by Tara West
“Aw, shot down. Good thing I’m no quitter.” His laughter was like nails on a chalkboard.
“Listen, quallu, she’s not interested in you,” Nakomi said, eyes gleaming feral gold.
Was the shifter actually defending her?
“This doesn’t concern you,” Jimmy said with a sneer.
Did this idiot have a death wish? The guy sure was ballsy for someone on steroids.
“Like hell it doesn’t.” She stood, nose lengthening and voice dropping several octaves. “Get off my mate’s foot.”
He jumped as if he was standing on electrified wires. “Oh, sorry.”
Apparently, his apology wasn’t enough, because Nakomi moved toward him like a wolf stalking a baby lamb. She jabbed a slender finger into the hollow of his neck. “If one of my mates is injured, or Ancients forbid, dies due to your negligence, I will rip out your throat.” Her eyes glowed an ominous yellow, like twin suns were shining through her skull, and her voice dropped so low, it sounded like Satan himself was speaking through her.
Holy fuck. Eilea sure was glad she wasn’t on the receiving end of Nakomi’s wrath for once.
Jimmy’s cheeks reddened, and a line of sweat formed across his brow. “You don’t need to worry about that.” He let out a nervous chuckle while flashing Eilea a pleading look.
As if she’d save him.
“It’s you who should be worried,” she snapped, jabbing him as if she was trying to poke a hole through him. “Focus on your job, you quallu.”
“Roger that,” he said, wiping sweat off his brow with a shaky hand before excusing himself and rushing to the bathroom.
Nakomi returned to her work. Eilea wanted to thank the shifter, but she was too afraid to even look at her. Besides, she didn’t think Nakomi had been defending her. Jimmy had been sitting on Albert’s foot, after all. One thing for sure, she admired Nakomi’s dedication to her mates. She hadn’t slept in over twenty-four hours and showed no signs of fatigue while she tirelessly looked after her three sick men. Raz was right. Wolf shifters had more stamina. Eilea was so damn tired, she just wanted to crawl under her desk and sleep for eternity.
She quietly made her rounds, starting with Raz’s mates. “What’s a quallu?” Eilea whispered to the matronly shifter.
Raz laughed. “Humans call them trolls.”
“Sounds about right,” she said, warily looking at the bathroom door.
She wondered if he’d pissed his pants or worse. If Eilea had been on the receiving end of Nakomi’s dark voice and blinding eyes, there was no telling how many body fluids would squirt out of her. She sure as hell hoped he stayed gone a long time, and that when he returned, he’d leave her alone.
He finally crept out of the restroom, looking at the floor while checking IVs. Nakomi growled at him the whole time, which only made the tremors in his hands worse.
With a resigned sigh, she fished her phone out and walked to her office. She looked outside and not surprised to see the sun had set. Damn. She was going on two days with only two hours sleep. How long could she last? She called her uncle and waited for him to pick up.
After he answered, she spoke in a rush. “Uncle Joe, you have to find someone to replace Jimmy.” She could hear the echo of her voice on his Bluetooth but thought nothing of it. He usually traveled alone.
“I can’t. He’s all I’ve got right now.”
She swore under her breath. “I’ll take anyone. No medical experience required. What about Amara Thunderfoot’s cousin, Roy?” The kid was about twenty and fairly green, but at least he understood the Amaroki, and she could trust him not to act like a major douche around the shifters.
“He was sent to Texas last week.”
“Shit. I can’t work with Jimmy.”
“Why?” He sounded too casual.
“Because he’s a first-rate douche-nozzle,” she snapped, then added. “A quallu.”
When a chorus of male laughter echoed through the receiver, her whole world came to a grinding halt.
“Tor sent for the Lupescus,” he said.
She fell into the chair. “And you’re just now telling me?”
“I knew you’d try to get me to send them back,” he said. “We’ll be there in half an hour.”
She heard a click and then a dial tone, and gaped at her phone.
