by Dia Cole
That thought made me gnash my teeth. Damn it. I can’t let that happen.
From the expression on Liam’s face, I could see he was thinking the same thing.
Gabriel cleared his throat. “I know you both want the female. Hell, I want her too, but we can’t have her. I need your word that neither of you will set foot inside that cabin until Nathan gets here.”
“Fine,” Liam said, crossing his tree trunk-like arms.
I slowly nodded, not liking the idea one bit.
“Good.” Gabriel clapped his hands together. “Now, I suggest we all take cold showers and then get something to eat. I’m starving.”
Liam’s stomach rumbled loudly. “I could eat.”
As Gabriel and I chuckled at the same time, the tension between the three of us broke.
“I can prepare something for lunch,” I volunteered. As an Omega, it was hard to fight the instinct to serve the two Enforcers.
Gabriel smiled. “That’d be great.”
While he and Liam went upstairs, I headed to the kitchen. Once there, I tossed together sandwiches for the three of us. After setting the plates on the bar counter, I threw down several bags of American chips and dug through one of the full refrigerators for beers. It seemed wasteful that the lodge was stocked with food. But then again, one never knew when the feckless Tasha would want to visit one of her properties. I’m sure the staff felt it was better to be safe than sorry. At least we’d make sure all this food didn’t go to waste.
“That looks good,” Gabriel said, walking into the kitchen. Thankfully, the dark-haired male had dressed. Although Lykos in the faction were used to public nudity, after so many years around humans, I’d never gotten comfortable with it.
“Smells good too,” Liam added, following behind Gabriel. Although still shirtless, the big guy was at least wearing pants and had slicked back his wet hair.
“Eat up,” I said, waving them to the bar stools. I set down the beer bottles and sat down next to them. For the next half hour we ate in companionable silence. Then Liam brought up football and the three of us got into a rousing debate over whether American football or soccer—the rest of the world’s football—was better.
Conceding the argument before things got too heated, I cleaned up the dishes.
“You don’t have to do that,” Gabriel said with a raised brow.
“It’s fine. I’m used to it,” I said with a shrug. Living outside the faction, I’d gotten used to making my own meals and cleaning up after myself. Besides it gave me something to do other than pine after Havana.
“You guys have to see the theater room,” Liam said, pointing to his right. “It will blow your mind.”
“Lead the way,” Gabriel said, standing.
“I’ll be there in a few,” I called after the other two males. I tossed the plates in the sink to wash later and threw out the empty potato chip bags. As I was putting the sandwich meat and mayo back in the fridge, my arm knocked over a can of soda. The memory of Havana licking the soda off me in the car flashed through my mind. My penis throbbed as I remembered how wild she’d been when I’d touched her. With a groan I fisted the can. What’s she doing right now? Is she alone and upset? Gabriel wasn’t the most tactful of males, and he probably hadn’t shared the truth of her origins in a sensitive way.
Discovering I wasn’t human had rocked my world. Years later, I still remembered the denial, confusion, and fear. Havana must be terrified.
The need to see her and make sure for myself that she was okay gripped me. I’ll just drive up and peek in the window. If I don’t go inside the cabin, I’m not technically breaking my word. Deciding that I could be back before Gabriel and Liam even noticed I was gone, I snuck out of the lodge. The freezing wind slammed into me as I rushed over to the SUV and started the vehicle. Damn, this storm is bad.
Even more worried about Havana being alone in that cabin, I drove through the gate and then hauled ass. I was almost there when the headlights of the SUV illuminated something in the road. It looked like a body. A female body.
Bloody hell. Is that…? With my heart in my throat, I hit the brakes and jumped out of the vehicle. “Havana!” I called out as I raced through the snow.
The sight of her laying curled up in a fetal position flayed me to the bone. It looked as if she’d emptied the contents of her bag on top of her in a futile attempt to stay warm. Her eyes were closed and her skin was as pale as ice. “Havana!”
She didn’t respond to her name. Her heartbeat sounded sluggish to my ears. I hauled her into my arms and carried her to the cabin. What happened? Why did she go outside?
