by Eliza Gayle
"Fuck you. I was watching out for her. Something you obviously weren't doing." Bhric shoved him hard, sending him crashing into a nearby table.
Dean grabbed a chair and flung it at his brother's head. It nicked his cheek before he ducked out of the way. The three men in the room charged toward him.
"No. Stay the fuck out of it," Bhric said. "He wants a fight, no problem. This has been coming for a very long time."
Dean charged, grabbed his brother around the waist and slammed him to the ground again. Not that he'd ever stay down. Bhric wrapped his arm around Dean's neck and squeezed. He grabbed his arm and pulled, fighting for air. "What would your precious crew think of you if they knew about Brenda? Do they believe your lies about loyalty and brotherhood? Cause you don't know shit about that anymore."
"Fuck you and your high horse, Dean. I'm sick of paying for one mistake." With a hard elbow to Bhric's gut, he pried free from his hold. He grabbed him by his neck, and slammed him into the opposite wall.
"One mistake? What the hell about that shit out there tonight? You started a mother fucking fire. A. FUCKING. FIRE." His entire body trembled with rage.
"It was a tactical move. Had to get those assholes where we wanted them."
"Yeah, how'd that work out for you? Niki was right fucking there and she could have been hurt." He wrapped his hand around Bhric's neck and pulled him forward. "She could have died. Were you ready to watch someone else burn alive?" Out of control, he slammed him back against the wall and squeezed. The thought of anything happening to his mate drove him insane. He'd already lost his parents and then Bhric had turned on him. No way would he lose her too. She might be feisty and hard headed but she was his. His.
For some reason Bhric stopped fighting him. His eyes widened and his face turned bright red from the lack of oxygen. He didn't even grab at his hands.
"Enough, Dean. I ain't going to let you kill him."
This from the bear who'd been spending time with his mate. He could be next.
"Mine." He roared.
"I'm still not going to let you kill him." Calder wrenched his arm away from Bhric's neck and shoved him away. "Just let him go. That's all I want here."
Dean saw red. His body contorted and changed, ripping his clothes and turning him into the true beast he was. He crouched down and dug his claws into the thick wood of the bar floor, ready to pounce on the bear the minute he moved.
"Dean," Niki shouted.
His gaze shot to the woman standing at the base of the stairs. Her clothes still filthy from the fire and her face white from shock. His mate. The cat roared in his head, a vicious sound that was a cross between the dominant cat and the bear waiting to be unleashed. Protect the mate.
Then he saw the blood.
15
Dean and Bhric crashed through the front doors of Simon's small clinic at the edge of Comyn pack land and rushed toward the room Kitty indicated. With no medical facilities or even a real doctor in the neutral zone, this had been the closest place to take her. Dean looked down at Niki in his arms and his heart squeezed. Halfway here, she'd passed out and he'd checked her pulse every thirty seconds to make sure she was still alive.
"Put her down on the table and then give me some room," Simon said. "What happened?"
"Intruder broke into the Dark Moon and she caught them. Stubborn cat engaged in a fight with him and before she put him down, he stabbed her. Not sure how much she bled before she killed him and then came and got us."
Simon looked up. "You didn't hear any of this when it was happening? Was she alone?"
Dean burned with guilt at the events that transpired in his brother's place. But it wasn't wolf business and he didn't have to share details with anyone, including Simon.
"Is she going to make it?" He couldn't contemplate any other option. Not and still breathe.
"I don't know yet. You've got to give me some room to work." The doctor grabbed a pair of scissors and cut away her shirt. All Dean saw was blood.
"I need some compression here on her left side while I check out her lungs."
The nurse jumped to follow his directions and Dean craned his neck to see what the hell they were doing.
"If you could wait outside we can focus on your mate."
"Doc, please." Dean said. "Don't let her leave me."
With that, Kitty ushered them from the room where Calder, Greer and Rafe were waiting. Robert had stayed behind to dispose of the damned wolf responsible and then he'd meet them here.
