by Eliza Gayle
"Oh, thank God. I was going to go insane if someone tried to fire you. Who cares if you've been a little grumpy, right?"
Marcy’s face fell. For a minute she'd forgotten about her sudden health changes. What if she took this job and then found out something bad? That would be unfair.
"I don't know what's going through your mind right now, but you need to stop. This is a good thing. How long do we have? I've got to start planning a big going away blow out for you."
Marcy logged out of her computer and began gathering her things. "I don't know exactly yet. Maybe a couple of weeks? I don't know all the details yet. In fact, I need to get home and start making a plan. I'm going to need a lot of boxes. And a to do list. Yes, that's what I need."
"Uhm. Marcy, aren't you forgetting something?"
"What's that?" She honestly had no idea what her friend referred to.
"The big, hot men waiting for you in the lobby. Don't you have another situation to take care of first?" Colleen waved her hand in front of her face and then pointed toward Marcy's crotch.
"Shit. Double shit. I forgot."
"Then good thing I'm here. Let's go to the bathroom and freshen you up so you can get your head in the game. You've got business to take care of."
Marcy sidestepped out of Colleen's grasp. "You're crazy. I am not going out there to get laid. Sienna needs my help, remember?"
"Uh huh. Well, so do you. So at least throw on some lipstick and slide a brush through your hair. Your prospects aren't going to get any better than those two hot slices of men out there."
"Colleen, you are one insane chick tonight. What's gotten into you?"
"Just looking out for you, my friend. I think someone needs to."
Marcy didn't know what to say to that. From stalker, to Sienna's mystery ramblings, to Gage and his boss Bhric waiting for her and now a promotion all in one night. Her brain was on full overload mode.
For her sake, that had to be it.
She could only take so much.
Maybe the situation with Sienna had resolved itself and Gage and his friend were already on their way home.
A girl could only hope.
7
Bhric stared at the door to the neonatal unit until his eyes ached. He hadn't laid eyes on her in hours and she wasn't answering her phone. Anything could have happened back there.
Although Calder had befriended one of the security guards and assured him that there were no unsecure exits in and out of the area. Only this main door and an emergency fire exit that would set off alarms in the whole building if it was accessed.
And still that didn't settle him or his beast down.
"You need to stop growling. You're going to frighten her when she does come out."
Bhric looked over at Gage, sitting in one of the waiting chairs with his nose in some car magazine looking calm as fuck. He wanted to throttle him for it. This was not a calm situation.
"I should have insisted she go with us hours ago. We could have been safely back at Dark Moon by now."
Gage snorted. "Dude, I wish you would have. That would have been quite a show."
"What's that supposed to mean? She's a smart woman. Even she should understand that she needs to be protected from danger."
He sat up and pushed the magazine to the side. "What danger? Were you prepared to tell her right then and there that a pack of shape shifting wolves may or may not be hunting her down at that very moment? Or maybe you were going to explain to her that we are also shapeshifters, but we're not hunting her, we're here to protect her." He shifted his stance. "And remind me again why you are here all hell bent to drag her out of here by her hair and back to your lair?"
Bhric was about to spring out of the chair and wipe the grin right off Gage's face. So maybe he wasn't holding his cards close enough to the vest in this situation. The fight for control with his beast was teetering on the brink of disaster. The man wasn't too happy either.
Denying a mate connection had been far more intense than he expected. Now, with the added sense of impending danger to the woman he craved, his grip on control had nearly slipped away.
"Just shut up. I don't need--"
The door to the NICU burst open and Marcy rushed out. Over the last few hours her hair had sprung free from the pony tail she favored for work, her clothes were more wrinkled than before and her eyes were red rimmed with obvious fatigue.
The beast growled and Gage shot him a hard look.
"You're still here," she said, her shoulders sagging.
He noted she didn't look all too happy about that. Well, that was too damned bad. They had told her they weren't leaving her here alone and she needed to learn quick that he only said exactly what he meant.
"You haven't been answering your phone." Bhric tried to hold back the edge in his voice, but could tell he failed when she nearly jumped a step back.
She fished her phone from her pocket and fiddled with the button on the top. "Have to turn it off inside the unit," she tilted her head toward the door. "No personal calls allowed when inside. Cell signal sucks in there anyway."
Her phone suddenly went off with a flurry of notifications.
"One of you I take it?" She looked back and forth between them both.
"And Sienna," Gage answered. "She's worried about you even though I told her we had this covered."
Marcy shoved the phone into her enormous purse that she carried over one shoulder and shrugged. "Well, I hope we can resolve this in the next five minutes or so because I really need to get home. I've got a lot to do."
Bhric clenched his jaw to contain another growl. He really was about to lose his mind. "No, Marcy, I'm afraid this will not be resolved in five minutes. We need you to come back to Deals Gap with us. You'll be safe there until we can get this situation worked out."
She gaped at him, her eyes growing wide. She then turned to Gage. "Is this some kind of a joke? I can't go back to Deals Gap. As much as I'd love to see Sienna right now, I simply don't have the time."
