On top of the pile, Nix shifted and called out, “Melina! Get in here!”
The door opened, the doc hurrying inside. Assessing the situation, she tucked the tranq gun into her coat and removed a huge hypodermic needle from an inside pocket.
“Since you’ve got him held steady, this drug will work much faster.” Uncapping the needle, she crouched next to the tiger’s head. “Sorry about this, Leo.”
The tiger’s eyes rolled in what Nix recognized as true fear. It was apparent the shifter had awakened in the hospital, confused and frightened, and so he’d gone on the attack. From what Nix knew of the man and his family, he wouldn’t have normally done such a thing if he were in his right mind.
When the tiger finally began to relax, Nix looked around the room. And spotted the streaks of crimson blood that left a stark trail across the tiled floor until it disappeared under the bed, which was shoved against the far wall.
“Here, put these back on.” Glancing up, Nix saw Aric standing there holding out his cargo shorts. He quickly pulled them on and returned his attention to the blood trail.
Heart pounding, Nix crawled over to the bed, telling himself that it couldn’t be Noah under there. The man was probably off somewhere else, attending to other duties. Steeling himself, he peered underneath and his world fell out from under him.
A familiar slim figure wearing scrubs was curled on his side facing Nix, blond hair falling into eyes that were closed. His arms were wrapped around himself protectively, though it was clearly too late for that. Noah’s left shoulder, arm, and what Nix could see of his side all the way to his hip was flayed open, and his mate was literally soaked in blood.
“Noah,” he gasped. “Oh, God.”
Scrambling up, Nix shoved the bed out of the way. His only thought was to get to Noah, and he dropped to the floor, taking the smaller man in his arms. Noah’s head lolled back and Nix tucked him against his chest, panic nearly choking him.
“We need help over here!” he yelled. Hands shaking, he smoothed a few wayward strands of hair from Noah’s sweet face. Then his mate blinked slowly and gazed up at him with dazed blue eyes.
“Nix?”
Clutching his mate tighter, he pressed a kiss to his forehead. “Hang on, baby. Help is coming.”
Another blink. “Did you just call me baby?”
Crap. “I didn’t mean—”
“You did. Can’t take it back.” Noah smiled up at him, which caused funny things to happen inside Nix’s chest. Then Noah’s pain-filled eyes slowly closed.
Nix shook him gently. “Noah? Come on, stay awake! Noah!”
“Here, let’s get him onto the gurney,” Melina said from beside him.
Nix hadn’t heard her approach, and he glanced at her, noting the worry etched on her face. Apparently the shifter had been dealt with and moved, because he was no longer in the room.
Good thing, because Nix would be tempted to rip the bastard apart for hurting Noah. He still might, if they didn’t keep the fucking tiger out of his path.
A pair of hands reached down, intending to take Noah from him. In an instant, Nix’s fangs dropped and he snarled, nearly taking a hunk of skin out of the offender.
“Whoa!” Aric exclaimed, backing up. “I’m just trying to help, man. They need to get him into surgery.”
Melina fixed him with a hard stare. “Now. He’s losing too much blood.”
Nix shook himself, mortified that he was keeping them from helping his mate. Standing, he let Aric assist him in placing Noah on the gurney. Then he could do nothing but watch helplessly as Melina and several other staff members wheeled him swiftly from the room. In a daze, he followed them into the hallway and watched until they disappeared around the corner.
“He’ll be all right,” Jax Law said, clamping a hand on his shoulder. “He’s got the best possible care around.”
When had Jax arrived? The big, goateed grey wolf shifter was the Pack’s RetroCog and Timebender—he could touch an object belonging to a person and “see” a past event connected with it. He could also bend time backwards by a matter of moments, and had done so once with almost catastrophic results for Aric.
Nix wished Jax would go back and keep Noah from being attacked. But he couldn’t ask, no matter how much his heart begged him to. Not after how the last time turned out.
