The Alpha Men's Secret Club 5: Final Capture: A Shockingly Hot BBW Paranormal Shifter Romance (9 page)

24

It took three days, but Kate gradually improved. Her vital signs held steady and her pallor and skin turgor got better. The doctors were able to wean her off the ventilator and she could breathe on her own – a major coup.

Rust was at her bedside when her eyes fluttered open.

He immediately bounded up. He clutched her hand.

“Kate?”

Her eyelids fluttered. Her mouth opened, but no sound came out.

“Kate, it’s OK. Take your time. I’m right here.”

His eyes blurred with tears. He rarely cried as an adult, but he had cried plenty these past few days. He had lost so much and it had become almost unbearable.

Almost. Until now.

The only reason he was still going on now was because of Kate. Kate needed him, and he would never let her down. That, and the fact he had to take revenge on those who did this to her.

He couldn’t let go of Kate’s hand. He knew that the ventilator tube had left her throat sore and swollen and so she might have difficulty speaking. What if the wolfsbane did something to her mind, the way the Electroshock therapy did something to his? What if it erased her memories of him?

“Rust?” she whispered.

He was squeezing her fingers so hard he was sure it must have hurt her.

“I’m right here.”

“Wh-what happened?” Her voice was very weak.

“You were in a coma . . . but you’re all right now. Everything’s going to be all right.”

“The baby.”

Her other hand moved to her belly.

His heart sank. “No, Kate, don’t.”

He caught her other hand. Her skin was so very cold.

Her eyes arrested his.

“Something’s happened to the baby, hasn’t it?” she said.

“You were very ill.” He debated how much to tell her.

“What happened?” she cried. “You’ve got to tell me.”

She tried to wrest her hands away from his.

“No, Kate, don’t do that. I’ll tell you everything. We had to abort the pregnancy.” He didn’t want to say ‘baby’. “You were too ill. If we didn’t abort, you would have both died.”

He watched her face. Her expression flitted from incomprehension to understanding, and then to shock and horror. He knew she needed to go through this, just as he had. The main difference was that he was right here with her to help her through this.

She began to wail, and the sound of her cry was like that of a wistful spirit in a howling wind. The sound pierced his bones. And he felt her pain every bit as acutely as though it was his.

“Kate,” he murmured. “Kate.”

He didn’t care about her drips and tubes and sensors. He took her in his arms over the guard rail on her hospital bed. Her EKG became erratic, triggering all sorts of alarms.

The nurse came rushing in.

“Professor O’Brien, I must ask you to refrain . . . oh, she’s awake!”

Kate was sobbing hard. Her body shook and shuddered against his. He had no words to say. He wanted that baby as much as she did.

He finally whispered, “Please . . . just leave us alone for a while. She will be all right. I promise.”

“You sure?”

“Yes.”

“OK. But just for a while. I have to tell the doctor she’s awake.”

The nurse quietly left them alone in the room as Kate cried her heartache and soul ache out.

25

Kate looked out into the vista of mountain and stream from her hilltop vantage.

It had been two months. Two months of absolute calm in which they could recover, both physically and emotionally. She was regaining her strength day by day, but it was a slow painful process. The wolfsbane had ravaged her kidneys and she had gone into acute renal failure. She had to be dialysed, but luckily, the doctors said it was reversible.

In addition, the poison had ravaged her heart and her liver. It was a good thing that the antidote Rust concocted from the purple flower saved her in time. Still, her heart function was not what it used to be, and her liver still showed elevated enzymes. It was a brutal poisoning she had to slowly recover from and the doctors warned her it might take a year or two.

Oh, and there was one more thing.

She could never have children again.

She was glad to be alive, and yet, when she thought of this new development, she went into heartsick mode all over again.

“It doesn’t matter,” Rust assured her. “I love you all the same. I don’t care if you can’t have children. I was resigned to the fact I would never father a child anyway.”

But she felt inadequate, like she was missing a chromosome.

“Talk to me,” he encouraged her – the psychologist that he was.