Bhric laughed. He couldn't help it. It was either that or explode and he didn't want to scare his mate anymore than he had to. She stood there with fire in her eyes and her hands on her hips and it made him laugh so hard he bent over at the waist to catch his breath.
"I am not seeing the humor in this. Sienna called me earlier and scared me half to death. Then when I saw you," she waved her hand at him, "I thought you were the one trying to hurt me since apparently you've been stal-- err-- I mean watching me. Which is still creepy by the way. It wouldn't have killed you to come up and introduce yourself. This whole situation might have gone a little differently if that were the case." She suddenly stopped and took a deep breath.
"Wait," Gage said, holding up his hand before she could go again. "As entertaining as this exchange is, Bhric is right. It's not safe here and we've got to get you somewhere more secure."
"And I keep telling you I don't understand why. Who in the world would ever want to hurt Sienna? And while I can be a total pain in the ass sometimes, I've hardly done anything that would warrant someone wanting to harm me either."
Bhric stood then, turning stone cold serious. "It's not about you or Sienna. Someone simply wants to use the two of you as pawns against us."
That seemed to shut her up for the moment as she narrowed her eyes and appeared to be thinking about what he said. Three. Two. He expected the next outburst any second. One.
"Us? As in the both of you? That doesn't make a lot of sense either unless I'm missing something." She turned to him. "Don't you own a bar in some small country town?"
Bhric nodded. "I do."
"And you." She turned to Gage. "You work for him, right?"
"Yes."
Bhric could see they were going to get nowhere with this woman without divulging more details than he cared to. If he wasn't careful, information could be shared that couldn't be taken back. There would be no spell this time to erase her memories.
"So what am I missing?" She tapped
her finger on her chin for a moment before her eyes grew wide. "You're into something illegal aren't you?"
She whispered the question, but to him it came out like an accusing shout. He'd spent hours thinking about what to tell her and now, standing in front of her, he wanted nothing more than to simply tell her the truth. He already knew she could take it, but robbing her of her normal human life without her consent, that didn't sit well.
"Just fucking tell her," Gage said. "We obviously aren't getting out of here until you do."
He glared at Gage and his smirk. He'd found Sienna under dire circumstances as well. But the difference was huge. He'd not taken her choice away. That had been done by someone else and if she'd wanted to go back to her old life and forget all about him she had that option.
Marcy had no choice. Taking away her memories had already apparently affected her. To do it twice might cause the kind of damage she'd never fully recover from.
"Shut up, Gage."
Marcy glared at him. "Don't tell him to shut up. He's right. I'm not going anywhere or doing anything until you tell me what the hell is going on."
"You're an asshole, you know that?"
Gage smiled, far too satisfied with himself.
He did have to tell her something. "We're in sort of a family feud kind of situation. Part of the family has gone off on their own and they don't exactly follow the rules. They've begun resorting to violence to get what they want. Unfortunately, that means they might threaten anyone they perceive as a weakness of ours, especially people we care about."
"Oh. My. God. You're part of the mafia!" she shrieked. "What the ever living hell?" She pulled out her phone and started pushing buttons.
Gage snorted, which turned into a series of barking laughs. Bhric found none of this conversation even slightly amusing.
"What are you doing?" He stepped forward and grabbed the phone out of her hands."
"Hey! Give that back." Marcy reached up for her phone and ended up crashing into his chest when she jumped for it.
At this point he could see Gage holding his stomach from laughing so hard.
When the hell had he lost control of this situation?
Uh. Pretty much the moment you got here.
"Who are you texting?" He tilted the phone and looked at the screen to see a series of messages between her and Sienna.
"That is none of your GD business, stalker man. That is my private phone."
With her rubbing against his front in her attempt to reach the stupid cellular device, he immediately lost interest in what she'd been trying to text. Instead, his brain focused on her soft body against his quickly hardening one.
It took her a few minutes of squirming before she noticed as well. She stopped struggling and looked up at his face, meeting his eyes with a heated gaze of her own.
He groaned. There were limits to what he could endure under the circumstances and they were quickly approaching that point.
"What's happening?" she asked, the question as breathy as his attempt to get enough air into his lungs.
"I'd think that was rather obvious, wouldn't you?"
The flash of fire in her eyes at his sarcasm did nothing to dampen his arousal. Instead it fed the beast even further.
"I was thinking bigger picture. I know what that means."
Bhric was on the verge. The words were sitting on his tongue barely held back. He had to tell her. For his peace of mind.
But before he could, three familiar men appeared around the far corner headed toward them.
A loud growl erupted from him as he shoved Marcy behind him. Fur began pushing through his pores as the need to protect his mate began to take over his brain.
"Get her out of here," he growled to Gage his words both guttural and razor sharp.
"What's wrong?" Even human, Marcy had instincts that obviously told her something wasn't right. She tried to scoot around him and he banded her in place and growled his command again to Gage.
"Got it," he said.
