Chapter 35
Tex
Why the hell didn’t people just talk to each other?
Not the stupid, way too naked all the time, hockey players. It wasn’t the show I was focussed on, but Nadia and Ethan. Golden Boy hadn’t said a word about anything he talked about with us. Instead, he sat there, watching this show like he really was just her friend.
“So do these guys ever get on the ice?” he asked. “Shit, you said no talking.”
“It’s OK.” She thrust her hand into a bag of Cheezels, emerging with one on the end of each finger. “And no, not really. The sports part isn’t as important as the romance bit.”
Just like watching this show wasn’t really why we were all clustered around the TV.
Grey didn’t even bother pretending, his focus entirely trained on Nadia.
Watching someone eat highly processed foods usually had his mood turning sour, but he seemed to find the sheer amount of crap our mate inhaled mildly amusing.
“So its mainly just a pretext for the girl— What the fuck?” Apparently one episode featuring male full-frontal nudity was not enough. Ethan threw up a hand, putting it between him and the locker room scene on the screen. “Why am I seeing so much dick right now?”
Nadia started to chortle, almost choked on a Cheezel, so I was forced to lean forward and slap a hand down between her shoulder blades. After a cough and splutter, she kept on cackling.
“Is it over?” Ethan peered over his hand, then shrank back. “Nope. Tell me when it’s done, because it’s bad enough that this dickhead has an exhibitionist streak a mile wide.” He jerked a thumb my way. “I could spend the rest of my life not seeing another man’s cock and die happy.”
“The boys need airing out sometimes,” I replied with a shrug.
“Maybe you should just save that sight for me going forward?”
The way she looked up at me, eyes dancing as she grinned, was everything I didn’t know I needed. My arm curled around her tighter, pressing her into my side.
“I’ll put on whatever show you like.” With a nod at the screen, I continued.
“Could even buy an ice hockey jersey.” Pressing a slow kiss to the top of her head, I breathed her in.
“We could re-enact the scene of your choice from this show.” Her phone appeared in her hands and she started scrolling furiously. “Um… whatcha doing, omega?”
“Looking up how expensive hockey jerseys are,” she said.
Which meant she missed the look Ethan gave her.
Lowering his hand, it wasn’t the next scene where the team captain was taking the female lead out on a date he was focussed on.
His smile faded and something raw and hungry replaced it.
Over the top of her head, I shot him a meaningful look, glancing from him to Nadia and back again.
That earned me an equally intense look, making clear that Golden Boy wasn’t about to fess up.
Turns out the show was pretty true to life.
People seemed to need to make everything so damn complicated, I thought, as we all settled back into the couch.
We got through another few episodes that were far more intriguing.
The male leads finally made a move on their girl and when the three main guys surrounded her on her bed, each drawn closer, it started giving me ideas.
Only for Nadia to let out a bone-cracking yawn.
“You’re getting tired,” Grey told her.
“Eh, I’ll watch another couple of episodes, then have a nap,” she replied, though she sounded drowsy.
“Omega…” Nadia shot Grey a rebellious look at his growly tone. “If you’re tired, your control will start fraying. You need to be well rested, just in case your wolf decides now is a good time to make an appearance.”
“Fine.” Her grudging reply was all that was needed for me to sweep her into my arms and start carrying her into the bedroom. “Tex!” She yelped as I kicked her door open. “You can’t keep carrying me around like a doll.”
“Watch me,” I said, flipping back the covers with one arm, then placing her on the bed with the other. Dragging the blankets up and around her, watching her nestle into the pillow, did something to me.
“If you really want to help,” she said, eyelids growing heavy. “You could lie down with me.”
“Not sure how much sleep you’d get, omega.”
“Just to snuggle.” Her hand grabbed mine, drawing me closer. “Please?” As if I could ever say no to her. Toeing off my shoes, I lay down beside her. “Mm… little spoon.”
I couldn’t stop myself from pressing a kiss to the back of her neck, of shifting a strand of hair off her face.
She sighed and then her eyes fell closed.
It felt like my eyes were burning in my head as I stared down at her.
Every slow breath, every sigh, I caught them all, loving this small moment of intimacy.
Of course, I wasn’t allowed to just enjoy it.
“No…” Nadia barely breathed the word, but my whole body stiffened when I heard it. Perhaps because the wolf inside me came rushing to the fore. “Mm…” That little moan gave me hope, only to be dashed as her forehead creased. “No… no…”
“What’s going on?”
