Then Hayden was bending before her, on her level so she could see him better. “You’ve got a fever, Tess, and Alex thinks you’re contagious with the virus the WSSO used to kill all those shifters.”
“I’m dying?”
“Probably not,” Alex said, keeping his distance. “Someone find some rubber gloves and a mask for me, and I’ll help her to bed.”
Hayden walked over to where the shifters had Damien pinned. “No one will deny you’re the alpha here, Damien, but where her health is concerned, Alex calls the shots. You do as he says, or the rest of us will put you in chains, and you can kill us later. Understand?”
Nothing was making sense. Hayden never threatened anyone, least of all Damien. But Damien was calming down, and the others released him. Maybe if she threatened to put Damien in chains… Ah, the ideas that sparked, but she really wasn’t up for any fun, not with how hot her skin felt and how parched her throat was.
“Damien?”
“I’m here, Sweetness.”
“You shouldn’t call me that in front of Aloe.”
Aloe and Damien exchanged looks. That was Tess’s fault. She had pointed it out to the two of them. She needed to keep her mouth shut.
“Tess, do you recall feeling like this anytime at the lab?” Alex asked, as he pulled on some cleaning gloves.
“A few months after they took me, I got really sick.”
“How long until you were better?”
“I don’t remember much from that time. Why is everything blurry, Alex?”
“It’s the virus, Tess. You can close your eyes if you want. We’ll take care of you.” Alex looked at the others. “No one goes near her except me or Pryce. We need somewhere we can isolate her.”
“Aloe’s house. Aloe will stay here with me,” Damien said.
“What’s happening?” Tess asked.
Alex explained that he suspected the WSSO infected her with an agent to activate the virus in her, making her a danger to everyone she cared about. She searched the faces in the room. Blade was pissed, Hayden and Frank were agitated, and Damien crossed his arms over his chest, his expression hard. He didn’t want her there, endangering them.
“I need to study her—” Alex said before she tuned him out. The doctor was a friendly enough shifter, but he tended to get too technical and the house was so damn hot. Why didn’t someone open a window?
Tess searched the crowd for Pryce, someone who could tell her straight what was happening. But he was off somewhere, gathering supplies for her isolation. Isolation… They wanted to cage her like the WSSO. Except this time would be with a bed in a home, not on a hard floor with no clothes or blankets.
“My name isn’t CLS24.”
“What?” Alex asked at the same time Tess heard Damien say, “Fuck.” She lifted her wrist to show Alex her tattoo.
“My name is Tess. Not CLS24.”
She watched Damien as Alex inspected the tattoo. Damien, who was standing apart from everyone, looked ready to kill. The darkness in his eyes sent chills through her.
“She’s losing body heat fast,” Alex said. “Get some blankets.”
Blade ran upstairs, but Damien stood there, unusually quiet. Aloe approached and whispered to him. Tess really missed having shifter hearing.
Damien’s face softened for Aloe, and he even cracked a smile, one of those warm smiles Tess knew meant he wasn’t being alpha at the moment, but the gentle Damien who sought someone to love, to share his day with and to offer him guidance when he was stressed. His words to Aloe were too low for Tess to hear, but she noticed Aloe laugh a bit. That hurt to watch, but not as much as how tenderly he cupped her cheek and kissed her forehead before pointing her in the direction of the stairs. Aloe glanced at Tess, but quickly averted her eyes. Guilt.
Tess couldn’t, wouldn’t, blame the shifter. After all, Tess had pushed Aloe and Damien together. And now that Tess was sick again, it was probably fortuitous that they paired up. Aloe was lonely, sweet, and needed someone in her life. Damien was just as lonely, but needed someone who was healthy and strong: someone who wouldn’t endanger him though the blood-bond or this virus the WSSO had pumped into Tess.
But still, it wasn’t easy watching Aloe climb the stairs toward Damien’s bedroom. Not being able to shift had been a loss Tess wished on no one, but she was learning to survive it. But this… this Tess couldn’t watch. She had always held out hope that she’d find a way to be with Damien, but the WSSO had found a way to take that from her, too.
