by Eliza Gayle
Dammit, she was losing it. This heat had done something to her brain and she was not thinking as she normally would.
“Don’t,” she said. “Just don’t. If you say something stupid like ‘you’re mine’ right now I’m going to get angry. And like I said before, there are certain kinds of angry you definitely don’t want to see from me. There’s still time to chalk this up to a mistake and move on. In fact, I have more important things to deal with than this.”
She nearly winced at her own words. That had come out sounding meaner than intended. But maybe it was for the best. When it came to shifters it was always best to be blunt. Sometimes even forceful.
“You won’t be able to hide from this. You should know that. The pain will only get worse.”
She didn’t know. That was the problem. Due to her status in the original family and her stressful job as chief of security, she didn’t spend much time around other females. Since she’d never gone in heat before that had never been an issue.
Although she’d heard the rumors and seen the way some of the females behaved… Going after the man, sometimes in multiples. She’d heard many were insatiable.
Still, that wasn’t her. She had enough fortitude and strength to maintain her dignity.
“I can make it better.” His voice lowered to a rasp, a sexy sound that made tingles erupt along her spine and other places. She could easily imagine just how much better he could make it. If she were that kind of woman.
“I’m a doctor, remember?”
Well, that made her blush. As the heat of it suffused her face, she tried to turn away. But they were in tight quarters at the entrance to the bakery and there was no where else to look or move to without going back in the dining area or walking outside.
“What are you saying? You can cure this with your science?”
A low rumble of laughter rolled through his chest. “Cure? No. There’s only one cure and I think we both know what that is.”
She wrinkled up her nose. “That I know you can’t do then. Dragons can’t mate with other shifters.”
The smirk on his face fell, but that rumble continued and she didn’t know whether to smile because she liked it or shove him out of her way and get the hell away from him. This silly wolf was messing with her brain.
“Don’t be so sure about that. We’ve got a whole town of hybrids here who prove cross shifter species are more than possible.”
Kenzie frowned at his words. His arrogance and confidence were maddening. “That may be true, but you don’t know dragons. Our magic is stronger. More specific. To cross that with another shifter isn’t just foolhardy—it’s dangerous.”
“Okay. Miss Know it All. Come to my clinic then and let’s see what science can and can’t do for you. If you’re willing to donate a little blood to the cause, I may be able to create an injection that will get you comfortably through your mating cycle.”
Kenzie needed to breathe. The more he spoke about her cycle and making her feel better, the more she thought about sex. It was completely illogical. He was too sexy. That’s all there was to it. Healers were supposed to be old and ancient with wisdom. Not young and hard and fully capable of satisfying her in every way she could dream of.
This time she did roll her eyes. At her own stupid behavior. “I need to go. I have a castle to rebuild.” She pushed past him and swung through the door. The dragon inside was pushing at her to get out. For whatever reason it was as agitated as the rest of her. She needed to take to the sky and get some of this pent up magic out of her system.
Yeah, that’s what she needed. Some space and her dragon. That’s all this was.
“Don’t forget to come by the clinic. It’s over that ridge and just inside Comyn land.”
She turned to see where he pointed even though she knew exactly where the new borders of the Comyn clan were. Galen had already drawn a rudimentary map for her so that she could survey it herself.
“Unless you’re too afraid.”
His blatant hint of challenge slammed into her as the last tether of her control started to snap. As much as she wanted to roar at him in response to his sarcasm, she guessed shifting to her dragon form while in town wasn’t a safe move. She still didn’t know much about the human population here other than there were some close and that many of them had learned some of their secrets.
Yet another safety breach she still had to deal with.
Instead she walked away without another word or a look back. Although she felt his stare burning at the back of her neck, taunting her to turn around. She refused. She could not shake the feeling that if she did, something would irrevocably change between them and she’d be helpless to stop it.
Kenzie shook her head. More silly nonsense. Apparently, her head was filled with it at the moment. She had half a mind to go build her lair and hide out there until this misery ended.
If she wasn’t in heat, the wolf wouldn’t be able to tempt her.
Chapter Eight
Simon couldn’t get the smile off of his face the entire way back to the clinic. For the first time in weeks, he was anxious to get back to work. He had an entirely new mission and it hinged on one mysterious female dragon.
MacKenzie Ferguson. He rolled her name through his mind as he tried to imagine exactly what she would look like in dragon form. Only that wasn’t what he saw at all. His imagination went in the opposite direction and it was a very dangerous place to go.
Instead of the dragon, he saw Kenzie naked and under him. The one true place he wanted her to be right now. He was going to have to admit that her hormones were off the chart of any female shifter he’d ever encountered and they messed with his head as much as they seemed to hers.
It hadn’t been particularly difficult to realize she was warring with the need eating away at her. She probably never would have allowed him to kiss her otherwise. And what a fucking kiss that had been.
