Chapter 20
“Yes, it’s the mate-bond,” he finally growled out. “I need to get back to him. He’s so fragile. We need to get him to a doctor but I’m afraid he’ll fight that.”
“Okay. You know I had to ask,” Alpha Steven said with a whole lot of sympathy.
“When will Jaxom get back?” He needed his mate back ten hours ago.
“Unfortunately, the day after tomorrow. I’ve moved him getting back as much as I can. I’m sorry. Couldn’t be worse timing. You need to call him. He’s riding a temper I’ve never seen before. He may not be close enough to mind-link but he can still feel the new bond through you.”
“Then why did you ask?” Drake growled. He’d never been disrespectful to his father-in-law before.
“Because you needed to hear you say it. Don’t doubt yourself, son. You’ve got this.”
Drake reached to feel Hayden through the mate-bond. He needed to make sure his guy was still sleeping. He didn’t want to be away from him very long. Drake jerked as pain blasted through him. Hayden wasn’t sleeping. He was in serious pain. Injured. Someone had injured his mate.
Drake bolted for the door with Asher right behind him.
They shifted as they bolted out the pack house doors.
The mate-bond wasn’t leading him back to the suite.
Hayden was at the hotel. Drake hadn’t even felt Hayden wake up.
He should have kept a closer tab on him.
He’d left Hayden alone thinking he’d sleep through the night.
Some shield he was. At least he could tell the direction Hayden was in.
What room is Beta Marcus Hazel in? Drake mind-linked the concierge on duty.
308, Alpha.
Drake busted through the hotel doors and bolted up the stairs, gaining the third floor in seconds. Asher was right behind him. Beta Tim and his dad, Chip, were already getting the hotel surrounded to keep everyone inside. Whoever was hurting his mate was going to pay.
Hayden’s scent washed down the hallway of the third floor. The scent was strongest at 308. Drake could hear dull thunks and Hayden’s wheeze of pain. That was all the invitation he needed. The door to the suite was in splinters before the occupants had any time to move.
Marcus was standing over Hayden. He was holding his mate’s head up by his hair. Blood poured out of his mate’s nose. He wasn’t even aware enough to stop the fist Marcus was swinging at his face.
Rage burned through Drake as he tackled Marcus before his fist connected.
The man was too drunk to shift to defend himself.
He collapsed under Drake’s weight and hit his head on the coffee table.
Kali was already shifted but she was no warrior.
She cowered in the corner in front of her three children, snarling.
Her eyes constantly darting to her unconscious mate.
She didn’t even bother to look at Hayden.
Drake stood over Hayden. His mate was passed out and bleeding. He could hear blood gurgling in his lungs. But, Drake couldn’t assess him until the suite was secured.
Beta Tim was already taking charge. A warrior had Marcus in silver even though he was unconscious.
They dragged his useless bulk into the hallway.
His smell was clearly all over Hayden. Asher had also witnessed Marcus in the act of kicking the crap out of his own stepson.
The asshole wasn’t getting away with his abuse any longer.
Drake was certain there were other pack members who knew what had been going on.
Beta Tim commanded Kali to shift and she had no choice.
She didn’t even protest their treatment of her mate.
Shame was written all over her face. Watching her child being assaulted should have had her shifting to protect him.
Instead, she was shielding her other children from wolves trying to stop Hayden from getting beaten.
Kali was never even a quarter of the Beta that Tim was.
Warriors had her in silver before she could put any clothes on.
Allison was bawling, yelling at them to leave her parents alone.
The youngest, Curt, was trying to hide behind her.
Sebastian simply looked shocked. He’d never seen his parents taken down like this.
Two of Beta Tim’s warriors were standing in front of the trio to keep them from interfering and getting hurt.
Hayden twitched and groaned under Drake’s belly. Drake shifted back to human and knelt beside his wounded mate. He smelled funny. A syringe and vial were on the floor by his head. Hayden’s nose was definitely broken. And that damn gurgling sound was getting worse.
Dad, get the vial to medical, Drake said to Chip. I don’t know if it was used on Hayden but they should be able to tell.
“Hayden, wake up. Let me help you,” Drake whispered in his ear. He was trying to assess just how bad Hayden was. Should he should pick him up and run to the hospital or wait for help to arrive? He didn’t think he could wait, his wolf was pushing to go now.
