22. Val #2
“For now, all you need to know is that a human named Adam was given an ancient healing medicine after severe injuries. The medicine saved his life.”
Marcus pauses.
“Then it turned him into a shifter.”
For a second I genuinely think I misheard him.
“What?”
“Exactly.”
I lean harder against the wall.
“Nathan told me turning humans wasn’t possible unless they were mates.”
“So did every other Alpha Anax I’ve ever met.”
The frustration in Marcus’ voice is unmistakable.
“Apparently we all had something new to learn.”
Well, should I add more to your current shit show?” I wait for the grunt that Marcus sends back. “Harley Johansen is my mate, sir. I disobeyed—”
“Your mate?” Marcus snaps, and I cringe.
“Yes, sir.”
“Fuck sake! Nathan!” Marcus’ shout for his mate sets my ear ringing. “Come here, please. No, I mean yes, I’m sorry for yelling at you but this is—you’ll want to know this.”
“Hello, is this Val?”
“Yes, Nathan.” Jesus, I’m going to get mental whiplash from these two. “I told you I would follow orders and stay away from Harley, but I didn’t. He’s—”
“Why not?” Nathan all but shouts. “What did you do?”
“He’s my mate, I was trying to tell you.
” I could bite my tongue for the snark in my voice, but I’m not up to accusations today.
“He’s mine, and even though our mate bond isn’t fully in force because of my current state, I know he’s my mate.
He chased me down, Nathan, the night I moved here.
He couldn’t leave me, and he’s come to realise that not all of us are the hounds of Satan. ”
“Wow.”
That’s it?
I pull the phone back and glare at it.
“Stop it. I can feel that glare,” Nathan orders.
“Yes, sir.” I sigh internally, not daring to risk doing so out loud.
“So that actually might make things easier then. Has he mentioned being turned—”
I shouldn’t interrupt, but I do anyway. I’m not going to listen to advice on the subject.
“I’m not pushing that. Look, Nathan, sir, he’s my mate, and mates don’t endanger one another. Put the word out that he’s mine and it should deter most of the potential troublemakers.”
“I can do that, but you said something about the bond not being in full force. Can anyone else tell you two are a mated pair? Like I can sense it in other mates, you know.” Nathan curses, then goes on. “Right. How would you know? There aren’t any shifters around there.”
I start toward the living room.
“Actually, about that. It’s very odd, but as it turns out, Harley has a brother.”
“What’s odd about that? Lots of people have siblings.”
I watch Harley prod a nasty-looking gash on Ryder’s chest.
“Well, sure, but not ones who were drugged and changed into a shifter against their will.”
The silence that follows seems louder than anything Nathan has said so far.
“Marcus! We’ve got a serious problem!”
Then he’s talking to me again.
“He’s coming. He was getting an update on—well, whatever, that’s not your concern. So Harley knew about shifters all this time?”
“No,” I growl, only to stop when Nathan growls right back at me.
“I’m sorry. I’m trying to deal with this, with having a mate and feeling bits and flashes of our mate nature.
No, he didn’t know. He and Ryder have never been real close, but I’ll explain that later because right now Ryder just showed up and he looks... ”
I realise Harley is watching me, listening, and rethink saying Ryder looks like he’s on Death’s doorstep.
“He looks like he’s been hurt pretty bad. I need to help Harley with him.”
“Jesus, we leave for a few days and all hell breaks loose. Okay, let me talk to Marcus. Keep your phone close by and call Shania if you need help with any medical issues for Ryder. I’ll be calling you back shortly.”
“Yes, sir. Thank you.”
I disconnect the call.
“Are those knife wounds?” I come closer and study the jagged edges. “Fuck. No, those are claws and bites. Damn it, I wish I could still scent properly! I might be able to pick up the smell of the shifter who did this to him.”
“He’s gonna be okay, right?” Harley asks as he peels a piece of material out of a particularly nasty gouge. “I mean, he’s a shifter. He’ll heal really fast and wake up.”
“He should.” I thumb toward the bathroom. “Let me get some damp cloths and antiseptic.”
“There’s a first-aid kit in the guest bathroom, too,” Harley offers.
“I’ll get it, thanks.”
I find the kit and run warm water to wet the cloths. Carrying everything back into the living room, I find Ryder already beginning to come around, judging by the way he twitches and groans.
Harley and I strip Ryder, and the number of injuries makes Harley cry and my stomach threaten to flip over. A normal human being wouldn’t have survived what looks like an attack by a pack of wolves. I spot at least three different bite wounds on Ryder’s legs.
“It wasn’t just one shifter,” I mutter as I wipe away the bloody filth covering his skin. “Let me get us a couple of bowls of water. We need to rinse these cloths out.”
