by Stormy Glenn
Jace grabbed the cookie sheet he had laid all of the tools he had found in the first aid kit out on and carried it over to the table. “I sterilized everything I could find in the kit.”
Jace held back his opinion on Mikhail’s limited medical kit. He got it that they were shifters and could heal by shifting, but that didn’t mean situations like this wouldn’t come up. They needed a much better kit, like one of those field combat medical kits that soldiers carried into war zones because that was what the place had looked like not long ago.
“Thanks, babe,” Mikhail said as he turned and pressed a kiss to the side of Jace’s head. “Why don’t you go heat some water?”
Jace cocked his head. “Why?”
Mikhail’s mouth opened and closed like a drowning fish. “I don’t know.” He shrugged. “Because that’s what people do in situations like this?”
Jace rolled his eyes. “That’s what people do when women go into labor. Not when someone needs a bullet dug out.”
“Oh, well…”
Jace waved his hand toward the table where the tiger lay. “Do you even know what you’re doing here?”
“Jace, we don’t get injured like this very often.”
Well, that was good to hear.
“In fact,” Mikhail continued, “this is the first time one of us has been shot. We’re kind of winging it here.”
Jace’s jaw dropped. “You’ve never done this before?”
Mikhail shook his head.
“Bay!” Jace knew immediately who they needed. Bay had medical training. He had trained to be a registered nurse but never took the exam, going into business with Jace, Liam, and Rue instead. Jace knew if anyone could dig the bullet out, Bay could.
“Stop shouting,” Bay snapped from his position by Stefan’s head. “They can hear you in the next county.”
“You’re going to have to dig that bullet out.”
Bay stared, slack jawed.
“No one here has the medical training than you do.”
“Damn.” Bay stared down at the tiger on the table, his fingers clenching in Stefan’s fur. When he drew in a deep breath, Jace knew Bay would do whatever needed to be done to save the shifter.
He held the cookie sheet out. “What do you need?”
“Light,” Bay answered as he started rolling up his sleeves, “and lots of it.” He glanced at Mikhail. “Is there a bathroom down here?”
Mikhail glanced between Jace and Bay and then nodded, pointing down the hallway that led off the dining room. “Yeah, second door on your right.”
Jace looked around for a place to set the tray down. He knew Bay would need it close by, but Stefan took up the entire table. “Uh, Mikhail, do you have—”
“Here.” Zus set a side table down next to the dining table. There was some sort of wooden box on top of it that raised the height, a lamp clamped to the side of it.
“Perfect.” Jace set the cookie sheet down, glad to have it out of his hands. The thing became pretty damn heavy after holding it for awhile.
Yuri walked in with several lamps and began setting them around the room. Jace was pretty sure that he had almost every lamp in the house.
“Go get washed up, Jace,” Bay said as he walked back into the room with his sanitized hands held up in the air. “You’re going to assist me.”
“Me?” Jace squeaked.
“Yes, you,” Bay said as he grabbed a set of rubber gloves and snapped them onto his hands. “Now go!”
Jace’s shoulders dropped, and he trudged off to the bathroom. There was no way he was going to get out of this. He could tell it by Bay’s voice. There was a tone the man used when he was serious about something.
He was serious.
Jace quickly washed his hands, making sure he worked the soap up his arms to his elbows, then dried off with the clean towel Liam held out to him. He held his hands up just like Bay had as he followed Liam back into the dining room.
“I would look so much better doing this if I had a set of those cute little green scrubs with the penguins on them,” Jace grumbled to himself as he slid his hands into the rubber gloves Liam handed him.
“I’ll buy you a pair later, baby.” Mikhail chuckled as he winked at Jace. “We can play doctor.”
The next hour blew by so fast that Jace felt like it had only been a few minutes. He handed Bay the tools the man pointed at, not having a clue what any of them did. He knew about Band-Aids, not digging bullets out.
What Bay was doing seemed like back-breaking work. When Bay stood up straight at one point, he groaned as his back crackled. When he swayed just a bit, Mikhail was there to catch him. Bay just smiled and went back to work.
