Hart’s Redemption (Lycan Detective Duet #2)

Chapter 1

Elijah

Josh’s plush mouth molded to mine, stealing my soft moan as his tongue slipped past my lips. His fingers, always slightly cooler than my normal body heat, dipped beneath my shirt to trace enticing patterns across my back.

I pressed him against the wall and kissed him harder.

His hands gave up their mapping so he could wrap his arms around my neck and pull me closer. He arched off the wall, angling his hips forward to rub against me.

I groaned and dug my fingers into his sides, already desperate for more. I’d never met anyone who could wrap me up so tight, so fast, in my entire life. Joshua Hart had a gift.

He let out a deep moan of his own as my lips traveled down his neck to taste his skin. His heavy breathing was a passionate caress on my ear, while the smell of him wrought havoc on my control.

I inhaled deeply, loving his true scent and the way it simultaneously put me at ease and drove me completely wild. The sweet smell of earth and subtle hints of bergamot played beneath my skin, lighting me up from the inside.

“Werewolves and smell.” Josh’s light chuckle accompanied the tease.

I groaned at the sound. I loved his laugh, loved when he was carefree and playful. Stars, I loved everything about this man, and I never told him.

And now it’s too late.

The thought stalled my pursuit of tasting every inch of him. His fingers slipped through my hair and gently guided my mouth back to his. He dragged out several sweet kisses, but the damage was already done, the spell broken.

I sighed and rested my forehead against his.

His lithe fingers danced along my jaw and brushed the hair back from my face. “What’s the matter, baby?”

My chest tightened painfully at the concern in his voice. “It’s nothing.” The hollow deflection came out thick, further betraying the emotion fighting to overtake me.

“Need we revisit the unfairness of lying? Look at me.”

I begrudgingly met his gaze, already knowing what I would see. His dark hair cast a shadow over his eyes, but it couldn’t hide the sadness there. The same sadness that had been there when…

No. Don’t think about it.

Despite my desperate attempts to ignore them, images of red colored my vision. Thick crimson painting Josh’s natural pout as he gasped for air. The gruesome hole in his chest. The rattle of his last breath.

Suddenly, his cool hand cupped the side of my face and brushed away a renegade tear. He gazed at me with steady eyes so like the forest I’d grown up running through. “Talk to me, baby. What’s the matter?”

A sob caught in my throat. I had to push it down in order to speak; even then, the words were barely intelligible. “I miss you.”

He blinked slowly, and his image swam before my eyes. “Then come find me.”

I jolted awake. The room was dark, though a faint blush of light from a streetlight hinted through the kitchen window. With a groan, I sat up and wiped angrily at my face, unsurprised to find it wet.

I can’t even fantasize about the man properly.

This too came as no surprise. I hadn’t been able to have an indulgent dream or even a halfway nice one about Josh in weeks. Scratch that, months.

Not since…

I squashed the persistent thought that had soured my fantasy like it had all the others and got up. My back ached from sleeping too many nights on the couch, but I couldn’t bring myself to sleep in the bed.

Our bed.

My sigh came out heavy as I glanced at my bio-clock. The blue numbers beneath my skin rudely read four-twenty-one. Barely even a few hours. I’d have to take sleeping aids at this rate.

I changed mechanically, splashed water on my face, then pulled my hair back into a tight bun.

An outrageously stout cup of coffee later, I shut the door to the hover pickup Eric had lent me.

The same one we’d used to take Josh to the hospital.

I still couldn’t look at the bed without seeing smears of his blood coating the alloy.

Once again, I contemplated getting my own car just so I wouldn’t have to drive it anymore.

I gripped the steering wheel tight enough to make it creak, then let out a heavy breath and forced them to relax.

My gaze settled on the quintessential English cottage before me.

The place was a total throwback with its stone facade and picturesque shutters.

Not even the modern renovations could diminish its charm.

It felt like a lifetime ago since Josh had been so taken with the place.

Of course, getting him to admit it had been like pulling teeth.

The way his eyes had lit up brought a small smile to my lips, then my gaze caught sight of the truck bed in the rearview and it vanished.

I shifted the truck into gear and began the long journey I’d made every day, twice a day.

At this hour, no one was awake, and I drove through a nearly desolate Adler Springs.

I drove past Hair of the Dog, Josh’s favorite coffee place.

Then, there was the precinct where he’d been working.

The truck slowed as the apartment he’d been staying at flashed at me from a side street.

The landlord had already boxed and sent everything back to the address Josh kept on file.

I couldn’t help but wish I’d been brave enough to visit the place before that happened, but it was done now.

All traces of Josh were gone, cleaned away for the next resident.

The Klamath County hospital rose up, a beacon of medical hope, with its white exterior and spelled windows that sparkled like gemstones in the early morning light. I drove past it and the already bustling parking lot, intent on an altogether different building.

The truck shuddered to a halt when I parked. I’d already ruled out an alignment issue, which meant it was probably the transmission giving out.

I’ll check it when I get back.

Which really meant that I’d stay up well into the night, barely eat, and try to steal a few hours of sleep before waking up to do it all again.

But I’d do it anyway. I owed Eric that at the very least. He hadn’t batted an eye at offering me the truck, nor had he placed a timeline on the generosity.

There was no telling what he was doing for transportation in the meantime, and anytime I asked, he put me off, insisting that my fixing up his beat-up ride was worth the sacrifice.

The doors whisked open with a hiss of sterilized air.

I spared the receptionist a wan smile and earned one in return.