* * *
DAMIEN
Damien sat in the corner of Tess’s room, in the dark, listening to her breathe. She’d been in and of consciousness for two days and hadn’t even noticed him in the room.
Pryce kept her hydrated with IVs and watched her temperature, while Alex came by every six hours like clockwork, to take blood.
“You’re still here?” Pryce asked when he entered with a basin of cool water and a stack of fresh towels. He dampened a cloth and wiped the sweat from Tess’s brow.
“Alex tried to kick me out.”
Pryce dug into his pocket and withdrew a mask. “Here, at least put this on. Just in case.”
Damien ignored the mask. “The antivirals?”
“They didn’t work. This virus is strong, but it’s short lived, at least outside the body. Hopefully, her fever will break soon.”
“What about the blood transfusion Alex mentioned?”
“Her blood isn’t shifter or human at this point. Alex tried Blade’s blood, as it was the closest, but she had a reaction.”
Damien couldn’t believe this was happening. He had promised to protect her, and the WSSO had found a way to torture and possibly kill her. He wondered if he’d ever wake from this nightmare.
Wearing the damn rubber glove, Damien smoothed her sweat-matted hair from her face. “A blood-bond would help her.”
“A blood-bond might help her. It would kill you. She’s contagious, and you are most likely not immune to the virus. Dozens of shifters were exposed, and she’s the only one we know about who survived. There’s nothing else we can do now but wait.”
Damien caressed her cheek. “I swear, Pryce, if she survives this, I’m going to convince her to blood-bond me. She’s worth risking my life. I can’t lose her.”
“Pryce?” Hayden called from downstairs. “Have you seen Damien?”
“Up here,” Damien called.
Hayden ran up, out of breath. “Messenger brought this.” After a quick glance at Tess, he shoved a paper at Damien. “It’s marked urgent.”
Damien read the paper. “It’s from Drake. Idaho, small group of nineteen wolf shifters found dead less than five miles from a WSSO lab. No apparent cause of death.”
“We don’t have a choice now, Damien. We have to attack the WSSO lab in Boulder, get whatever we can on the virus before the bastards begin unleashing this virus everywhere.”
“The WSSO might be the least of our problems,” Damien said, handing the opened note back to Hayden to read. “Read the last line.”
Hayden read the note and crushed it in his hands. “Fuck my brother.”
“What’s it say?” Pryce asked.
Hayden read the last line. “Kill her, or I will.”
Chapter Seventeen
TESS
Tess woke feeling tired, but clear-headed. The last thing she remembered was someone covered head to toe in a plastic suit and wearing a gas mask carrying her up the steps to a bed at Aloe’s house.
Oh, that, and Aloe heading up toward Damien’s bedroom in his house. No wonder they’d moved her out.
“How are you feeling, Tess?”
Alex was sitting in a chair beside her bed. Then there was a pinch in her arm, and blood was being sucked up into a vial. That explained why her arm felt like a pincushion.
“What’s going on?”
“You don’t remember?”
“Remember what, exactly?”
He chuckled. “It’s okay. You’ve been fighting of
f the virus and had a high fever for four days, but it finally broke last night. You’ll be fine, but you should take it easy for the next few days.”
“What do you mean by the virus?”
“The one the WSSO created to kill shifters. It’s been lying dormant in you.”
“Dormant?”
“They injected you to reactivate—”
His voice seemed to trail off as she remembered the utter helplessness and panic of that night, of being pinned down by two men, and of the needle sliding into her arm. All she could do was scream. She couldn’t shift or throw them off of her. The helplessness alone had been terrifying. Then a beautiful gray wolf, Aloe, had attacked both, freeing her. Tess had run outside and ended up shooting a human who had been trying to kill Damien. Afterward, she’d raced inside, desperate to cut out whatever they’d shot into her.
“And Drake said the WSSO calls it SEV-2, which is short for Shifter Eradication Virus.”
