by Eliza Gayle
“We aren’t trying to insult you, but you are pissing us off. Like it or not, Simon seems to have some sort of connection with your sister. Which means he will help her no matter what it takes. So why not make it easier by being completely forthcoming? While Bhric and I are both leaders here, so we understand the importance of keeping some information private, there is always an exception and this situation seems to call for it.”
She sagged back against the table she’d tried to sit up from. While they argued, her energy continued to wane.
Simon noticed and rushed to her side. “Feeling worse?”
She nodded, studying his face. In another time and another place she would have liked to explore the attraction they had between them. While mating was out of the question for them, that didn’t mean they couldn’t enjoy spending some time together. Because you know, she didn’t want to die a virgin and he had a body and face that made her ache for the unknown.
She dug deep for her remaining energy and used it to reach up and touch his face. “I’m sorry you couldn’t help. It would have been nice to spend more time with you.”
He turned his head and pressed his lips to her palm in a lingering kiss that she felt zing through her entire body. “Don’t talk like that. This isn’t the end. I’m not giving up yet and you shouldn’t either.”
She had to admit, if only to herself, that she ached for him to find a way. The idea of not having one last flight under the rays of the moon physically hurt her heart. Not saying goodbye to her brothers wasn’t great either. They were going to be so pissed about this. What if their anger started another war?
“I think we’re out of options.” She pressed her fingers to his lips and stopped whatever protest he was about to give her. “I do wish I’d had more time to get to know you. What I’ve seen so far I really liked.”
“Kenzie.”
She shook her head. “You are a good man, Simon. Something I haven’t thought about anyone outside my family in a very long time. I’m glad I got to see you here. Watching you perform that surgery was—it was beautiful art.”
“Seriously. Stop talking like that. We aren’t giving up. Tell me why sex with someone other than a dragon during your mating cycle is so dangerous. I’m still confused.”
Kenzie closed her eyes against the memories his question brought forward. Pain seared through her, robbing her of breath. “I can’t,” she panted, unable to see or feel anything now beyond all of the death.
“Can’t? Or wont? How can I fix this if you won’t open up?”
She tried to smile as she brushed a lock of hair that blocked his eye. “I’m sure you’ve learned by now that you can’t literally fix everything. Some things have to be out of your control, Simon.”
“Bullshit. If I could get my patients to be open and honest every damn time I asked them a question, I’d be able to solve a lot more. Do you have any idea how frustrating it is to chase answers down a rabbit hole only to find out hours or days later that your patient left out pertinent details?” He threaded his fingers through his hair, tugging the strands until they stood on end.
Despite her distress she wanted to feel those fingers in her hair. On her skin. Between her legs…
Unfortunately that wasn’t ever going to happen.
“Some secrets take time, Simon. Just because you want to know them now doesn’t mean I’m ready to share.”
“Fuck. This isn’t right. Don’t you get that? It’s my fault this is happening. I kissed you.”
“Don’t do that. Neither of us realized. Please don’t regret that kiss. Please. I’m pretty sure it was the best first kiss anyone could ever get.”
The shock registered first on his face then he dropped to his knees, putting him eye level with her head resting on the pillow. “Please tell me that isn’t true.” When she didn’t respond he continued. “You are breaking my heart.” He pressed his forehead to her hand and she wanted to equally pull him closer and push him away.
Instead she lifted his hand and examined the long, tanned fingers that fascinated her. Well, that wasn’t the only thing that did but those fingers for sure did. “I really liked watching you operate on that shifter. I was mesmerized the entire time.”
“You and me both. I’d never actually operated on a living brain before. It’s not my specialty. Although I’ve dissected my fair share in medical school and prepped more than a few for surgery back in my residency days.”
“If you attended medical school with humans, how did you hide your shifter?”
He shrugged. “It’s not as hard as it sounds. The natural response for a human is denial when faced with something they can’t believe. So if I slipped with little things here and there they either didn’t notice or were too embarrassed to acknowledge. The only hard part was the training I needed. Long hours, sleepless nights, and endless study sessions were the norm for too many years. If not for my love of the subject I might have given up.”
“But how do you apply what you learned to shifters? We are incredibly different than humans.”
“We are some, although most aspects are crazy similar. So when I finished up my schooling and came back home, I took the time to study shifters closer than ever. From living to deceased there is always something to learn. Take today’s surgery for example. I had no factual idea whether removing that bullet from that boy’s brain would actually restore his ability to shift. It just made logical sense. That’s my currency, you know. Facts and logic. Those two things are more reliable than anything else in this world. People will lie, cheat and steal to get just about anything they want, but they can’t take away the facts or the logic about their situation. That’s where the full truth lies.”
“You would make a good leader,” she said. “Although with your talent with those hands it might be wasted as a leader.” She shifted closer to him on the bed and lowered her voice. “Is the boy you operated on going to be okay now? Although if so you might not want to tell Galen that it was a human who shot him after they got into a fight. He’s not going to like that.”
“Hey, I heard that. What the hell?”