“Okay, thanks.”
Harley hands his over, and I bend down to cup his cheek and thumb away the tears streaking it.
“He’s going to be okay, honey. He’s already trying to wake up.”
“I know.” Harley sniffles and tries to suppress a sob. “I’m just... I’m scared. For him, for us, for whoever else might become a victim.”
I stop halfway through standing.
“You think this is the same shifter who made him what he is now?”
Harley gives me an incredulous look.
“Don’t you? Who else would it be? The sick fuck is making his own pack or whatever, and somehow he let Ryder escape, or he didn’t know what he was doing or something! But it has to be him, don’t you think? He’s either trying to force Ryder to join his pack or—”
“Or kill him because he’s competition,” I murmur, remembering the wave of power I felt coming from Ryder.
“Your brother’s a very powerful shifter, Harley.
He’s an alpha, without a doubt. He’s meant to lead, not follow, so I think”—and I hate saying it, but I won’t lie—”I think it’s the latter option.
Whoever made him a shifter regrets it and wants him dead before Ryder figures out just how strong he is.
And I should have mentioned him being an alpha to Marcus and Nathan, damn it! ”
“Whassa alpha?”
I rise and look down at the now-awake shifter.
“You, Ryder. Don’t you feel the power in you?
I’m not sure how to describe it because I’m not an alpha.
I don’t have the tendency, the nature of one.
But you do, and I think if you’ll let me help you, let me get you to people, shifters, who can teach you, you’ll find out just how much you do belong in our world. ”
“Fuck that,” Ryder huffs.
He tries to sit up and immediately grimaces.
“Damn freaking psychotic werewolf bastards!”
Harley points at him.
“Calm down. You’re making it hard to play doctor.”
Ryder opens and closes his mouth several times as he gawks at Harley, who takes full advantage of having stunned his brother and pushes him flat onto his back again.
“Stay.”
I go for the bowls of water and rinse the cloths while I’m at it. When I come back into the living room, Ryder is listening while Harley reiterates everything we’ve just discussed.
“Marcus and Nathan are exceptional people,” I say when I finally get a chance to speak. “Marcus was held captive by the same shifter who took Harley. Six months of torture and starvation didn’t turn Marcus into a weaker man, or a cruel one. He’s truly someone who could, and would, help you.”
Truthfully, I halfway expect Marcus and Nathan to show up in a few hours, but that’s probably wishful thinking. I don’t know what’s been happening in Amsterdam with Gabe and Mika and whoever else is involved. There’s no telling what sort of mess they’ve walked into.
“He’s already beginning to heal,” I point out to Harley as we clean the worst of Ryder’s wounds. Then I look directly at Ryder.
“Can you tell us what happened?”
“I got jumped, isn’t it obvious?” Ryder snaps.
Harley pinches his ear.
“You might be some badass alpha, but to me you’re just my brother. Stop being a dick.”
“Sorry,” Ryder grouses, not sounding very sorry to me at all. “I left here because, you know, I didn’t want to be in the way, and I believed that Val wouldn’t hurt you. I can sometimes sense the truth when someone’s talking. There’s a certain scent I’ve come to recognise—but anyway.”
He shakes his head.
“I heard you two, and that was just kind of disturbing.”
“Oh God.” Harley moans, his cheeks turning pink. “I didn’t think about how noisy we were.”
“You shouldn’t have to worry about it,” Ryder says before I can.
“It’s your place, yours and Val’s, I’d think.
It wasn’t that I was really grossed out over it, but Harley, it’s been a while since I’ve been with anyone.
The last time I was, I got turned into this!
” He gestures at himself. “I don’t know the rules about being a werewolf—”
“Shifter,” I correct. “We prefer the term shifter, please.”
“Ohhh-kay.” Ryder rolls his eyes. “Anyways, as I was saying, I don’t know what the rules are or how this works, totally.
Did the biting during sex turn me, or was it just the sex?
I can’t remember. I know there was sucking, then pain and coming and it’s all bits and pieces and I don’t know if I’ll turn into a wolf while I’m fucking someone and rip their throat out or turn them or what. ”
I sit back on my heels and give Ryder a sad look.
“You’ve seen entirely too many werewolf movies, which is why we prefer to be called shifters.
All that crap you see in the movies is just that.
Crap. Silver won’t kill you any more than lead or gold.
The full moon makes us hornier, but it doesn’t force a shift.
There are levels to shifter society, a government in place, even.
Whoever did this to you has stepped over boundaries firmly and clearly laid out to all shifters.
Their punishment will be death, and believe me when I say they know that.
Turning anyone except one’s mate is very strictly forbidden. ”