She did, but it was difficult. He was a man. He would never understand what it was like to have his child growing inside her womb. He would never understand how, for the longest time, she longed for him so much that she would have done anything to keep him.

He decided he wasn’t helping her after a week, and he asked, “Would you like to talk to another psychologist?”

“Yes,” she said gratefully. “It’s not that I don’t love you – ”

“I know. I understand. I’m too close to the problem.” He gazed at her sadly. “I
am
the problem. If you hadn’t known me, then none of this would have happened to you.”

“No,” she said with force. “Don’t ever say that. If there’s one thing I never regretted, it’s knowing and loving you. I wouldn’t have lived my life any other way.”

They were in a safe house in a safe location, guarded twenty-four seven by FBI agents. They hadn’t seen Alyssa in a long time. Her job was in New York, rounding up the shifter suspects. She was keeping her promise to Rust.

At the same time, Rust was booked up for every show and interview in the universe, it seemed. Larry King. Leno. Letterman. Ellen. Jimmy Kimmel. Oprah. Authors were lining up, wanting to write his life story. Historians wanted to study his shifter lore.

Rita Cunningham had started a publicity arm and she self-appointed herself to be in charge of Rust’s appearances.

“Fancy that,” Rust remarked. “I actually have a publicist. I’m becoming someone I never thought I’d be in a million years.”

It was not easy to prosecute Aaron Mitchell and the Shifter Council members, but Rust already knew that. There was no evidence, for one, that they were connected to the murders. Nevertheless, that was not what Rust intended. He intended to expose them, and in that, he had succeeded.

He wrestled with his conscience, of course, he told her.

“It was the very thing I allowed myself to be arrested for. The very thing I wanted to protect – the shifter community in large.”

“But they decided you were too much of a wildcard.” It was amazing at how calmly she could talk about it now. “And to think I went to Aaron Mitchell for help. Do you think there’s any chance they were not guilty?”

“No. The wolfsbane is a shifter poison. The shifters are at the root of this, and no shifter entity has more clout and power than the Council.” His tone grew angry again. “I know why they felt they had to do it, but it was cruel and unnecessary. And to do that to you . . . and our child. I couldn’t objectify or rationalize it anymore. I just . . . couldn’t.”

She understood. They did this to
her
. And Moira and Connor. And the unnamed baby. She couldn’t forgive them either.

Especially Aaron Mitchell.

Rust said, “So I have to do what I’m doing now. I exposed them. I exposed a three thousand year old secret. I have to mitigate this. I have to make sure the humans don’t see us as abominations or demons. And if they can put a face to all this mess I created, then maybe we have a shot at integration. Does that make sense?”

Kate gazed at his handsome and earnest face – an extremely saleable face. Yes, that was the face of a superstar. The cover boy of the shifter world.

“I believe you of all people can do it,” she said.

He put his arm around her shoulders. “Only if you’re here with me.”

There was a different timber to his voice when he said this. She turned her face towards him in curiosity.

He cleared his throat and suddenly turned pink.

She was amazed.

Rust never blushed!

He said, “I know I haven’t always been the greatest boyfriend in the world. In fact, there were times when I treated you really badly. I never understood why you stuck with me throughout it all.”

Her throat went dry. “I stuck with you because I knew you would eventually see that I was the only one for you, and that you would eventually come to love me as much as I love you.”

“I do. I do love you. I’ve loved you for a long time. Longer than you know, and certainly for a much longer time than when I finally said it to you.” He paused. “So . . . do you want to be married to me, Kate Penney? I don’t think I’ll be the best husband in the world, but I’ll certainly give it my best shot.”

She was speechless, unable to believe her ears.

He said in a rush, “You don’t have to answer right away. I know these past few weeks have been tough for you. And I know I can’t offer you much in the way of freedom, or anonymity, or – ”

She placed her finger on his lips.

“Hush,” she said. “Yes.”

“‘Yes’ in ‘I want to marry you’ or ‘yes’ in ‘I know you can’t offer me much’?”

