Yet when she looked at the patient on the table again, she saw that it was a woman and, sure enough, she was up in stirrups. Not just any woman though—it was Sadie.
“Hurry!” she begged Samantha. “Hurry, Sammie—the baby’s coming! I can feel it. Please!”
“It’s all right, Sadie,” she hastened to reassure her sister. “I haven’t done this in a while but I can still manage. Here we go now—push!”
To her relief, the baby came out, squalling and pink-faced, with no problems. It had a shock of dark hair just like Sadie’s, and it waved its tiny fists appealingly, as if protesting this state of affairs. Samantha started to hand it off to one of the nurses but found herself giving it to Mathis instead, who was standing beside her with a wide, proud grin on his bearded face.
“Here you go,” she told him. “You’re a father.”
Samantha breathed a sigh of relief. Well—glad that’s all over! But just as she was starting to relax, one of the gowned and gloved nurses shouted at her.
“Dr. Becker! Hurry—here comes the next one!”
The next one?
Samantha could scarcely believe it, but she found herself delivering yet another baby. She handed this one off to Mathis too, who grinned as he cradled his newborns, one in each massive arm.
And then another baby came. And then another.
Samantha couldn’t believe it—how could her sister keep on giving birth like this? How many babies did she have up there anyway? Mathis had transferred the first two babies into two cribs—one pink and one blue—and as each baby came along, another crib appeared for it, magically. Soon he had a whole row of them behind him—a row of cribs, each with a yelling, red-faced infant inside it. They were making such a racket that Samantha could barely hear herself think.
Then the next baby came, but this one was different. It wasn’t yelling for one thing. It was quiet and alert, its leaf-green eyes staring thoughtfully into Samantha’s own as she gently toweled it off. It was a little girl, and she had blond hair—not dark like the rest of the babies.
Hmm, Samantha thought, staring at the tiny baby in her arms. This one is actually kind of cute.
She turned to hand the infant off to Mathis, as she had all the others, but when she tried to give it to him, he shook his head.
“Huh-uh, sister-in-law,” he said in that deep, rough voice of his. “This little girl is yours.”
* * *
Samantha woke up with a start, her heart pounding and her hands clenched into fists.
What the hell was that all about? The weird dream was still strangely vivid, playing out in her mind’s eye even as she took a deep breath and realized where she was.
“We’re now landing in Las Vegas,” announced the captain’s voice over the intercom. “Local time is seven forty-five in the evening, and it’s about eighty-two degrees and dry. Perfect weather for those of you who are going straight to the casinos and don’t plan to see the light of day until you fly back home again.”
The passengers around Samantha laughed dutifully. The “fasten seat belts” light blinked off, and everyone scrambled up and started digging through the overhead luggage compartments, eager to get their bags and get out of the plane.
Samantha blinked and forced herself to do the same, standing on tiptoes to reach the compartment, since she was a diminutive five foot three. But even as she grabbed her bag and filed from the plane with the rest of the passengers, she couldn’t get the weird dream out of her head, or forget her new brother-in-law’s voice saying, “This little girl is yours.”
Chapter 3
“Mr. Keller, how many times do I have to ask you to be still?”
The exasperated ICU nurse glared at Keller, one hand on her hip. Her name was either Joan or Janice—he couldn’t remember which. She had a narrow, hatchet face and lank grayish-brown hair the color of cobwebs scraped into a thin ponytail at the back of her head. Her hospital scrubs weren’t doing her any favors either—they hung on her skinny frame. At least she was too skinny for Keller’s taste; he liked a woman with some meat on her bones.
But it was the extremely large needle she held in one hand that occupied his mind, more than her figure.
“I’m sorry, Joan, but I tend to move out of the way when someone attempts to jab me with a harpoon,” Keller growled, eyeing the needle. He generally didn’t mind pain—he’d certainly been through enough of it in the past twenty-four hours, between his fight with Mathis Blackwell and Samantha’s struggle to save his life. But he did object to being hurt for no reason.
Also, he didn’t like shots.