She buzzed me in before I could scan my visitor’s pass.

The echo of my tread bounced back to me from empty corridors that had become as familiar as my home.

In hardly any time, I was once again in the same room I’d been in not five hours ago.

The night nurse blinked at me, astonishment clearly written on her face. She opened her mouth, but was cut off by the timely appearance of Dr. Lyons.

“Ah, Dr. Bennett, back again so soon?” the young doctor asked, her brown bob swaying as she stepped deeper into the room.

“It’s been three months, Dr. Lyons. I think you can safely call me Elijah.”

She smiled. “Of course, as soon as you call me Priscilla.”

A small smile tugged at the corner of my mouth and then vanished when my enhanced vision caught sight of movement behind the observation glass. I stepped up to the spell-reinforced surface, which thankfully was also a two-way mirror that hid the observation room from sight. “Any change?”

Dr. Lyons joined me, her human eyes scanning the shadowy room for what had caught my attention. As if sensing the weight of our combined gaze, a hulking mass of darkness stepped into the meager light filtering through the skylights.

Josh.

“No change. Though he tried to eat an orderly again.”

I let out an aggrieved sigh and braced my hands on the back of a chair. “Are they okay?”

She waved a dismissive hand, but didn’t answer.

“Any headway with Sabrina’s research?” My packmate’s internship under the famed Dr. Alec Wilson had afforded us a plethora of information regarding the lycan condition, colloquially called moon sickness.

Less kind circles referred to afflicted lycans as moonforsaken.

It was because of her experience with a recently afflicted wolf that we knew without a doubt that Josh was similarly suffering.

Except in their cases, the genetic condition had been artificially induced.

Dr. Lyons perked up almost instantly. “Dr. Langdon’s notes have proven invaluable to my studies.

Her work with Mein Zeke and how she disseminated the toxin that infected Detective Hart completely revolutionized our understanding of the condition.

We can now confidently say that Detective Hart is neither infectious nor contagious. ”

“And the other?” I asked, a tiny spark of hope burning in my chest. “How bad is it? Can you get him to change back?”

Sadness wafted from her. “As you know, there is no cure for Mein Zeke. Only the treatment. As it is, he’ll have you to thank for his life twice over when he finally resumes his human form. If you hadn’t been so quick to warn us, we would have administered the wolfsbane cocktail without question.”

She paused and stared through the glass into the enclosure that held my mate.

After a few moments of silent contemplation, she continued.

“But, Dr. Bennett–Elijah–I’ve seen nothing like what Detective Hart is experiencing.

What happened to him should have been impossible for a multitude of reasons.

I fear that until we determine how it occurred, we won’t fully understand how we can help him. ”

I dropped my head between my shoulders, my spark of hope now barely more than an ember. “What am I going to do?”

“Sadly, the most I can advise is patience.”

I heaved a sigh, lifting my head enough to watch as Josh, in full werewolf form, tore apart his breakfast with a disturbing amount of savagery.

It was a wonder any of it made it down his throat.

“It’s killing me seeing him like this. He’s completely lost his humanity.

He doesn’t–” I broke off as grief clogged my throat.

“He doesn’t even recognize me. I don’t know how much longer I can hold out. ”

Dr. Lyons’ typical words of perseverance and hope were suspiciously absent. I glanced over at her and read the hesitation to speak.

Despite being burned countless times already, my abysmally small ember of hope reignited. “You have an idea. What is it?”

“I might,” she admitted reluctantly.

It had been weeks since we had a new direction to try. “Whatever it is, I’ll do it.”

“Let’s not be hasty,” she cautioned, holding both her hands up. “You need to understand the risks first.”

“Does it put his life in more danger?” I’d try anything that didn't outright kill him.

“Not his life so much as his mind. Yours as well.”

I straightened and looked at her directly. “What are you talking about?”

She cleared her throat and squared her shoulders as if bracing for the worst. “I’m talking about enlisting the services of a mindwalker.”

“You think one could really help? That they could bring him back?” My voice grew thick with desperate hope.

“It’s possible.”

I had no reservations. Whatever the risk to myself, it would be worth it if there was even a chance of giving Josh back his life. “I’ll do it.”

“First, you need to understand that this is not a guarantee.”

“I don’t care.”

“You should. The mindwalker won’t be the one going into Detective Hart’s mind. You will.”

That brought me up short. “What?”

She took a deep breath and started again. “The mindwalker would facilitate putting your consciousness into Detective Hart’s. Your connection to him–your bond–should provide you with some degree of safety. However, it would be up to you to find him and convince him to return.”

Josh’s words from my dream came back to me.

Come find me.

I opened my mouth yet again to insist on going forward, and she held up a hand.

“There are certain risks involved in this endeavor. The mind is a tricky place, a labyrinth that is constantly shifting. There is a real possibility that you could lose yourself in that labyrinth. If that happens, not even the mindwalker can bring you back intact. In an average state of calm, the journey can be treacherous.” The rest of her statement hung unsaid.

Josh was about as far away from an average state of calm as one could get.

I swallowed hard. “Anything else?”

Her lips pressed into a line, and her brows creased. “You still might not find him.”

My tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth.

I returned my gaze to the large room-turned-enclosure, now substantially more lit than when I’d arrived.

The large black wolf paced restlessly in the confined space.

Everything I was seeing was wrong. Josh didn’t belong in a cage, no matter how fine it was.

He deserved to be free, to run beneath the moonlight, to come home.

To be with me.

“How soon can the mindwalker get here?”