"What did he say?" Calder was the first one to ask. Rapid fire questions from the rest of the group immediately followed.
"Nothing to tell yet." Dean squeezed his eyes shut and grabbed his forehead. He couldn't understand how this kept happening. This time he'd been the selfish bastard to let her get hurt. Instead of watching over her when they got back, he'd tried to drown his shit in alcohol and then take everything out on his brother.
"Here. You need these." He opened his eyes and looked down at Kitty who stood with an ice pack and bandages.
"I don't give a shit about me. I'm fine." He swatted away the medical supplies. "It's all about her. Don't you get that? She has to live."
"Don't make me tie your ass to a chair just to bandage up a few minor lacerations," she said. "But I will. And when Niki wakes up, she'll thank me for both the ass kicking and the caregiving. So sit your ornery butt in that chair and just keep quiet." She turned to Bhric. "You too."
Bhric must have sensed the storm brewing in this crazy feline because he didn't hesitate. "Yes, ma'am."
They both dropped into the chairs lining the wall and Kitty set to cleaning them up. "Rafe's going to get you some clothes to change into." Dean looked down and finally noticed his T-shirt and jeans were stained crimson with Niki's blood. His hands too. The cat whined inside his head. A low mournful sound that shredded Dean's heart. The sad look from the feline patching him up when she touched his face made him realize his cheeks were wet from his tears. Their gazes met and she quickly looked away and handed the ice pack to his brother. "Looks like you need this more. I take it you weren't winning."
Bhric grunted.
Five minutes later and with minimal fight, the two of them had been cleaned up and left alone.
"Dean," Bhric said.
"Don't speak. I already know how badly I fucked this up. Dammit." He ground his fist into his leg. "She's so beautiful and feisty and way smarter than us. And I didn't listen. She was pissed and I didn't even care."
"Fuck that, brother. You cared. In fact, I'm pretty sure you're in love with her. Or at least falling in love with her. As far as I can see, she pushes every one of your buttons."
Love. That was a word he'd avoided for a very long time. He rattled the word around in his brain and tried to find a compartment for it. Somewhere to file it away until he was ready.
"Don't try to rationalize it or figure out how it makes sense. Just accept it. Love is messy and glorious and frustrating and everything in between. You take it as is because it's the only way it's given."
"How do you know? Are you in love?"
"Because I saw it every day in our parents. Whether they fought or loved, they did it with pure passion. I asked Mom about it one time after her and Dad got into a huge fight. She warned me, and at the time I was too young to really understand, but she said if love came easy then it probably wasn't true. She told me to wait until I couldn't breathe without it and then I'd know. I thought I understood until I saw you and Niki together. I wasn't in love with Brenda and neither were you."
Dean hung his head. "I know that now. I wanted to be though and it felt like enough at the time."
They both sat in silence. The only sounds were the frantic voices coming from Niki's room and the bitter memories of their recent past.
"Bhric."
"Yeah?"
"Why didn't you fight back? I mean you got a few good hits in." He rubbed his jaw where it was most sore. "But we both know you could have taken me down. I think you'v
e got a little more of dad's bear."
His brother sighed. "Does it really matter? It happened, fight's over. We move on. At least I hope it's over."
"Yeah, it matters."
"You needed it. You've been pissed for a long damn time and if I ever have a chance of getting my brother back, then you needed to let that rage out instead of hiding behind it."
Dean bristled at the answer he got. "Bullshit. I wasn't hiding. I was pissed. And for damn good reasons."
"And for two years you didn't come near this side of the mountain. You stayed alone in that tiny little house behind a bar. Doing nothing until your woman came along. Something had to give."
"That's why you kept her a secret? You wanted to piss me off?"