Heat. Goddess, that was an understatement. Kissing her had been like kissing fire and he still felt the lick of flames around the edges of his mind. It had taken every ounce of everything he had not to take her right there in the bakery. His mind had blanked except for one thing.
The need to claim.
And her being out of his sight, and the rest of his senses for that matter, didn’t seem to clear his mind. The wolf inside him was pacing. At least that was the best way he could think of to describe the activity of the beast that usually laid quiet inside him. They were both restless and agitated.
Not the best way to face his patients either. If there were any waiting on him. Marci had proven ridiculously efficient and while he’d kept away brooding, she’d held down the fort mercilessly. He was surprised Bhric had not tried to haul her away. The Alpha of the Dark Moon pack was more aggressive than most shifters and that was saying something considering they all carried an excess of certain genes. Like aggression and protectiveness. Marci called him her beast on the regular and he’d found that surprisingly appropriate.
However, like Kenzie, Marci was an alpha female in her own right. The prolonged mating period between her and Bhric had wreaked havoc with the human’s brain, but once they’d realized the problem and fixed it, she recovered quickly.
He entered the clinic to complete chaos. The waiting area and hallway leading to the private medical area was lined with shifters of all types. While they all looked angry, none of them looked particularly in need of medical attention.
“Where the hell have you been?”
Simon turned and came face to face with Bhric. The angry snarl stamped across his face wasn’t exactly a good sign.
“I don’t see where that’s any of your business.” And he wasn’t about to get into this with anyone other than his own Alpha right now. In fact, he and Rafe really needed to talk. As attracted as he was to Kenzie, he couldn’t help but wonder if they were all about to have a dragon problem.
“It is when my mate has to take up your slack.”
Simon growled, but managed to ke
ep his nasty retort to himself. Whatever was going on it had brought chaos to his clinic and for that he could understand Bhric’s position. He was only looking out for his mate as he should.
“What exactly is going on here anyway?”
“Human hunting party. Apparently some folks over in Sweetwater haven’t forgotten what happened at their biker bar and they’ve been looking for shifters. Although they just refer to us as monsters.”
“They came all the way here?”
Bhric shook his head. “No. Apparently, some of the remaining Blackwoods returned to that bar today and one thing led to another…”
“And they shifted in public again,” Simon finished.
Bhric nodded. “Got themselves shot up this time too. Most of them were able to shift and are already beginning to heal. But one of them, well, he’s not doing so well. Just a kid too.”
Simon was already on the move before Bhric even finished his sentence. He pushed past the men and women blocking his path and slammed into his trauma/operating room. There were far too many people taking up space and he ordered all of them out.
No one moved right away. Rafe, who stood holding pressure against the young man’s neck who was currently unconscious and laid out on the table, let loose with a loud growl so filled with power that even he felt it all the way to his bones.
It worked too. Everyone scrambled from the room faster than he thought possible.
“What have we got?”
Marci didn’t skip a beat. “Single gunshot wound to the back of the head. No exit wound so the bullet is likely lodged in the brain stem.”
“Has he been unconscious since he was brought in?”
“Yeah. Since he was shot,” Rafe answered. “I thought he was dead already, but apparently he’s still hanging on. Thanks to her.”
“Why the hell didn’t someone call me?”
“No time. They just got here and I’ve been a little busy trying to keep him alive.”
“How long has he been like this?”
Rafe shrugged. “I got a call about an hour ago, but I don’t have all the details yet. Considering it happened in Sweetwater, I’d say at least two hours.”
Simon gathered his supplies and settled in to work. He hadn’t dealt with something like this for many years. Specifically, not since his residency in a human hospital. Typically, shifters were able to heal most injuries and viruses on their own. Which is why he was able to spend so much time devoted to his fertility research.
However, an unconscious shifter couldn’t make the change to his animal form and begin the healing process. And magic was about as imperfect as science sometimes so a bullet stuck in his brain would have to come out before there was even a chance of recovery.
After examining the wound and verifying all vitals, Simon frowned. “Let’s get him on his side. I’m not going to be able to access the bullet from this angle.”
As the only other shifter in the room, Rafe helped Marci maneuver the young shifter into position. While Marci proceeded to set up the surgery by shaving all hair away from the wound, Simon gathered all of the instruments he thought they would need.
Unfortunately, they were not set up as efficiently as a hospital would be for this kind of thing. Performing this operation would take them longer, but they had shifter DNA on their side too. They might not be immortal, but they were far from fragile like the humans.
“Are you going to be able to save him?” Rafe asked, his question gruff and clipped.
“Yes. It will be a little tricky getting the bullet out, but once that’s done things should heal on their own.”
Simon ignored the sharp look Marci gave him. She hated when he made promises about medical outcomes. She was always reminding him that there were too many unknown factors in the world that he couldn’t control. And he always reminded her that they were shifters not humans and she couldn’t expect them to have the same kind of medical issues as their fragile counterparts.
