Ruby (15 page)

By noon Dwight had it down. He was
nervous as hell, but knowing that this was going to end well for a
lot of people made him feel much better about dying. After David
had left him in his office to rest up, he sat down and pulled out a
pad of legal paper and his favorite pen, the one that Josh had
given him when they’d signed their partnership to work
together.

“
My dearest friend, Josh,”
he began the letter. “Words alone cannot tell you how sorry I am….”
Dwight wrote until just before two, when David told him that Manson
was there. Teri, David told him, was coming in as well. The shit
was about to hit the fan.

It was now or never. Dwight just hoped
that he’d be able to finish his letter before it all went to hell
in a hand basket, as his grandda used to say.

~~~

Josh woke. He was surprised at how he
had awakened, and lay there for several seconds to try and figure
out what had startled him enough to go from sleep to wake so
quickly. He heard a person breathing evenly and turned to look.
Blair was staring at him as if he’d been woken up too. Blair looked
away first, and Josh had a feeling he was hiding laughing at
him.

“
How are you doing? Hurt
anywhere?” Josh started to ask him why he was in his bedroom when
he realized he had no idea where he was. “If it’s too much we can
do this later.”

“
What’s going on?” Josh
looked around the room. “Where am I and, more importantly, where is
Ruby?”

“
Which do you want me to
answer first?” For some reason Josh became scared. Not for him but
for Ruby. “She’s going to be fine.”

“
Going
to be fine? Which implies that she’s not now. What’s happened
to her?” He sat up and stretched. Josh felt something stir under
his skin and looked at Blair. “Tell me or so help me I’ll beat the
shit out of you.”

“
She attacked me. And she
can’t do that.” Josh stood up and realized that he was wearing a
pair of pants he’d never seen before. “They’re Thad’s, Diamond’s
mate’s. He was the only one that had some here you could
wear.”

“
And where is here?” Blair
told him he was at his house. “And Ruby? I’m assuming that she’s in
some sort of trouble for attacking you. What did you do to
her?”

“
I tried to help you.”
Josh had a nudge against his mind and tried to capture the thought
before it disappeared. “It’ll come to you soon. But for now, I want
to talk to you about what is happening with Dwight and the
Feds.”

“
No. We’ll talk about that
later. Where is she? I have to…no, I really need to see her.” Blair
nodded but didn’t say anything else. “I mean it, Blair, I need to
see her.”

“
She bit you, do you
remember that?” Josh rubbed his hand over his belly when a sudden
image of her wolf leaping at him with her mouth wide open entered
his mind. “I see that some of it’s coming back to you. Tell me what
it is you remember and then I’ll fill in the blanks. It’ll be
easier on your mind if you do this on your own.”

“
We were…we were making
love. And something happened. I don’t know…she just disappeared and
her wolf was there. She was…I was going to say pissed, but that
wasn’t it. She was needy. For me.” Blair nodded again. “Could you
act less like a bobble head and tell me what the fuck is going
on?”

“
She converted you. Her
wolf did. When I felt her do it, I was thrilled. I had talked to
her during the afternoon about it and when you left, I thought she
was going to tell you what I’d said. Then I felt the conversion
happening and asked one of the guys to go with me. I’d even brought
her clothing to change into.” Josh remembered her telling him
something about her wolf. “She had no control over her, she told me
when I got there. You were already out of it. Your body was working
to convert, but it was having a difficult time. She was…her wolf
was protecting you. And when I tried to get her to leave you so
that I could bring you inside, her wolf attacked.
Viciously.”

“
I thought as her alpha
that she wasn’t able to do that. That for some reason she has to do
whatever you tell her.” Blair nodded again, then laughed when Josh
huffed. “Seriously, less nodding and more words. I’m terrified for
her and honestly want to attack you myself.”