Bhric felt him grab Marcy and begin pulling her away from him. What should have given him peace of mind didn't. The beast snarled in his head and the rage already filling him exploded. He turned sideways so that he could see both the approaching men and his mate. Whatever happened in the next thirty seconds would only work if she didn't leave his sight.
Otherwise he was going to bathe this hospital in wolf blood, feed on their hearts and then likely keep going. A shot of fear burst through his rage and he had to grab at Marcy like a lifeline to stop the animal.
"Let me go," she yelled at Gage. "Something is very wrong. Look at him."
Bhric had no idea what she meant, but his time for indecision was running out fast. The approaching wolves may be far inferior opponents, but the stench of his fear would fill them with false hope and allow Bhric to slaughter them.
Right here. Right now. In the middle of a human hospital.
As if on cue, the most vicious part of his beast rushed forward and let out a roar that shook the walls of the room. His teeth were growing, his bones were reshaping, and human skin was giving way to the fur.
The three men skidded to a halt, appearing unsure on what to do next.
Bhric wanted to taunt them with his plans for their death. The scent of their blood filled his snout before a drop had begun to spill.
"No." Marcy pleaded with him. "Whoever they are, whatever this is. Please not here. Please I beg of you."
The sharp scent of his mate's desperation broke through some of the anger. He blinked several times, torn between the woman he needed and the men who thought they could take her.
That thought won. He couldn't get the image of Marcy being torn away from him forever out of his mind.
"Bhric, please. I'll go with you. Whatever you need. Just please don't do this."
Gage stepped forward. "She's right. You do this now there will be far reaching consequences for all of us. If you can't think straight enough for your own mate, then think of mine. We think she's pregnant."
"What?" Marcy shrieked. "Already? Why didn't she tell me? Shit. I'm going to kill her."
Bhric took a step toward the three men, but Marcy grabbed his hand before he could take another.
"Look at me," she demanded.
Something about the tone of her voice made him look. It annoyed him to no end that she had that power, but he looked all the same. Although the beast growled when he took his eyes off the dangerous men still standing in the doorway across the room.
"I don't understand what the hell is happening. Well, not exactly. But I told you I'd go with you and I meant it. So, please. Let's go."
She tugged again at his arm and this time he allowed her to move him. His bones shifted smoothly back into place, never having gone too far and the fur receded underneath his jacket all without notice.
He might have followed her blindly out of the hospital if not for the distinctive roar of another bear from somewhere down the hall.
"Oh, shit." Gage muttered. "We have to go now, although it might be too late."
Bhric shook his head, running in the direction of the sound and directly toward the three men who were now sprinting in the opposite direction. When they came to a cross hallway, two of them went one way and the other down the alternate route.
"Fuck. They're splitting up." Gage skidded to a stop and looked both ways.
"Calder is this way," Bhric motioned down a third corridor. "He's the priority."
Gage nodded his head and they all took off in that direction. They hadn't gone far and they felt the floor shaking with each step. He couldn't imagine what Marcy must have been thinking, but to her credit her hand gripped him hard and she ran without question. Although he doubted she'd be so agreeable if they rounded the corner to a giant bear lumbering toward them.
He could smell Calder's anger and it burned through him. That man had some pent up rage and it was now pouring out of him. He stopped and bellowed a response to his friend's latest battle cry, putting every
bit of Alpha power he possessed into his voice.
The floors stopped shaking.
The other bear went silent.
Bhric turned.
"You're back is clear." Gage said.
Bhric wanted to leave Marcy here and not expose her to the bear. But the beast inside him wouldn't let go. No, he couldn't let go. He was more determined than ever to keep her at his side. No matter the cost.
Bhric couldn't fight him any longer on this issue. The animal always had control whether he liked it or not. Whether he believed it or not. The beast within had won a long time ago.
8
Marci's heart pounded so hard she feared it might stop. There was so much going on around her and so fast she couldn't absorb the reality of it. All she knew was that there were three scary looking men who'd shown up out of nowhere and set Bhric and Gage off like nuclear detonators. The visual anger and guttural sounds coming from them both alarmed and frightened her.
Now there was another animalistic sound coming from near the cardiac unit that had her more scared than ever. For Christ's sake the floor of their hospital tower had been shaking as they moved toward it.
She didn't want to go around that corner and find out what it could be. She wanted to run and hide and why Bhric wouldn't listen to her was beyond her belief.
What kind of idiot ran towards that racket?
They had all skidded to a stop and Bhric had screamed/roared in the direction of the commotion as if he had some power to stop it.
Then it actually ceased.
What in the ever living hell was going on around here?
And then there was the matter of Bhric holding on to her so tight it would seem his or her life depended on that connection.
She could imagine if they all lived through this, there could be a special place for them all in the psychiatric wing of the hospital. The doctors there would have a field day with this kind of brute, caveman behavior.
Maybe that was it. This man had some sort of evolutionary gene missing from his DNA that made him act like an animal obsessed when threatened.