Middleweight (Hallow Brothers Book 2)

by Trish Andersen

  Meg nudged her. “That was my reaction, too. This is my favorite place in the camp. Well, second only to Cay’s bed.”

  Eve grinned at her. “What can we have?”

  “Anything. It’s all ours. We aren’t second class citizens here. We are family. What sounds good to you?”

  “Is there any sort of fruit or pastries?”

  “I made raspberry croissants yesterday. If the boys left any, you’re welcome to them. And there’s always fruit.” Meg led her to the pantry and opened a container. She held it out to Eve. Inside were three pastries ribboned with a raspberry purée. Eve chose one, and Meg took one also. They each bit into theirs as Meg scrambled for plates. She stopped as a buzz came from her hip. She slipped her phone out of her pocket and looked at it. “Shit. I have to find Micah.”

  Eve set her croissant on the counter. “Why? Who texted?”

  “Noah. He has the MRI machine this afternoon. We’re going back to Duluth. We have to leave soon.” Meg took another bite of her breakfast as she rushed from the room. Eve scooped up hers and followed her to the gym.

  Caleb snarled when he caught sight of the croissants. “That’s fucking cold. He can’t have those.”

  Meg held up her phone. “Noah has the machine. He wants to see you at two o’clock this afternoon, Mike.”

  Micah stared at her and then pulled off his gloves. “Fuck. I don’t have time for a shower. I’m going to go change.”

  “I’ll make you a sandwich for the road,” Eve volunteered.

  Micah pulled her to him and kissed her hard enough to steal her breath. “Thank you, baby.”

  “I’ll help,” Meg agreed. “We’ll meet you at the Jeep.”

  Caleb tore off his gloves and clenched his hands on his hips as he faced his mate. “You? Why are you meeting them there?”

  Meg crossed her arms across her chest. “I’m assisting Noah, remember? He and Micah need me.

  “Not without me.” Caleb slipped his gloves in his bag and then zipped it shut. “I’m going with you. I’ll go change.”

  “Hurry up.”

  Caleb chuckled as he kissed her and took off after Micah. Meg cocked a grin at Eve. “Guess we’re making two sandwiches.”

  “I have no idea what to make for him,” Eve admitted.

  “I’ll help you. Let’s go get it done, though. They’ll be ready pretty quick.”

  Eve and Meg returned to the kitchen. Eve stopped short when her gaze fell on the rotund older woman standing at the sink. Her heart flipped in her chest. By the glare in the old woman’s eyes, she was persona non grata at the moment.

  Meg greeted her cheerfully. “Good morning, Momma.”

  Momma’s voice was hesitant as she stared at Eve. “Good morning.”

  “There’s still one croissant left. Do you want me to get it for you?”

  “Not now. Thank you.”

  Meg looked behind her at Eve and then back to Momma. “Momma, I would like you to meet Eve. Eve, this is Evelyn Hallow. Or as we call her, Momma.”

  Eve swallowed hard and offered her hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”

  Momma glared at her for a moment silently before turning to Meg. Eve let her hand fall to her side. “What are you doing?”

  “Making the boys a sandwich. Mike, Cay, Eve and I need to run into town.”

  “Why?”

  “Just to run an errand. We’ll be back soon.”

  Momma huffed and then scuttled to the pantry. “I’m going to get a croissant.”

  “I’ll get you a plate.” Meg looked at Eve as she strode to a cabinet and opened the door. “There’s butcher paper wrapped packages in the refrigerator of meat and cheese. Grab whatever you think sounds good. The guys eat anything.”

  “Good to know.” Eve yanked open the refrigerator door as her heart fell. It was true. Micah’s mother hated her. She was bound for eternity to a man whose only living parent wouldn’t give her the time of day. Like I don’t think I’m the worst possible solution for him anyway. She scooped up a couple of packages from the shelf and then gathered the lettuce and tomatoes against her. She nudged the refrigerator door shut with her foot before she staggered across the kitchen to the island and unloaded her arms. She never noticed that Meg was gone until the blonde walked back into the kitchen with a loaf of bread. All Eve was aware of was Momma’s cold, hard gaze locked on her.

