Bg closed her eyes again, as Paris looked back up at her face and saw the matted hair against the back and side of her head, soaked in even more blood. “Bg, Sweetheart you need to stay awake, and look at me. It’s Paris, look at me.” He said pulling out his cell phone from his breast pocket. “That’s it, open those beautiful brown eyes and look at me, follow the sound of my voice, Bg, you need to stay awake.”
Paris flicked through the phone numbers in his cell directly and pressed a contact’s number. I need a friendly in Brooklyn, who do you recommend?” He asked. “You sure about that? Okay, then get him to come to the Sommer’s residence in Williamsburg. Yes, the leading alpha’s family home, asap. Tell him it’s an emergency and to call my number if he needs further explanation, but call it on the way here!” Paris replied watching Bg drift off again and snapping his fingers close to her face.
“Bg keep awake. Look at me.” Paris said disconnecting the call. “The doctor is on his way here, won’t be long, you just have to stay awake.”
“Doctor Wagner.” Bg murmured. Paris looked down on her in agony. He had to do something to help her.
“Yes, Doctor Wagner is on his way.” Paris replied standing up off the bed and looking around them quickly.
“She.”
“Doctor Wagner is a she?” He said walking briskly over to the far side of her room and into the bathroom and grabbing a towel and shoving it in the hand basin under running water. “So you know and trust Doctor Wagner then?” Paris yelled at her moving the towel around to ensure it was drenched in water. “Bg?” Paris turned off the tap, grabbed the wet towel and ran back over to the bed. Her eyes were closed again, her breathing rapid.
“Hey there,” He said as she opened her eye again and it tracked him. “I know, talking probably hurts right now.” He said slowly wiping away blood form the right side of her temple. “So let me do all the talking, but I need you sweetheart, to stay awake and do as I say, okay?” He gently continued to wipe around her face, softly, clearing it of blood and getting a true extent of her bruised and battered face. It pained him to see such violence on a beautiful face. Conall Wakely clearly had not taken their break up well. Paris swore internally that he would make Conall pay for the damage he had inflicted on Bg.
“I’m sorry beautiful, I know that hurts, but it’s going to be better, once Doctor Wagner gets here and checks you out. We just need to make sure there are no internal injuries before we think about getting you to shape shift. The doctor will be here really soon and we’ll know how to deal with this.”
Bg groaned light and Paris frowned down at her. The moon was in shift mode, which meant it was gearing up for the lunar cycle. All of New York’s werewolves were affected in some way. Even leading up to it, some wolves were more affect than others. It heighted the sensation of everything, which made Paris realize that the pain Bg Sommers was probably in, was far worse than she might normally be able to take. Especially since she looked so wrecked.
Paris D’arenberg felt hopeless, not a feeling he was used to experiencing or dealing with. But he suspected that he was going to be experiencing a lot of different things with Bg. After all, they were form different worlds. Well, different werewolf packs, he of the Manhattan Maen and she of the Breukelen. Manhattan had differences, aplenty.
When Doctor Wagner finally arrived, she was guided to Bg’s bedroom and straight over to her, silent and highly beaten up patient. She sat on the edge of the bed looking down at Bg and back at Paris.
“Did you do this to her?”
“No, of course not. “Paris replied indigently. The Doctor’s eyes tracked the transfer of blood on his clothing and Paris sighed, noting the action. “I found her like this and picked her up and brought her in here.”
Doctor Wagner turned back to Bg and began mentally cataloguing her condition. “Let’s get one thing straight right now. I know who you are that was made abundantly clear to me. But my loyalty is to the Sommers family and the Breukelen werewolf pack. You need to leave me alone with her in the room and either call her sister or one of her brothers.” The Doctor looked back over at Paris meaningful. “Because if you don’t I will.”
Paris nodded his head as he slowly walked backwards towards the bedroom door. “I’ll be right outside.”
“I will let you know when you can come back in and will only give you my assessment of her condition if one of her family members is here. If no one turns up, I will ensure you leave and she is left here to recover in private with me.” Paris nodded his head again, affirmatively.
“Please understand, I have been treating the Sommers family for Bg’s whole life. This is the procedure that is in place for such emergencies at the insistence of the leading alpha. All his cubs are aware of it. Now please, leave, so I can examine her properly.”
Paris his hand over his mouth and walked out of the bedroom, closing the door behind him, even though it pained him to do so. It made sense that the leading alpha would have such protective procedures for emergency in place for his family. Most packs had similar procedures in place for them. Paris called Bodil Sommers the elder Sommers sister who was easiest to reach. She turned up to the house in record time with two male werewolves trailing her.
3
Bg slowly opened her brown eyes and let her eyes adjust to the light and look around her surroundings without moving her head. She realized she could only see clearly out one eye but recognised the decoration of her own bedroom.
She spotted a familiar figure slumped beside her bed in a chair, dozing. Paris, with arms crossed over himself, his head tilted downwards, his body slouched at what looked like an uncomfortable angle. It was odd to see the normal hard-line of Paris’s body, so strong, tough and big, curled in on himself, looking soft. She’d never have guessed the six foot three, alpha male could look soft. He still looked as big as she remembered him to be, with his broad shoulders and solidly muscular arms and still as stunning as ever she’d seen him.
