by T. S. Ryder
The man pushed himself to his feet, clutching his chest, and took off at a loping run. He vanished out of sight and Destiny ran to Parker.
“Are you okay? We need to get you to the hospital!”
She picked up her purse from where it’d fallen beside her. Parker shifted back, and leaned against her, naked and human.
Her mind was super focused on the next thing she needed to do. Get him in the car. He has to be in the car to get to the hospital.
She helped him slide in the back seat, then pressed hard on the gas. Turn left at this light, then it’s a quick right. She kept her eyes on the road, watching for cars and people and anything that might get in her way. She ignored the sounds of agony coming from the backseat. If she let her mind go there for even a second, the panic welled in her chest and fogged her brain.
She pulled up to the doors of the ER and left the car running as she ran inside to get a nurse and a wheelchair. They got him into the wheelchair and she parked the car in the first spot she saw, then ran at full speed back to the ER waiting room. Parker was sitting in the chair, talking to someone behind a desk in grunts and stilted words.
“What’s going on? Why aren’t you helping him?” Destiny said, looking around frantically at the stares they were receiving.
“I don’t know that we can do much,” the nurse behind the desk said. “We don’t usually treat shifters here.”
“What?” Her words came out like a shocking accusation. Here, at the hospital, where they were supposed to get the help they needed, even here, they were facing discrimination.
“Shifters’ bodies are different than humans,” the nurse said. “They require special care.”
“It’s just a stab wound! He needs stitches!”
Destiny couldn’t sit there watching any longer. She took off running. She passed the nurse’s desk, despite the voices calling to her, telling her she couldn’t go down the hall she was now charging down. She saw a woman in scrubs and ran to her.
“Do you have a problem with shifters?” Destiny demanded.
“With what?”
“Shifters?”
The woman looked around, horrified. “Is there one loose?”
Destiny pushed her out of the way and continued. She saw a doctor and nurse wearing pink scrubs up ahead and ran at them.
“Whoa, slow down,” the doctor said.
“Do you have a problem with shifters?” Destiny asked.
“They require special care,” the doctor said.
Destiny looked at the other nurse. The nurse said, “My brother is a shifter. He’s adopted, obviously, but I certainly have no problem with him.”
Destiny grabbed the woman’s hand and pulled her back, ignoring her protests and questions, to where Parker waited. “He’s been stabbed and they won’t help him.”
The nurse looked at the other nurse behind the desk, then at Parker. “He’s got a deep penetrating trauma. You need to get him to a trauma room now!”
The nurse behind the desk didn’t move. “We don’t have anyone to treat him.”
The nurse in pink shook her head. She pushed the wheelchair through a set of double doors and glanced in a room. “Here. Help me.”
They got Parker onto the table and the nurse pulled off his shirt. She started rifling through the supplies in the cabinets.
“Don’t you know where things are?” Destiny asked, panicking fully now that Parker looked so pale and this nurse seemed clueless.
“I’m a maternity nurse, not an ER nurse! This isn’t my department.” She pulled out a bottle of some brown liquid and squirted it on Parker’s stomach.
She worked hard, taking his vital signs, injecting him with things, putting pressure on the wound. The bleeding slowed, and she got his wound wrapped. Some of his color started to come back.
The nurse wiped the sweat from her forehead. “He’ll heal fast. We got it cleaned and that’s the most important thing so that infection doesn’t set in.” She handed Destiny a bottle of pills. “These are antibiotics so he doesn’t get an infection. Have him take one a day until they’re gone. I would take him home now.”
“Now? He doesn’t need to stay?”
“What I’ve just done might cost me my job. It’ll be better if you’re not here, and trust me, he’ll be fine tomorrow.”
Destiny threw her arms around her in a tight hug. “Thank you.”
“Don’t take him out through the ER.”
Destiny nodded and slid herself under Parker’s arm as the nurse left the room. She helped him along, but already he did seem a little better. They got many strange and nasty looks, but once she got him outside of the hospital, she went to get the car and then helped him in.
Chapter Eleven
She drove him to her house, then got him into her bed. She pulled the bloody clothes from him and used a washrag to clean him up.
“Do you need anything?” she asked.
He shook his head and closed his eyes, lying his head back on her pillow.
She checked on him through the night, sometimes just standing over him to make sure he was still breathing. She finally fell asleep sometime in the middle of the night, curled up on her couch with her phone in her hand, ready to call 911 if he showed any signs of going downhill.
She awoke to the feeling of someone stroking and kissing her forehead. Her eyes fluttered open. “Parker?”
He grinned at her. “You sleep okay?”
She sat up and looked him over. “Are you okay? You’re up! You need to take these. Are you in pain? Are you still bleeding?”
“Shhh.” He brushed back her hair and kissed her again. “I’m okay. Look.”
He peeled away the bandage to show her his wound. It looked days old instead of hours, already scabbed over and pink around the area.