  “Roast beef and Colby jack. Great choice.” Meg set the loaf of bread on a cutting board and sliced off eight pieces. She handed four to Eve.

  Eve stared at the pieces but then shrugged. “I’ve never seen Micah eat quite this much but all right.”

  Meg laughed. “Two pieces are for your sandwich. You don’t have to starve. We’re their mates, not their concubines.”

  Eve chuckled as she nodded. “Got it.”

  The two women quickly unwrapped packages and sliced vegetables to assemble the sandwiches. Just as they finished, Caleb and Micah strode into the kitchen. “Ready, ladies?” Caleb asked. He pressed a long kiss to Meg’s lips.

  Eve watched as she scowled. They seemed so deeply in love. “We’re just finish…”

  Micah’s mouth smothering hers cut off her words. She couldn’t react. She could only stand there and kiss him back, a fully made sandwich still in her grip. She heard someone clear their throat.

  “We’re losing time, Mike,” Caleb chided.

  Micah broke the kiss and then cocked a grin at his brother. “You started it.”

  Eve stared at them all, dazed. Her gaze fell on Momma. The older woman looked infuriated. “Where are you boys going?” Momma demanded.

  “Just running into town, Momma,” Caleb assured. “We’ll be back about suppertime.”

  Before she could object, the brothers grabbed their sandwiches and escorted their mates from the kitchen, through the building, and out the door toward the Jeep. Both women jumped in the back and started eating. Even though she just had breakfast, Eve was still hungry, and it tasted so good. Micah shifted into drive and drove down the lane into the woods.

  Eve stared at her lunch in her hands and sighed. “Momma really does hate me.”

  Micah looked at her through the rearview mirror. “I’ll talk to her, baby.”

  “It’s okay. You don’t have to.”

  “Let it go for a while,” Caleb interrupted with his mouth full of sandwich. “She’ll come around. She just has to get her arms around losing her ‘little pooky monster.’”

  “Shut the fuck up, Caleb,” Micah warned.

  Caleb laughed as he went back to his sandwich. Micah turned briefly to give Eve an encouraging smile. Meg squeezed her hand supportively. None of it helped. None of it erased the thoughts in Eve’s mind. I am the wrong woman for Micah.

  The rest of the ride was quiet except the occasional small talk. Eve reached her hand in her purse and felt around. She had no syringes. But she had her compact and a baggie of powder. She needed to shut up the voices in her mind.

  Once they reached the hospital and walked inside, Eve veered off from them on her own.

  “Where are you going?” Micah questioned.

  “Restroom. Three-hour car ride,” Eve answered.

  “Fuck, you have a small bladder,” Caleb commented. Meg smacked him in the arm to reprimand him.

  “We’ll be in radiology. Please hurry.” Micah crossed the lobby of the hospital to kiss her. She tried to smile at him as she ended the kiss and walked away. Was she betraying him? Shit, why did she have to feel this way?

  Eve locked herself in the stall and then gathered what she needed from her purse. It was an awkward, tight squeeze but she managed. She pulled out her compact and the baggie and then popped it open. A hopeless laugh escaped her lips as her eyes lifted to read the drug prevention poster taped to the back of the door.

  Her thoughts wandered as she balanced the compact to dump the powder on the glass. Momma hated her. Eve didn’t blame her. She was a junkie with no redeemable qualities paired up forever to her son.

&nb
sp; She slumped to the floor. Micah. Fuck, she loved him so much it hurt. She stared at the bag in her hand. “He deserves better than me.” He clenched her eyes closed. The pain of her abuse, the thought of losing him welled up in her soul, threatening to tear her apart. She started to rock as she curled up in a ball. It didn’t make the demons go away. It made them torture her violently. She fought back the scream caught in her throat as she rocked harder. “He deserves better. Why? Why did I fall in love with him? He deserves better.”

  Chapter Ten

  The sterile room was unnerving for Micah. The walls on either side of the room were covered by computer panels. The far back of the room held the massive machine. The only way inside was a small tube. He swallowed hard. He was a big guy. It was going to be a tight fit.