The Lupescus would be at her clinic in thirty minutes! The four virile Romanian shifters who’d lost their minds last year and tried to claim her as their mate?
Un-fucking-believable.
A noxious smell wafted up from her legs, and she remembered she was covered in sick shifter puke. Not exactly the first impression she wanted to make on the Lupescus. Then again, why did she care what they thought of her smell? She wasn’t mating with them. No fucking way was she giving up her independence, no matter how hot and bothered they made her.
When the odor of sour onions hit her, she sniffed her armpits and instantly regretted it. She couldn’t help sweating while under duress. She hadn’t had time to shower, but what she wouldn’t give for a fresh bar of soap and new clothes.
She threw down her phone and ran out of the office. “I have to go,” she said to Raz. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Raz adjusted the blanket over her sleeping mate. “They are in good hands.”
She raced out of the clinic, remembering to hop over the salt circle. When she ran down the grassy knoll toward the small house she shared with Uncle Joe, she thought she heard the wind whisper her name. Lack of sleep must be making her hallucinate. She ran faster, tripping over the salt circle as she raced across the threshold. She halted and looked behind her. She’d only made a small dent in the circle. Probably not enough to make a difference. Besides, bushels of sage lined the doorway. If one didn’t work, the other surely would. She mentally smacked herself in the head. All her years of medical training, and she was counting on voodoo herbs and minerals to keep her safe? Sheesh. She had to get a grip. Besides, she didn’t have time to worry.
Her mates were coming.
Correction.
The men claiming to be her mates were coming.
She was a fool for letting vanity prevail over common sense, but she didn’t care. She had to smell good for the Lupescus and maybe give herself a quick showerhead orgasm, so she wouldn’t be so hot and bothered when she had to again turn down the four tempting men she so desperately wanted to fuck.
EILEA FRANTICALLY SCRUBBED the stench of vomit off her skin. She’d only intended on being in the shower a few minutes, but vanity won over and she was compelled to shave everything and even create a neat little landing strip between her legs. Not that she expected anyone to see it, but just in case a bomb went off in the clinic and burned off all her clothes, she wanted to be presentable. Between each swipe of her razor, she tried to remember the last time she’d actually shaved. Sadly, she couldn’t. She thought back to the last time she’d had sex. It had been during her brief stay with her ex-fiancé, Derek. After dating for over a year, they’d moved in together all of six months before his controlling ways had her running for the door.
She’d been an ER surgeon, which meant her hours were nuts. She couldn’t exactly clock out after they brought her a motorcycle accident victim with a brain injury. But Derek had expected her home at a certain time. After the breakup he admitted he’d been looking for, as he put it, a “traditional wife,” which she decided was a euphemism for obedient doormat. Eilea had lost a lot with that failed relationship, from her deposit on the apartment and her flat-screen TV to her trust in men. He had been so perfect when they’d first met, allowing her the freedom she needed to be an independent woman. He didn’t become possessive until after he’d moved in with her. If only she’d known from the start, she wouldn’t have wasted two years of her life.
Funny, but when she pulled the showerhead from the cradle and washed between her thighs, it wasn’t Derek’s face that came to mind. First she saw Boris Lupescu, with his pale blond hair and stunning gray/blue eyes tha
t shone like diamonds. Then there were his brothers, Jovan, Geri, and Marius, all equally handsome. Jovan was as tall and wide as Boris, with a devastatingly sexy smile that made Eilea cream her panties. Geri wasn’t as big as his older brothers, but he was the most feral. Eilea’s uncle had told her that all beta sons had the best sense of smell and tracking abilities. They led the hunts and then their larger brothers took down their prey. Then there was Marius. He had a different kind of smile, an infectious one with dimples emphasizing his easygoing nature. He was the mate who helped with the children and household duties.
Eilea had once thought about having children, even adopting after two serious relationships didn’t work out. But trying to raise a family and balance a career would be too difficult. Perhaps maybe if she had a man like Marius to look after the kids.... She shook her head at the thought. The Lupescu brothers already had five full-grown children. They wouldn’t want to start over with a new family, and even if they did, they’d likely be even more possessive than Derek. One controlling asshole had been enough. How would Eilea handle four of them? Not to mention they were a totally different species. No, it would never work, though a part of her secretly wished it could.