Bhric smiled. "That may have been part of it at first. But for the most part it was about her. That woman in there may be a fighter, but when she showed up on my doorstep, she was scared. And not some superficial in the moment scared. Whatever brought her to Dark Moon had deep fucked-up roots. If I'd told you right away, you'd have come steamrolling through and she would have run and never been seen again. This way she had time. She made a friend. By the time they took her, she was already connected and when she got free, she wanted to come back. That's all I was waiting for."
"You're starting to sound a little too smug."
"What are big brothers for?" They both laughed until Bhric caught his arm. "Seriously, man. Are we good now?"
Dean lifted his shoulders. "I honestly don't know. Not sure how I'm feeling at the moment with Niki lying in a clinic bed with a stab wound in her side. This place gives me the creeps. Never liked hospitals and this feels just like one."
Bhric nodded and stretched out his legs. "Well, either way I'm not going anywhere."
"Someone get me a fetal monitor now," Simon yelled from inside Niki's room.
Dean jumped up, fear spearing through him. Another young woman he didn't recognize rushed past him pushing a piece of medical equipment. "What's going on," he said. "Is something wrong with the baby?" No one answered him, leaving him frustrated and helpless. "Screw this." He headed in the direction of Niki's room.
"Dean, don't." Bhric grabbed his arm and stopped him from going forward. "As much as I hate what you're going through, we have to give the pros whatever they need to help her and the baby, and right now that means letting them work without interference."
"Since when are you so reasonable?"
His brother smirked. "I'm never reasonable. So let's just call it smart."
"Bhric?"
"Yeah brother."
"If she dies, this whole mountain is going to bleed."
"Yeah, I know." Bhric clapped him on the shoulder. "But she ain't gonna die. She's way too stubborn for that."
16
The animal inside her yowled and Niki jerked awake. She opened her eyes and blinked against the harsh light of the sun-filled room. Since she had no idea where she was, her brain didn't cooperate. She squeezed her eyes tight and cracked them open again. The light still made her squint but her vision began to clear. She was in a small room painted a soft yellow with a striking hand painted picture of a majestic wolf on a clear winter day. But as beautiful as the image was, it didn't hide the fact she was in some sort of medical facility. The scent of antiseptic, drugs and other chemicals bombarded her, as did the steady beep of a nearby machine. Her senses were on sudden overload and she fought a rising panic.
The constant beep from the machine drew her gaze and she followed the sound. She stared at the small square screen and watched the lines move and the heart rate fluctuate. That wasn't her heart rate. As much time as she'd spent being tested she knew hers to be much slower. This was the baby. She followed the cord and found it attached to her almost flat stomach.
They could hear that already? She wasn't even showing yet. She dropped her head and stared at the ceiling. Had she been captured again? Because getting caught with her pants down twice, was just too damn much. She blew out a rough breath and tried to think. She racked her memory trying to figure out what she remembered last. She'd been at Dark Moon after the fiasco with the wolves and when she'd tried to talk to Dean he'd shut her out. She'd been pissed off and ready to leave. In fact, her plan was to grab her shit and go. Things were getting too complicated.
And there was fighting. She watched Dean shift into a huge black Jaguar in front of a bloody Bhric. No. Wait. She grabbed her head. Before that.
A shifter in her room.
Another scent, hard to detect over all the damned antiseptic shit, drew her attention. She turned to the other side of the room and found him. Dean. Sprawled out in a tiny chair next to her bed. He was here. Memories flooded in. Dean and Bhric fighting. A dead shifter in her room. Shit. She'd been stabbed. Her fingers flew to her side and the thick bandaging covering her skin.
The door opened and Niki tensed.
Dean shot up from a dead sleep. "Niki? Oh shit, babe. How do you feel?"
"You're awake." A shifter she didn't recognize smiled at her.
"And you're a wolf," she said.
He picked up a chart from the end of her bed. "And you're a cougar. A very pregnant one."
She growled.
"Niki, relax. This is Simon. The omega from the Comyn pack. He's a doctor."
