Bentley
“What the fuck did you do to her?” Koit screamed at me as Viv passed out. “I thought you said you were going to heal her, not kill her.”
I rolled my eyes at his over-dramatic reaction as I let my magic finish up the last parts of healing her wounds.
Unfortunately, they did scar, but I wasn’t sure if that was from the method of healing or simply because it was caused in the half-shifted form.
I didn’t know enough about either thing to give my opinion, which irritated me even more.
I opened her left eye, intending to use the small flashlight that we found in the medkit but I didn’t bother, seeing that even though the eye was healed, she would never see out of it again.
It was clouded and the scar tissue that ran diagonally through the eye distorted the natural sea color I loved so much.
Two other scars now went from her hairline near her temple and stopped at her nose and lips.
Thankfully, whatever healing magic I had aged them so they didn’t stand out or look puffy and angry, drawing more attention to them.
Next, I checked her arm and leg, seeing that everything was completely healed but left scars behind.
Would they fade over time or was this the best we had to hope for?
Silver was the only other thing that could leave scars behind, but not many werewolves encountered situations with pure silver items.
“Did you heal her eye?” Darius asked.
Biting my bottom lip, I didn’t know how to answer that, as I looked up to meet Kate’s gaze.
Her eyes held the sorrow I was feeling at not being able to do that one thing for my mate, even though healing her like this saved her life.
Removing one hand from Viv, she placed it over mine where it rested on the scars running down her right arm.
A wash of soothing energy filled me, helping me to relax and accept that I did the best I could.
“Yes and no,” I answered, heaving a big sigh. “Viv won’t have sight out of her eye, but she does still have an eyeball, for what it’s worth.”
The others behind me swore, muttering to themselves about the situation, and I couldn’t blame them for being upset. Our mate had been through so much already, how could we ask her to overcome this as well?
“Let’s get her somewhere safe, where we can all recover,” Kate suggested.
I sat with Viv in the trunk area of the SUV, so I could monitor her vitals and make sure nothing unusual happened.
It was a tight fit to get all of us with Kate and Neveah, but we managed.
Christian gave us an address to a safe house that was in the area instead of returning to the motel.
We would need to send out a team to gather our things, but I agreed it wasn’t wise to do it right after this fight.
Vadik might be wounded, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t send others to do the job for him.
Neveah looked rough, bruises covering her face, lower lip split, and she clutched her side like her ribs might be broken.
She hadn’t said a word since we got them out of the warehouse, only allowing Nick to hold her or touch her.
Not that anyone could blame her after what she’d been through.
Hopefully she would let me look her over later, so I could make sure nothing internal was damaged or bleeding.
Viv’s head was in my lap, and I combed my fingers through her hair as I watched her resting peacefully, thankful that even if the healing had been painful, it kept her here with us.
I wasn’t sure what would happen if we lost her, but I had no doubt it would result in something that didn’t guarantee our survival afterward.
Soon enough, we arrived at a nondescript house that matched all the others in the subdivision.
It was two stories, with a garage under one of the rooms, allowing us to close the door before we got out of the car, so people didn’t see us.
I handed Viv up to Orion, since we couldn’t open the back hatch, then I followed, crawling over the back seats.
The house was basic, with simple furniture that didn’t match, but it was clean and orderly, ready to be used with a stocked fridge and pantry.
The house had four bedrooms, giving us enough space for each of the other couples to have their own rooms, which I had a feeling all the men needed after having their mates taken from them.
If anyone understands how horrible a feeling that was, it would be us.
They had kindly given us the master bedroom to use, and I wasn’t surprised to see all my mate brothers settled around Viv.
Once again, we had come close to losing her.
While the others were upset with her making the choice to fight, I understood.
When you had spent so much of your life getting kicked around and abused, you reached a point where you snapped, unable to take it anymore.
I could only imagine what it was like to finally come face-to-face with the man who had been tormenting her for a year.
If I were in her shoes, I didn’t think I could pass up the opportunity either, no matter what the others said.
“Bentley, how did you know you could heal her?” Rik asked from where he was sitting at the head of the bed.
I shrugged, looking over at my sleeping mate. “Once I got hit with all that magic, I just knew. When you guys mated with her, some of you came away with new skills. It seems I just needed more of a boost for mine.”
“That actually makes sense if you think about it,” Tristan spoke.
“When we were researching the past Damas, there was the Russian female, Sasha, whose mates had special talents. Mine doesn’t take all that much effort to read their truthfulness or to see the truth in my mind.
Rik can locate other wolves, and Koit is a master tracker, but none of those are physical powers.
You performed a miracle, if you ask me, healing her like you did, and you’re still standing, not at all drained from using so much power. ”
“You felt the same thing I did when she flooded us with what she drew out of Vadik. That man had far more power than any one person should be able to handle,” I muttered, sitting on the edge of the bed. “How could he manage to hold so much inside himself? Where did he even get it?”
“She told me he was a taker, that when he killed other wolves, he could draw it out of them,” Tristan said, brushing a hand down her arm. “She is a giver, the opposite of him in every way. It’s why she thought she could win without us.”
The room fell into silence as we processed what went down in that warehouse.
I was part of the team that infiltrated after the explosion happened.
It was my job to find the women and make sure they were okay before we got them out of there.
Thankfully Kate was fine, a little banged up from the grab was all, but it was Neveah who’d taken the brunt of it.
