The outer circle of wolves broke in slow motion as Maddox swiped at them with the blade stained red with my blood. But he didn’t look as though he intended to fight them all, rather he was trying to slip past them and escape retribution. He was too much of a coward to stick around when the odds were no longer in his favor.
One blink later, everything exploded. People were shouting things I couldn’t quite make out as the rush of blood pounding in my ears drowned out other sounds. The scene in front of me was chaos and motion, a dizzying whirl of colors.
I felt too vulnerable and exposed just lying here. I tried to push up onto my hands and knees and a fresh wave of pain engulfed me. I collapsed back to the ground.
Someone was whimpering. Maybe me. I couldn’t tell.
Brandon ran toward me and Charlie hauled ass after Maddox. I saw through a tableau of moving bodies that Charlie managed to tackle Maddox to the ground before he reached the treeline. I only had a single moment to feel satisfaction before people started shifting as a dozen coyotes sprang from the trees to protect Maddox. They rushed to attack Charlie. My pack leapt to Charlie’s defense, and I smiled when he slammed Maddox’s hand against the ground, knocking the blade out of his grip. My hearing was coming back into focus.
“I’m gonna kill you, you dirty, cheating motherfucker!” Charlie roared.
Despite the fact that Charlie was pinning him down, Maddox laughed in his face. Brandon pressed his hands to the wound in my side, trying to stem the flow of blood. I cried out at the way the pain seemed to lance all the way back to my spine, and Maddox laughed harder.
“This is why I’m taking your pack, bitch!” Maddox yelled at me as he landed a hard right hook to Charlie’s jaw. “Your pack is weak and vulnerable, just like you!”
Charlie’s head had snapped back with the force of the punch, but he lunged forward, intent on getting even with Maddox. Whether for the insult to me and our pack or in retaliation for the right hook, I wasn’t sure. But before Charlie could lay hands on Maddox again, a coyote got close and went for Charlie’s throat, forcing him to roll off Maddox to protect himself.
Wolves closed ranks around Charlie, as well as me and Brandon, daring Maddox and his coyotes to make another move against us. Apparently, it played right into Maddox’s plan because he took that opportunity to shift and lope away with the rest of his pack in tow. I watched as they disappeared among the trees ringing the clearing. I tried to get up to go after them, but the sudden movement was a mistake.
“Stay still, Lucy,” Brandon ordered. “I’ve got to stop this bleeding.”
Everyone got blurry and black dots danced in front of my eyes. I blinked hard trying to clear them away, but only succeeded in making the black dots grow and merge into the tunnel vision I was getting. Had Charlie or any of the other wolves had given chase?
I could hear panicked and angry voices all talking at once, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying. Everything sounded garbled and far away, like a phone with a super bad connection. Or as though I was underwater. I struggled to catch my breath. Rough arms slid under my shoulders and knees, picking me up off the ground, and the pain in my side exploded. A heartbeat later, everything went dark and silent.
When awareness returned, the only thing I could feel was a deep, bone-chilling cold. I’m gonna freeze to death in August in Alabama. How is that possible? Maybe I’d died and Hell had frozen over? I struggled to string coherent thoughts together.
Not long after the feeling of cold settled into my bones, I could hear a far-off siren. Or maybe it was howling. Maybe both? Either way, I figured it meant I wasn’t dead. At least, not yet.
Was the knife wound in my side serious enough to be fatal? It certainly hurt enough that it seemed a possibility. Would Maddox succeed in murdering me the same why he’d murdered Dad?
Suddenly, my father materialized out of the darkness and I worried that my assumption had proved to be true.
He looked healthy and strong, with no signs of illness or the terrible gaping wound at his throat that had killed him. He reached out to stroke my cheek.
I leaned into his touch and sighed, my lashes drifting down. “Am I dead, Daddy?”
He shook his head. “Not yet, baby girl. Not this soon.”