Grey came storming into the room, hands halfway to claws, ready to tear me a new one for doing something our mate didn’t like, only to find her starting to move on the bed. Slow, jerky things, then more violent movements.
Shit.
“She’s starting to shift.” As Grey said the words, Ethan appeared in the doorway in time for all three of us to see a fine layer of white fur form down her arms. “We need to get Riley and her team now.”
“Wait.” Ethan moved closer, not stopping until he was crouched beside the bed. “If she’s this close already, maybe it’s time.”
“Can’t wait to meet her wolf,” I said, lowering myself back down to press my nose into her hair, but when I did, the scent was far from sweet. Fear had this sour tang to it, anger, the stink of burned hair, and I got both.
“No…” She was shaking her head now, and when she clutched at the sheets, the sound of tearing fabric filled the air. “No, no.”
“Hey, baby.” My voice shook as I tried to say that in soothing tones, right before I picked her up in my arms. “It’s OK.
You’re OK.” But she didn’t wake up. Lolling in my arms, her body was disturbingly limp.
Like all the life was being sapped from her bones as the seconds ticked by.
“Nadia?” I stroked her face, trying to wake her from her dream gently. “Love, you need—”
“No!”
Whatever I had to say was cut off by her roar, because that was the moment her whole body went rigid. Muscles twitched and bones cracked as her entire back bowed.
“I’m calling for Riley.”
Grey slapped his hand down on the button on the wall, then dropped down onto the bed. His hands gripped hers, right as they spasmed. Claws buried themselves into his flesh, but a slight hiss was his only response.
“Nadia?” If I wondered how Ethan would take our mate’s first shift, I didn’t anymore.
He moved swiftly, touching her cheeks, hair, arms. “Nadia, you’re in the middle of a dream and you need to wake up now.
If you want…” He swallowed hard. “If now’s the time for your first shift, you need to wake up. ”
“Why the fuck isn’t she waking up?” Grey snapped. “What’s wrong with her? Ethan!”
“Pretty sure she’s suppressing the wolf when she’s awake.” He studied her closely, placing a hand on her forehead. “Fuck, she’s burning up. Where’s Riley? Where’s any of the Taylor pack?”
“Maybe we don’t need them.” I curled Nadia closer. The way her muscles twitched and jerked agitated my wolf, but I forged on. “Maybe its just her pack that she needs.”
Of course, fate had to go and show me how wrong I was.
Nadia’s scream took all of my half-realised hopes and crushed them like a bug.
“No…”
I was the one whispering that as her eyes flicked open. Silver, staring at the ceiling, as her mouth stretched wide, unable to make another sound. Just rapid, panting breaths, a faint whine that told me just how bad this was.
“Riley,” I said. “We need to find Riley.” Suddenly I wasn’t an adult anymore, but a scared kid looking for a grown-up to make the hard decisions. “Nadia—”
Another curdling scream.
“Fuck… Nadia, c’mon, take a breath with me.”
I did just that, huffing theatrically, which was ridiculous in the face of what was happening.
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?”
Ethan’s growl had me looking up, just in time to see Grey make for the door.
“I need…” His wolf was too close to the surface. “Gotta get out. Find Riley. Wolf too close. He wants—”
“No!” The heartbreak in Nadia’s voice had my eyes snapping down. “No, no!”
Her hands raked at her chest, shredding her clothes and leaving red lines in their wake. I wrapped mine around them, forced to use every bit of my strength to stop my mate from hurting herself.
“Hey…” My voice was shaking badly. “Come back to me, Nadia. If you do, I promise we’ll do whatever it takes to stop this from happening again. Just push the wolf down for now and—”
“That’s not what she wants.” Ethan stared at me, moving closer and then inspecting Nadia closely. “This is what she chose.”
“Not this.” My face crumpled then. “Not fucking this. Ethan, she’s in agony.”
“And I told you that would happen.” He shook his head, glaring at me for a second, then plucked her from my grip, setting her down on her hands and knees. Doing the same just in front of her, his hands were placed either side of hers. “You can do this, Nadia. You hear me? You were born to do this.”
“Stop!” I shouted, wanting all of it, everything, to just fucking slow down for a second. “You’re hurting her.”
We were hurting her.
Forced to just stand there, mouth hanging open, as her back curved upwards, every muscle twitching as the sick sound of muscles snapping and bones breaking filled the air.