“Drake?” Hayden said woozily. He was trying to sit up and Drake couldn’t figure out how to make him lay still, wait for help.
“I’m here. Let me get you to the hospital.”
“You want…” Hayden coughed and blood gurgled up between his lips. “You want me to live?”
“Yes, Hayden. Live.”
“Okay,” he wheezed, “for you.” Then Hayden collapsed on the floor. Drake could only tell he was breathing because of the rattle in his lungs.
He picked up his new mate and ran. Asher already had a warrior pulling up in front of the hotel in a truck.
Drake didn’t bother to get him and Hayden in the truck.
He stepped up into the bed and hunkered down for the five minute drive to the hospital.
Even that seemed too long as he listened to blood gurgling in Hayden’s lungs.
Alpha Steven’s Delta and Gamma were already investigating what had happened.
Drake already knew. Hayden had gone back to Marcus because it’s what he’d been told to do by the only authority figure he’d ever known.
Drake had allowed it to happen because he hadn’t been there to stop him from leaving.
Or, he could have escorted him back to his fucking family.
Not that that would actually have happened.
Hayden was never getting near his family again if Drake had anything to say about it.
Doctor Lina was waiting with a gurney, ready to receive her patient.
Drake laid him gently on it and ran with the doctor and nurses to the ER operating room.
He wasn’t leaving Hayden again, no matter what.
He ended up in tight scrubs as the medical personnel worked.
His other clothes had ripped to shreds after he'd shifted to find Hayden.
For an hour and a half he stood in the corner and watched them work over his mate.
Broken ribs, punctured lung supported with an inflatable tube, broken nose set, and worst of all, wolf’s bane.
He’d been dosed with wolf’s bane. A few of the nurses were in tears.
He’d never seen nurses cry as they worked.
It wasn’t his intimidating presence. It was the wolf’s bane.
Wolf’s bane suppressed a wolf thus suppressing the ability to heal, too.
Guards used it sparingly to quiet dangerous criminals by suppressing their wolf, but only if the need was great.
The substance was supposed to be controlled, regulated.
At proper doses, it would burn out of male wolves in a few hours, no harm done.
At proper doses, it would delay the full strength of a wolf to heal quickly.
The bruises and old, deeply scabbed whip marks and scars spoke of so many doses of wolf’s bane. The bastards never let Hayden fully heal. Why the hell would Marcus do that to his stepson?
“Alpha Drake, Hayden is stable now,” Doctor Lina said. “You can come and hold his hand. Even a faint mate-bond will help.”
“How bad is it?” Drake asked as he picked up Hayden’s hand. He felt so cold.
“His lung is going to be just fine. It will heal much quicker than the ribs. And, you know he was dosed with wolf’s bane.
That’s the bigger worry. The problem is that he’s been regularly dosed with a lot of wolf’s bane.
” Doctor Lina took a deep breath. “Small amounts over short periods of time don’t harm the male wolf’s body permanently.
The body processes the poison and spits it back out a few hours later. ”
“And larger doses?”
“When large, continuous doses are given, the body can’t deal with the poison so it starts to store it in joints, bone marrow and lastly, spinal fluid.
That is the order. Always. We tapped his spinal fluid and the wolf’s bane to spinal fluid ratio is large.
We’ve flushed his system as best we can but now only time will tell.
We can’t get it out of the joints, bone marrow or spine. Blood only.”
“What does that mean?”
“At random intervals, the wolf’s bane will leak out of the joints or spine, back into the bloodstream, causing periods of immense pain.
He’ll feel like his nerves are on fire because they basically will be.
There is no way to tell when this will happen, how often, or how long the attacks will last, some wolves can’t handle the pain and eventually give up and die, or suicide. ”
Drake leaned his head against Hayden’s hand.
“Has he been suffering these attacks?”
“Yes and no. The constant application of wolf’s bane burns every time he receives it. That would usually trigger an attack without actually dumping the new wolf’s bane out of his body. It’s kind of the chicken and the egg. There’s one more problem.”
“Fuck.”
“We need to sedate him when he’s supposed to go through his first shift.
His body can’t handle a shift because he’s not healthy enough.
He’ll die. We may need to sedate the second shift, too.
After that, he must be ready by the third full moon.
That basically gives him three months to get healthier. ”
“Fuck me,” Drake said. “Okay. When can I take him home?”