I opened my eyes and stared at him. Was he a hallucination? A ghost? I couldn’t tell, and I didn’t care. I was just damn glad to be seeing him at all. I didn’t want to lose him again.
“Can I stay here with you? I miss you so badly.”
Sadness filled his gaze. “No, baby. You can’t stay. This is no place for a shifter with so much life left to live.”
“Then why am I here?”
“You’re hurt. That stab wound isn’t going to be easy to handle. It’s better if you’re here for now.”
I looked down at myself, but I didn’t see any injury or blood. And I didn’t feel any pain. “If I’m not dead and you’re not alive, how are we talking right now?” How was it that we were here together?
“All you need to know is that I had to talk to you. I’ve got a very important message for you.”
“Yeah?”
A steely light came into his eyes. “You need to hang on, sweetheart. There are difficult times ahead and your pack needs you. Your mate needs you.”
Confusion overwhelmed me. I wanted to shake my head, but I couldn’t. “Daddy...I think you’re confused. I’ll do anything I can for the pack if I make it out of this, of course. But...I don’t have a mate.”
Dad shook his head with a cryptic smile. “Your wolf recognizes your fated mate, even if you don’t. Trust her.”
What did he mean? Who was my mate? My father seemed to be implying it was someone I already knew. If my wolf was aware, she hadn’t bothered to clue me in. Could Dad be mistaken about this?
I started to argue again, but in the space of a single moment my father had vanished and the sharp pain in my side was back. Not only that, but my busted knuckles were crusty with dried blood, swollen, and aching. My shoulder felt bruised and my neck was sore, my throat raw from the pressure of Maddox’s hands trying to choke me during the fight. Everything hurt.
One thing was clear—wherever I was, it sure wasn’t Heaven. I felt movement and every jolt and bump jostled my body, making the pain worse.
Someone pulled up one of my eyelids to shine a light directly in my eye. I winced and tried to pull away in spite of the insistent fingers.
They released their hold and started in on my other eye. I groaned as the world lurched to an unpleasant stop. Something metal banged and an earthquake shook me. I heard a click and opened my eyes just enough to see paramedics rushing me into the emergency department of Bay Minette’s hospital.
The pain in my side faded and I wondered if I was hitting another kick of adrenaline. Or was I dying? How much blood had I lost? I had a sudden, overwhelming urge to get a good look at my stab wound as they wheeled me into a room. I sat up halfway and twisted, trying to get at an angle where I could see the slice in my side.
A fresh rush of blood gushed out of the wound at the movement, and I stared at it in dark fascination until a petite brunette wearing scrubs got right up in my face.
She put her hands on my shoulders and shoved me down onto my back, pinning one of my shoulders in place with her hand. “Lie back, Miss Blackburn, you are going to make everything worse if you don't hold still.”
Slumping down into the mattress, the last bit of my strength abandoned me completely. “How do you know my name? Am I having an out-of-body experience?” I mumbled. “I can’t feel it.” I was starting to go numb. Yet, I wasn’t hovering near the ceiling, looking down at myself.
“You’re not having an out-of-body experience, hon. You’re in shock.” Confident I wasn't going to try to move again, she released my shoulder and typed rapidly on a portable roll-around laptop unit. “Do you have any medication allergies?”
“None that I know of. Why?” I slurred.
“I’m gonna give you something
to make this go a little easier for you, okay?”
Make what go easier? I wondered, but was too tired to ask. It seemed like much less effort to simply agree.
“Sure.” I watched as she injected something into an IV bag and followed the tubing to make sure it was, in fact, mine. They must have started the IV in the ambulance. I didn’t even notice the needle in the back of my hand until that moment.
She turned around and watched me as I watched her, and we both waited for the medicine to kick in. Nothing happened, though, and she cocked her head as she studied me more closely. Her gaze darted around the room, making sure no one was looking before she mouthed something at me. Shifter?