He was wearing a white pin striped shirt, that she noticed patches of red staining. Blood. Her blood. He’d rolled up the shirt sleeves to his elbows. He’d picked her up. She remembered feeling him against her body. She’d bled on him, because Conall had done a number on her. Because she’d broken up with him. Because she’d wanted to be with Paris. She blinked slowly. What must Paris think of her now?
The collar to the shirt was undone with the first few buttons loosening it on him. Which probably meant he’d been wearing a tie, her mind thought silently, taking in every detail about him. Which made Bg think he’d dropped whatever he’d been doing and came for her. Maybe even straight after their phone conversation, She started to smile, he’d dropped everything, whatever he was doing, for her. Already he was one up on her lousy ex pack mate. She felt her face pull and she groaned slightly and stopped smiling.
“Paris.” She said softly turning her head to look at him properly and wincing. Talking hurt. She put a finger to her mouth as Paris’s eyes opened instantly and he jerked up right. His dark eyes honed in on her instantly. She saw the concern fill his features.
“Hey, how you doing?” He asked softly, moving towards her. He tilted his head looking down at her incredibly wrecked face.
“Everything hurts. I could do with some water.” She said in a hoarse voice.
“Yeah, of course,” he said getting off the chair and grabbing a glass of water off the dresser drawer for her and bringing it over to her. Bg tried to adjust her seating in the bed and moaned at the pressure causing pain on her arm and through out her upper chest and lower abdomen. It was like the pain was all over her body. In every part of her body, like she was drenched in pain. Breathing made her muscles move and even that was hurting through her rib cage.
“Here, let me help you,” he said putting the glass down and reaching over to gently pull her more upright and put pillows behind her back so she sat more upright. Again, his large arms surrounded her and she inhaled the scent of him, almonds, amber and fur. She saw him watch her from th
e corner of his eye.
“You have to be careful, you have one dislocated shoulder, broken collar bone and one broken arm, and two broken toes. The Doctor didn’t set your arm yet, because she knows you can heal it when you’re well enough to shape shift.” He spoke nervously quickly. Paris ran a hand over his mouth quickly, sighing heavily. “As well as a lot of bruising and swelling.”
“Oh.” Bg said somewhat shocked by what she was hearing. She was busted up good and proper, which would explain the explosion of pain in her body with movement.
“I’m glad you’re awake fully now.” He sighed. “Are you comfortable?” He asked her as he straightened up again.
“Considering what you just told me, I guess.” She replied as he tipped the glass up to her mouth for her. Bg drank down the water slowly and paused to get it down and get her breathing under control before drinking again.
“Doctor Wagner managed to pop your shoulder back in, but she said, you can still expect to feel it until you shape shift.” Paris said lowering the water glass. “Although, being beaten up this badly, well it means shape shifting is probably going to hurt a hell of a lot worse than the beating you took.”
Bg nodded her head at him and slowly swallowed the cool liquid down. Of course it would. Shape shifting at the regular times was never an exact science. And Bg had found that it was always made easier when she was with a partner. Who could help bring on the necessary sensation her body needed to feel to start shape shifting to her tribal form.
“Been there before.” She muttered. “Never forget it. Of course, I had hoped never to experience such a painful sensation like that again. But beggars don’t get to be choosers, do they?” She said sucking in drool and air from the corner of her mouth
There were ways to assist a shape shift along and there were as equally, things that could hinder or harden the experience of shape shifting at will. Generally speaking, trauma to the body was the worst infliction she could hope for. It seemed to lock into both the wolf within and her own human’s mind set and just make the whole process of focussing on the shift, harder.
“You’re right you don’t get a choice in it. I’m sorry you have to go through that on top of what you’ve already been through.” He said.
“You don’t have to be sorry for anything. This wasn’t your doing. Mm, tastes like watered down blood. Presumably my own” She joked looking over at him. “Still right now, I think I’m feeling everything, at once. Guess that’s what you get for turning up the wattage on lunar week.” He looked worried, even though he was frowning at her. That was when her eyes took in the blood stains on his white shirt. Which made Bg think he hadn’t been home, because it was undoubtedly her blood on his shirt.
“You found me.” She said softly, her good eye going wide and looking up at his face. “Like this.” She put a hand to her face and winced again. Letting her fingertips roam over the side of her face that felt the worst, the right side. It was strained and painful and incredibly lumpy.
Paris nodded his head slowly. “I’m glad I did, if I hadn’t decided to come over and see you so soon, I just…I just can’t think of how much worse this would have been for you.”
If Bg had the ability to blush, she would have. How horrible she must look to him now. Way to make an impression. “I’m glad I found you when I did. I’m just sorry I didn’t get hear sooner, before that hybridge got to you.” He muttered softly using a French swear word with an undertone of anger.
She threw her hand on top of his hand and looking at him said “You couldn’t know it was going to happen, I didn’t. I had no idea Conall would flip out like that. I mean, he’s never been angry at me before, never been violent towards me. Well except for when I initially broke up with him last week.”
“What do you mean?”
