Awaken a Wolf (3 page)

Her lips felt thick, her tongue swelling in her mouth as her eyes rolled back in her head.  Adam cursed and began to run, shouting for someone to open the clinic doors.

Then there was nothing.

Chapter 4

Adam had never known fear like he did as his mate’s eyes rolled back in her head and she went limp in his arms.  He barked at Solan to open the clinic doors as he raced toward the building, cradling her close and praying to the spirits of their ancestors that she would recover.  He wanted to be pissed that she’d walked away with the tiger, because he knew her body was reacting to meeting him with a mild form of heat, but right now all he could think was that she might die.  The sharp, metallic scent of her blood filled his nose.

Solan wrenched open the doors, and Adam raced inside, bellowing for Whalen.

“What happened?” Whalen asked as he met them in the hallway.  Taking one look at her, he shouted, “This way!” and moved quickly down the hall.

Adam’s heart leapt into his throat as he raced behind Whalen and into a patient room.

“Put her on the bed,” Whalen said, pressing a button over the bed that made a sharp beeping sound out in the hallway.

“What’s happening to her?” Adam demanded.  He laid her gently on the bed, mindful of the gashes on her right arm.  There was so much blood.  Too much.

Whalen looked at him and then over his shoulder as the sound of rushing feet signaled other staff members racing into the room.  “Did her tiger friend scratch her?”

“Yes,” Adam said.

“It’s dangerous.  Move back and let us work.”

“You have to save her,” Adam said, snarling.

“We will,” Whalen said, but although the words were brave, the intensity behind them told Adam that the doctor wasn’t so sure he could.

Stepping back, he let the other people take over, his fingers slowly slipping off Cinder’s skin until he had no contact with her.  His head buzzed, rage coloring his vision as he spun on his heels and stormed out into the clinic.  He could smell the cat in the building and wanted to deal with him.

“You!” the cat snarled from where he knelt between Adam’s wolves.  He already sported a busted lip and black eye, but Adam’s own males showed injuries as well, so the cat had put up a good fight even though he was outnumbered eight to one.

“How do you know my mate?” Adam demanded.

The cat looked surprised.  “Mate?  Cinder?”

Adam nodded sharply.

The cat seemed to relax.  “Oh, shit.”

Brick, who had a tight grip on the cat’s shoulder, said, “Oh shit what?”

“She said she felt weird.  She smelled like…well, I don’t know what she smelled like exactly.  Kind of like a heat cycle but stronger. I didn’t know she was your mate or I wouldn’t have tried to take her away or kept your people from getting close.”

“Why did you?”  Adam didn’t want to think about the cat and Cinder leaving and having sex.  She said she had a date.  Just how friendly were they?

“Because she asked me to.  She was agitated and then she was in pain.  I thought she wanted to have sex, but she didn’t want me touching her.”

“Who is she to you?”

“My friend and roommate.  I’m one of her coven guards.  But I think you know that already, don’t you?”

“Excuse me?”

“You told Leo to stay away, right?  You already know everything about her that Leo could tell you, so you know that we live together and fuck around.”

Adam bared his teeth.  “Don’t change the subject.”

“I’m not.  Look, she’s my friend and she’s injured.  Until she’s okay and she tells me to take a walk, I’m not going anywhere.”

Brick said, “What do you want us to do?”

“Let him up.”

Brick’s brow rose in disbelief, but Adam wasn’t interested in explaining himself at the moment.  He looked over his shoulder to where doctors were trying to save his mate.  The cat was the least of his worries.  For now.

* * * * *

Two hours later, Adam was sitting in Whalen’s office, waiting for news on his mate.  The cat, Cyrus, was in the waiting room, along with two wolves to make sure he didn’t try to get into Cinder’s room.  Adam wasn’t sure he wouldn’t slam his fist through the cat’s smug face if he saw him again.  Every time he met Cyrus’s eyes, there was accusation in the gaze.  Adam had fucked up.  He’d chosen a bad place to hold a mate meeting.

Exhaling loudly, he rested his head on the back of the chair and stared at the ceiling.

“She’ll forgive you,” Angie said softly from where she sat in the office.  She had come with his parents, after he’d told them what happened.

“Maybe.”

“You’re awesome.  Of course she will.”

Brick snorted and Adam lifted his head and glared at him.  Brick’s lips slammed together swiftly, and he looked down at the floor.

“You’re a little biased, sis.”

She grinned.  “Maybe, but you’re still pretty cool.  I don’t get what the tiger is still doing here.  They’re not mates and they’re not even in a relationship by human standards.”

“They’re friends.  I can’t keep him away from her right now or she might hate me more.”

“Since when do you care about that kind of thing?” Angie asked.

“What?”

“She’s yours.  You’re not human and neither is she.  When she wakes up, she’ll realize what you are and won’t want to be around that tiger anyway.”

He smiled at his sister.  She was sweet, even if she had a rose-colored-glasses outlook on life.

Before he could think of something to say, Whalen came to the door.

“You can see her now, Alpha.”

Adam stood immediately and followed Whalen to the patient room.  His mate lay on the bed, her skin as pale as the white sheets.  Tubes were taped to the top of one hand, and her right arm was bandaged.  Someone had dressed her in a hospital gown.  She was unmoving except for the rise and fall of her chest.

“She’s going to be okay?”  His voice was tight.  He couldn’t hide the worry.

“Yes.  She had a severe allergic reaction to the venom in Cyrus’s claws.  It overwhelmed her system, and I won’t lie.  She nearly died.”

Adam gingerly held her hand, staring at the tubes and monitors hooked to her.  “I didn’t know tiger claws had venom.”

“All cats do to an extent.  Under normal circumstances, if Cyrus had pricked her skin, she wouldn’t have had any reaction.  But things being what they are, her body almost shut down for good.”