“It’s Janice. And don’t be a baby!” the nurse scoffed. She’d come on shift about an hour before, and ever since she’d walked into the ICU, she seemed to have decided to make Keller her personal object of torment.
“Janice, then. Can’t this medicine be put into my IV line instead? That’s what my afternoon nurse was doing.”
“This medicine has to be given IM—intramuscular.” The nurse sounded impatient. “And it’s only a little shot.”
“It doesn’t look ‘little’ to me,” Keller said through gritted teeth.
“I’m surprised you’re not ashamed of yourself—a big guy like you complaining over a shot.” She flipped up the flimsy hospital gown he was wearing and swabbed the top part of his right buttock, where it met his hip, before jabbing the huge needle into the side of his ass.
“Ouch!” Keller jerked, and the nurse glared at him.
“I said hold still!” she barked.
Keller knew she was just doing her job, but honestly, she reminded him more of his fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Hooper, who had disliked him, than of an angel of mercy.
“I can’t help it,” he said, shifting in the too-small hospital bed again. “I can’t lie still when I need to be up and out of here.”
“Listen mister, you’re not going anywhere,” Nurse Janice told him. “So just stop moving around—you don’t want to pull your IV loose, and I don’t want to have to ask your doctor to order restraints. But I will if I have to.” She looked like she wanted to whack him with a rolled-up newspaper or magazine, as though he was a naughty dog which had pissed on the rug.
Only I’m a Cat, Keller thought, swallowing down a frustrated growl that rose in his throat. A Cat who needs to get out of this ridiculous hospital.
“I’m not trying to pull anything loose,” he said, struggling to keep his voice civil. “I’m just wondering when I might possibly be released? I’m feeling much better, so if we could just call the doctor . . .”
The nurse gave him an incredulous look.
“I’m not bothering your doctor at this time in the evening with a lot of nonsense about releasing you! You’re staying right here on bed rest for at least a couple of weeks—until some of those injuries heal.”
“A couple of weeks?” Keller looked at her in disbelief. That was a lifetime—it was too much time to remain helpless, especially when Samantha had taken herself to one of the most dangerous spots in the world for unmated Shifter females.
Of course, her Shifter Gene wasn’t active yet, but that didn’t mean it would stay that way. What would happen to her if she got to Vegas and started going through Rejuvenation? She wouldn’t have an Alpha to protect her or help her through the process. And if she started putting out the maddening Juvie scent, she’d draw every damn Hyena in a ten-mile radius looking to turn a profit. He couldn’t just lie here in bed while she was in that kind of danger!
Why do you care? whispered a little voice in his head. So what if she’s in danger? She’s not your female—she’s not even interested in you, as she so bluntly pointed out. What does it matter to you if she’s in danger?
He thought of Samantha, her short, curvy figure, long, honey-blond hair, and bright, curious blue eyes. She was full figured—Keller liked that. Stick-thin women had nothing to hold on to. Samantha had killer curves and enough self-confidence to carry them off. The way she knew who she was and what she wanted
was immensely appealing—even if she claimed she didn’t need anyone to protect her.
Doesn’t matter how sexy and beautiful she is—she’s not yours to protect. And even though she clearly has the Shifter Gene, she’s not showing any signs of going through Rejuvenation. It might stay dormant in her and she’ll be perfectly fine. The Hyenas won’t even notice her. . . .
But what if they did notice her? What if she was in trouble?
I owe her a life-debt, Keller told himself. She saved my life—I have to protect hers. Whether she wants me to or not.
Which could prove a problem since he was currently flat on his back in a hospital bed, with evil Nurse Janice standing over him and telling him he was going to be stuck there for the next month.
Turning his head, Keller looked out the hospital window. It was close to eight now and full dark. A large moon, still almost full, was rising over the treetops.
He knew what he had to do.
“I said, are you going to be still, or do I need to ask the doctor to order the restraints after all?” Nurse Janice’s strident voice cut into his thoughts.
Keller looked up at her.