“He slapped my face.” Bg admitted watching Paris tense considerably.
“You didn’t tell me that.” Paris said looking down at her. “Why not?” Bg attempted to shrug her shoulders and winced.
“I didn’t think it important since it was done and over. I was just grateful to be rid of him. I guess he understood, I was serious this time.” Bg paused to catch her breath. “That maybe he knew there was somebody else for me. Or he just got freaked out about the idea of going through lunar week without his regular, reliable crutch, me.”
“Or maybe he’s just used to having you, getting his way and he lost it.” Paris replied.
“I uh, thought my sister Bodil and Boden...” She trailed off, watching the emotions rage across Paris’s handsome face.
“They were here. We’ve been taking shifts in keeping an eye on you. Doctor’s instructions about waking you up every so often. To make sure your concussion doesn’t get worse.”
“Concussion?” Bg repeated.
“Yeah, he really did a number on you Bg.”
“Bodil saw me like this?” Bg asked in a little voice. What would her sister think? She wondered just how angry her sister would get with her. She was bound to find out by getting lectured later.
“Yes, I had to call her after finding you like that. She had to know. Plus your Doctor Wagner said in no uncertain terms told me that I was to do it or she would speak to the alpha. She was very protective of you, you know. Bodil was very concerned for your well-being, as we all are.” He replied, looking at something filter around in her eyes.
“She was?”
“Bg, what is it?”
“I can imagine how disappointed in me she must be. Letting this happen to me. I mean, I’m not like her.” Bg paused. “Bodil can fight anyone, anything, but me…” She paused again, getting her breath. “Always opted out of a confrontation situation. More my style.”
“What? No. She was quite upset to see you like this. But it was out of concern for your well-being, not out of some sense of disappointment or pity.” Paris said reaching for her hand. “Do you remember what happened at all?” He asked her, watching her thoughts through her confused expression on her face.
“Ugh, Conall ambushed me. Came through the front door when I was on the phone to you and it just started there. He started hitting me. Saying it couldn’t possibly be over between us. That it would never be over between us. I could smell the alcohol on him. Kept saying I was meant to be his. I just tried to curl up into a ball. But the blows kept coming and I kept hitting things. He wouldn’t let me speak. Wouldn’t stop. Said I couldn’t leave him now, not now at the start of a lunar week when he needed me the most.” Bg sipped more water that Paris offered her.
“We used to have a deal, about lunar week. It was the time we were guaranteed to be together, couldn’t,” Bg paused to get her breath “Be with others. It was really the only rule about our relationship we both stuck too and instilled at all times.” She looked away from Paris, even now, it sounded stupid to her own ears. Why hadn’t she figured this out years ago?
“Cleverly selfish, really.” Paris muttered in annoyance. “I mean, think about it. lunar week, the best time of the month for….sexual pleasure, when everything is ten times more heightened then other times and so he guarantees he has you then and you can’t have anyone else during that time. You don’t get to experience what it’s like or could be with anyone else at the best possible time for you.” She held his looked and was reminded of their time in Seattle. Two words came to mind. Intense pleasure.
“He was just so angry with me.” Bg said sounding sad. “I’ve never seen him like that before. I never saw it coming.”
“That doesn’t give him the right to attack you.” Paris said removing the water glass again. “Ever. There is just no justifiable excuse for what he did. He could have accepted it and moved on. He could have asked you why. He choose to beat your body till you were bleeding black and blue and unconscious. He chose violence. He chose to continue attacking you when you weren’t even fighting him back. When Doctor Wagner examined you she said she only saw defensive wounds on you and given the extent of your injuries, she doubted you actually put much of a
fight back at him. What he did to you Bg, it was just sick. It’s not rationale, it was never going to be rationale, and saying sorry after the fact in hindsight is useless. So he has no excuses as far as I’m concerned. He should be caught and punished, as severely if not more so, than what he did to you.” Paris’s jaw tightened as he finished speaking, he ground his teeth together in frustrated silence. “I wish I could do more for you. If I were allowed two minutes in a room with just Conall Wakely. But it’s not my call to make. Unfortunately.”
“I know.” Bg replied softly. “In all our time together, I never saw him act that way towards me before. I never got his temper. I mean we might have fought a few times, yelled at one another, but I never felt threatened. Never felt in personal jeopardy before. When he was coming at me, It felt like forever. Like he wouldn’t stop.” Bg said looking over at Paris. “I told him to stop. Said stop. I’m sure I did. How long have I been out?”
Paris heard the panic in her voice, and hated the thought that she should feel so. “Almost an entire day now.” He replied gently. “Boden should be back soon with dinner. And a change of hospital roster.” He smiled lightly at her. “Are you hungry, do you want something to eat, drink?”
“Some start to our date.” Bg said feeling defeated. Unlucky in love was beginning to have some meaning for her. She’d envisioned her and Paris having a magical evening where everything felt right and perfect. Her current evening was about as far from that as she could have possibly got.
“I probably look like some kind of demon.”
Paris shook his head. “Don’t you worry about how you look or our date. I just want you to get better, concentrate on healing yourself.”
Nature of the Beast Page 2