  The door opened, and Noah strode in with a chart in his hand. He stopped at the bed of the machine and fluffed the small pillow. He motioned to it. “I’m your tech for today. Meg is in the control room, so she’s away from the radiation. It’s just us. If we see abnormalities, it’s between us. Lie down. Let’s get started. I apologize for the cramped quarters.”

  “No worries.” Micah sat on the cold, plastic bed and then lay down. Noah strapped him to the bed. Micah closed his eyes tight as he felt his body drawn inside. The whirl of the machine made him shiver. He did his best to lie still.

  He didn’t know how long he was in the machine, but he was so glad when he was drawn out. It was only a few moments before Noah was there to free him. He rubbed his eyes as he sat up.

  “Normally, I’d call you with the results. But with the sensitivity of this, I’m looking at the results now. Come with me. I’ll get Caleb and Eve, and we’ll see what the scans say.”

  “All right.” Micah followed Noah into the other room and sat on the chair offered. Meg smiled at him as he sat back and exhaled slowly. Noah disappeared from the room as Meg and Micah sat in silence. While they waited, Micah watched Meg type on the keyboard. Images of the inside of his brain popped up on the screens.

  “Look at you go,” Micah commented with a grin. “Who knew our Meggy was such a good nurse?”

  Meg laughed. “Never in my wildest dreams did I figure my patients would be werewolves.”

  “Well, thank you for the great care.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  The door opened again and Noah, Caleb, and Eve stepped inside. Caleb wasted no time to get Meg in his arms. Micah wanted to do the same with Eve but was froze in his place by the dazed, far off look in her eyes. She couldn’t possibly have gotten high here in the hospital, could she? He shook his head.

  Noah studied the scans on the screens. After a couple of minutes, he pointed at one. “There. That’s it. There is a narrowed artery leading to the optic nerve. It would cause the migraines and blindness.”

  “How do we fix it?” Micah asked

  Noah ran his hand through his long hair. “Surgery. But here’s the catch. There are abnormalities on these scans. And we know your physiology massively changes when you change. The only way to know it’s successful is to perform the operation while you’re the beast. The whole procedure is dangerous. But that artery is collapsing. When it does, it will more than likely cause an aneurysm and kill you anyway.”

  Curse words filled the room coming from nearly everyone. “But you can’t sedate him, or he’ll turn back to human,” Meg objected.

  Noah stared at Micah. “Exactly. I can give you something for the pain, but that’s it. You’ll be awake the whole time.”

  “So my options are have this surgery that might kill me or wait for this thing to kill me.” Micah huffed. “I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t, aren’t I?”

  “I’m sorry, Mike. There is a silver lining though. As the beast, you heal amazingly fast. I found that out with Cay. He should have been in the hospital for another week. On the last night he was here, there was a miscommunication with the nurses. The pain was too much for him to handle and he couldn’t prevent the change. He healed twice as fast than when he was in human form. If the surgery is successful, we’ll let you beast out for a while. You’ll be back to fighting in a week.”

  Micah paused as he thought. “How soon would the surgery be?”

  “The next full moon.”

  “Schedule it.”

  “I’m going to have to find a nurse to assist me. I can get a surgical team out of my brothers. They helped with Cay’s leg. But I’m going to need someone to be by my side. And to monitor the beast.”

  Meg stood. “I’m in.”

  Caleb turned to her. “No. Absolutely not. You’re pregnant. What if something goes wrong?”

  “This is life and death, Cay,” Meg replied. “This is your brother’s life.”

  Micah watched his brother as Caleb shoved his hands in his pockets and looked the other way. He did that when he was struggling with something.

  Meg nodded to Noah. “I’m in. Book it.”

  Noah shut down the images on the screens and closed the folder in his hand. “All right. Plan on being at my hospital at the full moon. I’ll call you if I need anything else.”

  Micah stood and shook his hand. Caleb pulled his hand out of his pocket and did the same. They joined their respective mates and escorted them to the door. Eve gazed up at him and sighed. There was a slight trace of white powder against her nostril. He bit back a growl as he held the door open leading outside. He and Caleb helped Meg and Eve into the back of the Jeep and then climbed inside.