Diane was gone. She had been killed and left lifeless on the floor next to where the other two were tied up.
Tim and Nicole had been taken to a safe house once we decided to leave the motel for the rescue mission, not wanting to chance they would be taken next.
At this point, we assumed Diane told them everything about us, but we would need to confirm with Kate and Neveah once they were up to talking.
“We need to have a plan when she wakes up,” Koit pointed out. “Once she learns about her eye, I don’t think there is going to be much holding her back from going to Wyoming and knocking on the front door of the secret lair.”
The guys all grumbled their agreement. “Acting sooner than later would be the smart thing. Vadik doesn’t have Bentley to heal him, and I would bet everything, with the way Viv healed, it acts just like a silver wound—a bitch and a half to heal,” Orion stated.
“My guess is he will retreat to where he thinks is safest, which is with Jason in the mountains.”
“Sounds like we need to get Tim over here, along with Maria, so we can get a look at what’s inside his head,” Viv muttered as she rubbed her hands over her face. “God, my head feels like I got hit with a sledgehammer.”
Slowly, she sat up with the help of the others packing in pillows behind her so she could lean on them. When she opened her eyes, they quickly shut again as a groan escaped her mouth. “Can we turn off the lights? It’s like a knife in my brain.”
Jumping to my feet, I closed the blinds and turned off the overhead light in exchange for the small lamp on the nightstand. I didn’t want the room to be too dark, unsure of how having one eye would affect her night vision. “Alright, it’s safe.”
It seemed as if we all held our breath as she opened her eyes once again, blinking a few times, frowning as she looked around. “What the fuck happened?”
Ready to take ownership of her losing the vision in her left eye, I stepped up in front of her and took a deep breath. “Viv, about your eye—”
“You’re glowing.” she blurted out before I could finish what I was saying.
“What?”
Taking the palm of her hand, she rubbed at her left eye then squinted at me.
“You’re lit up like you have a golden glow stick inside you, but I can only see it through my left eye.
Through the right eye, you look totally normal, but with the two combined, it’s like you…
glow. I don’t know how else to describe it. ”
“How do the others look to you?” I asked, my research brain kicking into gear.
She shifted, taking in each one of her mates slowly, as if cataloging her findings before sharing them. “They all glow as well, but some more than others. Orion, you have two shades of color... holy shit is that because of Okami? Can I see the magic in all of you?”
As much as my logical brain didn’t want to believe that something like that could be true, I also healed her with my own two hands an hour ago.
“Could it be a side effect of healing you with magic? To be honest, I’m amazed that your eye grew back at all, with the amount of damage that had been done to it. Can you see anything normal out of it?”
Promptly she closed her right eye and looked around. “No, I’m totally blind in that eye but for being able to see the magic within each of you. I guess that’s better than nothing… right?”
“Having you alive is all I care about,” Rik muttered. “I told you not to fight him, now look what happened.”
With that simple statement, the relaxed atmosphere was gone, and Viv turned on him with a snarl. “How dare you. That man is trying to take everything from me, and you want me to stand by and let him escape? What if that was the only chance we ever get at getting him out of hiding?”
“What does any of that matter if you’re dead, Viv?” Rik barked back, not willing to back down from the fight.
The others made their way out of the bed to stand with me beside it, not knowing how this argument would go down.
Rik and Viv didn’t fight, not like she did with Darius, but we knew Rik wasn’t taking this situation well.
Viv typically deferred to his advice and today she literally shoved him aside to do what she wanted.
As a Dama it was her right, but it didn’t mean he would like it.
“Are you saying my life is more important than our daughter’s?” she challenged.
Rik let out a low warning growl. “I’m not having the same fight with you over and over again.
You know I want our daughter back home, safe and sound, but you can’t make me choose between you two.
I won’t do it. In order for our family to be complete, for any of this to matter, we need all of us together and alive.
Most of us have seen what it looks like to watch someone who’s lost their mate.
There is no way we could care for our child lost in that much pain.
If we don’t have you with us, Hope might actually be better off with Jason. ”
I couldn’t help but flinch as Viv sucker punched Rik right in the jaw. “You take that back right this second, you fucking asshole.”
“Tell me I’m wrong. You grew up with a father who didn’t really love you. Tell me how it felt.” Rik spat.
This line of questioning seemed to shock Viv out of her anger and more into horror. “Are you saying you wouldn’t love our daughter if I died?”
“I’m saying I wouldn’t want to live one second more if you weren’t in the world with me, so how could I love our daughter?
Fuck, we don’t even know if we’ll survive if you die.
It could take us all out in one fell swoop, leaving our child an orphan in the blink of an eye, never getting to know what it’s like to have a real family,” Rik rambled, grabbing Viv by her shoulders.
“This is why you need to stop trying to throw your life away like it’s nothing.
You are everything to the seven of us and the only true hope of getting our daughter out of this mess.
Hit me again if you need to, rage and scream at the world, but I need you to snap the fuck out of thinking the way to fix this is with your life in the balance.
” As if the words finally sunk into her brain, she slumped in his hold, curling up against him as he pulled her close.
“You have not failed your children because you are still alive and fighting for them. Don’t give up now.
We are so much closer to ending all this, but we can’t without you leading the charge. ”
Clinging to his shirt, she sniffled and nodded, burying her face in his neck as he soothed her back to sleep.