He settled down to get to work. “You might as well go and get some coffee or maybe do something about that hoard in my waiting room. I don’t know why all of these people are here, but it’s not necessary.”
Rafe grumbled something under his breath, but Simon’s attention was already laser focused on the man underneath his scalpel as he made a series of incisions that would give him the access that he needed. The bullet was deeper than he liked and it was going to take time to remove it safely.
A commotion sounded outside the door and he frowned. He’d never be able to concentrate like this.
“Can you grab my headphones?” he asked.
“Already on it.” She turned and picked up his battered, well-worn set and then proceeded to place them over his head and settle them around his ears. With his enhanced hearing, every little noise in the clinic could serve as a distraction. So he always wore his headphones when he needed to concentrate.
Not always so he could listen to music, because sometimes he found that just as distracting. Depending on the situation, he preferred the silence. And in his life total silence was hard to come by naturally. While not perfect, this was the next best thing.
He closed his eyes and let the world slip away. A quiet calm slid through him and settled the animal inside. Bhric wasn’t completely wrong to call it a beast. He often felt the same. There were days and even months when the ability to maintain control was a constant struggle. The quiet helped.
It also gave him the necessary ability to give his task complete focus. Everything else in the room disappeared as he gently worked through tissue and muscle to locate the lodged bullet. The little fucker was definitely burrowed in.
Time passed, although he had no concept of how much. It wasn’t until he dropped the last shard of metal into the tray Marci held for him that he finally relaxed and rolled his shoulders.
“We should probably clean that up and save it just in case.”
Marci nodded and then tilted her head towards the door. Simon turned and his eyes widened when he found the most unlikely surprise. Kenzie was standing on the other side of the window that looked into this room, her shoulder against the jamb, her arms crossed over her chest, watching him.
He yanked the headphones from his ears, but the sudden cacophony of sounds in the clinic made him cringe. It was easy to understand how he’d not heard or seen her arrival, but how had her scent evaded him? He breathed deep searching for it, but the smell of blood and antiseptic and human overpowered everything else.
Simon suddenly needed to get out of the room. “You okay to stitch him up? He probably doesn’t need it, but for appearances it’s probably for the best.”
“Sure,” she said, her gaze moving back and forth between him and Kenzie.
He could already see the questions forming, but he had no intention of acknowledging them. “Just make sure you use the dissolvable ones so there’s no hang ups when he regains consciousness and shifts.”
He jerked off his gloves and tossed them in the trash and then crossed to the sink and began the arduous process of removing blood.
“How long has she been here?”
Marci shrugged. “Not sure. A few hours, I guess.”
Simon glanced at the clock to see more than four hours had passed since he’d started. It didn’t surprise him that the surgery took that long since they’d been dealing with the brain stem, but it never failed to surprise him that he so easily lost track in his work.
“And she watched all that time?”
“Yeah, she did. Who is she? I don’t recognize her.”
What was he supposed to say? The woman he was dying to get inside? A woman who likely represented something not good for their kind? Or maybe the shifter who held the secrets to all of their fertility issues in her blood?
That last part was probably wishful thinking. But in a way it made sense. If the stories were true and all other shifters came from their magic, why would they then not hold the key to unlock their genetic secrets?
He actuall
y couldn’t believe she’d come to the clinic. The idea that a dragon would willingly part with their blood for testing seemed ludicrous. Or maybe it was because she felt what he did. An indescribable pull.
It was her mating heat. It was simply the only logical explanation and he counted on logic every day of his life. What didn’t make sense to him was how she could stand in a room full of shifters and no one else notice.
His wolf was getting antsy just from the thought of it.
It made her irresistible.
And dangerous.
Chapter Nine
Kenzie had come to Simon’s clinic out of pure curiosity, but she’d stayed because the work he did enthralled her. It shouldn’t have been a big deal. His focus was on shifter fertility, a problem she kind of understood. But instead of some routine testing, she’d walked into pure chaos, which should have had her turning right back around. Yet, she stood for hours and watched him operate on a shifter’s brain.
The idea of that alarmed her at first. Until she’d overheard the discussion about what happened. Apparently, he’d been shot in the head by humans, a fact that gave her pause.
She made a mental note to discuss the shifter/human relations in this area with her brother, Galen. While Simon’s work seemed important and a real benefit to the community, the basic idea that shifters were risking themselves with the general human population was a serious infraction. One she would have to deal with.
Where the hell were their leaders during all of this? She had so many questions.
A shift in front of her pulled her attention back to the main man in question as he moved position and continued work. His attention to the task at hand impressed her. He appeared completely focused and unaffected by anything going on around him.
The headphones made her curious. With his hearing sensitivity she was surprised that he wanted to use such devices. The volume would have to be kept low so as to not hurt. And even more curious, what was he listening to? The human woman who had to be the nurse he and Sienna spoke of, stood stoically by his side, offering her assistance whenever he gestured and never wavering from her task.