“I got it!” Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when Bay straightened and held up a small silver bullet with a set of tweezers.
“I’ll take that.” Zus held out a small white envelope, sealing it tight after Bay dropped the bullet in. “Silver is poisonous to shifters.”
Jace gasped. “That man shot Stefan knowing he was using silver bullets?” It was bad enough that the jackass had been brandishing a gun, but to use a bullet that he knew was poisonous to shifters?
“Ezra Craigen and his boys have been a thorn in my side since we took over as alphas after our parents passed away.” Mikhail grimaced as he rubbed the back of his neck as if all of the tension he was feeling had gathered there. “If he had his way, my brothers and I never would have been born.”
“Why?”
“Simple, Jace,” Zus said. “He wants power.”
“It’s more than that,” Mikhail said. “My grandfather didn’t have any male heirs, and the alpha line won’t pass down to a female. So, when my mother came of age, there was a lot of competition for her hand. Whoever married her would take over as alpha.”
Jace frowned. “I thought you said shifters mated when they found their forever mates?”
“Not everyone is lucky enough to find their forever mates, Jace,” Zus said. “Very few of us do in fact. Most simply find someone they are compatible with and mate with them. The bond isn’t as strong as the one you have with a forever mate, but there is one.”
“Ezra tried to win the hand of our mother,” Mikhail said. “He almost succeeded, too, but our father came through town before they could mate. Mom took one look at him and knew he was her forever mate. She refused to accept any other bids for her hand and mated my father.”
“As you can imagine,” Zus continued, “Ezra was pissed. Not only did he lose our mother, who was a beautiful woman, but he lost his opportunity to become alpha.”
“But he went on to mate someone else, didn’t he?” Jace asked. “He has sons.”
“He did, but he never forgave my parents for mating. He’s caused problems ever since.” Mikhail’s face paled for a moment when his eyes met Zus’s. “We suspect that he had something to do with our parents’ deaths, but we could never prove it.”
“Then why not kick him out of the pride?” That was what confused Jace. If the man was such a jerk, why was he still around?
“Ezra has never done anything big enough to give us a reason to kick him out, always skating the edge of the law. He has to break one of our more serious laws before we can banish him.”
Jace’s eyebrows shot up as he waved his hand toward Stefan’s still body. “Will that do it?”
“Yep.” Mikhail’s jaw clenched. “We just have to wait until next week when we have our monthly pride meeting. We can present the evidence then and banish Ezra and his boys from the pride, and the sooner the better. Now that Ezra knows about you all, he won’t stop until he’s either banished or dead.”
“Why? What does that have to do with us?” Jace asked. He had never even met the man before tonight. “Why did he try and force us to leave?”
“A mated alpha is a better leader,” Zus replied. “He fights harder and makes better decisions because he wants to provide a safe, happy place for his mate, and by extension, the rest of the pride.”
Jac
e frowned as he looked between the two brothers. “That sounds pretty good. Why would Ezra be upset about it?”
“Because if we all find our mates,” Mikhail said, “he doesn’t have a chance in hell of disrupting the pride and taking over, and he knows it. My family has a reputation for creating the strongest pride around for our mates. It’s been that way for centuries.”
The intensity in Mikhail’s piercing green eyes told Jace that Mikhail didn’t have any plans in tarnishing his family’s reputation now that he had found his mate.
There was a small glint of worry he could see in Mikhail’s eyes. The man wasn’t that sure of him. It was a good thing Jace was sure of Mikhail. “I guess that means I’ll be pretty damn safe now that I’ve decided to stick around.”
Jace watched with smug delight as Mikhail’s eyes widened. “Do you mean that?” Mikhail whispered.
He nodded. “It’ll take a little time to get things arranged, and I’ll have to figure out how to coordinate work with the others. I can’t leave them in the lurch.”
“No, of course not.” Mikhail swallowed hard, his eyes filling with a fierce sparkling. “Take all the time you need.”
“Jace,” Bay called out, “we’re not done here.”
