Danger in a Fur Coat (The Fur Coat Society Book 4) (7 page)

Juno breathed in and out several times in a row, trying to calm her anxious heart. She tried to time her breathing with the rise and fall of the chest of the woman lying on the exam table in sick bay. The girl was young, maybe twenty-five years old. Her eyes had been wide and delirious when Wyatt brought her in earlier, but now she was sleeping, and she looked almost peaceful. It had been several hours since Juno injected her with the new medicine, and so far the girl did not show any signs of improvement. Her condition hadn’t worsened, though, which was a good sign. All Juno could really do now was wait and hope.

Juno leaned back in her chair and rubbed her forehead. She was tired. So tired that she felt the exhaustion in her bones. Wyatt kept trying to get her to rest, but she couldn’t. Not when her patient was lying there on the cusp between life and death. Juno closed her eyes, telling herself she would just rest for a moment. But it didn’t take long for her to fall asleep right in her chair, with her head leaning back against the wall behind her. She slipped into dreams of faraway places. In her dreamland, she was running with Wyatt on a beach. The water was turquoise, and the sand was white. Were they on a honeymoon? Juno’s lips turned up into a smile as the scene faded to a house in a forest. Her house. Wyatt’s house. There was a Christmas tree up, and they were singing Christmas carols while sugary white flakes of snow swirled around outside. It looked so cozy, warm and inviting.

But Juno’s happy scene was shattered suddenly when a loud bang sounded out, followed by several crashes of shattering glass. Juno started and woke so quickly that she fell out of her chair. Looking around with wild eyes, she jumped to her feet and started moving toward the door. That’s when she heard Grant screaming.

“What the hell, Jack! It’s a dragon!”

“How do you know?” Jack yelled.

“Can’t you smell him?” Grant replied. “Shit, shit, shit.”

“Where’s Juno, you filthy beast?” Jack yelled. “I swear to God if you hurt her I’m going to tear your limbs off one by one!”

Juno started running toward the outer lab at full speed.

“Wait!” she screamed. “Wait!”

Her heart was pounding. She’d been found. Grant and Jack had made it to Chicago, and she’d just realized that they had no idea who Wyatt was. In their eyes, he was a menacing dragon who needed to be taken down. And in Wyatt’s eyes, Grant and Jack were two intruders who needed to be prevented from entering the lab. Juno slammed through the door into the outer lab just in time to see Grant lunging toward Wyatt.

“Stop!” she yelled. “Stop it!”

The three men in the room froze and looked toward her. Wyatt had his arms raised, his fists just about to come down on Grant’s head.

“Juno, what the hell were you doing sneaking out like that?” Grant asked.

Juno’s heart was pounding in her chest, and she told herself to remain calm.

“I was doing it for your own good,” she said. “It’s too dangerous out here for you. You have lifemates to think about!”

“These are your clan members?” Wyatt asked, slowly lowering his arms.

“Yes,” Juno said. “This is Grant, my alpha. And Jack, another one of the clan’s shifters. Grant, Jack, this is Wyatt.”

“How did you make friends with a dragon shifter?” Grant asked, his eyes widening. “Dragons don’t play nice with anyone. They’re solitary animals.”

“We’re not all that bad,” Wyatt said, sounding defensive.

“Look, guys. I have a lot to tell you, okay?” Juno said. “I know you’re mad, but just calm down for a second and listen.”

“Hell, yeah, we’re mad,” Grant said. “What was the big idea, Juno? You could have crashed the helicopter. You could’ve been killed out here. You put us through a lot of trouble trying to get gasoline to get back out here and rescue you.”

“I don’t need rescuing,” Juno said.

Wyatt snorted in laughter when she said that, and she shot him a menacing glare. He quickly schooled his features, but she could tell he was still chuckling on the inside.

“You had no right to leave like that, Juno!” Jack said. “Drew’s furious. We’re all furious. And we were all worried sick about you.”

Juno felt her stomach tying up in a knot. “Look, I’m sorry, okay? But I wanted to keep you guys from danger. You have lifemates. You have people who care about you. And, honestly, you wouldn’t do much to help out here. Grant, you don’t even know anything about science.

“Oh, come on, Juno,” Jack said. “He might not know about science, but he was supposed to be coming to help protect us. And I know about science. I’m a freaking doctor for crying out loud. How could you just leave me behind?”

“I just wanted to prove to myself that I could do something!” Juno shouted, surprising even herself with the intensity of her voice. “That I’m not just a waste of space!”

The room fell silent, and Wyatt stared at her with wide eyes. “But I thought you just wanted to keep them from danger,” he said.