I stifled my surprised gasp and nodded. How had she known? And should I be worried that she knew?
Without a word, she got another syringe full of whatever she’d already injected into my IV and hit me with another dose. I wondered idly if this one would have any effect on me.
I stared at her again, counting the seconds. One Mississippi. Two Mississippi. Three Mis— Everything went black again.
Chapter 13
This time I embraced the cold, hoping to see my father again. To spend just a few more precious moments with him. Maybe then he’d actually tell me who my mate was, instead of that cryptic crap which wasn’t helpful at all.
My hopes were dashed when a dark-haired guy who could be a model, or maybe a renaissance statue brought to life, appeared in front of me. Definitely not my father. I wrinkled my nose as I looked him up and down. He was pretty...too pretty. I hated when guys were prettier than me. How was that fair?
And it seemed whatever the nurse had injected into my IV might be making me just a little bit loopy.
Focus, Lucy. This isn’t a beauty contest. But if it was, sadly, I would not have won.
Pretty boy arched his eyebrows, amusement dancing in his eyes, as though he was privy to something I didn’t know. Was he…? No, he couldn’t be, could he?
“No offense, but please tell me you’re not my mate,” I groaned.
“No offense, but definitely not,” he shot back with a wicked grin.
I couldn’t help smiling slightly in return. “Okay, good.” Except I had no idea where I was or what was going on. “So, if I don’t know you, how did you find me and what are you doing here?” And where was here anyway?
“I’m an incubus, so the astral plane is kind of one of my natural stomping grounds, as it were.”
“An incubus?” I took a step back from him.
His grin widened, showing his teeth. “I don’t bite. Not even if you want me to. Mel would not approve. And she can cast a wicked spell when she gets riled up.”
I had no idea what he was talking about and it certainly didn’t answer my question. “Could you maybe get to the point?”
He inclined his head, in much the same manner as a king granting a royal favor. “As for why I’m here, Jo texted me about an injured shifter who might have something to do with an ongoing problem we’re looking into.”
“Joe?”
“Joelle,” he clarified. “She works at the hospital.”
“Is she the nurse who sedated me? And that problem you mentioned wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with rogue coyote shifters, would it?”
“Bingo on both counts” pretty boy nodded.
Though he had answered me, his words just left me with even more questions. "Okay, so when you say 'we're looking into' this problem, who is the 'we' you're talking about?"
"You know the Swift fox pack?"
"Yeah," I nodded.
"My best friend is their Alpha. These coyotes blew through his territory on their way to you. Their leader even attacked Marcus, but seemed to lose interest shortly after, as if he doesn't think the foxes are enough of a threat to even really worry about them."
"That sounds like the kind of arrogant assumption Maddox Hale would make," I agreed.
I might have even made a similar assumption before my father taught me better. Underestimating people is the fastest route to getting your ass handed to you. He always used to tell me that.
And that’s why I wouldn’t underestimate Maddox.
He wanted my pack’s territory. He’d never made any secret of that fact. And he had a bad habit of ambushing and attacking other Alphas. Which meant he likely couldn’t win in a fair fight. But he was cunning and ruthless in pursuit of his ambition, willing to gain it by any means no matter how foul.
Suddenly, it started to grow warmer and the pain in my side throbbed back to life. That's how I knew consciousness was close.
"I don’t have a lot of time here. Do you know anything else about the coyotes, anything that could help me and my pack?" I asked as the pretty-boy began to fade from view.
"Talk to Jo," the incubus called as light pierced my eyelids and I struggled my way back to a sort of dull awareness of my surroundings.
I started to stir and a familiar, stern voice spoke by my ear. "Take it easy, Miss Blackburn. You don't want to risk popping any of those sutures."
My eyelids felt like lead, but I forced them open so I could check the room and see if it was safe to speak freely or not. A doctor stood with his back to us, peeling off a pair of bloodstained gloves and tossing them in the biohazard disposal container. Jo gave a warning shake of her head, so I kept my mouth shut, drifting back into the dull nothing of the anesthetic.