Things being what they are?

Her hand was cold.  He reached for the blanket folded at the bottom of the bed and drew it up over her.  “What do you mean?”

Whalen folded his arms and looked at Cinder.  “I know she’s your mate and she’s Wiccan, but something is happening because of both of those facts.  What it is, I don’t know, but her reaction was so severe that there has to be an underlying explanation.  Why would an otherwise non-allergic female suddenly have a near-death experience because of a scratch?”

Adam’s lip curled.  “It was hardly a scratch.  He shredded her arm.”

Bandages covered the gashes.  Adam could still see the wound in his mind’s eye, her skin coated with dark-red blood.

“I simply meant that she had an excessive reaction.  I think something more is going on here aside from her being your mate.  When Wiccans and shifters mate, the Wiccan doesn’t change, but Cinder appears to be changing.”

Adam lifted his head and stared at the doctor.  “Changing?  What do you mean?”

“Her eyes were golden for a while.  When I checked her pupils, they were bright gold.  They’re back to their normal color now, but that’s weird.”

“She’s part wolf, though.  Leo said her father was a shifter.”

“I don’t know, Adam.  She’s technically thirty-one.  It’s unheard of for a shifter to shift so late in life.  If she were going to shift, she would have in her teens.”

Adam blew out a breath and turned his attention back to her.  “How long will she be out?”

“A day maybe.  She’ll come out of it when her body is ready.”

Nodding, he said, “Tell the cat he can come in, and tell Brick that I want the elders here.  And thank you for saving my mate.”

“She’s my alpha too.”

Adam was alone with his mate for only a few minutes before the cat hurried in and stood on the other side of her bed.  Brick and the other pack members stood outside in the hallway.

“She’s my mate,” Adam said.

“I know that already.”  Cyrus’s voice was tight and angry, but Adam didn’t care.

“Things will be different for her now.  You understand that, right?”

Cyrus glared at him.  “She’s not one of your minions you can order around.  Just because you say
mate
doesn’t mean that she’ll understand it.”

Adam wanted to tell Cyrus to shut up or he’d throw him through the window.  Or both maybe.  What he did instead was lean over and kiss Cinder’s forehead, inhaling her melted sugar scent.  “I need your keys,” he said to Cyrus as he straightened.

“What?”

“She needs clothes when she wakes up.  Unless you want me to break into your place, give me your keys.”

Cyrus dug through his pocket with an aggravated snarl.  “Tell your people to stay out of my room.”

Adam caught the keys that Cyrus threw at him and walked out of the room.  It was the most difficult thing he’d done, but he didn’t particularly want to be around the cat at the moment and there were things to do.

* * * * *

“Come on back, sweetheart.”

Someone’s voice pushed through the dark haze surrounding Cinder and beckoned her forward, tugging on the back of her neck as though she was a wayward puppy that needed instruction.

She tried to slip back into the darkness, but the voice was insistent and she felt compelled to listen.  It took some effort, but she was able to force open her eyes.  She found herself staring up at the plain, white ceiling tiles of one of the patient rooms in the clinic.  She heard someone pacing nearby, and farther away, people were arguing.

“Hey,” Adam said, leaning over the rail of the hospital bed, his dark hair sweeping forward over his brow.  It made him look boyishly sweet, and for one glaring moment, she was tempted to reach for him and seek comfort in his arms.

What the hell is wrong with me?

Her voice rasped out past dry lips.  “Where is Cyrus?”

Adam’s smile slipped and he straightened.  “He’s out in the hallway.”

He poured a cup of water for her from a pitcher on the nearby table and without asking, cupped the back of her head and lifted her enough so she could drink from it.  It was almost sweet, except for the grimace on his face.

She wasn’t sure why she felt compelled to explain anything, but she said, “He’s my friend.”

“Your lover,” he sneered.

Drawing the covers up tighter to her chest, she glared up at him.  “Who I take to bed isn’t any of your concern.”

He wrapped both hands around the rail of the bed and leaned over.  “It is entirely my concern, Cinder.  We’re mates.  Why do you think you’re so drawn to me?  Why do you think your libido went haywire after we met?”

“I’m not drawn to you,” she said stiffly.

“Liar,” he snarled.

Her mouth dropped open.

“I’m sorry you were hurt, but my wolves were doing what they needed to keep you safe.”

“I don’t need your protection, Adam.”

“Don’t you?  The full moon is in nine days.  How do you think you’ll feel that night?  Your cat can’t satisfy you, and you know why.”

She pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes.  “Cyrus satisfies me just fine.  In fact, we live together.  So why don’t you just take off and let my
lover
take me home.”

He bit back a snarl, his hands flexing on the plastic rail until it cracked under the pressure.  He released his hands immediately and straightened.  “You’re
my
mate, Cinder.  I scented you across the bar on Friday night, and I knew immediately that you were meant to be mine.  The fact that you’re also a witch is a bonus.  Our pack needs a
Sahri
for the full moon gatherings.  Come this full moon, if you’re not by my side where you belong, what you felt tonight is only the tip of the iceberg.  Only mates can satisfy each other, Cinder.  And it goes both ways.”

“What happened to Leo?”

He cracked his neck before answering.  “Once we’re mated, you can resume a platonic friendship with whomever you like.  Until then, you’re not to be around any unmated males.”

“You can’t tell me who I can be friends with,” she argued.

His brow arched.  “Can’t I?”

As he turned to walk toward the door, part of her wanted to call him back and ask him to stay with her.  She remembered feeling safe in his arms, and she liked that feeling.  But the rest of her, the part that felt like it was slowly being taken over by this new primal side, wanted to tell him to go to hell in the worst way.  While an internal battle raged, he opened the door and let in Cyrus and Dr. Whalen.