"Good for him. I don't need a doctor to tell me I got stabbed or that I'm with child." She tried to sit up and a sharp pain speared her side and robbed all the oxygen from her lungs.
Both the Doctor and Dean rushed her and eased her back down.
"Dammit, Niki. It's only been a little while since he stitched you up. You can't move yet."
"He's right," Simon said. "You're going to be here where I can monitor you for at least another forty-eight hours. Your left lung was nicked when the knife penetrated your rib cage."
"No way. Staying here is way too risky. I have to go now. Besides, all I have to do is shift and accelerate the healing."
"Are you sure? When was the last time you shifted?"
"Not that long. What difference does it make?"
"I'm not sure yet. You're blood tests have been inconclusive. It'd be a lot easier to figure out if I had a base sample to compare to."
Niki didn't have to listen to this. It was eerily familiar. She tried again to sit up by favoring her right side and while a tiny bit better, the pain still made it difficult to breath.
"I would have given you something for that, but I wasn't sure how the baby would react to more medication. He's already been through a lot of trauma. That's why you need to stay in bed."
She froze. "He? As in him a boy?"
Dean grinned. "Told ya."
For a second she wished she could feel the happiness Dean felt. He was so proud and it looked really good on him.
"We've done several ultrasounds to assess the baby's health. And yes, we were able to confirm the sex. It seems every were species has a different pregnancy rate, especially when there are more than one."
She felt the blood drain from her face. "There's more than one?" She bit her lip to hold back the cry. This was so not happening to her. Goddess help her.
"Oh. No. Sorry. In your case, there is only one cub. And while it's been about twelve to thirteen weeks since probable conception, your pregnancy is accelerating much faster than a human's but a little slower than some of the other big cat were's I've studied. I estimate you have about four months, or a little less until the birth."
Damn her head hurt. The doctor needed to stop talking. It was too much information to process all at once. She'd been stabbed.
"Please stop," she said.
"What is it, babe? Doc, isn't there anything we can do for the pain?"
"I'm fine. I just need everyone to stop talking."
To her relief, the doctor put down her chart. "Get some rest. We can talk later. For now I recommend not shifting. We simply don't have enough information on what will happen to the child." He turned to Dean. "If she needs anything, let me know. Otherwise, I'll give her a
few hours before I check back in.
"Thanks, doc."
The door closed behind the talkative wolf and she nearly sighed in relief. "Does he always talk that much?" she asked.
"Who knows? Those pure breed wolfs are a little strange to begin with."
Niki nodded.
"So how do you feel about a little boy cub covered in black fur? Or maybe a white one? Spotted? Oh who knows?"
"I don't want to think about it."
"Why not, babe? This is exciting news."
"Dammit, Dean. Someone tried to kill me because of this baby. And that's not just going to stop, so quit acting like we're suddenly going to be the fucking perfect little family."
He glared down at her. "You really can't accept anything anyone says without arguing about it, can you?"
"It's called being a realist. I'm not the happy-ever-after kind of person you're hoping for. That's not what's in my blood."
"Fuck your blood, Niki. What's in your heart is all that matters. Of course you're going to have to get past that brain of yours before you ever see that shit."
The door burst open and an assortment of shifters jumped in. "What the hell is going on in here?" Kitty asked.
"None of your business," Dean turned away from her and looked out the window.
"Bullshit," Kitty said. "The whole damn building can hear every word you say. I thought Niki was resting?"
Niki rubbed the side of her head and willed everyone out of her room. She was about sick to death of all the people meddling in her life. Too many people. Too many opinions. This wasn't how she lived.
Calder stepped from behind Kitty, moved to the side of her bed and grabbed her hand. He didn't say a word and that's the thing she loved about him. Their friendship worked because he seemed to understand she liked his company as long as he didn't talk too much. He was a loner like her.
"You're right," Dean said. "She needs to chill and the rest of us need to work on security. How safe is this building?"