“Yes, I want to marry you. I’ve wanted to marry you from the moment I laid eyes on you . . . back before you knew I existed. I’ve wanted to marry you since I first entered your class. Yes . . . and all those things.”

She stopped, wondering if she had given too much away.

For answer, he grabbed her and kissed her. Long, deeply – on the lips. It was a kiss of hope, and of love, and of all the things which could and would be promised by their union.

When they parted for air, she smiled at him, and he smiled back. And they knew that together, whatever the world threw at them, they would prevail as a couple.

EPILOGUE

Alyssa saw them from afar at the courthouse. They were there as witnesses for the prosecution of Aaron Mitchell and the other members of the Shifter Council.

So much had happened since the murders ten months ago. Shifters had come out of the woodwork everywhere in the world.

Some did so for their fifteen seconds of fame after seeing how Rust O’Brien had exploded into the world’s consciousness (and the multiple endorsement offers he was getting from the big firms – from Puma to Nike to Coca-Cola – not to mention all those movie and HBO series offers).

Some, like Carlo Estez, fared better than others in this aspect. He was a natural in front of the camera, and so was his human girlfriend, the marginally slutty Fiona Montgomery.

The humans responded in various ways. Some started virtual Shifter Friends groups, which trended on Twitter and populated websites. Michaela, Kate’s best friend, was one such founder, and she wore the ‘Friends’ badge proudly everywhere in campus.

Yet others started hate groups. And Bridging groups. And groupies – girls who hung out with shifter men, hoping to procreate with them.

Everyone had an opinion on the shifters, and the shifters had opinions on everything.

Such as the fate of Aaron Mitchell and the Shifter Council. Did they have a right to execute the O’Briens to protect their identities? It was a hot topic at TV talk shows. ‘#shifter’ hadn’t left the Twitter Top 10 since this all began.

Rust and Kate saw Alyssa and waved.

Oops. She wasn’t planning to bump into them this way, but it was too late. She was glad there were no hard feelings between them and herself. She had done a lot to bring the Council to court. She wasn’t sure they would be brought to justice. The evidence was circumstantial, to say the least, and they never found the guy who actually poisoned the steaks.

But at least they were in court.

Rust and Kate came ambling up.

“Alyssa,” Rust said. “Haven’t seen you for . . . well, since.”

He smiled, and her heart swelled with familiarity and emotion.

God, she was still in love with him.

“Hello, Alyssa,” Kate said warmly.

They shook hands all round.

“Thank you for doing this.” Rust indicated the ceiling of the courthouse.

“It’s the right thing to do,” Alyssa said. “I’ve seen you both around. A lot. Congratulations on the wedding.”

“Thank you,” Kate said. She linked her arm with Rust’s. “Rita felt our wedding needed to be televised to a worldwide audience so that humans everywhere can see the union of our species, and how it can be possible.”

“It achieved even higher ratings than the Royal Wedding. Your gown was absolutely beautiful. Vera Wang, wasn’t it?” Alyssa wouldn’t know a Vera Wang when she saw it, but the publicity was
that
great.

“Yes. I keep getting clothes and shoes from designers who want to show their gowns off on me. And I don’t even wear gowns most of the time.”

Alyssa felt a pang. Kate envy again. It was becoming a habit.

“We have a lot to catch up,” Rust said.

“Sure. Let’s do it after the session.”

They all went into the courtroom together, and Alyssa felt almost a part of their family.

*

Home for Alyssa was a modest New York apartment. She had asked to be put off active duty. She had other priorities these days.

She unlocked the door.

The babysitter looked up from the sofa. “You’re home early.”

“And you’re supposed to latch this door.”

The babysitter was holding the baby in her arms. Alyssa felt a rush of love when she gazed upon Hank. He was a month old, and he was her son.

Hers and Rust’s.

She didn’t know if there were other half-shifter babies in the world, if history had engendered them. But Hank was hers.

Maybe one day she would tell Rust.

And maybe she wouldn’t.

As she took Hank in her arms, all felt right in her world.