“Did you see him? That motherfucker laid him open! He’s human, Jax! He won’t heal like us.” Suddenly something occurred to Nix and he grabbed Jax’s arm. “Where’s Zan?”
“He’s on the way,” his friend reassured him. “He was headed back from town when this happened.”
“How long?”
“Any minute.”
Zander Cole was the Pack’s Healer, and his skills were damned good. He’d saved their asses on many an occasion, and this time would be no different.
Any minute, however, turned out to be almost ten while Nix paced the floor outside the OR. The need to get in there and see his mate, check for himself that he was alive and would recover, was quite literally a living thing with his wolf snarling and clawing at his guts. He had a sinking suspicion, however, that it wasn’t just the wolf’s feelings at play.
Zan hurried through OR doors without stopping to speak to anyone, and a hand on Nix’s arm restrained him from going after the Healer.
Several of Nix’s Pack brothers were lounging around while they waited on news about Noah, and Nix appreciated the show of support. There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for his friends, and he knew the sentiment was returned. Plus, they all cared about Noah. The bubbly nurse had been hired going on two years ago, while Nix was being held in captivity and thought to be dead, and had quickly wormed his way into the hearts of everyone at the compound.
For him to be attacked was unthinkable.
More than three hours later, Melina finally came through the doors of the surgery, followed by Zan. They both smiled at Nix and the team in general, and Nix’s knees nearly went out from underneath him, his relief was so great.
“Noah’s going to be fine,” Melina said. “Zan closed the worst of the gashes on his arm, torso, and thigh, and assisted with some muscle repair. Otherwise Noah would’ve been looking at months of physical therapy. As it stands, he just needs a few days of rest before he comes back to work.”
“I’ll make sure he gets it,” Nix assured her. He heard a snicker, and scowled at his friends.
“Good. I’ll let you know when he’s settled in a room. If all goes well, I’ll release him to his quarters tomorrow to finish recovering.”
Nix had trouble finding his voice. “Melina, thank you.”
Her expression softened. “No need to thank me. We all love Noah.” Pausing, she pinned Nix with a pensive look. “Can I speak to you privately for a second?”
“Sure.” Worried, he followed as she led him around the corner and out of earshot of the others. “Is something else wrong with Noah? Something you didn’t want to say in front of anyone else?”
“No, nothing like that. I wanted to ask when you plan on telling Noah that you’re participating in the trial for the drug that suppresses the mating sickness.”
“How do you know I haven’t?”
Her brows shot up. “Are you joking? I know because he hasn’t shown up in my office ready to rip off my head for allowing you to do it. And you know good and damned well had you told me when you met your mate that it was our Noah, I never would’ve approved your participation. I should pull you now, before he gets hurt even worse than he already will.”
Nix felt sick to his stomach. “Please, Melina. I need a couple more weeks to get my head on straight, and this drug is allowing me that time. Then maybe I won’t need to tell him at all.”
“That’s a cop-out.” Angry disapproval flattened her mouth.
“Shit.” Blowing out a breath, he shook his head. “You’re righ
t. I’ll tell him, but not just yet. I need to figure out how to deal with this Bondmate thing, and then I will.”
“Do it, because the truth has a way of coming out. If it does, I can promise you it’ll blow up in both of our faces.”
With that, she turned and left to tend to her patients.
For a moment, Nix stared after her, stunned. She was right—if Noah found out before Nix said anything, he’d be devastated. Nix didn’t want him to get hurt. Nobody did.
We all love Noah.
Love. Did he love Noah? Somehow, in all the months of resisting his sweet mate’s lure, had he actually fallen without wanting to?
He was awfully afraid he knew the answer to that question.
God, I’m so fucked.
2
Noah came slowly awake, moving a bit in the bed. That was a mistake of epic proportions. Every muscle in his body felt like he’d been used as batting practice for a major league baseball game, and he was the ball.
“Oh my fucking gawd,” he groaned.
