riders.”
Brooks nodded. Luckily, Ruben had come out of the overdose with his memory intact. That wasn’t always the case. He was about to ask the kid what else he remembered about tonight, but before he could, Ruben lifted his hand to his chest and groaned in pain.
“Shit. What the hell happened? I feel like an elephant sat on me.”
“I gave you CPR until the paramedics showed up and got your heart beating again,” Brooks told him. “You have a few cracked ribs that are going to hurt like hell for a while, especially since the doctors can’t give you any pain medication.”
That seemed to catch the kid by surprise, and he stared at Brooks in confusion for a second until a lightbulb flickered on. Ruben’s face crumpled, and he closed his eyes. “I overdosed, didn’t I? Up there on the roof.”
Brooks sat on the side of the bed. He would have preferred a chair, but they didn’t have any in the triage cubicles in the emergency room. They were trying to find Ruben a room, but that was going to take a while. The paramedic had transported fifteen patients out of that party—nine ODs in addition to the six gangbangers with broken bones and concussions from the fight on the rooftop. People were lined up in the hallways of the emergency room, waiting to be seen.
“Yeah, you overdosed,” Brooks said softly. “Your heart stopped beating on its own multiple times. There was synthetic heroin in those energy drinks you were downing. If Selena and I hadn’t been there…”
Ruben looked up sharply, another frown crossing his face. “I kinda thought there were drugs in those cans, but I drank them anyway. Everything was like a dream—a bad dream. I remember you fighting the guys I’d been hanging with and Ms. Rosa grabbing me as I fe
ll off the roof.”
There was silence for a time, and Brooks let it linger so Ruben could process the memories and deal with what happened. “Any chance you heard who put those cans on the street? How they got into that party?”
Ruben shook his head. “I heard a bunch of guys from the gangs talking about the stuff, saying they were making a lot of money off of it. But I didn’t hear anything specific.”
Brooks cursed silently. If they didn’t get this drink off the street, it was going to kill a lot of kids just like Ruben. But there was nothing he could do about it right now. They’d have to keep digging for a clue that would lead them to the person making this crap.
“Did I really fall off the roof?” the kid asked. “Did Ms. Rosa catch me? Was that real?”
Brooks nodded.
“It’s all so blurry, but I swear Ms. Rosa had fangs when she lunged at me. Her eyes were glowing, and at the time, I thought she was a monster or something.” He looked at Brooks. “Pretty crazy, huh? The drugs I guess.”
“You had a lot of drugs in your system,” Brooks agreed, glad there was a reasonable excuse for what the kid had seen. “Your memories are going to be a mess for a while. But that’s okay. The important thing is that Selena was there to save you. That’s the only part you need to remember clearly.”
Ruben nodded, his eyes closing again and his big body crumbling in on itself once more. Brooks thought the kid was going to start crying, but he didn’t, somehow holding it together. “Is Ms. Rosa here at the hospital?”
“She’s in the cafeteria with Marguerite, getting something to eat.”
Ruben opened his eyes, chagrined. “Marguerite knows I OD’d, too?”
“Yeah. We would never have been at that party looking for you if it wasn’t for Marguerite,” Brooks said. “She knew you were in trouble and did what she had to do to get us there. I think she cares about you a lot, something you might want to keep in mind when you get out of here. It’s not a stretch to say you owe your life to both of them. You’re lucky to be alive.”
Ruben winced as he tried to sit up. “Grandma. Damn, does she know? Did anyone call her?”
Brooks gently nudged the kid back down. “Yeah, Selena called her. But she downplayed the worst of it and made sure your grandma knew you were okay. Selena convinced her to wait until morning to come see you. I’m not sure how she cleared all the paperwork with the doctors, but she did.”
“Grandma. Ms. Rosa. Marguerite.” Ruben sighed. “I guess I really let everyone down, didn’t I?”
Brooks got the feeling Ruben wasn’t the kind of kid who wanted the truth sugarcoated. “Yeah, you did. I guess the big question though is why you did it. You saw what getting involved with the gangs did for your friend Pablo. Why go down the same road unless you want to end up in prison just like him? Why go to that party and let them give you drugs?”
Ruben shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“I’m pretty sure you do,” Brooks pressed. The kid needed to hear this, even if he didn’t want to. “Why did you start hanging out with the Locos and Riders all of a sudden?”
Brooks didn’t think the kid was going to answer. In fact, he thought Ruben might retract into a ball and shut down completely.
Instead he sighed, shoulders slumping in defeat. “I just wanted to belong. To be part of something. For people to stop laughing at me all the time. Is that so bad?”
“No, it’s not bad to want to be part of something or have that feeling of knowing where you belong. And nobody likes being laughed at,” Brooks said. “Your only mistake was thinking the gangs would give you what you needed. That’s not how gangs work. They don’t give you anything. They take from you until there’s nothing left.”
Ruben was silent for a moment. “What do I do instead?”
Brooks remembered a time in his past when he’d been looking for someone to tell him which way to go. Jack Walker had changed his life. Now he hoped he could change this kid’s.
