by Tigertalez
“Even harder than letting her go last night when she was upset?”
“Yes, even harder than that. But I know she doesn’t want to be claimed yet, and I’m not about to lose her because of lack of control. Last night was a testament to that. My lion insists we claim her. It’s so hard to fight him when I agree with him. But I won’t force her to bond with me.”
“You’re doing the right thing, man. Like her dad says, she’ll come around. Just give her time.”
Kace was on watch tonight, but Slate still checked for himself to make sure all the doors and windows were secured before finding his bed and falling into it.
****
Slate jolted awake. Lifting his head, he looked around into the darkness to see and listen to what could have awoken him. A loud thump-thud and a crash spiked his awareness. Kace’s wolf’s howl bayed through the hallway as Slate cracked the door and peered down the narrow space. He didn’t see anyone, but he could hear a messy battle starting down below. Initiating his shift, he could hear a vampire hissing and a wolf growling. A muffled bang and the tinkled smash of shattering glass clattering to the floor sounded through the home.
Shaking out his fur and mane, he pawed at the opened door and watched his alpha run by towards Tom’s room, carrying his mate in his arms. Slate headed to the top of the stairs and descended. Splintered wood and shards of broken glass littered the floor, and the air was filled with smoke. The shrill beeping of the smoke detectors blared through the chaos of the space.
A loud deafening bang and a bright flash stunned him. He was disoriented and his ears rang, causing him to lose focus. Sharp burning pain rocketed through his hip, further unbalancing him with the inertia. He dropped to the floor and endeavored to get up, jumping and rolling as he did. He felt something like liquid fire race across his belly as he regained control of his senses. Men, in what looked like black SWAT gear, were invading the house. Ryker and Seamus, with their eyes blood red and fangs and claws dripping blood, were fighting with them hand and claw. Kace was in his wolf form, blood coated his right shoulder and his entire front, from his maw to his paws. He was currently leaping and bounding between two men.
Two men in black advanced forward with guns pointed at him. Slate snarled as he maneuvered and struck, taking them both down together. He slashed at their necks, cutting through, leaving them gurgling their final breaths. He didn’t stop to watch. Another shot hit his shoulder, but Slate didn’t slow or hesitate, sinking his teeth around the shooter’s arm and ripping most of the meat off, leaving the bone exposed around bloody shreds of skin.
A loud roar brought everyone’s attention to a very pissed off, eighteen hundred pound Kodiak alpha bear. White foamy spittle dripped down his finger sized canines and lined the edges of his open mouth. He struck, leaping at the two nearest invaders, crushing them underneath his weight, and striking a claw out across another man’s face, snapping his neck and ripping much of the skin on his face off. He didn’t even stop to see what became of his victims, he just kept going, biting through the mask of another, adding the crushing sounds of the man’s skull to the now terror filled men.
Slate didn’t stop and stare. Using the diversion to his advantage he swung his claws out and did what he could to slash through the attackers. He stayed low, swiping their legs to bring them down and then went for their throats, ignoring the burning pinches of blades and bullets that sliced at him. The chaos didn’t last long, and as soon as Slate looked around and saw no enemies standing, his body stopped pumping him full of adrenaline and he collapsed.
He didn’t even have the strength to shift and barely heard Ryker, over the ringing in his ears, shouting for Seamus to come help him, before everything went black.
****
Alphy looked around at the gore that saturated the floors. Once he woke to the sounds of battle, his instinct from decades in the service kicked in. Only this time he had a mate to think of, so he rushed her to Tom’s room and headed down to join the battle, and what a bloody battle it was. He had to prioritize what needed to get done and in which order. Right now, Ryker and Seamus were working together to save Kace and Slate.
Kace had stab wounds in his shoulders and side and one on his flank, but no vital organ or arteries were punctured, so after a lot of stitches and some shifts and he should be all right. Slate’s condition was much worse, and Alphy felt some fear creep into his chest at the thought of losing his friend.
Alphy did a quick pass over the bodies, disarming the few who were still alive. He would call Tom down to assist, but he really felt a strong need for the two women to not be left alone, so he moved as quickly and efficiently as he could. Once he was done with his walk-through, he leaped up the stairs and encountered four more bodies outside Tom and Connie’s room. One might have been one of the rogues that attacked Slate earlier as there were partly healed slashes on his arm. The sight was sickening, with half of the back of his skull blown out and bloody chunks of his brain littering the ground, but Alphy didn’t flinch from the sight. Alphy raised his voice to be heard through the door. “Tom, are you and the girls ok?”
The door opened, and Tom, holding a shotgun, peered up and down the hall before resting his sights on the alpha. “Yeah, the bastards tried taking the women. They were specifically looking for Gale to ransom for the pack money.”
Before Alphy could say anything, Gale ran past Tom and into his arms. Alphy held his mate as he finished giving his orders. “Call Henry, I need him and Katie down here and anyone else they can trust. Both Slate and Kace are down. Seamus can’t work on them both, and Slate is in real bad shape. I’m worried about him. We also need help patching up and guarding the prisoners.”
“We can help.” Gale’s voice was strong, but he could still scent her nerves.
“Honey-bear, it isn’t just broken glass and wood down there. Men have been killed.” Not that she couldn’t see the nasty mess they were standing in, but it really was worse downstairs.
Gale looked up at him with the fire in her eyes he loved so much. When they had first met, her emotions had been all over the place because of the three weeks of hell she and her family endured while being hunted across the country by the very psychotic alpha he killed that left him in charge of this herd. But since he defeated the alpha, and he had given her love and stability, her true strong and caring nature had been emerging. She had no problems standing up to him when she thought she was right.
“I’ve seen gore. I can handle it. It won’t be pleasant, I get that, but hiding us up here isn’t protecting us. It’s weakening you, therefore weakening us, so unless you have some better excuse than some flimsy ‘men have been killed’, then you can just stow it.”
Alphy smiled down at his mate. Somehow she made him like losing these little arguments, and being an alpha, that was actually saying something. “All right, Honey-bear, but I warned you.” Alphy grabbed some shorts and his cell and led his mate downstairs while Tom made the calls. Connie and Gale surprised him by going straight to work. They both assisted Seamus while he and Tom started sifting through the bodies and debris, securing the survivors.
Chapter Six
Katie nearly gave in to the mating pull when Slate had picked her up for their date, and again when he was naked, after running those thugs off. That was why she chose not to stay at the house. Making that choice had been brutal on her. There was no doubting whose side her dad and sister were on. Twice, she was reminded how fortunate finding one’s mate was, by her dad. He had always been open in telling them how much he himself longed for his mate. And once she got home, her sister told her that even though she was really young, no matter what phase of life she would find herself in, she herself would drop everything for her mate. It just meant that much to them. Katie couldn’t blame them. If you think about it, really what would anyone do to have their soul-mate?
Katie didn’t think she could fight it much longer. It was so painful pushing away someone you already wanted to spend your life with, but she
kept holding on to the argument that she didn’t want to endanger him if she couldn’t be healed.
Shortly after she gone to bed her dad knocked on her door, waking her.
“Katie, wake up.”
“What is it?”
“Tom called. The alpha house was attacked, and there are injured. Slate’s one of them.”
Katie’s eyes felt like someone threw sand in them and her body was heavy with fatigue, but hearing her mate was injured, her heart raced with near panic. She staggered to her feet and hastily dressed and climbed into the passenger seat of her dad’s pickup. The truck bounced and rocked over the potholes, so she held tight to the seatbelt around the corners. Her dad wasn’t driving slowly, but it was still slower then she would have wanted. Her sister, Sara, sat in the middle, and they were all silent as the characteristic rattle of a diesel engine droned through the cab.