“I guess how are you feeling is a stupid question.”
That voice. Smooth, like whiskey and honey, it sent a pleasant shiver down his spine. Other places, too. He longed to wrap himself in the owner of that voice, sink into him until he could no longer tell they were two separate people. And thinking like that sure wasn’t doing his current predicament any good—now his dick was aching along with the rest of him.
Dammit.
Cracking his eyes open, he turned his head and peered at his wayward mate. To his surprise, Nix was gazing down at him with his brows furrowed, luminous green eyes stark with worry. The sight warmed Noah’s heart, giving him a bit more hope. Maybe the man wasn’t a lost cause after all.
For a moment, he allowed himself the luxury of drinking in the sight of his man. Well, technically his, anyway, because of the wolf Bondmate thing. Nix’s long, dark blond hair was loose around gorgeous face and bare shoulders, and holy shit—
“Why are you half naked?” Noah blurted.
Nix snorted, a corner of his mouth kicking up in amusement. “I was washing one of the SUVs in the hangar when we got the emergency page.”
“Now that’s a sight I wish I hadn’t missed,” he teased, arching a brow. “You, shirtless and barefoot, wearing nothing but those shorts, all wet and soapy.” He emphasized the last words by humming in appreciation, letting his gaze roam his mate’s fine form. What a form it was, too.
Nix’s face colored a bit as he shook his head. Noah just smiled, taking in that broad chest, which was sprinkled with just enough hair to be sexy and give Noah’s fingers something to play with. Nix might be tall and lean, but without his shirt on it was obvious that the man was deceptively strong. His entire body from his chest to his arms, stomach, and thighs, was roped with muscle, and his stomach sported a six-pack that could bounce a quarter to the ceiling.
Yeah, Nix was beautiful, but it had been many an enemy’s last mistake to assume he wasn’t every bit as lethal as his bigger, bulkier Pack brothers.
Noah shifted uncomfortably in the bed as his arousal threatened to reach DEFCON levels.
“Are you all right?” Nix asked, leaning close.
“I’m fine. Just bruised and hurting some.”
“You were lucky.” Nix scowled. “That fucking tiger nearly killed you! If Zan hadn’t gotten back here in time to heal you—”
“I would’ve been fine,” Noah said gently, placing his hand over his mate’s. “Scratched up and scarred to hell all over my body, thanks to those claws, but okay.”
“Eventually.” The word came out as an unhappy growl.
What could he say? It had been a close call. But right now he was more focused on the fact that Nix was seriously upset on his behalf. Damned if that didn’t cause a tendril of warmth to curl around his heart.
“Better watch out. I might start to think you care or something.”
“Of course I do! Why would you say something like that?”
“Gee, I can’t imagine.”
Blowing out a breath, Nix looked away for a few seconds, frustration stamped on his face. “You don’t understand, Noah.”
“So make me,” he practically begged. “What’s holding you back? Is it the glittery T-shirts and pink shoelaces? Do I need to dress like a lumberjack and stop using product in my hair? What?”
Nix shook his head. “It’s not you.”
“That’s the worst line ever. Is this the part where you tell me you were raised by a homophobic father with abusive tendencies?”
“Something like that.”
Well, shit. He’d only been half serious, but studying Nix’s miserable expression, he could see he’d hit closer to home than his mate would’ve liked. “Will you tell me about it?” he encouraged softly.
Silence. Then, after a moment, Nix said, “Not right now. My main concern is making sure you rest and finish healing. There’s time later for all the getting-to-know-each-other stuff.”
“Is there?”
“Yeah.”
Noah wondered about that. Given wolf-shifter biology, at some point Nix would grow weak and sick from not claiming his Bondmate. In fact, it should’ve started already. Time was one thing that should not be on their side.
What the hell was going on?
“Whenever you’re ready to talk, I’m here,” Noah said, instead of pushing the issue. He couldn’t force Nix into anything. That wouldn’t end well for either of them. “Any idea when the doc is springing me?”