They both startled at the sound of Galen’s voice across the room. They’d been so deep into their conversation while Bhric, Rafe and him had been having their own little talk that she’d nearly forgotten they were still there.
Suddenly, Simon’s head popped up. “Wait. Oh my Goddess. That’s it.” He swiveled around before she could ask her own question. “What about the egg? Tell me more about that.”
Chapter Fourteen
All that talk about surgery and he didn’t know why he hadn’t thought of it earlier. Now they were rushing Kenzie down the corridor to his small surgery room. If his theory was right all he had to do was harvest the egg from Kenzie’s reproductive system without rupturing the protective sac or before it deteriorated on its own and leached more of its toxins into her system.
Goddess, that was a lot of variables. But he’d dealt with complex before and made it work. He’d damned well be able to do it again. This was Kenzie. A woman he felt compelled to be with no matter what everyone else said.
He’d never held much regard for destiny in the past, but meeting her had rocked him to his core. He deserved—no, they both deserved—the opportunity to see where that led. Although they’d have plenty of time for that later. Right now he had to save her. As they wheeled her into place, Marci ushered all the others back out of the room. They tried to fight, but his nurse supreme could more than handle them.
He washed and gloved while Marci raced around the room prepping Kenzie. While he was a doctor and had no trouble emotionally distancing himself from each patient, he deliberately kept his back turned to Kenzie as Marci helped her undress before she was laid out on the table with sterile sheets spread out across all sections of her body except where he needed access.
“You can have a look now,” Kenzie teased, her voice light but slightly breathless. Since her voice alone affected him, he began mentally reciting his ch
eck list in pig latin, thus forcing his brain to focus on something other than the woman he was about to operate on.
“What’s he doing?” he heard her ask Marci.
“Concentrating. He does this when he’s about to do something he needs total focus to complete. Just ignore him and try to relax. I’m about to inject you with something that will hopefully keep that dragon of yours calm and then we’re going to get started on the anesthesia. Got any allergies that you know of?”
“No.”
“Good. Now relax. This really shouldn’t take that long.”
Several minutes passed as he gathered up the last of his supplies and slipped his headphones around his neck, a fine tension threading through his body. Ready or not, they needed to get this done. Every minute that passed meant more time for reproductive toxins to leach into her system. That troubled him.
He couldn’t wait to see this thing in person. There was so much to learn about dragons and he could think of no better way than through science.
He settled in the chair that Marci placed at Kenzie’s side and took a fleeting glance at her face. The worry and stress that had been evident for the last few hours had disappeared and she finally looked relaxed. Although he didn’t particularly enjoy seeing her like this, on his table, about to endure surgery.
“You ready?” Marci asked from her perch next to his Bluetooth stereo system.
He wiped his lingering concerns and troubling thoughts from his mind. It was time to earn his keep. And as he lifted his headphones to cover his ears he heard Marci utter the magic words.
“Alexa, Simon says play surgery list three.” She smiled and shook her head as the sound of rock music began to fill his ears and his mind.
In a little over two hours he exited the surgery room to search for Galen. He didn’t have to go far. The man was glued to the viewing window the entire time. At least that’s what Marci told him after he finished.
“What happened? Is she okay?”
Simon kept his doctor role firmly in place as he answered. “The surgery went well and the egg successfully removed. She isn’t awake yet, but will be soon. We need to think about moving her sooner rather than later. When the sedative we gave her for her dragon side wears off she is going to force a shift. And obviously we aren’t equipped to handle that here.”
Galen nodded. “I can take her to my place, I have the room she needs.”
“I’d like to accompany you. That egg wasn’t easy to get to and I’d like to monitor her until the dragon takes over the healing.”
Galen stared at him silently, his arms crossed over his chest. “You have more than a professional interest in my sister.”
Since it wasn’t a question, Simon didn’t answer. Instead he waited for Galen to go on.
“You have to know that when it comes to Kenz, her future is going to be complicated. She has a lot of responsibilities to our family and as grateful as I am to you for saving her, you simply can’t get entangled with her. If that makes me sound like an ass, so be it. I can live with that and so much worse.”
Anger seeped into Simon’s mind. There were so many things he could say and none of them would do a damned thing to help shifter relations. Where the hell was Rafe when he needed him? “We’ll prep her for transport as soon as we can. We have a medical van to use in cases like these. I’ll meet you around back.”
He started to walk away, proud that he’d refrained from punching Galen. Although that seeping anger had turned into a fully involved fire that he couldn’t let go of. So he turned back. “You can spout your family bullshit all you want. At the end of the day the only thing I’m going to remember is that you were going to let her die.”
He disappeared through the door of the operating room before that bastard could respond. He needed to call Rafe and get his ass back over here or there was going to be bloodshed any minute. Now that Kenzie seemed out of the woods and he wasn’t wracking his brain for ways to save her, all that adrenaline dumped into his system in a massive let down all at once.
He was angry. He was frustrated. He was ready to fight. But most of all, he longed for a woman he supposedly couldn’t have and that fact was going to eat him alive or kill someone.
