About Face (Wolf Within) (13 page)

Declan Byrne lunged again, and more blood flew, this time from Paddy’s throat. It was just a nick, but it enraged me. Declan had his back to me, and before I could think it through, I leaped off the bar and landed on him.

He wasn’t expecting it, and we went down hard. I had time to hope he landed straight on the glass, and then things went a little fuzzy because my head hit the edge of a table on the way to the floor.

The next thing I knew, Paddy loomed over me and blocked out the light while someone else threw water—no, beer—in my face. Alannah. Being helpful.

Declan Byrne was out cold on the floor next to me. Woozy as I was, Paddy’s face wavered in and out of focus. I blinked and his worried eyes became clearer.

“Paddy, you’re dripping blood all over me,” I remarked. It was true. A steady patter of red droplets dripped on my face and, worse, my new shirt.

“What? Oh, shit. Sorry about that.” Paddy drew back and clapped a hand to his bleeding face.

“That’s going to scar.” I tried to sit up, but the fucking world tilted in the most sickening fashion, and I decided it was not such a hot idea after all.

“Won’t be my first.” Paddy leaned close again and smiled at me, although his eyes were still worried. “If you want, I’ll show you me others later tonight. What do you say, Stanz?”

“Sounds like a plan,” I agreed, and things went dark for a little while.

* * * *

“I never saw anything like it.” Fee giggled in the car on the way to Murphy’s apartment. She was behind the wheel, and Paddy slumped in the passenger seat with a blood-soaked bar rag pressed to his still-oozing cheek. The earthy smell of blood filled the interior of the car, and it added to my general nausea.

I lay in the backseat with a bar rag full of dripping ice pressed to the lump on the side of my head. I was relatively sure I wasn’t concussed, but my ears hadn’t stopped ringing since I’d hit the damn table.

“Stanzie was like some sort of huge flying squirrel in platform boots sailing through the air to land on Declan Byrne’s back. And didn’t he go down like a ton of bricks, the bastard, and him not expecting it? You should have seen your face, Paddy, you didn’t know whether to laugh or scream at her.”

“Normally I can fight my own battles,” Paddy remarked from the front seat. “Some Alphas might have found Stanzie’s theatrics a little insulting. Luckily, I’m not one of them. I thought it highly entertaining, although I do wish she hadn’t smacked her head so hard on the way to the ground. Couldn’t you see that table coming, love?” He craned his neck so he could look over the back of the seat.

I extended my middle finger, and he laughed as he reached back to pat my leg.

“I’m flattered you cared enough to fling yourself into the fight, woman. But it’s what I would expect from a Callahan. Never met one who could keep out of it once a fight broke out.”

“Oh, for Christ’s sake.” I blew out my breath in exasperation and gritted my teeth when Fee shifted gears and the car lurched around a corner. “I will never get used to being on the wrong side of the damn road. This is hell.”

“No, tomorrow morning will be hell when you wake up with a head bigger than a house,” Paddy predicted. “Maybe I should stay the night with you. Help you through your agony.”

“Oh, God, that’s just what I need.” I groaned. “Fee, help me!”

“Paddy, you’re coming along home with me. I might need some help through my own agony. You’ll never know how I felt watching that bastard slice you open like a ripe orange, and me eight months pregnant with your child.”

“Knowing you, you were cheering the bastard on. You love a good fight, Fiona Carmichael, don’t you dare lie to my face.” Paddy was unmoved, especially when she burst into merry laughter.

“So does he get away with fighting dirty like that?” I asked. “Or is what he did normal behavior for Mac Tire?”

“Normal behavior for Declan Byrne, which is why nobody will fight him but my idiot bond mate.” Fiona shifted gears again, and I grimaced.

“I had to or Colm would have, and I’ll not be having him cut to ribbons just because he’s trying to impress our Stanzie,” Paddy defended himself. “He’s too pretty for scars, the big bastard.”

“Colm does have a thing for you.” Fiona glanced into the rearview mirror and grinned at me. I gritted my teeth and hoped like hell she’d remember to look at the road before we crashed into something.

“I think it started when Stanzie called him a freak of nature last night.” Paddy’s tone was jovial as he searched for a clean part of rag that wasn’t saturated with blood already.

“You never told me she started it between them,” Fee accused and I groaned.

“Since when is calling someone a freak of nature flirting?”

“He is cute as hell,” Fee mused. “I wonder if his cock’s as big as the rest of him?”

“I can’t believe you of all people haven’t found out firsthand.” Paddy laughed.