He sat down then. It occurred to him
what Blair had said. He was a wolf now. A fucking wolf. As he
thought about the thing inside of him, the feeling that something
was moving along his skin had him looking at his arms. The fur
seemed to move over his arm like a wave in the ocean. It was light,
like the hair on his head but denser.

“
That’s your wolf. He’s
trying to tell you that things are okay, he’s got your back.” Josh,
too overwhelmed to speak, nodded this time. “Josh, she won’t heal
herself. Ruby is very ill and she won’t heal herself for some
reason. We think…I’m pretty sure she’s punishing herself because
she’d taken you and that she attacked me. Her wolf…Ruby is afraid
of her wolf.”

Josh stood then. If Ruby was hurt,
then he needed to be with her. He asked Blair to take him to her,
but the big man said he had to talk to him first.

“
Please? I’m begging you
to take me to her.” Blair stood up and looked at him. Josh was
suddenly afraid, terrified if he was honest with himself. “How
bad?”

“
I shifted when she
attacked. My wolf is bigger than hers and he was protecting me. She
was going to kill me.” Josh asked him to go on. “I hurt her enough
that for the first few hours, we thought she was going to
die.”

“
When did this happen?”
Blair told him five days ago. “And she’s been where since? You have
her somewhere she can’t harm herself, I take it.”

“
In the sublevels. There’s
a cell there that we put her wolf in when she was taken down. And
now she won’t come out and she won’t shift either. If she does, in
her weakened state now, we worry that it might kill her anyway.”
They were moving down the hall, and he felt his body, a foreign
thing to him now, begin to shift and stretch in ways he’d never
felt before. “I never meant to hurt her the way I did.”

“
I don’t know you very
well, but I know that about you.” He had to stop at the top of the
basement stairs. “Why do I feel like I’m about to leap out of my
skin? Do you feel this way all the fucking time?”

“
Your wolf needs to
protect what he considers his. He knows who I am and what I am to
him, so he won’t attack me. At least I hope not, but he does know
that she’s hurt. His mate is all he wants to see right now.” Josh
asked him if he should just let him go. “If you want. But I think
you can pull her wolf when you shift in front of her. At least
that’s what I’m hoping.”

As he moved down the stairs, he could
smell her…her illness, her weakness. The closer he got to the cell
he knew she was in, he also realized he could hear her heart
beating, and though he was no doctor, he knew that it was entirely
too slow for her. Sapphire and Mrs. Erickson, their grandmother,
were seated just inside the smallish room.

“
She’s resting now.” Josh
nodded and moved into the room when Mrs. Erickson spoke softly.
“She’s not going to make it, I’m afraid.”

“
She will.” She kissed him
on the cheek as she left them, taking Sapphire and Blair with her.
Josh sat down on the floor next to the bed she was laying on and
looked at his love.

“
Hello.” She didn’t open
her eyes when she spoke, but the smile made him feel as if the
world was set right on its axis. “I so sorry.”

“
For what?” She told him
for hurting him. “I don’t hurt other than the fact that you’re not
well. Why don’t you shift and let’s go out and play? I need you to
show me the ropes.”

“
I hurt Blair. I didn’t
mean to, but my wolf wouldn’t listen to me.” Her voice, weak and
soft, made his heart ache in ways he’d never thought could happen
now that he’d found someone to fill it for him. “He will hate me
forever. I will hate me forever.”

“
I doubt that. And you
have no reason to hate yourself. You were protecting me. As you
should. I’m a novice at this crap, and I need some big ass wolf
bitch to keep me safe.” He felt his wolf stir along his skin and
wondered if Blair was right; if he shifted, she would. “My wolf
wants you. He wants to come out, and it hurts me that yours
won’t.”

“
Don’t shift.” She knew.
That was all he could think of was that she knew if his came out,
hers would as well. “I’m not feeling very well, and I’d like you to
just let me rest.”

“
No. I don’t think so.” He
stood up and pulled off his pants. Josh had no idea what to do now,
but thought about the being that was there sliding hard over him.