“I don’t know,” Juno said. “I did. That’s what I told myself, and it’s true. More than anything, I’m just tired of always being the one in the group who doesn’t stand out. Who hasn’t done anything amazing. Everyone else has their special thing, and their lifemates. I just felt like if I could do this by myself without having to put Grant and Jack in danger, that I would finally show people what I’m capable of.”

This time, Grant’s eyes widened. “Juno, what are you talking about?” he asked. “We all know that you’re amazing, and we all know that you’re capable. I mean you’ve been at the forefront of this battle since the very beginning. Remember, you’re the one who was giving us inside information on the eye scanners when they were still being developed.”

Juno looked down at her feet, unable to meet Grant’s eyes. “I guess,” she said. “I just felt like it wasn’t that much. I mean you got us all out of Chicago, Grant. And Jack, you’re the one who saved Drew’s life. I feel like I just have been sitting around taking up space.”

“Juno,” Wyatt said. “I can’t believe you feel that way. I’ve only known you a few days and I can already tell you’re so much more than just a blob taking up space.”

“I don’t know who this guy is Juno, but he’s right,” Jack said. “You’re amazing. I can’t believe you don’t see yourself that way.”

“No one ever tells me that,” Juno said quietly.

“I didn’t realize you needed to be told,” Grant said. “I thought it was obvious to everyone, including you. I’m really sorry that you feel that way, but Jesus Christ! Next time just come talk to us about it. Don’t sneak off with a fucking helicopter.”

Juno looked down at her feet again. She couldn’t exactly argue with that logic. Grant was right.

“Fine,” she said. “I’m sorry.”

Grant let out a long weary sigh. “Right, well, I guess you’re okay, so that’s the most important thing. What have you been doing since you arrived here. Have you made any progress on a cure? Looks like you made a friend, at least,” he said, gesturing toward Wyatt.

Juno took a deep breath relieved that she wasn’t going to be completely excommunicated from the clan. “Yeah. This is Wyatt. He’s a dragon shifter and my newest friend.”

Juno saw Wyatt raise an eyebrow in her direction. No doubt he was wondering why she didn’t introduce them as her boyfriend or lifemate or something. But the truth was she felt a little weird saying that, since they hadn’t actually discussed between themselves what, exactly, they were. She felt like he was her lifemate, but did he feel that way, too? Did he love her?

Juno’s heart started pounding again, and she forced herself to look back at Grant. “Wyatt is a firebreathing dragon,” she said. “And firebreathing actually comes in quite handy around here. He burned the front door to the lab down so that I could get in, and he’s been letting me stay in his lair and eat his food. He also knows the codes to pretty much all of the security computers in Chicago.”

“Wow,” Grant said. “That’s pretty impressive.”

“Thanks,” Wyatt said, sounding a little bit wary.

Juno decided to keep talking and hope the awkwardness would fade. “I’ve also been working on a cure since I got here. I went through one round, and unfortunately it didn’t work. Our patient died. But we have a second version of the medicine right now that we’re testing on a girl. We’re just waiting to see at this point if it’s effective. If it is, we should start seeing improvement very soon.”

Grant frowned. “You think you might’ve actually found a cure already?”

Juno smiled sheepishly. “I don’t know. I had high hopes of finding one before you arrived, but I guess I’m a little late for that.”

Grant rolled his eyes at her, then looked over at Wyatt. “Nice to meet you, Wyatt. Sorry we almost attacked you. I wasn’t aware that you are actually here to protect Juno, not harm her.”

“No worries, man,” Wyatt said. “I probably would’ve done the same thing in your shoes.”

After shaking Grant’s hand, Wyatt shook Jack’s hand. Juno breathed out a small sigh of relief. Everything seemed under control, at least for the moment.

“Do you guys want to go see the lab and our patient?” she asked.

“Sure,” Grant said. “Let’s go.”

Juno nodded, then turned back to head towards the hallway that led to sick bay. “Come on,” she said. “Let’s go see whether I’ve actually accomplished anything while you guys were trying figure out how to get to me.”

Juno stepped into the small room in sick bay where she had left the patient lying. She quickly checked the vitals on the girl, and felt a spark of hope in her chest.

“You guys!” she said excitedly. “Her fever’s coming down.”

“Seriously?” Jack asked, running over. “What was it before?”

“It was 104, and now it’s down to 102.”

“And it looks like it’s dropping,” Jack said, peering at the computer readout of the patient’s vital signs. “Her pulse rate is normalizing, too. Looks like her heartbeat is slowing down to a normal level instead of the elevated rate that usually accompanies bear flu.”

Juno bit her bottom lip. