Punt: A British Bad Boy Football Romance

by Vivian Wood

  Once Jasper and Gwen had been put on gurneys and wheeled away, the only time she stopped crying was when she gave blood, and only because the nurses insisted that she needed to be calm and still for the needle stick. Declan donated too, noting that human blood wouldn’t help much in this case. Jas and Gwen needed Shifter blood to help speed the recovery process.

  The hospital staff weren’t Shifters, but they weren’t human either. They looked human, but smelled absolutely wrong; Maddie guessed that they were Fey. They were nice enough, getting Maddie a bed and some blankets. She’d lain awake for hours waiting for Jasper to get out of surgery, shivering and sniffling and miserable with fear.

  When he’d emerged from the procedure, the doctor said he was stable but critical. He also mentioned that they were having trouble keeping his temperature up, something Jasper needed to heal and fight infection.

  Maddie had asked for a spare set of scrubs to be brought, and then got into the hospital’s only shower. She’d scrubbed from head to toe in the hottest water she could stand, disinfecting herself. Then she put on the fresh scrubs and climbed into bed with her mate, careful not to touch any of his wounds.

  A nurse came in and piled blankets on top of them, and updated Maddie on Gwen’s well-being. Apparently the Beta was doing much better than the Alpha, giving Maddie one less thing to worry about. Declan had long since disappeared, making several runs to pick up injured Shifters and take medical supplies to the Bunker.

  Jasper’s skin was like ice when Maddie first touched him, but he quickly heated in the cocoon-nest, pressed up against her body. Maddie soaked in his presence, his scent. She must have drifted off at some point, her shock giving way to exhaustion.

  “Miss? Miss, you have to wake up,” came a voice, and a hand shook Maddie’s shoulder gently. Her eyes snapped open and she rolled to look at the nurse.

  “The doctor says he’s too warm now. You’ll have to get up, and I’m afraid there aren’t any more empty beds,” the older woman said quietly, her tone apologetic.

  “No? I mean… of course, yes,” Maddie said, her brain muddled. Every muscle in her body protested when she sat up, pushing the covers off her body. She slipped from the bed, checking on Jasper to find that he was still unconscious, or at least deeply asleep.

  Maddie spotted her discarded clothing and began to rifle through it, looking for her phone. She took a handgun out of her jeans and set it on the end table next to the bed, moving it out of the way. The nurse gave her a wary look, excusing herself at the sight of the weapon. Maddie couldn’t care less what the woman thought about her, as long as she cared for Jasper properly. In Maddie’s mind, the gun only ensured that he’d be taken care of in her absence.

  Pulling out her cell phone next, Maddie turned it on and dialed her brother.

  “Maddie, thank the gods!” Tessa said, picking up Jace’s line.

  “Is Jace okay?” Maddie asked.

  “Yes, of course. Hold on.” There was some muffled speech, then Jace came on the line.

  “Where the hell are you?” Jace demanded, sounding furious. “I’ve been looking everywhere, thinking you were dead!”

  “I’m at a hospital in Georgia, and I’m fine. My phone is dying, though,” Maddie said, sighing. “Haven’t you talked to Declan?”

  “Not really. He’s ferrying Shifters all over the Southeast, trying to find hospitals that can accommodate us,” Jace said. “Why are you in Georgia?”

  “I flew here with Jasper and his Beta and a couple of others. He’s not— he’s not awake yet,” Maddie said, willing herself to stay calm.

  Jace cursed, and turned to relay the information to Tessa. When the other female mirrored his curse, it brought a weak smile to Maddie’s lips.

  “Is there anything we can do? Do you want us to come to you?” Jace asked, sounding worried.

  “No, don’t come here. But there is something you can do for me,” Maddie said, her voice growing hard.

  “Name it,” Jace promised.

  “I need you to track down a male from the Alabama pack. First name Donovan, don’t know the last name but I’m sure someone there knows. I need him detained,” Maddie reeled off her requests.

  “Why? What am I going to be dealing with?” Jace asked.

  “The Legion knew too much. They knew just where to hit us, and how. They knew enough to strike while Jasper was gone. That’s a lot of knowledge, and I’m thinking they got it from that son of a bitch.”

  Jace was silent for a long moment, probably trying to decide if he ought to just kill the male himself. Jace loathed traitors, especially those that helped the Legion destroy packs and families.

  “I want him left for me, Jay,” Maddie said, her tone brooking no argument.

  “All right,” Jace agreed after another long beat. “I’ll let you know when I find him. When are you returning to Louisiana?”

  “As soon as Jasper and Gwen are stable enough to be transported, I’ll be heading that way. I know somebody in Atlanta who has a private plane, and I’m hoping that he’ll let me transport them in it to make things easier. If not, I’ll drive them back,” Maddie said.

  “Alright. Get a phone charger asap, okay?” Jace said. “I need to be able to contact you.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Maddie said, “Talk to you later.”

  Ending the call, she slipped her phone back into her pocket. She had bigger concerns right now. Like holding her breath, waiting for Jasper to wake up.

  46

  Three days went by, the time passing as steadily and slowly as the drip drip drip of the IV still attached to Jasper’s arm. Maddie was pretty sure she was going over the deep end of some irreversible mental cliff, and to be honest she wasn’t sure she cared all that much. Jasper hadn’t so much as twitched in the last few days, although the doctor had said he was healing just fine.

  Maddie had asked why he hadn’t woken up yet, and the doctor hadn’t been able to answer her with any certainty.

  In the meantime, Maddie had spent every waking second either willing Jasper to wake up or giving herself a severe mental lashing over her behavior prior to the attack. She had been selfish, giving Jasper scraps when he’d deserved every bit of her attention. She’d been scared of committing to him, when in truth Jasper had never been the problem. Maddie was the biggest issue, and she always had been. Everything Gwen had said was completely right, she realized.

  She’d been a spoiled brat, and Jasper deserved so much better. Maddie was going to be better, she had decided. Smarter, more fierce, more loyal. And way less flighty. Who the hell cared about going to New Zealand when her mate was here?

  By the fourth day, Maddie had slowly built up a burning flame of ire inside herself, ready to do battle if it would just make Jasper wake up. She was sitting next to his bed, watching his slow but steady breathing when her phone rang, scaring the bejeezus out of her.

  “Hello?” she answered, not recognizing the number.

  “Madeline, it’s Ted,” came the rough male voice she’d been waiting to hear.

  “Ted, thanks for getting back to me,” Maddie said, grateful beyond words.

  “No problem. I’m going to have my pilot touch down about ten miles from where you’re at. Are your friends ready to travel?” he asked.

  “The doctor cleared them, as long as they go straight to another medical facility. We have one at my De— er, campus,” Maddie said, correcting her slip-up.

  “Well, Jonas will be waiting for you on the landing strip. I’ll text you his location,” Ted offered.

  “You’re the best,” Maddie said.

  “It’s not a problem. Consider us even,” Ted said. He hung up before Maddie could reply. Still, it was a small victory in an otherwise advance-less day. She’d called in a big favor to make this happen, and she was ready to get the show on the road.

  47

  Jasper came back to himself in a slow stretch of moments, drifting upward to the surface of consciousness. He heard sounds first, a mix of the strange a
nd familiar. One in particular pulled at him, made him want… something. He wasn’t sure.

  He concentrated, trying to open his eyes to see the source of that sound— a voice. Before he could succeed, he was distracted by an onslaught of physical sensations. Feeling came back to his body everywhere at once; he was hot, so hot, and he couldn’t move his legs. His head throbbed, his mouth was dry as sand, and he could feel the cold touch of plastic at his wrists. Was he being restrained?

  Jasper began to struggle, fighting against the restraints trapping his arms and legs.

  “Be still!” came a voice. Jasper frowned. It wasn’t the voice he needed to hear, though. It was a touch too deep, he decided.

  “Jasper? Are you awake?” came the voice again. A cool hand touched his shoulder, shaking him. He shivered, pulling back from that icy grasp.

  His eyes snapped open, taking a long second to focus on the figure seated in front of him. Stunning dark hair, lovely hazel eyes.

  “Gwen,” he ground out, identifying her after a few hazy seconds. She was sitting in a wheelchair next to his… hospital bed? What he’d thought were restraints were actually heavy layers of blankets on his legs and a sprawling network of IVs hooked up to his arms and hands.

  What the hell had happened? It must have been bad if his already-preternatural healing abilities had needed this kind of bolster from human medicine.

  “Hey,” Gwen said, giving him a concerned look.

  “Where’s Maddie? Is she safe?” he blurted, confused. A flit of dark emotion passed over Gwen’s face, but she just patted his arm.

  “She’s fine, just tired. She went to lie down in the next room after I swore up and down that I would watch after you while she was sleeping,” Gwen said, her expression amused. “We’re in the Infirmary at the Louisiana Den, if you were wondering.”

  “Yeah, okay… Why are we here, though?”

  “What do you last remember?” Gwen asked, fidgeting with the blanket covering her lap. Gwen didn’t fidget. Shit, this was going from bad to worse.

  “I remember the mating ceremony,” he replied, thinking.

  “And then I called you. Do you remember that?” she asked.

  Something clicked into place, and Jasper’s breath caught in his chest.

  “How many?” he choked out, devastated. “How many dead?”

  “Only one of ours,” Gwen said. “One of the human bartenders was shot point-blank when he tried to deny the Legion entrance to the club.”

  “How the hell did this happen?”

  “We’re certain that the Legion had inside information. Donovan’s gone missing, so we assume he was involved.”

  “Gods. What was he thinking, bringing them down on his own kind?”

  “We’re not sure, but there are a lot of people looking for him right now. It won’t be long before he screws up and we haul his ass back here for interrogation,” Gwen said.

  “And the pack? Where is everyone?”

  “They’re all here, or on their way at least. I have some more bad news about that.”

  “Lay it all out,” Jasper said.

  “The Bunker was more fragile than even we realized. Whatever Ennis did to it… it just couldn’t hold up to whatever magic the Legion inflicted on it. We evacuated after the fight, but when we went back…” she said, waving a hand.

  “You couldn’t get back in?” he asked, puzzled.

  “There wasn’t anything to go into. The whole thing just vanished.” Gwen shook her head, her expression pained. “I’m sorry Jasper. The Bunker is gone.”

  Jasper sucked in a deep breath. He was surprised, of course. But the loss of the Bunker just didn’t hurt as much as it probably should. If his pack had survived, and his mate was safe, he considered that a win.

  “Don’t apologize to me, Gwen. This whole thing is my fault. If I’d been a better Alpha, if I’d stamped out this rebellion earlier…” he said, anger forming a hot fist in his stomach.

  “You did what you thought was right, Jasper. You didn’t want to rule by tyranny, and there’s nothing wrong with that,” Gwen said with a frown.

  “Obviously that’s not true,” Jasper said.

  “Well, you’re not the only one to blame. I haven’t exactly been beneficial as a Beta recently. We’ve been too busy at each others’ throats to actually run the damned pack. Your mate made that quite clear,” Gwen said.

  Jasper was silent for a long beat, searching for the right words.

  “Gwen, I want to apologize—” he started, uncertain how to explain his obsession with Maddie. Gwen raised a hand to stop him, shaking her head.

  “No. Let’s just… let’s just move on. We both spent two years trying to make ourselves something we weren’t. I say that’s enough punishment for anyone.”

  Jasper was quiet, thinking. Finally he nodded.

  “Okay,” he agreed. “I’d shake on it, but…”

  He nodded to indicate all the tubes and wires stuck to his arms, and shrugged.

  “Let me go get the doctor and see if we can’t get some of that removed,” Gwen said, uncrossing her legs and rolling herself backward in her wheelchair.

  She was as good as her word, and less than ten minutes later he was a free man. Throwing back the blankets, he slid off the bed and tested his weight on his legs. He was more sore than anything, and the flimsy hospital gown felt ridiculous. The damned thing wasn’t meant for someone of his stature, ending about three inches below some things he’d rather not show the entire world.

  “I know you’re about to get back in that bed,” came a singsong voice from the doorway. He looked up to find Maddie standing there, hands on her hips. She was giving him a damnably dirty look, and Jasper had the distinct impression that his mate was trying not to scream at him.

  “Just making sure everything still works,” he said, trying to make a joke.

  “Get back in the damned bed, Jasper. You almost died in my arms a few days ago, so it would be a shame if I had to kill you now,” she said.

  Hands raised, Jasper stepped back and sat down on the bed. Her glare only intensified until he sighed and swung his legs back onto the bed, getting under the covers. Only then did she enter the room, strolling toward the bed. Jasper wasn’t fooled for a second, though.

  “I know you’re mad, but—” he started.

  “No. Mad is not the right word for this. Not pissed, not teed off, not irritated. I’m fucking murderous right now, do you understand me?” she asked, narrowing those violet eyes at him like laser beams.

  Jasper frowned, trying to stop the inevitable lecture.

  “Listen, Madd. I’m sorry we had to leave you at the chopper. It was for your own good,” he said, wincing at his wording the second it was out of his mouth.

  “For my own good? Oh, well that makes me feel better,” she said, dropping into a chair by the window so that she could stare him down.

  “I thought you would be safer,” he said, feeling defensive.

  “I broke my own hand just to get out those cuffs, Jasper.”

  His blood heated at her words, anger blooming beneath the surface.

  “Why in the hell would you do that?” he said, his brows snapping together. The whole point had been to keep her from pain, not for her to go around breaking her own bones like a psycho.

  “Because I knew that somewhere down there in the Bunker you were doing some stupid heroic shit that was going to get you killed. And I also knew that with everything going on, you wouldn’t have anyone watching your back.”

  “And you knew this how?”

  “Because, Jasper, that’s what you do. You don’t weigh the risks, at least not to yourself. You find the most dangerous thing to do and you do it. You lay yourself out on the altar like a damned sacrifice, trying to make up for things that weren’t even your fault.” Maddie pointed an accusing finger at him. “Don’t deny it, either. That’s who you are.”

  “You’re the one who broke your own hand so that you could run into a gun fight!” Ja
sper said, his voice rising with tension.

  “To save you! To be with you! Because I knew that you wouldn’t think twice about laying that grand speech at my feet at the mating ceremony, and then running off and getting yourself killed! Admit it, that never even crossed your mind!”

  Jasper fell silent, taken aback.

  “Yeah, that’s right. I’m going to man the hell up and say it. I love you, and if you died, it would kill me. How’s that?” Maddie said, crossing her arms and sitting back.

  Jasper was left slack-jawed and staring, completely stunned. This was not the outcome he’d foreseen for this particular conversation. His heart rate picked up, and he felt himself flush. She loved him?

  “I, uh… thank you?” he said, his thoughts scattered.

  Maddie put her hands on her hips, leveling him with a nasty scowl.

  “You are lucky you are in the hospital right now, I swear to the gods. You have two seconds to tell me you love me too, or I’m going finish the job the Legion started,” she threatened, standing as if to make good on it.

  “I— love you?” he said, that dry-mouth suddenly returning again. At her growl of displeasure, he held up his hands to stall her. “I mean it! Of course I love you, Madd. I always have.”

  “And now I want you to promise me, swear to me, that you’ll never do anything that stupid again. And you’d better not even think about leaving me behind if you do,” she said, her voice wavering a little bit. Jasper could see the tension in her body, in her expression. She really had thought he was going to die, he realized. She’d been forced to sit by his bed and face the fact that he was going to leave her behind again, this time for good.

  “I promise,” he said, reaching out and pulling her close. She sank down next to him on the bed, and he wrapped an arm around her waist.

  “You swear?” she asked, her voice gone soft. She tucked her head against his neck, hiding her face. He could feel her hot tears wetting his collarbone.

  Brushing back the gossamer wave of mahogany hair that spilled over them both, Jasper breathed in her delicate scent. Sweet, light, beautiful. And oh so Maddie, he thought. His heart thumped, filled with pride and gratitude for his fierce yet tender-hearted mate.