“Not for lack of trying on my part. But between him being your half brother and lately me being the size of a small whale, he’s just not making it easy.”

“Wait. What? He’s your brother?” I sat up and smacked Paddy in the back of the head. “Haven’t we talked about this? It’s hard enough to navigate through the twists and turns of a pack’s blood ties, but when you deliberately withhold information like Colm is your brother, you’re just fucking with me, Paddy.”

“Maybe just a little.” Paddy rubbed the back of his neck and gave me a reproachful look. “It never came up. He and Alannah are twins. Couldn’t you see the resemblance?”

“He’s so goddamn tall I can’t crane my neck back enough to look at him up close,” I muttered and Paddy snorted.

“Well, if you do get him into bed, you’ll have to let me know if he’s as big as I think he is,” Fee ordered.

“Woman, from the way you’re running your mouth, I’m thinking you’re in the mood. But you’re killing mine, discussing my own brother’s bait and tackle with me sitting right beside you. Wasn’t last night’s romp enough for you? You need more?” Paddy’s grin was seductive, and he reached out a hand and put it on Fee’s thigh.

That made me nervous because she was supposed to be driving, not flirting.

“Ah, that was charity, you fucking idiot, to keep you from crawling beneath Ellen Maguire’s skirt. She’s on her period and begged me to distract you.” Fee swerved around something in the road. I gulped and squeezed my eyes shut.

“Damn nicest charity I’ve ever gotten,” Paddy said happily. “You think I could have another donation tonight?”

“Fuck off, you pervy bastard.”

“Well, then, you’re forcing me to stay with Stanzie. And what’s Liam going to think, him walking in on me fucking his bond mate seven ways to Sunday and her begging and screaming for more? You’re going to get me into trouble, Fiona Carmichael, unless you take off your knickers for me, I swear.”

“I’ll take them off and strangle you with them. They’re big enough,” she threatened, and they both laughed.

“Is Murphy coming back tonight?” I asked, and their laughter faded.

“I don’t know, love,” Paddy answered.

“Maybe you better stay with her. She hit her head pretty damn hard. I heard it even above your bloody sister’s screeching. Maybe we ought to find Andrew and have him take a look.”

“Who’s Andrew?” I was immediately suspicious.

“Andrew Brody. He’s our pack doctor. One of them, anyway. He’s going to deliver this fucking idiot’s baby when the time comes.”

“You aren’t going to let the women be with you? Don’t you have a midwife?” While it wasn’t uncommon for Pack women to have male Pack doctors examine them during the pregnancy, it was almost unheard of for a male to be in the room when a baby was born. That was the province of the women of the pack. Babies were almost never born at a hospital.

“I’ll not be letting that cow near my vagina,” snarled Fee and Paddy groaned.

“Don’t get her started, please, Stanzie. It’s my bad luck Fee’s been in a lifelong feud with Sheenaugh Donovan, and her being the pack midwife just like her mother and her mother’s mother. If she has a daughter, she’ll be a midwife, too.”

“Ha. The bitch has to get to be Alpha before she can spawn, and I’ll not support that.” Fee’s voice was laced with such poison, I decided I’d never want to be on her bad side. Fuck that.

“You know anything about midwifery?” Paddy asked with a hopeful look in my direction.

“Are you fucked in the head? Where the hell would I have learned anything about babies? I was eleven the last time one was born around me, and I kept as far away from that scene as I could when Samantha went into labor.”

“But you’ll be there with me just the same,” said Fee with perfect confidence. “And with Andrew and Siobhan and Paddy’s mother.”

I thought about Faith’s mother, Lily. My aunt. How she’d died in childbirth and I’d watched, hidden behind a chair.

“I’m bad luck, remember? I’ll wait outside,” I said. “Who says I’m even going to be here by then? Despite what Declan said tonight, I’m not on the lookout for another Mac Tire bond mate. If Murphy keeps avoiding me, I’ll be back in Boston before two weeks are up.”

“My stupid brother better show up before then, Padraic,” Fee warned, her tone shrill. “You hear me?”

“What the hell are you screaming at me for?” Paddy gave her a dismayed look. “Do I look like I’m the one holding the other end of his damn leash, Fee?”

“I wouldn’t put it past you. You two always cover for each other.”

“I want him back here,” Paddy whined. “Jaysus, I want him back with Stanzie, too.”

“Then get his ass back here. I’ll not be buying that crap about him not answering his frigging phone much longer.”