“You decide who you want to be and if you want to be something more than you are now,” Brooks said, telling Ruben the same thing Jack had told him all those years ago. “Then you find people who will help you be that person. If you’re looking for a place to start, I’d suggest Marguerite. Because something tells me she’s seen something more in you all along.”
Ruben seemed to consider that for a while, then nodded. “I think I’ll do that, but I’d like to do more. To pay everybody back for helping me.”
“Like what?” Brooks asked, wondering if maybe he was talking about apologizing to Selena or something like that.
“I could find out who’s making those energy drinks,” Ruben said slowly. “Ask around the gang people I already know, and get that info to you.”
“No way,” Brooks said. “It’s too dangerous.”
Ruben winced as he pushed himself up higher in the bed, dark eyes determined. “I’m not going to do anything stupid, and it might keep somebody else from overdosing.”
Brooks opened his mouth to argue, but Selena and Marguerite chose that moment to walk in. Brooks gave Ruben a pointed look, making sure he realized the conversation was over, then he slipped off the bed, making room for Marguerite as he motioned Selena toward the doorway.
“Everything okay between you and Marguerite?” he asked softly.
The girl had taken a seat on the edge of Ruben’s bed, and the two of them were already deep in conversation. Brooks had been a little worried when Selena and Marguerite had gone to the cafeteria. The girl had seen Selena’s claws and fangs. The drunk, high gangbangers on the roof had seen them, too, but nobody was going to believe them. Marguerite was different.
Selena nodded. “Yeah, it’s good. As far as Marguerite is concerned, she saw me save Ruben’s life. That’s all she cares about. And the only thing she ever plans to tell anyone.”
“You believe her?” he asked.
“Yes.” Selena glanced at her students. “Did you and Ruben get a chance to talk?”
“Yeah. I think he’s going to be okay,” he said as Marguerite leaned forward and shyly kissed Ruben. “Now that he’s got someone to keep him straight.”
He and Selena stood there for a few more minutes before she smiled at him.
“I think it’s time for us to go,” she whispered. “They’re okay on their own now, and I think it’s time the two of us had a long talk. Without me freaking out and running away.”
Brooks let out a soft chuckle. “I’m good with that. And if we can avoid the part when I run after you naked, that would be good, too.”
Selena laughed, taking his hand and tugging him close as they headed for the exit.
Chapter 17
Brooks opened the back door of his place and flicked on the lights, then stood back so Selena could enter. She stepped inside, hanging up her coat and purse on the rack by the door as if it was the most normal thing in the world. Like the fiasco from the other day hadn’t happened at all.
“I’m going to leave the keys right here on the top of the rack. In case you need to grab them again, okay?” he said softly, closing the door and locking it. “And the truck has a full tank of gas, so no worries there either.”
She turned and gave him an exasperated frown. “I’m not going to steal your truck again. We already talked about that. We’re going to sit here and have a nice calm, intelligent conversation about what it means to be a werewolf. There won’t be any claws, fangs, or drama. You have my word on it.”
He moved over to one of the wall switches to turn down the lights. It was nearly three in the morning. They didn’t need it to be so bright in there, especially considering the conversation they were about to have.
When they’d left the hospital, he thought they were heading to her apartment. But they’d stopped at Becca’s building just long enough for Selena to park her car in her friend’s visitor space, then she’d jumped in the passenger seat of his truck and said she wanted to go to his place again.
“You sure?” he had asked.<
br />
She’d nodded. “My apartment has thin walls. Talking about werewolves there is definitely a bad idea. And while Becca already knows about my situation, I’d prefer to keep the rest of the details from her for now.”
Brooks hadn’t been shocked to discover Becca knew about werewolves. Obviously, Selena had needed someone to talk to after the crap that had happened the other day, and Becca struck him as a really good person. She’d been there for Selena at least, and that meant a lot to him.
“You want something to eat?” he asked as he followed her over to the big sectional in the living room area.
Her gaze lingered on the back of the couch where they’d made out. A moment later, she shook her head, as if clearing the memories, but not before he caught a whiff of her arousal. His thoughts immediately went there at the scent, but he pushed it away fast. They needed to talk without the complications of sex.
“Thanks, but I’m good,” she said as she sat down. “I ate a muffin when I had coffee with Marguerite. Let’s just talk, okay?”
Brooks grabbed a seat at the other end of the sectional, putting some space between them. He wanted to sit beside her and drag her into his lap so he could kiss her for the rest of the night. But this was important, and the distance would make it easier. At least for him.
“I guess the best way to start is with an apology,” he said. “So, this is me saying I’m sorry for not figuring out a better way to tell you that you’re a werewolf. Springing it on you after a night of wild sex was definitely the very worst way I could have possibly handled it.”
Selena tilted her head at that, as if considering whether she should disagree. “I can’t say you’re wrong, even if the sex was mind-blowing, since the evening did end in catastrophe. But if we’re being truthful here, I can’t imagine any way you could have brought it up that wouldn’t have freaked me out.”