“No,” I said. “No, no, no, no.”
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. The first time I shifted, it was like a big exhale outwards and with that breath came the wolf.
I was reborn in fur, seeing the world from a completely different perspective.
Off running over the hills, the moon caressing my fur, as my haunches bunched, then propelled me forward.
Whatever pain there was, it was gone in seconds.
But not for Nadia.
“Get it off her!” I growled, as the sound of the pump ticking caught my attention. “Take it off!”
Ethan didn’t move fast enough, so my hand shot out, closing around the metal box seconds later.
Just in time for Riley and Candy to arrive.
“Don’t touch that!” Riley snapped, then dropped a bag down onto the ground to check Nadia over. “The only way is back to skin or through to fur, and the hormones will help with the latter.”
“She’s stuck!” Ethan snapped, his expression hard. “She’s fucking stuck.”
“We know.” Candy was much needed comedic relief most of the time, but right now the medical professional was in charge. “Let’s get everyone out of here.” No one moved. “If you want your mate to come out of this in one piece, you need to let us do our job, so fucking move!”
Feeling a rush of relief wasn’t the worst thing I’d experienced today, but it was damn close. I felt hot, too hot, once we stumbled out into the lounge room.
“That has to stop,” I said, knowing I was clutching at straws, but when they were all you had, that’s what you reached for.
“It needs to stop now. Nadia can’t—” A guttural scream cut me off and that was the moment my eyes filmed over.
Unshed tears were blinked back. “I’m not putting her through this. I’m not.”
“Too fucking late.” Ethan had gotten pissed with me many times but never like this.
There was outright disgust there. “This was always going to happen. It’s what Nadia signed up for, and I’m pretty sure us taking off the minute things get tough isn’t the way forward.
I don’t know what you’re gonna do, but I’m going back in there because if there’s any chance I can help… ”
He didn’t finish that thought. Instead, he strode back into the room, the door slamming shut in my face.
It would’ve taken nothing to open it. A twist of the doorknob, a hard one if it was locked and I’d be inside.
Instead, I just stood there. Breath flaring across the door’s surface, my hands forming fists.
I would’ve torn the heads off her exes, kicked the arse of the idiot from her work that tried hitting on her, but this… ?
I had no fucking idea what to do as Nadia suffered.
Muffled voices, Riley’s, Candy’s and Ethan’s filtered through, but my brain couldn’t make out the words.
Just that everything was very terse, right up until the point it wasn’t.
The silence that followed was deafening, punctuated by the rapid beat of my heart, right before the door was yanked open again.
“She’s resting,” Riley told me. “The shift was unsuccessful and we were forced to sedate her. Thankfully that was enough to revert her back to skin so she can sleep it off now.”
“Can I…? Can I see her?”
Say no, I thought, because I didn’t deserve that honour. Instead, she stepped aside, ushering me in as the two doctors made their way out of the room.
“She’ll be super tired for a day or two.
Keep things low-key.” The instructions had me nodding dumbly.
“Try not to set Nadia off again. Shifting takes a huge amount of energy and usually that’s only over in seconds.
The longer she is stuck, the more energy she burns.
When she wakes up, she’ll be very hungry, shaky, and feeling quite weak, but we’ll be by before that to check on her. ”
“But will she be OK?”
Who the fuck decided that I was an adult? Because I didn’t feel like one now.
“We’ll know when she wakes up,” Riley said, giving my shoulder a squeeze before both ladies left the suite.
It took everything I had to walk back into Nadia’s bedroom. My feet dragged as the wolf inside me whined, only to discover she was lying in Ethan’s arms. He glanced up, eyes still hard and silvery, staring me down before pressing his lips to the crown of her head.
“Riley said—”
“I know what she said,” Ethan ground out.
“Nadia needs rest.”
“Trust me when I say no one in this suite knows better than me what my mate needs.” His hands clutched her tighter, and at that, she let out a little sigh as her head nestled into his chest. “I told you this would be hard. That it wouldn’t all be sexy fun. I told you…”
A little snuffle from Nadia silenced him and me too, because there was nothing more to say and everything, all at the same time.
I slid down the wall, watching them from a distance and had a realisation.
What stopped people from just saying what was on their minds?
The truth, because sometimes it is too hard, too impossible, for another person to comprehend.
That was enough to keep my lips pressed together, for an uncomfortable silence to fall over the room, broken only by the faint sounds of Nadia’s sighs.