“But…” She reached out and ran a finger gently over the scab.
“We heal about four times faster than humans.”
“So you’re really okay? You’re going to live?”
He chuckled. “It wasn’t that bad.”
“I was so worried.” She put her hand to his cheek and for a moment imagined Jaxon in his place. How would she be feeling right now if he’d been the one to be stabbed and had come close to dying instead of Parker? When she did, she knew she finally had her answer. “Parker. I can’t live without you. I want to be with you and only you.”
He raised an eyebrow at her. “You do?”
“After all that happened, I know it would be painful to lose Jaxon, but to lose you would be unbearable.”
He kissed her fingertips one at a time. “Maybe you should wait a few days. It might just be your reaction to seeing me injured.”
“Parker.” She pressed her lips to his once, twice. “I love you. Only you. You’re the only one for me.”
She called Jaxon later that day. She had been in contact with him and the rest of the Tates once she’d gotten Parker home, but now she was calling for a different sort of update.
“How’s he doing?” Jaxon asked.
“Great. He’s healing nicely.”
“Good. Want me to come get him?”
“No. He’s going to stay here for a little while with me. Jaxon…” She took a deep breath. “I’ve fallen in love with him. I’m sorry.”
“Oh. Okay.” There was a long pause. “I knew it could go either way. I’m glad he has you, I really am. I would rather see you with him than anyone else.”
“Thanks, Jaxon.”
“And hey, if you guys ever want to do a threesome again, you know where my room is.”
She laughed. “Okay. Thanks.”
She hung up with mixed emotions. It’d been so easy for him to say goodbye to her. It stung a little, but at the same time, reassured her that she had chosen correctly.
When she went back to work after taking a few days off to care for Parker, even if most of that time was spent in bed taking care of him in non-medical ways, she put a photo of the two of them on her desk. She wasn’t sure i
f her bosses or coworkers would say anything about it or not.
When Joshua came out to the reception area, he nodded at the photo. “How is he?”
“He’s good. Healing really well. Will be back to fighting soon.”
“Look, I uh, wanted to apologize for my behavior. And for Caleb’s. Turns out that the man who attacked Parker was Michelle’s husband.”
“He was?”
Joshua nodded. “She’s been fired and while you were out, we had a sensitivity training for the staff. Specist remarks won’t be any more tolerated than racist or sexist remarks.”
She blinked in surprise. Maybe her threats of a lawsuit had affected them more than she knew. “Thank you.”
“We also wanted to offer our legal services to Parker, free of charge. I can’t say that Caleb and I don’t feel at least a little responsible, even if our part was doing nothing to stop the comments going on around the office.”
“I’ll let him know.” She didn’t know what else to say. It was more than she ever could have asked for.
Later that night when she got home and told him the good news, Parker pulled her into a fervent hug and kissed her. “You’re so amazing. I think you and I could really change the world.”
“We already have.”
*****
THE END
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed reading “Claimed by Two Werebears” as much as I liked writing it. Please consider leaving an honest review here; it means a lot to me to hear from you.
T.S. Ryder
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Description
Desired by a sophisticated vampire king and a bad boy shifter. Life could be worse… Or, could it?
Audrey is a reporter with big dreams for the future. So when she gets the chance to visit the Harvest Moon Festival, where human women are chosen as vampire mates, she doesn’t hesitate. This will give her the inside scoop she needs.
But she gets far more than she bargained for.
First, there’s the insanely handsome Sanjay, a tiger/lion shifter with a voice that is by far the sexiest thing Audrey has ever heard.
And then there’s the elusive Dimitri, the vampire king himself, who has the longest… fangs she’s ever seen.
When both shifter and vampire claim her as their mate, things get heated. Neither Sanjay nor Dimitri are used to being told no. If Audrey doesn't choose, they will battle to the death for her.
And that's not the end of her troubles, when enemies decide to end the Harvest Moon Festival, by any means necessary…
Can Audrey choose? Can she survive? Will she get everything she secretly desires?
Chapter One
Dozens of women milled about the large, opulent room. The floor was polished marble, and a single, giant chandelier hung from the ceiling. It reminded Audrey of the chandelier from the productions of The Phantom of the Opera she had reviewed for her high school newspaper. That one had fallen directly on her head, which was probably why she was careful to avoid standing beneath this one. She had a feeling actual gold and crystal would hurt a lot more than painted cardboard.
Audrey leaned against the wall, ignoring a buffet table full of delicate-looking dishes, among which ranged lobster and crab. All around her, humans, vampires and shifters from various packs were flirting with one another–and in some cases, doing a little more than flirting. She tried to soak in every detail.
It wasn't often that the halls of the vampire palace were open to humans. This was a special occasion, though. It was the festival of the Harvest Moon, when the vampire king, Dimitri, invited selected human women to his halls to meet various vampires looking to find themselves a mate. The festival would actually take up the full month, until the next full moon. Today was only the meet and greet.