Oops.
Jace swung back around and stepped up to the table. “What do you need?”
“We have to clean the wound so that an infection doesn’t set in.” Bay dapped at the wound to wipe away the fresh blood welling up since he took the bullet out. “An infection can kill him just as fast as a bullet.”
“Stefan just needs to shift,” Mikhail said. “Now that the bullet is out, he shouldn’t have any problem.”
“Then why isn’t he shifting?”
Jace jumped back, shocked at the vehemence in Bay’s voice. He had heard the man yell and shout plenty of times over the year, but he had never heard such a frustrated and anxious tone in his voice before.
Mikhail’s steely eyes pinned on Bay. “Maybe he doesn’t think he has a reason to shift.”
“But you just said he won’t heal if he doesn’t shift,” Bay insisted.
Mikhail’s features tightened. “Nope.”
“He’ll die!”
Jace inhaled at the anguish he could see in Mikhail’s face as the man nodded, a single tear rolling down his cheek. “I know.”
Chapter Ten
Mikhail stroked his fingers through Stefan’s soft fur as he watched his brother’s chest steadily rise and fall. Stefan hadn’t shifted yet, but he was still alive. That was something. Still, it had been hours. Most everyone else was passed out sleeping in the living room, everyone refusing to go upstairs to bed. Mikhail couldn’t rest either, not until he knew for sure if his baby brother was going to live.
He was the oldest brother. And while the four of them shared alpha duties, Stefan was still his responsibility. All of his brothers were and had been since the day they were born.
“Come on, Stefan, shift.” Mikhail leaned down close to whisper to his brother. This was the one time he didn’t think using the alpha voice would work on the man. Stefan had to want to shift, to heal. He needed to have a reason to live. The man clutching a handful of Stefan’s fur and resting his head on his arm as it rested on the table was a pretty damn good reason.
Bay had surprised Mikhail. After learning that the man had rejected Stefan, Mikhail had been prepared to hate him. He had even started to when he learned Stefan had taken a bullet for Bay and then taken off into the woods to die.
Now, he wondered if his bad opinion of the man had been made in haste. During the last several hours, he had watched Bay talk to Stefan until his voice was hoarse, plead with him. He even begged. So many tears had trailed down Bay’s pale face that he had dried streaks on his cheeks.
It was clear that Bay felt something for Stefan, something deep. And he knew for a fact that Stefan felt something for Bay. He never would have jumped in front of that bullet if he hadn’t. He merely would have incapacitated the bastard holding the gun.
Mikhail could only pray that the two men had a chance to figure things out between them. He was starting to think that Bay needed Stefan just as much as Stefan needed Bay. The two men were perfect for each other. He just wished they would hurry up and figure that out.
Zus was an altogether different story. Mikhail was amused watching his brother try and deal with the very submissive Rue. Mikhail was still concerned about the dynamics of the dominant submissive relationship between them. He knew he would need to keep an eye on them to ensure Zus didn’t get out of control and that Rue was where he wanted to be and not being overwhelmed by Zus’s more dominant personality.
There wasn’t much to be worry about where Yuri and Liam were concerned. As far as Mikhail could tell, the two men were perfect for each other. Except for the fight earlier with Ezra and his boys, and then going after Stefan, Mikhail hadn’t seen sunlight pass between Yuri and Liam. It was like the two men were fused together.
Mikhail was both happy and worried for his brothers. Finding a forever mate was rare and the four of them had found theirs in four men that were best friends, and all on the same day. Fate had to have a hand in that somehow. He couldn’t help but wonder what else Fate had up her sleeve.
“Ezra is up to his old tricks, Stefan,” Mikhail whispered low so he didn’t wake Bay up. “He’s after our mates. You need to shift and heal so you can protect Bay.”
Mikhail jumped back when Stefan twitched. The change from unconscious to rousing was almost instantaneous. Heavy eyelashes fluttered and then deep emerald-green eyes blinked up at Mikhail.