Shifting her weight, I opened the door. Grateful to the welcoming heat from the stove, I set her down in the middle of the bed and did a visual inspection. Trying to distance myself from my rioting emotions, I stepped into my role as a clinician and assessed her condition. Based on her appearance, she was suffering from hypothermia and frostbite. Does she have other injuries?
Havana’s eyes fluttered open. “M-mason,” she gasped.
“I’m right here. What happened?” I tried my damnedest to keep my voice steady.
“I was trying to find you guys. I slipped. My back. I c-can’t feel my legs.”
Did she do further damage to her spine? I knelt down and slid my hands gently around her back. Damn it. I can’t feel anything through the brace. “How long have you been out there?”
“I don’t…I don’t know.”
I need to get her out of these wet clothes and raise her body temperature. “Havana, why didn’t you stay here where you’d be safe?”
“I n-needed help.” She lifted her left hand. “I’m infected.”
At first I took the blackened skin for the advanced stages of frostbite, but then I realized it was necrotic veins mottling her skin from the tips of her finger to the middle of her forearm.
The Z-virus. Shock punched me in the solar plexus. No. It can’t be. Trying to keep my voice calm, I asked, “When were you exposed?”
“The club alley when I fought Brody.” She let out a shaky breath as if speaking so many words had exhausted her. “Y-you can cure it, right?”
Shit. If she’d already gone through her first transition, she’d be fine. But she hadn’t so… Panic squeezed my insides as I looked down into her hope-filled gaze. “Of course I can, love,” I lied and kissed her blackened fingers.
She gave me a ghost of a smile as she drifted back into unconsciousness.
16
Liam
I’d just gone into the kitchen to see what was taking Doc so long when I heard the crunch of tires on the snow outside. “He wouldn’t,” I snarled under my breath.
I ran out of the kitchen, down the long hallway, and out the door. Through a blizzard of snowflakes, I glimpsed the black SUV driving out the front gate.
Motherfucker. My knuckles cracked as I fisted my hand. I knew Doc wouldn’t be able to stay away from Havana. Damn it. Gabe will flip his lid when he finds out. Not like the Enforcer didn’t have his suspicions that Doc would run to her the first chance he got. We should’ve expected this.
“Gabe, Doc’s gone AWOL,” I mentally shouted at my friend.
“What? He gave his word.”
Lykos males took oaths seriously. But Doc was raised as a human. He wasn’t like the rest of us.
Gabe cursed. “I don’t trust myself around the female. Liam, can you bring him back before he does anything stupid?”
“Hell, yes.” Unaffected by the freezing temperatures, I tore off my clothing and shed my human form. A quick snapping and popping of bones and joints and I rose as a gigantic wolf. I shook my shaggy red fur and let out a howl of warning for Doc. That fucker needed an ass kicking. No doubt he thought to take advantage of Havana’s heat to mate with her and entice her to claim him.
Fuck that. I could almost taste her exotic scent in the wind. If she's going to claim anyone, it's going to be me. After scaling the stone wall in one leap, I picked up the pace, my panting brea
th fogging the freezing air. It was nearly dark and the flurry of snow further reduced visibility. Still, I had no trouble picking out the shape of the SUV stopped in the middle of the road. Puzzled, I ran around the still-running vehicle noting that the driver’s side door had been left open. Why did Doc jump out in such a hurry?
The sight of woman’s lingerie scattered in the snow made my blood run cold. Havana’s scent was all over. “What happened here? Doc!” I all but screamed into the male’s mind. He didn’t answer. Heart pounding, I reached the front of the cabin just as Doc busted out the door.
“Stop shouting. I’m trying to treat, Havana.”
A sinking feeling gripped my stomach. “Is she hurt?” I peered around his shoulder and spied Havana lying on the bed unmoving.
Doc closed the door blocking my view. “She’s suffering from hypothermia, frostbite, and likely a spinal injury. That’s not even the worst of it.”
“What the hell happened to her?”
Doc sighed heavily. “She was trying to come see us when she fell in the snow.”