The next thing I knew, i was being awakened by the same doctor, but this time, as I opened my eyes, I found myself in a private hospital room. The doctor lifted the blanket to assess my wound, murmuring something to Jo, who dutifully typed his observations in the ever-present wheeled computer.
"Everything looks good. Now, can you tell us what happened to your side, Miss Blackburn?" he questioned me.
"I can't remember," I lied, put off by his demanding tone. I didn't want human law enforcement getting involved in something that was clearly a shifter issue.
Most humans were blissfully unaware of our existence, and the majority of the tribes wanted to keep it that way. It was safer for all involved.
The doctor continued to grill me for a few more minutes, but I stuck to my guns until he departed with a vague threat that I would have to tell the sheriff eventually. I huffed out a sigh of relief.
"Did Darius speak to you?" Jo asked in low tones, as if she feared being overheard.
I nodded. "What do you guys know about these coyotes?"
"Not enough. Not yet, anyway." Jo shook her head. "I can set up a meeting with the Swift pack's Alpha after you heal up some, if you want? He's my fiancé."
"I'm not sure we can afford to wait that long," I argued, pushing myself upright. "How long was I under? Losing any time against these guys could mean the total destruction of my pack." And I was not going to let that happen.
Jo frowned and pinched the bridge of her nose like these revelations were giving her a headache. Or maybe it was because I was being an obstinate patient. I’m sure nurses hated people like me who refused to heed their advice and risked undoing all their hard work.
But I couldn’t just sit around and do nothing while Maddox and his pack were getting up to God-knows-what.
Jo glanced at the watch encircling her wrist. "As soon as my break rolls around, I'll give Marcus a call to see what we can do. I can't promise anything, though."
"I understand the responsibility your fiancé faces," I assured her. "I was supposed to ascend as Alpha of my pack, but the coyote Alpha challenged me. That's how this happened." I pointed at my side and she nodded.
She opened her mouth to respond, but someone else bustled in and she snapped it closed again. The doctors and residents were so busy making their rounds, that Jo and I didn't have another chance to speak before she went on break.
I tried to rest in the meantime, hoping that dozing off would speed up the healing process. My shifter genes would help with that, too. Some time later as I tried to sleep, I sensed that a member of my pack was close. I chewed on my bottom lip a
s I waited to see who would pop around the bed curtain. I was disappointed when it was Brandon, and I struggled not to let it show on my face. Who was I hoping for?
Charlie, a quiet voice in the back of my mind piped up. I shook that thought off and tried to focus on the present moment.
"What?" I murmured, interrupting whatever Brandon had been saying. "Sorry. I guess I'm still a little doped up. Could you start over?"
"I was just saying that you did your best, you know? You don't have anything to be ashamed of."
I stared at him in complete confusion. "Wait...what? What the hell are you talking about, Brandon?" I would have beat Maddox if he hadn’t pulled that knife and stabbed me.
And that coyote had known it, too. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have needed to cheat.
Brandon stared down at his hands instead of making eye contact with me. "Maddox will be back in a couple of days, and he's bringing the full force of his pack with him this time."
"What do you mean the full force of his pack? I thought there were only thirteen of them."
"Apparently, he left a lot more than that in reserve when he was trying to play nice with us."
"Shit," I hissed, shaking my head. That was the last thing I needed to hear.
But I shouldn’t have been surprised that the coyotes had lied to us. What was surprising was that I had actually believed a single word that had come out of their mouths.
"Please concede quietly," Brandon begged. "For your own safety, I'm begging you."
I stared at him with disgust. "Haven't you learned anything from my father's death, Brandon? My personal safety is irrelevant here. The safety of the pack as a whole is all that matters to me."
Possessing the Alpha: A Wolf Shifter Romance (Southern Shifters Saga Book 1) Page 8