Katie worried about Slate, and she felt an over whelming need to get to him and care for him. Damn mating pull! She needed her concentration, but it had been constantly botching her self-control.
As they pulled up to the house, she could clearly see some of the damage from the invasion. Windows were shattered, leaving some shards still jagged in the sills. The white door lay splintered and broken in the entryway leaving a clear view into the mess of the home, hinting at the violence that had taken place. She had already reached the entryway and was looking in to the lit space before she even registered that she had left the truck. Bodies and blood were strewn everywhere, adding a metallic odor to the smell of smoke.
Debris crunched under her feet when she carefully made her way over the slick surface as she entered the home. She didn’t want anyone to mistake her for another attacker, so she tried to announce herself while she headed toward the doctor’s room. “Anyone here?”
Gale appeared by her side and gave her a worried look. Katie stared at the thick layer of blood that coated Gale’s hands and went clear up to her elbows. Blood smudged her attire in various quantities over much of her legs and chest. “Hi, Katie, you’re a nurse, right?”
Katie hesitated before she responded. She wanted to first go to her mate and check on him and hold his hand, or something, just to reassure herself that he was ok, but the atmosphere triggered her nursing instincts and she knew she needed to prioritize life over her own assurances. “Yes, where do you need me?”
“Seamus asked for you to join him as soon as you arrived. He’s in the medical room.”
Katie carefully made her way to the room. She hardly noticed the blood that painted the walls as she made her way down the hall to said room. Wrapping her hand around the knob, she took a steadying breath then twisted it and walked in.
The air whooshed painfully from her lungs at seeing her mate with huge holes and lacerations over his arms, legs, hips, and torso. She had never gotten sick at the sight of anything before now, but ice cold fear raced up her spine and pooled into her gut, churning and knotting it into a quivering jelly pot that threatened to empty itself at the contrast of the dark red streaks that stained the paled skin of her mate who lay motionless on sheets, heavily soaked with his blood. She could see an IV dripping into his arm and bloody haphazard gauze in spots.
Seamus didn’t turn his head from the wound he was trying to stitch when she entered, but he seemed to have known it was her. “I’m relieved you came. As you can see, I can use your help.”
Although her throat went dry and constricted slightly at the horrific sight of her mate, she managed to quietly squeak out a response. “I’ll go wash up.”
“I’m not that concerned about infection right now. After you grab some gloves, come here and hold this for me.”
Katie quickly did as he told without question. She rushed to the bedside and held the blood-soaked gauze firm against the wound as the doctor worked as fast as he could to sew up around the area. She helped hand him different tools he needed, pressed where he needed pressure, and did every other task she was taught to assist a doctor during surgery.
At the sound of a soft creak, she looked up to see who just walked in the door. Alphy stood half in and half out. “How’d you get him to shift? Did he regain consciousness?” His voice sounded slightly hopeful.
“Briefly, long enough for me to tell him his mate was on her way over and if he wanted her hands on his body, he’d better go skin.”
“Tricky, doctor. I’m impressed.” He tried to tease, but the worry lines gave him away. “How’s he doing?”
“More pressure, Katie,” the doctor mumbled, snapping her out of her shock. Did the doctor really say that to Slate? Did she really have that much power over him? He was in lion form when he was hurt?
Her head swam with questions, but she locked them in the back of her mind as she focused on her task while listening to what Seamus had to say about the man she loved. Crap, I’m in love with him.
“He’s lost a shitload of blood. I’ve got an IV going, but if he loses much more, it could easily go south. With Katie’s help, I’ve been able to work fast enough to get him stabilized, but it’s a fragile balance so no promises.”
Alphy’s voice was lowered. “Thanks, Sea, I’ll let the others know. Just to let you know, Kace still needs stitches, but I’ve hooked him up to an IV and with Gale’s help, and a few shifts, we were able to stop the bleeding so he seems to be doing much better. He’s sleeping right now. His body temp also rose.”