I whined and pawed at the ground. The female was injured because she’d been trying to see us. Shame and grief tore through me. “We’ll bring her back to Sanctuary.” Fuck Gabe. If he had a problem with it, he could take it up with my front claws.
“We can’t risk moving her with the spinal injury.” Doc thrust a hand through his blond hair and paced back and forth. “In the very best scenario the injury to her back will heal and she’ll only lose the tip of her nose and a few fingers.”
Fuck. I lifted my head. “I’ll go back to the infirmary and get you everything you need to treat her here.”
“It wouldn’t do any good.” Doc gave me a bleak look. “She’s also infected with the Z-virus.”
“What? That’s impossible.” I shook my head refusing to believe it. “She’s Lykos. She’s immune.”
Doc looked over at the door. By the expressions playing out on his face, the male was struggling with his emotions. “She hasn’t gone through her first transition so she’s still vulnerable to permanent injury and…”
“Death,” my inner voice finished for him. “Shit. There has to be something we can do. You’re a fucking doctor.”
Doc flinched at my accusatory tone. “The only way she'll survive this is if she goes through the transition before the virus spreads any further.”
“Then we help her transition.” I didn’t know how, but there had to be a way.
Doc rubbed his temple thoughtfully. There was hope in his eyes when he turned to me. “Go back to the infirmary and get me all this.” He sent me images of various medical supplies and bags of blood. “Hurry.”
“I’m on it.” My blood pounded in my ears as I bolted to the SUV and shifted back into human form. Uncaring of my nakedness, I jumped into the driver’s seat and sped back to Sanctuary.
Gabe met me in the lodge doorway where I stopped briefly to throw on my jeans. “Where’s Mason? You were supposed to bring him back.”
I shoved the head Enforcer out of my way. Panic and worry chewed at me as I rushed into the library and opened the passage to the hidden elevator. As I stepped into the metal box, Gabe grabbed my arm.
“Where the hell are you going? Where’s Mason?” When I didn’t reply, he snarled. “Talk to me. I’m your fucking superior.”
“There’s no time,” I growled, shoving the male across the room.
“You’d better make time.” Gabe bared his teeth and unsheathed his claws.
I’d long wondered if I could best the legendary Enforcer in combat—his speed and cunning up against my strength and size. But this wasn’t the time to find out. I sent him mental images of Havana’s condition.
Gabe’s anger was replaced by shock. I didn’t need to read his mind to sense his worry. “We’ll bring the female here.”
“She’s too bad off. We can’t move her. I’m getting supplies for Doc. He’s not sure she’ll survive. She’s been infected with the Z-virus.”
“Fuck, no.” Gabe’s face paled. “How can I help?”
“Grab extra blankets. There should be plenty upstairs.”
Gabe nodded and, in a rare turnabout, followed my orders. He dashed down the hallway while I took the elevator down to the infirmary. After stuffing a medical bag with all the supplies Mason needed, I stopped at the fridge in the back of the room. There were dozens of blood bags in there. Which ones was I supposed to get? Frantic to get back to the cabin, I grabbed a handful and rushed back to the elevator.
Gabe was just loading a pile of blankets into the SUV when I ran out the front door. Night had fallen, and the storm was raging. Gabe slid into the driver’s seat while I jumped into the front passenger seat.
“Hurry!” I pleaded. Havana could be slipping further away with every minute.
Wind and snow pounded the windshield as Gabe slowly drove out of the compound.
“Step on it, brother!” I shouted.
“If you haven’t noticed, the storm of the century is barreling down on us, asshole. Unless you’d like to get stuck in the snow, shut the fuck up.”
It took far too much time for Gabe to pull up to the cabin. Not even waiting for the vehicle to stop, I jumped out with the bag of medical supplies. I pushed the cabin door open with such force it slammed into the wall.
Doc jumped to his feet. “There you are. Do you have everything?”
“Yes.” I ran over to the bed where Doc was standing over Havana’s body. He’d removed her wet clothing and bundled her in the comforter.