“I’ll be still,” he said, trying to make his voice meek and obedient, though it went against everything in his nature to do so.
“That’s good, then.” She nodded, a look of victory on her narrow face. “You settle down, and I’ll be back to check on you in a little bit. I’ll bring a urinal in case you have to go.”
“I do not,” Keller said through gritted teeth, “have to ‘go,’ as you so delicately put it.”
“We’ll just see about that.” Nurse Janice gave him a sour smile. “It’s best to at least try, especially since you demanded that we remove the catheter.” She shook her head as though this had been a very foolish decision. “I still can’t believe your afternoon nurse agreed to that!”
His afternoon nurse had been much more reasonable, but Keller wasn’t about to say that. He stared at Nurse Janice in stony silence until at last, looking a little unnerved by his glare, she left the room. He waited until she was gone and then concentrated on the moon again.
There was only one way to get out of this hospital bed in time to get to Vegas and keep Samantha safe and that was to Shift. Shifting, or changing into his animal form, was extremely painful and taxing, but it would also help the healing process along dramatically.
The night before, Keller had shifted from Cougar to man in order to let Samantha treat him as a human patient, and also to start his body’s natural regenerative properties working. He hadn’t thought he had the strength to do it until he felt her soft hands in his fur and knew she wanted to help him. Then, somehow, he’d been able to muster the will to go through the Shift. He’d been naked and broken and helpless at her feet, and she had touched him, healed him . . .
Stop daydreaming and get on with it!
Keller snapped out of his memories of the curvy blond surgeon and focused on the moon. Supposedly she was a goddess—the one responsible for the start of the Shifter race way back in the Stone Age. The legend went that Lady Moon had consecrated a special cave where only the bravest warriors could enter. If a warrior had the courage to go into the holy cave on a full-moon night and draw or paint the picture of his spirit animal on the wall, he would be imbued with that animal’s strength and cunning, and be able to take its form on every full-moon night thereafter.
Keller wasn’t sure if he believed the legends, but it was as good a reason for Shifters as any, especially considering the fact that everyone who carried the Shifter Gene shifted into a creature from the Paleolithic era, or around the time of the last Ice Age.
Lady Moon, he thought, staring at the bright, silvery orb rising above the treetops. Give me the strength to bear this pain . . . to do what needs to be done in order to protect the one I owe a debt to.
Taking a deep breath, he let himself feel the tug of the moon—the pull of unseen hands molding his body into another shape. Shifting with broken bones was incredibly painful—he felt as though he was being pulled apart piece by piece. Clenching his teeth, he tried to bear the agony in silence. The last thing he needed was an audience. He felt his bones and muscles sliding over each other, his torso elongating, his ears moving up to the top of his head, his knees bending the opposite direction of a human’s.
The process pushed the tubes and wires and needles that had been invading his skin out, leaving the IV to drip on the floor. The cast on his forearm cracked open and the monitor he’d been hooked up to started beeping shrilly. Keller knew he had to hurry. Gazing at the moon, he tried to speed up the, process although his broken bones shrieked at him in protest, even as they knit together again, forced to heal by the intense transformation process.
At last the fur flowed over his skin, and he felt his senses sharpen as he took his Cougar form. The harsh smell of rubbing alcohol and disinfectants, as well as the bland odor of hospital food, invaded his sensitive Cougar nose, making him sneeze. The overhead fluorescents hurt his eyes, and his hearing was suddenly acute enough to pick up conversations happening all over the ICU.
“ . . . told him I’d put on restraints if he didn’t settle down and behave himself,” the unmistakable voice of Nurse Janice said.
“But isn’t he the Liam Keller, the CEO of a Fortune 500 company?” the voice of another nurse replied. “Isn’t he like a millionaire or a billionaire or something?”
“I don’t care who he is on the outside, in here he’s my patient, and he’ll damn well behave himself,” snapped Janice. “In a minute I have to go make him use the urinal before we have a mess in the middle of the night.”