“Simon?”
The sound of Kenzie’s voice pulled his attention back to the task at hand. Taking care of his mate.
“Good to see you awake again, beautiful. How do you feel?”
A tiny smile crossed her face. “Like I’ve got a two ton beast lurking inside me who is going to freak out any minute if she doesn’t get out.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. You’ve been through hell today and she needs to protect you. Not to mention heal you. You think you can hold her off a little bit longer?”
“Seriously not long. Where’s Galen?”
“Probably still stalking the hallway outside. He’s watching me like a—well, a dragon I guess. Which sounds way more intense than an eagle by the way.”
She laughed, the tiny sound a balm to his wolf’s crazy. “He’s not as scary as he seems.”
Simon lifted one brow. “Maybe not to you. You’re his sister. To the rest of us, we’re all prey and we damn well know it. I keep waiting for him to start eating people.”
This time when she laughed her body began to shake. “Don’t make me laugh. I’m still sore from you cutting me open.”
He sobered immediately. “I’m sorry you had to go through with that, but I’m not sorry you are still here.” He brushed some hair from the side of her face, reveling in the silken feel of her hair against his skin. “Although I still believe this could have gone another way.”
“No, Simon. It couldn’t.”
All humor left her face and he wanted to kick his own ass for causing that. While he had every intention of breaking through that façade that prevented her from telling him what he wanted to know, he also knew now was not the time to push that.
“How about we get you out of here then? Ready to blow this place, although not literally?”
That got him another ghost of a smile and he instantly felt better. If he couldn’t convince her to give him what he wanted with logic, he would just have to charm it out of her. Although he suspected it still wouldn’t be easy. Without the allure of her mating cycle opening her mind and making her susceptible, she could just as easily shut him down.
“I wouldn’t get all torn up about this if I were you,” she said. “Now that I’ve gone into a mating heat once, there’s a strong chance it will happen again and again.”
He groaned at the image that immediately popped into his head. For the first time ever, he imagined a woman—no, not just a woman, Kenzie in particular—pregnant with his child. The ache for things potentially outside his reach intensified.
It wasn’t that he’d been necessarily against having a family of his own. It just didn’t feel like something he wanted. Until now, his focus had always remained on the good of the clan. What the clan needed from him, he wanted to provide. And that had always been his medical knowledge and drive to find a solution for everything. He’d simply channeled that into their fertility issues. Now he was facing a challenge he hadn’t prepared for.
Not that he couldn’t pivot and get the job done. He had ideas for days.
“Try not to look so thrilled by that idea,” he deadpanned while unable to let go of the pregnant Kenzie image.
She scoffed at him. “Considering where the first one got me, let’s just say I am in no hurry to go through it again. In fact, can I tell you a secret?”
Oh yeah, now they were talking. Taking him into her confidence was the first step. “Of course. And now that you’re my patient you can rest easy knowing whatever you tell me falls under doctor/patient confidentiality.”
“Ok, but I won’t be your patient long,” she said as he lifted her momentarily into his arms before setting her on her feet, all while trying to ignore how good and right she felt in his arms. “The thing is—” she hesitated. “While the rest of our speci
es can be downright obsessed with procreation and my family doubly concerned about continuing the blood line, I couldn’t care less. I have zero maternal desires. I was perfectly content having never gone into heat before now. So the loss of that egg means nothing to me now.”
Simon managed to hide his cringe at the mention of what he’d taken from her. But the roil of his stomach didn’t make it easy. As they headed out the door he heard Marci call out from behind him.
“Hang on, I’ll be right back.” He released Kenzie’s hand and turned back into the room. Marci stood just inside, but off to the side so no one else could see her.
“Uhh. What about—”
Simon gave her a warning look that she thankfully picked up on immediately, stopping her from finishing that question. However, in her outstretched hand was the glass container with the bio material removed during the surgery. She held it up and dipped her head, a clear question on what she was supposed to do with it.
Dispose of it. That was his first thought that he didn’t voice.
Save it. You might need it. And there it was. The doubt. If he threw it away like secondhand trash without first thoroughly examining and testing it, he might also be throwing away his last opportunity to solve his clan’s fertility issues once and for all.
Kenzie was an original. Her DNA likely held secrets and keys he couldn’t dream of finding elsewhere. He took a deep breath and tried to make the right decision. His memory was clear on Kenzie’s fervent wishes. No testing whatsoever. That much was clear.
As was his duty to his Clan and his Alpha. There was simply too much at stake to make a rash decision.
“In my lab.” Three simple little words was all the instruction he had to give. Marci nodded as he slipped back out the door.
“Everything okay?”
“Yes,” he said, knowing full well that was probably the biggest lie he’d ever told. Nothing about this situation was okay and might never be. Not until he solved every last puzzle. The Dragons. Kenzie. His clan. The need for resolution licked at the back of his neck like an out of control fire he couldn’t escape from. “Marci will take care of everything here, so for tonight I am all yours.”