I stared down at the female, my insides shredding. Her beautiful dark hair fanned around her too-pale face. She can’t die. I sucked in a breath when I caught sight of her left hand—it was black from the tips of her fingers all the way up her arm. “Is that from frostbite?”
“No.” Doc slowly turned over her hand revealing dark veins spidering out from the cut on her palm. “This is where the infection originated.”
The memory of Havana cutting her hand and then fighting off the creature in the alley flashed in my mind. Fuck. She’d been infected because I hadn’t gotten to her in time. I’d failed her, and she'd pay the price.
Gabe walked over to stand beside me. He wore a resigned look on his face. “She’s infected. You know what needs to be done, Mason.”
“Let me try this first,” Doc said, hooking a bag of blood to the collapsible IV pole I’d brought from the infirmary.
“Is that Lykos blood?”
Mason nodded.
Gabe tensed. “Don’t you remember what happened the last time you tried to use Lykos blood to cure the virus?”
Mason paled. “This is different. She’s one of us.”
Gabe gritted his teeth. “No. She hasn’t gone through her first transition. Our blood will kill her. Maybe you don’t care if she suffers, but I won’t watch her bleed out in front of me. I’ll show her mercy even if you won’t.” Gabriel reached for his gun, only to find it missing. Seeming to remember he’d given it to me back on the interstate, he looked over. “Go get my gun.”
I shook my head. “Let Doc do his thing.”
“She’ll die in excruciating pain,” Gabe muttered as we watched Doc find a vein on Havana’s right arm and start the infusion.
Gabe’s wrong. He has to be wrong. I held tightly to that hope as the minutes went by. The flames from the open woodstove danced over Havana’s still face while the wind beat against the windows outside.
The roaring storm shook the tiny cabin.
“Let’s hope it holds,” Gabe said as we looked up at the roof.
An anguished cry made us both jerk our heads toward Havana.
“It’s working,” Doc shouted, yanking the IV out of Havana’s arm.
Gabe and I both stepped forward to see Havana thrashing on the bed.
“She’s succumbing to the blood poisoning,” Gabe cried with a tortured expression on his face.
A familiar popping noise rang out.
“No, she’s transitioning
,” Doc said, pointing down at Havana.
Before our eyes her jaw and nose lengthened into a muzzle and her body took a lupine shape under the comforter. In less than a minute an enormous black wolf lay panting on the bed.
I blinked in surprise. She’s massive. Although I was one of the biggest wolves in the faction, this creature dwarfed me. She might’ve been bigger than even Tasha.
“What the…?” Gabe murmured.
At the sound of his voice, the black wolf opened her eyes. The bright gold gaze of an Alpha female pinned us to the floor.
“What did you do to me?” Havana’s hysterical voice rang through our minds. “Why am I like…like this?” She frantically gnawed at the comforter with her razor-sharp teeth.
“It’s okay, Havana. You’re okay,” Doc repeated in a steady voice from behind her.
She scrambled to her feet, her paws tangling in the bedding. “I’m not okay!” she screamed into our minds. “I’m a goddamn wolf!”
“Settle down,” Gabe ordered.
She snarled and snapped her teeth at his face.
I stepped in front of my friend and held out my hands to the massive wolf. “Shh. Calm down.”
She blinked those large gold eyes at me, snaring my soul. “What’s going on, Liam? Tell me!” Her plea rang through my mind with so much power it made me clutch the sides of my head in agony.
Gabe gasped. “She’s compelling you.”
Before I could respond, Doc plunged a syringe into the wolf’s neck.
Havana twisted around. Her pointed ears flattened as she snarled at the blond male. She took a step toward him and stumbled. A heartbeat later her head drooped, and she collapsed back on the mattress.
Doc wiped the sweat from his brow and looked up at us. “I gave her a sedative.”
Slowly the dark fur on Havana’s body disappeared as she shifted back into human form. She’d healed completely. No black veins or cuts marred the skin of her hand and arm. Her thrashing had thrown off most of the comforter and the sight of her bare breasts and the tempting cleft between her legs made my breathing hitch. She was the most beautiful creature I’d ever laid eyes on. And she’s one of us now.