  “Bro, I’m sorry about what I said,” Caleb apologized. “Your life is very important. It’s just that Meg is my mate and she’s carrying my child.”

  Micah nudged him. “I know. I would have done the same thing.”

  Caleb gave him a slight smile. “Thanks.”

  Micah looked at Eve through his rear view mirror. She dozed against the side of the vehicle. “How long was she in the bathroom?”

  “She came out just before Noah brought us in for the results. Do you think she was getting high?”

  Micah nodded quietly. He heard Caleb curse under his breath. Micah sighed as he kept his eyes on the road.

  »»•««

  Micah checked the time on his phone as he parked his vehicle at the camp and flipped the ignition off. He looked at Caleb. “We could get a round or two in before supper.”

  “I’ll get changed.” Caleb hopped out of the Jeep and then offered a hand to Meg to help her out. Before her foot hit the ground, though, he lifted her out and set her on the ground. She thanked him with a long, soft kiss. It was quickly evident that Caleb forgot the plans the brothers made.

  “Do we need to rain check our training?” Micah asked as he laughed.

  Caleb shook the cobwebs from his head. “No. Give me ten, and I’ll meet you at the gym.”

  “Okay.” Micah reached in the backseat to help Eve out. Once she hit ground, he headed for his cabin. Shedding his coat and T-shirt as he went, he dropped them on the bed and searched for clean gym clothes.

  He heard Eve’s steps before she spoke. “So you’re going to go through with the surgery?”

  Micah glanced at her before tugging a tank top over his head. “Yeah.”

  “You didn’t think we should talk first?”

  Micah frowned at her as he unfastened his jeans and pushed them to the floor. He heard her moan. “I guess I didn’t think you had an opinion.”

  “I’m your mate. Of course, I have an opinion.”

  Micah crossed the bedroom to fish a pair of fight shorts from his dresser drawer. The way Eve stared at his cock was getting him hard. “And that is?”

  “You shouldn’t do it.”

  Micah spun at her. “You do realize if I don’t do this and I lose my sight, I don’t fight, right? That means Deacon will come for you and I won’t be able to stop him.”

  Her voice caught as she answered him. “I know. But you might die having it.”

  “I will die if I don’t. And I can’t get into the octagon if I don’t.”
>
  “That’s it. This fight. That’s why you’re doing this. Why is this fight so important to you? Why is it more important than me?”

  Micah climbed into his shorts and then crossed his arms over his chest. “How can you not get the connection, Eve? I am fighting for you. Not for me. Do you know my fight record? I have lost every fight I’ve ever been in. And it’s been predicted that I’ll lose this one too. I am going to get in that cage and get my ass kicked so that Deacon Ravens will leave you the fuck alone. I would give my life to keep you safe. I am sure as fuck not going to leave you or our family without.” Micah bit his tongue hard. The words came out before he could stop them.

  “Your brothers would be fine,” Eve murmured.

  Micah looked away out the window. He could see the shimmer in her eyes. It killed him to see her cry. “I didn’t say my family. I said ours. Yours. Mine. Ours. It slipped. I’m sorry.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest. Micah could have sworn he could see her jaw clench. He felt his eyes burn. He shook his head. He should hold her, comfort her even if he didn’t know why he was comforting her. “Eve, baby.”

  Her voice broke as she spoke. “Caleb is waiting for you.”

  “Yeah.” He strode to her and kissed her on the forehead.

  He was sure he heard a sob as he slammed the front door behind him.

  He stormed across the camp as the cold air nipped at his bare arms and legs. He was an idiot. He was a fucking coward. He left his mate sobbing her eyes out after he opened a deep wound in her heart. She was barren. He didn’t know why she was. She never talked to him about it. They would never have a family. He would never be a father. As much as he tried to put that dream aside, he couldn’t. It was selfish considering his nature, but he wanted children. He wanted them with her.

  The white dust he saw along her nostril infuriated him. She didn’t want him to have the surgery because he could die. What if she overdosed? It was all right to leave him without a mate? She walked a thin, dangerous line and didn’t give a shit what he felt.

  He threw open the gym door to find Caleb throwing punches at a bag. Micah shivered from the chill in the room as he strapped on his gloves.