“He’s ignoring your calls, too, woman,” Paddy rumbled and yelped when Fee smacked him.

“Shite. That’s my sore arm, the one Declan Byrne half amputated. Watch what you’re doing.”

“I’ll be the one amputating more than your arm, Padraic, if you don’t stop being a preposterous bastard,” Fee vowed.

“Why don’t you call him, Stanzie?” Paddy pouted over the back of his seat, and my head really started to throb.

“Before I can call him, it might be helpful to have his frigging phone number,” I muttered.

“Oh, yeah, he changed it. That’s right.” Paddy’s voice was less than convincing, and he yelped again when Fee smacked him.

“Who’s the ridiculous bastard who didn’t give the woman her own bond mate’s phone number?”

“You didn’t give it to her either.”

“Because I didn’t know you didn’t give her the new one.”

“Why is everything my goddamn fault?”

Their bickering was done affectionately, but it still made my head spin. Paddy turned around and winked as Fee said, “You’re too stupid to live, I swear.”

She slammed on the brakes for a red light that I’d wondered when she’d see.

* * * *

Fee decided I didn’t need Andrew Brody unless my head was really bad the next day. She also decreed Paddy would stay the night with me, mostly so she wouldn’t have to deal with his whining and blubbering about his wounds.

“And you give Stanzie my stupid brother’s phone number,” she yelled as her parting shot before she pulled the Mini Cooper back into the street and disappeared in a flash of red taillights.

Once inside Murphy’s apartment I made Paddy strip off his shirt so I could put peroxide on his cuts.

“And keep your roaming hands to yourself, damn it, or you’ll have more injuries than just what Declan Byrne gave you,” I warned him as I slapped his fingers away from my chest for the fourth time.

He chuckled and then shouted in pain when I splashed peroxide on the cut on his forearm. “Bloody fuck, that hurts!”

“Well, we’re even. My headache just got ten times worse, thanks to you screaming in my ear,” I snapped as I wiped away the blood and peroxide.

“Well, it hurts, damn you.” He hissed in pain when I put more peroxide on the cut on his cheek. “Is it really going to scar? Jagged or straight?” He seemed fascinated, not repulsed by the idea, and I rolled my eyes.

“Straight,” I told him as I cleaned it with a wet washcloth. “It will make you look like a fucking street thug and not romantic at all, so stop smirking like that.”

“Why in the hell did you fling yourself on the bastard’s back?” Paddy continued to grin, and I sighed when he gave my braid a gentle tug. “Could it be you give a shit about me, after all, Stanzie Newcastle? Maybe just a wee little bit?”

“For God’s sake.” I upended the peroxide bottle on the wound on his throat, and he squeezed his eyes shut in pain. “You’re my Alpha, all right? I can’t believe I’m the only person in that whole damn pub who took offense at Declan Byrne using a weapon when you had none.”

“You got Fee out of the way, too,” Paddy mused, and his fingertips caressed my earlobe until I shivered. Ears have always been one of my erogenous zones, damn him. “Don’t you like to watch a good fight?”

“Not particularly.” I rummaged through Murphy’s medicine cabinet until I found some antibacterial salve, which I slathered onto all three of his cuts. I was vitally aware he was half naked and very male. Sure, I’d had sex with Alan Perrault in Willoughby, but that had been over two months ago and hardly satisfying for me, as it had been his first time.

Then I remembered Ron-or-Don, the Other, and shuddered. All thoughts of Paddy’s masculine appeal vanished in a rush of self-loathing.

“What did I do?” Paddy sensed my revulsion and let his hand fall away from my ear. A shamed expression washed over his face. “You’ll never forgive me, will you? For walking away?”

“Did Murphy leave because I’m bad luck? Is that why? Was he really freaked out by what my wolf did to Nate?” My voice shook, and I wouldn’t look him in the face. “People do die around me a lot, Paddy. Declan’s right. I am bad luck.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” Paddy took my face between his strong hands and made me look at him. “Don’t you give that black-haired bastard the satisfaction of taking his spiteful words to heart, you hear me?”

“You didn’t want me in Mac Tire at first,” I reminded him. “The first time I ever met you, Murphy was pissed at you because you wouldn’t let me into the pack because of my past. Because of Grey and Elena. And Rudi.”

“Bollocks.” Paddy gave me a gentle shake, mindful I’d given my head a hard knock earlier. “Jason Allerton asked me to hold off on letting you both back in. I thought you’d twigged to that, you idiot.”