Drake. She’d forgotten Damien had left to meet Drake. That’s when she’d started feeling so shitty. Poor Hayden had been recovering from a gunshot wound to the chest, but it was Damien’s refusal to take Hayden along that hurt him the most. Pryce had said Hayden was healed enough to travel short distances, but Damien lobbed insults at Hayden about how bringing a traitor to the meeting would upset Drake.
She didn’t know what was behind the traitor comment, but one glance at Hayden’s face told her Damien had hurt Hayden, deeply. Damien hadn’t been treating anyone well, lately. The worst part was that she didn’t think Damien recognized how outrageous and spiteful his behavior had become. They all understood he was struggling with his wolf. He was trying to maintain control and wasn’t quite himself. She sighed.
“What’s wrong?” Alex asked, concern in his voice. He started checking her vitals all over again.
“I’m thinking about the whole situation.”
“We believe the virus is highly contagious, but not when it’s dormant. Fortunately, no one else got it from you, this time.”
This time. His words reverberated in her head. They’d gotten the tracker out of her, but the WSSO already knew where she was, where the whole pack was, thanks to her. Tess stared out the window into the darkness. “What time is it?”
“A few minutes past six a.m. No one’s really up yet.” Alex pulled the needle from her arm and wiped the pinprick of blood away. “It’s been surprisingly uneventful around here. Except for Damien growling at everyone, you haven’t missed much. Last I heard, Frank and Blade and a few others were out on a mission back to the lab where they found you.”
A shiver ran through her at the thought of that hell hole. She needed air, preferably before Alex started poking her with a needle again. “Can I leave?”
“You’re officially no longer contagious. The virus is dormant once more.”
Damn. That meant it could reactivate again, if she understood Alex.
“I want to test your blood for a few days, so be back here eight a.m. sharp, starting tomorrow, or I’ll track you down.”
She knew never to give another shifter a reason to track her down, even one who seemed more interested in blood and viruses than hunting. All shifters enjoyed a good chase, especially the males. She was seriously starting to question if Alex was part vampire, given his overly cheerful demeanor when it came to sucking her dry of her blood. But vampires weren’t real, so he was just another geeky shifter who loved his work. Good for him. At least he had work he enjoyed.
She had yet to figure out her place around here. Back in Florida she’d waitressed at a diner. She didn’t love it, but she didn’t hate it, either. The problem was she didn’t have a lot of choices. Not that different from here.
Tess flung the covers off and headed into the bathroom. The shower felt heavenly after being in bed for four days and sweating through a fever. She pulled her hair into a ponytail and twisted for a side view. It was hard not to notice the scar from where the tracking chip had been removed.
“Not a lab rat, not a lab rat,” she repeated out loud, glad that no one was there to hear her. Some of the shifters here saw her as human, while others saw her as a broken shifter. That scar and all the others under her clothing told everyone exactly what she was: a lab rat.
What do you care what anyone else thinks? That’s what Lily would say, and she was right. Tess knew who she was, even if she didn’t know what she was. How she wished her sister were here now, so Tess would have someone to talk to, someone to confide in about her fears, her wants, her uncertainties. Aloe had begun to fill that role, but Tess had lost her at the same time she had lost Damien. She had lost them to each other, and now she had no one.
After a few minutes of indulging in self-pity, Tess plastered on a smile, determined to find at least one positive aspect about her life, today, or to make one up if all else failed. She needed that because accepting less would mean she’d let the bastards at the WSSO win, and she couldn’t let that happen.
Tess opened her dresser drawers, her very empty drawers. She’d been avoiding doing her laundry for a while. The laundry bag sat on the floor, stuffed. There was one set of clothing left. A bra, panties, a pair of jeans, and a pink t-shirt printed with the words, “Life sucks, but the alternative is worse.” That pretty much summed it up.