The festival happened every year, but what made this one different was the fact that Dimitri had also invited shifters to his halls. The poor relations between them and vampires made this an unprecedented move on Dimitri's part.
And I've been chosen to cover it from the inside.
Audrey fought to keep the smirk off her face as she remembered when her boss assigned her the story. The young reporter was determined to prove herself worthy of the task and was taking careful mental notes of what she observed. Details about what actually happened during the festival were scarce out in the human world.
So far there hadn't been anything really worth reporting on. It was like any fancy party. Or, given the amount of couples sneaking off to private rooms, like any prom. The most exciting part was the hostility apparent between the shifters and vampires. Just a couple minutes ago, a tussle between a Wolf and a vampire over the same woman had ended with them both being ejected from the hall just moments ago.
Audrey scanned the room again. It didn't escape her notice that the women in the hall were all gorgeous. Audrey herself had always been seen as 'exotic', with her hair a peculiar shade that was usually black, but with a tinge of red in the right light, her golden-brown skin and eyes so blue that people assumed she wore contacts.
So vampires like unusual combinations on their women, Audrey mused, catching sight of a woman with one green and one brown eye being chatted up by no less than three men.
She grimaced as a man sidled up to her. He wore a suit like the vampires, but there were a few giveaways telling her he was a shifter. The first was the sheer size he had over his blood-drinking paranormal counterparts. While vampires did stand taller than the average human, they were tall in a supermodel or basketball player way. Shifters, even the ones that could turn into smaller animals like foxes, were sheer bulk. They towered over everybody else, huge and intimidating.
Audrey drank some punch and ignored the shifter. Right now she wanted to take in the rituals going on around her.
He leaned against the wall and peered down at her. It didn't escape her notice that was easily the biggest man in the room. He had dark eyes, dark hair, and dark skin that was smooth and unblemished. He was also insanely handsome, with a strong jaw and symmetrical features. If she had been here to find a mate, rather than get the inside scoop, she would have been all over him. Which was one of the reasons she was so determined to ignore him.
"Hello," he said, his voice deep like the ocean and by far the sexiest thing she had ever heard. "My name is Sanjay."
Would it hurt to let herself dabble in the festivities with this huge shifter? She had signed up for the whole selection process. It was the only way she could get access to the festival… No. She had to stay on track. No dabbling.
But that didn't mean she couldn't ask a few questions.
"Audrey," she said with a smile. "My name is Audrey. So you're a shifter, right?"
Sanjay nodded.
"What do you turn into?"
"A Liger."
Audrey stared dubiously at him. "A Liger? As in…?"
"Half tiger, half lion. Sanjay grinned at her. "Just like in non-shifter species, if a tigress mates with a male lion, the offspring is a liger. Want to go to a room and find out more?"
Well, he was right to the point. Audrey's pulse quickened. Her body screamed at her to say yes, but she shook her head. Maybe she had signed up for it, but she wasn't here for a mate. It was just a cover. She wasn't going to lead Sanjay on, despite how hot he was and how much she'd like to learn more about him.
"No. I'm here for the vampire king, nobody else."
What the... What had possessed her to say that? Audrey tried to smile. There was a non-disclosure agreement with signing up for the festival, and if she revealed her true purpose she'd be ejected. But she could have found a different excuse to refuse the handsome shifter.
Sanjay's eyes darkened
, but before he could say anything else, a vampire turned towards them. He actually stepped between the Liger and the human, flashing her an easy grin. His fangs were the longest she had seen yet. It must have been all the pheromones floating around from other women looking to mate, but Audrey suddenly had the urge to ask if the length of fangs corresponded with the size of… other parts of the body.
"You're interested in the king?" the vampire said.
Audrey nodded, although she couldn't help but wince at the look on Sanjay's face. Frustrated, annoyed, and maybe even a little hurt. I don't owe him anything.
"Yeah. I want to meet him. I've never seen any pictures or anything."
"The king likes his privacy." The vampire clamped an arm around her waist. "I'll take you to see him."
Sanjay gripped the vampire's shoulder and yanked him away from her. "She was talking to me."
"And it looked to me like she was done."
Audrey looked between the two men, eyes widening. They weren't going to start fighting, were they? She certainly didn't want that! And as much as she would like to stay and talk with Sanjay about why he was here and what life as a shifter was like, being able to speak with the king himself was a huge break for her. There were no photos of him, let alone a real, honest-to-goodness interview.
If she was able to get an exclusive on him, her career would skyrocket. She might even get the Pulitzer for it. It was a chance she couldn’t turn down, so she stepped between the two men.
"I really do want to meet the king," she told Sanjay. "But you and I could talk again. Just talk, though. Like I said, I'm not looking for a shifter mate."
Sanjay's lips pursed but he nodded stiffly and stepped back. The vampire once again put an arm around her waist and led her away from the party.