A soft moan escaped her, and she looked at the water pulsating between her thighs, surprised she’d been playing with her labia while spraying the water between her swollen folds. All this time she’d been thinking about the Lupescus, she hadn’t even realized she was masturbating.
She leaned against the wall and hiked a leg up, resting it on the soap dish. She tickled her labia with the water and imagined Boris was between her legs, pleasuring her with his tongue. She pinched a nipple into a tight peak, pretending Geri was stretching it with his teeth, his sharp canines leaving impressions on her sensitive flesh. How she wished she could fantasize about someone else, but ever since she’d met the Lupescu brothers, only they came to mind when she masturbated.
Usually it took her a while to work up to orgasm, but the thought of the Lupescus so near sent a trill of excitement straight to her sensitive parts. She spread her swollen lips wider as the water pulsed between her legs, building, building, until she was almost over the edge. As she was about to crest, she involuntarily called Boris’s name. Suddenly the ground shook, and the walls rattled like a freight train was driving through her house.
Earthquake!
She dropped the showerhead and screamed when the curtain fell on her. The rod banged her head so hard, she was momentarily dizzy. She slumped to the shower floor, the room spinning so hard, she had no idea if the tremors were still shaking her or if she’d suffered a concussion.
Pushing the curtain off her, she saw pink water circling the drain. What the hell? Her period wasn’t due for a couple weeks. She wiped the sore spot on her head again, shocked when blood trickled down her arm.
Damn. She needed medical attention.
She got up on her knees, holding onto the grab rail as a shiver wracked her. The water had turned cold. She reached to shut off the water, then jerked back when the hose coiled and then rose, the showerhead nozzle hovering over her like a cobra preparing to strike.
Not an earthquake then. That small break in the salt line had left her open to attack.
When the showerhead lunged for her, she tried to fight it, but fear or shock or both had slowed her reflexes. She screamed when the hose wrapped around her neck like a noose, choking her. She fought the demonic snake, struggling to pry it loose with slippery fingers, then trying to jerk it out of the wall. But the more she fought it, the tighter it wound around her neck. She slipped to the tile floor, a crack resonating through the room while she thrashed, gasping for air.
Was this how her life would end? Murdered by a jealous ghost? She had sick patients who needed her, and she still had so much to accomplish. The faces of her pale-eyed shifters flashed in her mind. Would they mourn the mate they never got to know?
Chapter Seven
AMARA HAD A VISION of her fathers in Agent Johnson’s truck. They were headed to the clinic on a different road. “Oh, no!”
“What is it?” Drasko asked.
“My fathers are here.” Her heart sank. Why would they risk their lives by coming to a place they knew was infected? Amara had just spoken to them on the phone yesterday. They had to have known it was risky coming here. Then Amara remembered Eilea. Of course, they would risk their lives for the pretty doctor.
She wondered if Eilea knew they were on the way. The human doctor had been fighting her attraction to Amara’s fathers since they’d picked up on her scent. She still wondered why the Ancients would pick a human to mate with her fathers, and a strong-willed, independent one at that. She knew from experience that Amaroki men tended to be possessive and a bit controlling. Having known the doctor for over a year, she knew there was no way Eilea would put up with domineering mates.
Joe Johnson pulled into the clinic’s gravel parking lot the same time Drasko did. Four broad-shouldered men with familiar blond hair were with the agent.
Marius jumped out of the back of the truck first, holding out his arms and beaming at Amara. “Dragă mea!”
Her fathers had been young when she’d been born. Marius, the youngest one, had been tricked into mating with her human mother when he was just a teen. Now Marius was barely forty, with a wonderful smile and sparkle in his eyes, despite the hard life he’d led in Romania.