Tess grabbed a flashlight from Aloe’s kitchen and headed out. The fresh air felt so good, even if it was still a bit cool out. She felt alive, though tired. The question was what to do next. Doing laundry wasn’t exactly a pick-me-up type of activity.
She could go to Damien’s house. He was an early riser and would probably be up at this hour, but Aloe would be there, and Tess couldn’t face running into her. The way Aloe and Damien talked, and their easy body language around one another, made it clear they were already friends. Still, seeing them hook up so quickly hurt, but Tess had no right to complain, considering she was the one who had pushed them together.
Maybe she should approach Trent. She chuckled, thinking how easy it would be to get involved with the teacher—the one shifter Damien felt threatened by when it came to her. She had zero feelings toward Trent, other than as a friend.
It would be a long time before she forgot about Damien, if ever. A distraction would help. A whole fucking series of distractions…
She considered asking Trent if he could use her help today, but keeping up with a bunch of teens seemed a bit too daunting at the moment. She’d be better off joining them in a few days when she regained some of her strength.
For as long as she’d been here… six weeks already?… she had very few ties and no place to really call her own. Even if Aloe let Tess have the house, it would only remind Tess that Aloe was now in Damien’s bed.
A change of scenery could do the trick, keep Tess from thinking about Damien and how she wanted to lean against him, sink into the feeling of being safe and, yes, even loved. He loved her, she was sure of it, just not enough. Hell, she’d pushed him to Aloe. Even so, he had gone to her too easily. The point was moot, now.
Tess needed to be somewhere she could rest and think without being reminded of Damien. Frank or Blade might have a sofa she could sleep on. Or even Callen, though he still scared her. Hayden seemed to have his eye on that brunette with the hazel eyes who worked in the cookhouse, so he was out. The last situation she wanted was to be a third wheel when he entertained back at his place.
She’d start with Frank. His house was set further from everyone else’s, which made her wonder if that was by design or only what was available when he moved out of his parents’ home, wherever that was. Either way, the distance would be good for her. No accidental run-ins with Damien.
When she knocked on Frank’s cabin door and he didn’t answer, she remembered Alex saying Frank was away on a mission. The house wasn’t locked, typical in a shifter community, so she stepped inside.
The place was quaint. It held a bed off the main living room and kitchen area with no door between. The only door led to a bathroom. There was a firep
lace, a sofa that only seated two, but was big enough for sleep, a table for four, and shelves loaded with books. All those books reminded her of her sister’s room back home. Lily was an avid reader. God, Tess missed Lily. And Damien. How was she going to be a part of this pack and not touch him, talk to him, lean into him and feel his heartbeat? To have him so close but not be able to share her thoughts, her worries, her dreams with him?
The door slammed shut behind her, startling her into dropping the flashlight. The damn thing died, thrusting her into total darkness. The blinds were up, but the sun hadn’t risen yet. “Frank?”
No one answered. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up, and she stumbled back, her hands reaching for anything she could grab hold of as a weapon.
Someone grabbed her from behind, pulled her hands behind her, and pushed her face-first against a wall. His frame towered over her. He didn’t even cover her mouth because he knew it wouldn’t do her any good to scream out here. They were too far from the other houses.
“Please, don’t!” she cried out as he tore her shirt from her. Her bra was next to go as he rent the straps and band with his claws until the tatters fell to the ground.
“Leave me alone,” she begged, hating that she had to beg, hating that she’d been dumb enough to walk down here alone. His warm breath moved over her bare back, across her shoulders, and near her ear. His tongue dragged down the side of her neck, and she shuddered in fear.
He stopped, but he didn’t release her. He kissed one of the burns on her back and then another, and another, softly, almost reverently. Then his hands released hers as he continued kissing each and every scar down the length of her back. Tears were streaming down her face.
“Damien…”
“Shhh,” he soothed, as he kissed his way back up to the last scar, the one at the base of her neck.
“You scared me,” she said as she turned into him, her face still wet with tears.
“Pretty shitty of me, huh,” he said as he lowered his mouth to one breast.
Damien’s Dilemma Page 23