Nix looked relieved at the change of subject. “She told me she’d release you tomorrow if everything checks out.”
“That’s good. Then I guess I can go back to work the day after tomorrow.”
“Um, no. She said you need a few days to rest, and I plan to make sure you follow orders.”
“Oh? And just how do you plan on doing that?”
Nix’s sexy grin took Noah’s breath away. “By not letting you out of my sight. You’re staying in my quarters, with me.”
“What?”
“You got a problem with that?”
A problem? With his mate taking charge—finally, thank fuck!—and showing him how much he cared? Not freaking likely!
“No, I don’t have a problem with it. But are you sure you won’t have an issue with us being in such close proximity?”
“You can take the bedroom, I’ll take the sofa.” Nix shrugged. “No big deal.”
Hurt speared Noah and he struggled not to show it. “Whatever.”
“Good, it’s settled. I’ll be back later to check on you.”
But Nix didn’t stand up to leave. Instead, he hesitated, then leaned over, closed the short distance between them . . .
And melded their lips together.
The impact was like a solar flare detonated inside him. Sweet baby Jesus! God, the man could kiss. He demonstrated just how awesome he was at it as he slowly took charge of Noah’s mouth, tongue slipping past his lips to explore. Nix’s hand cupped Noah’s cheek, and Noah leaned into his touch, almost whimpering with the need for more as he buried a hand in his mate’s long hair.
All too soon, Nix pulled back, breaking the kiss. But his thumb was stroking Noah’s face, and the look in his eyes was pure fire. For about five beautiful seconds, this was the man Noah longed for as his life partner. The self-assured partner who’d love, desire, and cherish him above all others.
Then Nix retracted his hand and the doubt crept back in, shadowing his eyes. Whatever, or whoever, had put that look there, Nix’s reactions represented a lifetime of suppressing who he was meant to be. Noah really had his work cut out for him.
“I gotta go.” Nix eased back and stood. He looked like a wolf with his paw caught in a bear trap.
“Okay. See you later.” Noah gave him what he hoped was a reassuring smile.
“I
’ll be back. And Noah? Don’t change how you dress, or anything about yourself,” he said quietly. “Not for me or anyone.”
With that, his mate turned and left. After the door shut behind him, Noah relaxed into the bedding and groaned. That man was going to be the death of him yet. Had any of the others had this much trouble getting on the same page with their mates?
Stupid question. Sure they had. Every single one of them had issues to get past before they could make things work, and it seemed he and Nix would be no different.
Bored, he cast about for something to do. It sucked being a patient instead of a nurse. His attention went to the rolling tray by the bed, and the plastic cup and water pitcher sitting on top of it. Reaching out, he pulled the tray over his lap and glanced toward the door. Melina or one of the nurses would probably check on him soon, and they might catch him playing with his gift.
But so what? He lived in a compound full of paranormal beings. Who cared if anyone saw him messing around with his miniscule abilities? They might give him a hard time because he hadn’t said anything about them, but not because he possessed them in the first place. Of course, his so-called powers were no big deal. In fact, his skills were downright embarrassing compared to the cool shit the others could do.
Placing the cup on its side, Noah stared at the object, concentrating. Focusing all his energy, he pointed his index finger at it and made a slow circular motion in the air. The cup began to turn in place in tandem with his finger. Chuckling, Noah made it spin faster. He didn’t have many talents, but this one, among a few other minor parlor tricks, had always made him laugh. His friends, too, when they were kids, or at least the very few he’d ever dared to show them to.
The words “parlor trick,” however, dissipated his good mood. Maybe if he could learn to perform bigger magic, like Kalen or Blue, he’d be more. More than a simple, weak human. Somebody his mate could be proud of.
Don’t change how you dress, or anything about yourself.
But Noah doubted he really meant that, deep down. How could he, when he could barely tolerate the thought of being Bondmates?