“Hey.” Mikhail reached up and scratched behind Stefan’s ear. “It’s about time you woke up. We’ve been waiting for hours.”
When Stefan just continued to stare at him, Mikhail stood back and nodded to the sleeping man beside him. “He’s been waiting, Stefan. He dug the bullet out, and he hasn’t left your side since.”
Stefan’s massive head lifted. He chuffed as he leaned down to sniff at Bay. Mikhail quickly stepped back to Stefan when a mournful yowl filled the air. He reached out and smoothed his hand over Stefan’s fur, giving his brother the comfort he needed.
“Give him a chance, Stefan. There’s a reason he was so upset that you didn’t use a condom, why he feels like you lied to him. Let him explain it to you so you’ll understand.”
Stefan’s fur began to recede, his bones cracking as they realigned themselves. Mikhail stepped back and watched his brother shift, marveling at how effortlessly he did it. Out of all of them, Stefan was always the one that was able to shift quickly and without too much fuss. The rest of them had to suffer through the shift.
Bay must have felt the change come over Stefan. His head suddenly popped up. His eyes widened, and he stood, taking a step back.
Mikhail ground his teeth together, worried that Bay was going to reject Stefan all over again. He started to step forward when Stefan’s shift ended and Bay let out a glad cry, throwing himself at Stefan.
Mikhail watched the two men for a moment then, knowing he was no longer needed, turned and walked out of the dining room. His steps were heavy but his heart light as he stopped in the archway of the living room and stared at all of the sleeping bodies spread out all over the place. Every couch, chair, and pillow was taken up with a sleeping body.
Zus and Yuri lifted their heads, staring at them with eyes filled with apprehension as if waiting for bad news.
Mikhail swallowed past the tears in his throat, glad he didn’t have to tell them that Stefan had died. “He shifted a moment ago.”
Yuri hugged the small man sleeping on his lap, burying his face in Liam’s auburn-red hair. Zus clenched his hand around a fistful of Rue’s hair and pressed his lips against the side of the man’s head, his eyes closing briefly.
Mikhail stepped into the living room and walked over to the overstuffed chair his mate was curled up in. He scooped the man up in his arms, loving the way Jace snuggled into him, his face resting on the han
d he had on Mikhail’s chest.
Had anything ever been so adorable?
“I’m taking my mate to bed,” Mikhail said as he headed for the stairs. “I suggest the rest of you do the same. We could all use a good night’s sleep. I don’t think this thing with Ezra is over, and we need to be on our toes.”
He could hear the people behind him moving and knew that his brothers were gathering their own mates up and taking them to bed. Mikhail stopped briefly at the dining room to check on Stefan and Bay, quickly ducking out of the room when he saw both men stretched out on the table. He would have to remember to clean it really well before using it in the morning.
Jace started to rouse when Mikhail carried him into the bedroom and laid him out on the bed. “Mikhail?” Jace murmured in a sleep filled voice.
“Shh, baby, go back to sleep,” Mikhail said in a very low tone. “I’m just getting you ready for bed.”
“Stefan?”
Mikhail smiled at Jace’s concern. He was going to make such a great mate. “He shifted a little while ago. Bay is with him now.”
“Hmm.” Jace smiled but didn’t open his eyes. “Good.”
Mikhail finished pulling Jace’s clothes off then peeled his own off, dropping everything on the floor. Usually he was pretty anal about his bedroom being picked up, but tonight he was just too tired. He would pick it up in the morning. Right now, he just wanted to curl up with his mate and sleep until his eyeballs didn’t ache anymore.
He shut off the bedside light and climbed into bed, his heart catching when Jace rolled right to him and snuggled in. Mikhail wrapped his arms around Jace, tucking the man’s head under his chin, rubbing his hands up and down Jace’s back.
“Sleep, love.”
Mikhail closed his eyes. His mind burned with the memories of the long lonely years he had waited to hold his forever mate in his arms, and now here he was. Jace was so much more than he ever imagined. He was kind and caring, fierce and loyal. He was so sexy he made Mikhail’s teeth ache.