“Oh, I don’t think you have to worry about that,” the other nurse, who sounded much nicer, said. “He seems remarkably alert considering the life-threatening injuries he sustained. He’s lucky he had such a talented trauma surgeon right by him when his accident happened.”
“Yes, Dr. Becker left strict instructions as to his care, which is one reason I need to go check on him. I know his kind—he’s going to make trouble unless I stay right on top of him all night.”
Uh-oh. Keller had thought he would have more time. Well, at least he knew now that he hadn’t been imagining the night nurse’s antipathy toward him. Hearing her footfalls coming closer to his room, he prepared to Shift back. But the intense Shift a moment before had drained him—though he tried, his body simply wasn’t ready to make such a dramatic change again so soon. Nurse Janice was coming nearer and nearer and there was nothing Keller could do. . . .
He thought of trying to hide under the bed, but there was no way his Cougar form would fit into the narrow gap between the bed railing and the floor. He couldn’t hide in the bathroom because the door was shut and he had no opposable thumbs to grasp the doorknob with. There was no place else to go except behind the ugly plaid hospital curtains, but since they didn’t come all the way down to the floor, and his Cougar form was about as big as a large horse, he didn’t think that would work either. Nurse Janice would have to be extremely unobservant not to notice a Clydesdale-sized lump in the green plaid fabric, with four furry paws sticking out beneath it.
Before he could think of another option, the narrow-faced nurse came into the room carrying a plastic urinal—basically just a wide mouthed bottle with a handle on it—in one hand.
“Now, Mr. Keller—” I know you said you don’t have to go but I think we should just tr—”
The words died in her throat and her eyes grew wide as she saw Keller in his Cougar form lounging lazily across the disarranged hospital bed. He shifted, and the bed creaked alarmingly under his dramatically increased weight.
“Oh . . . oh my goodness,” she whispered breathlessly, her sharp brown eyes going wide. “How . . . what . . . ?”
Though he didn’t think exactly like a human in his Cougar form, Keller retained his sense of humor. He didn’t make any move to scare the night nurse, but he did yawn, opening his mouth and curling his tongue lazily, showing off the six-i
nch-long, gleaming fangs that were the defining characteristic of an Ice Age Cougar.
Nurse Janice let out a bloodcurdling shriek and dropped the urinal on the floor with a clatter. Spinning around, she tore out of the ICU room, screaming that her patient had been eaten by a saber-toothed tiger.
Keller gave a sniff of annoyance. The mistake was a natural one, given that his kind of Cat had the same fangs a tiger would. But he still didn’t like being mistaken for another beast.
There was a hasty patter of feet outside his room and Keller knew it was time to change back. Now that he was mostly healed by his Shift, and he’d had a little time to recover, the process was much quicker, although still quite painful. It only took a few seconds before he was back in human form and scooting quickly under the sheets.
Several anxious faces peered into his room, and he pretended to be asleep.
“Mr. Keller?” asked someone timidly.
He opened his eyes, feigning annoyance.
“Don’t you people ever let anyone sleep around here? Every five minutes someone’s in here poking me or prodding me or trying to make me use the goddamn urinal, which I do not need by the way.”
“We’re sorry you were annoyed.” The speaker, who sounded like the woman Nurse Janice had been talking to, came into the room. “But everything we do is for your own good, Mr. Keller. Er . . .” She cleared her throat. “You haven’t seen an . . . an animal of any kind in here, have you?”
“An animal?” Keller widened his eyes, pretending to be incredulous. “What kind of animal?”
“Well . . . er . . .” The nurse looked at him, shamefaced. “Some kind of a . . . a . . .”
“A saber-toothed tiger!” The hysterical tones were from none other than Nurse Janice. She was standing in the doorway, pointing at his bed, her eyes wide. “It was here. Right here. I swear it!”
“A saber-toothed tiger? What is she talking about?” Keller demanded. “What kind of a place are you people running here anyway?” He frowned. “Either Nurse Janice here been taking her patients’ pain meds, or you’re in the habit of allowing strange animals to roam around the ICU halls. Either way, I can’t say it raises my opinion of this hospital in any way.”