Closing his eyes, he could see him, his wolf, and Josh simply let
him go. When the wolf leapt at him, seemingly as if he were about
to attack, Josh felt it was the right thing to do.

He heard her yell at him. Josh was
waiting for the pain, anticipating it so hard that he never
understood what she was saying. It wasn’t until he stood up, or at
least tried to stand up, that he realized she’d been telling him
no, not to shift. Christ, how the hell did dogs do this? He fell
twice, trying to get his feet to work.

What have you done?
He was wondering the same thing when he looked up
at her.
Do you have any idea how much she
wants you?

Her wolf was standing on the bed in
front of him, and she was snarling at him. Josh moved his
hands…well, paws, he supposed…up on the bed too, and rubbed his
head over her chest. His wolf immediately calmed down, but he
wanted her to touch him back. When he nipped at her shoulder she
tried to push him away, but Josh’s wolf, he discovered, was bigger
than hers and a good deal stronger. Using his head, he pushed her
off the bed, then stood by while she paced back and forth in front
of him.

You just had to be the
alpha, didn’t you?
Josh had no idea what
the hell she was talking about, but at least she was sounding
stronger.
Couldn’t just let me go. You
just had to shift and pull my wolf. Why? Why the hell couldn’t you
have just gone about your business and left me the fuck
alone?

Because I love you.
She stopped pacing and turned to look at
him.
Yeah, surprised me too, but I do love
you. I think…no, I’m positive that I’ve loved you for my entire
life. I’ve just been waiting for you to come along and love me
back.

Don’t be ridiculous. You
said yourself that you didn’t love me.
Josh thought about it for a second and smiled at her as a
thought occurred to him.
You have any idea
how sappy you look right now?

Thank you. But you never
told me that you wouldn’t love me. You just said you didn’t. Well,
I love you now, and I’m pretty sure you love me too.
Josh watched her for some sort of clue as to her
feelings, but then he realized he could feel her emotions. She was
terrified.
I’m afraid too.

She snorted.
I’m not afraid of you. I’m more experienced in
this stuff. You’ll be fine. But I don’t love you.

Yes you do.
He moved up beside her.
You love me very much. And have for a while now. But you’re
afraid that I won’t love you. That…why are you afraid of me not
loving you?

You’ve been in love
before. I’ve never even…I don’t date.
He
thought it was funny that someone as gorgeous as her didn’t date.
Then she explained.
I went straight from
high school, taking college classes at night, to full-time student
again. I started out as a nurse, thinking that would be what I was
for the rest of my life. Diamond helped me decide on my course of
action. I wanted to be a doctor from the moment I had a clinical
take me to the operating room.

You’re a good doctor. A
better surgeon. Others at the hospital told me that you’re a good
person too. A doctor that will not run over her nurses and treats
them like equals.
She looked at
him.
I had to know who was caring for my
sister. And Jenna, your surgical nurse, said that you took care of
Bri’s infertility problem. Thank you for that.

Anyone would have done the
same thing.
Josh doubted that. Most people
he knew did what they needed and that was all. She went above what
was necessary. It was one of the many reasons he loved her.
I’m going to be punished, severely, for what I
did to Blair. He may…he will be well within his rights to ban me
from the pack.

He’s as broken up about
this as you are.
She snorted again, and he
had to laugh.
You do that a great deal. Is
it to tell me I’m full of shit or that you have a cold?

Wolves don’t get colds.
And you are full of shit. He as much told me that I was going to
have to pay for my crimes. Attacking an alpha is a crime not just
against Blair but the entire pack.
Josh
had no idea. He knew less about being a wolf than he did about how
to make a meal.
Why are you doing
this?

I told you. I love
you.
He moved to the door, needing to run.
And Josh was quite proud of himself in that he only stumbled twice
getting there.
Come on out and show me how
to run. I’ve barely got walking down. Running should be a blast to
watch.