Seamus twisted his hand around, working the stitching. “Good, I’ll be there as soon as I’m done here. I’ll have to do a quick check to make sure there aren’t any hidden issues, but it sounds like he’ll be all right.” Alphy left with only the sound of the snip of the door latching behind him.
“With the elevated temp, aren’t you concerned for infection?” She had to ask.
Seamus shook his head. “Shifters run hotter than humans, but when they are injured then their temp rises a little more. It’s their way of healing. The sleep is also helpful.”
“How did he know how to hook up an IV?”
“Alphy’s been in the military a long time. He’s learned enough in the field.”
It was noon by the time she and Seamus were able to take a break. After using the toilet, she made her way into the kitchen and grabbed some food that Connie had made. The house was empty of bodies, and boards were placed over the broken windows. A new door was finally fitted into the place of the front door, but the glass entrance in the back was just covered in plastic. Glass and wood no longer crunched under her feet, but the blood couldn’t get cleaned up before it set in so plastic was placed on the floor until the men could tear it out. The house didn’t have close neighbors, which was why no one called the police when the invasion happened, and the invaders used silencers on their rifles, so the only things that had made any sound were whatever had taken down the doors and broke the windows.
Katie piled up two plates and headed back to the medical room where Slate was still lying unconscious. As far as she knew, he had yet to regain consciousness, but she felt like it would be soon, and he needed food. Earlier, she had cleaned him off as best she could and then removed the bloodied sheets. She had placed a heavy blanket over the mattress and then put a clean sheet over it. That was no picnic as she had to roll Slate on his side and do one side, then roll him over to do the same on the other. But as she looked at him now, she saw just a hint more color in his skin from the elevated temperature his body sported to heal, which was why she had only a sheet covering him up to his waist.
Placing the food on the nightstand, she headed back out for drinks. She moved a chair closer to the bedside and started to eat her meal. As she ate, she took the time to study his tattoos. The larger one was on his shoulder. It was a black-hilted dagger with two arrows crossing over it in an X. Around it was a lion’s mane and underneath was written “De Oppresso Liber”. The other tattoo, which stretched across the right side of his ribs, simply read “It is better to conquer yourself than to win a war”. It was obvious these two tatto
os had meaning, and she was curious what they meant to him.
She was almost done eating when she saw him stir just a little. Katie’s heart pounded in her chest with excitement and anticipation. Reaching her hand out and placing it on top of his, she watched his face while praying silently for him to wake up. His skin still felt feverish under her hand.
His eyes rolled under their lids then tried to flutter open.
“That’s it, Slate, wake up for me.” She kept her voice low. Light brown eyes fluttered more, then fixed onto hers. She spread her mouth wide in a smile of relief. “There you are.” She placed her plate back on the nightstand. She slid one hand under his and used her other hand to cover the top. “How do you feel?”
His hand lightly squeezed hers. “Better now that you’re here.” She snickered at his corniness, and he joined her at the derision. “Seriously though, I feel complete with you here.”
Katie brought his hand up and rested her forehead on the knot of fingers. “I feel better with you, too.” Suddenly, she couldn’t carry her emotional burden any longer, and she started to cry. After a moment, she was able to regain control. She felt his thumb rub her cheek. “Slate, I’ve got cancer. If we mate, you’ll die if I can’t get better. I don’t want you to die.” She was barely able to get the last sentence out before she broke down again. Her shoulders shook with her sobs, but she didn’t let go of his hands.
“Baby-Kate, look at me.” His rough but gentle voice pulled her to do what he asked. She sniffed her runny nose and listened to what he had to say. “I love you already. If anything should happen to you, whether we are mated or not, I’d die. I could never be with anyone else, ever. I don’t need a mark to bond to you, I already am.”
Katie drew in her breath. “You love me?” Even as she said it, butterflies tickled her belly, and she felt in her heart it was true. What’s more, she felt the same way about him. Her one and only argument for keeping her distance was just lost, and now there wasn’t anything holding her back from a destined mating.