Ignoring Drasko when he grumbled for her to wait, she got out of the truck and threw herself into Marius’s arms.
He held her tight, murmuring words of love in Romanian.
She sank into his embrace, soaking in his love, pleased when each of her fathers took turns hugging her. The last time they’d come to Alaska, her fathers had been so consumed with Eilea’s scent, they hadn’t paid her much attention.
She looked up at her alpha father Boris. “What are you doing here?”
He stroked her cheek with a calloused hand. “Tor sent for us.”
He looked thinner than when she’d last seen him. Older, too. Her breath caught when she saw the sparkle in Marius’s eyes had gone.
“Fathers, what happened to you?”
“What do you mean?” Boris asked.
She cupped his unshaven cheek. “You don’t look well.”
“We’re fine,” he said, but his eyes wearily closed, and he let out a groan when her healing magic sank into his skin.
“You weren’t at all fine,” she whispered, pulling away. She suspected her healing magic would only be a temporary fix, that whatever had put him in poor health stemmed from a darkness in his soul.
“How do you expect us to look?” He heaved a sigh, clasping her hand. “We’ve been in mourning.”
“I’m so sorry.” She placed her healing hands on her second alpha father, Jovan. She didn’t know why she had expected their mourning period to be easy. Their mate had made their lives miserable. She’d made everyone’s lives miserable.
She suddenly felt selfish for imagining her fathers celebrating Katarina’s death. She might have been a vindictive shrew, but her fathers were kind and loving. Besides, Katarina had been the mother of their children, Amara’s four brothers. She imagined her fathers had mourned not just the loss of their mate, but the fact that Katarina would never have a chance to change.
Jovan’s smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Our mourning period is over. We’re ready to begin our lives again.”
“Oh.” She blinked, processing what he’d just said. “No. You can’t be here.” Panic zinged through her at the thought of them getting an incurable virus.
“Dragă mea, our minds are clear now,” Boris said, sharing a knowing look with his brothers. “We will be on our best behavior. Promise.”
“No, no, that’s not it.” She jerked away from Jovan when he reached for her. “There’s a virus I can’t seem to cure. I don’t want you getting it.”
Jovan crossed his arms. “We know about the sick pack.”
Panic threatened to split her skull in two.
“Three packs are sick now. It might be contagious. You have to go back,” she said, desperation ringing in her words.
Agent Johnson stepped forward, palms up. “The Lupescus must stay. No shifters are allowed off the reservation until the virus has been contained.”
Amara swore under her breath. “You can’t be serious.” A deep, angry heat stirred in her belly. “Humans can’t get the virus. I’ve already spoken to the goddess.”
Johnson snickered. “You and I both know our government won’t believe that.”
“We don’t care.” Boris’s eyes changed to a blinding white. “We’re not leaving our mate unprotected.”
“B-but, you won’t be able to protect her if you’re sick,” Amara stammered.
Jovan frowned, nodding to the copse of trees just beyond the clinic. “Tor believes Katarina’s spirit has opened a portal.”
She wrung her hands together, her gaze desperately flitting from father to father. “Yes, but—”
“And that she threatens Eilea,” Geri added.
“We will make sure she is safe,” Boris said and trailed after Drasko.
Her fathers helped Drasko carry in her sick fathers-in-law. She worried that touching them might put their health at risk.
She looked around for Eilea after they entered the clinic, surprised she didn’t scent the doctor nearby. Was she hiding from Amara’s fathers? Though Amara acknowledged it would be a good idea for Eilea to have protection, she hoped her fathers didn’t expect to mate with the human. Amara feared Eilea wouldn’t accept the bond.
Raz greeted them, giving directions to Drasko and Amara’s fathers. Amara worried when she saw they were short a bed. After Tor said something about giving the beds to his brothers, a familiar-looking male nurse helped Tor onto a narrow cot. This would never do. The clinic was already too crowded. What if more shifters fell ill?
After everyone was settled, Drasko gave Amara’s alpha father a pointed look. “You need to leave. We don’t want you getting sick.”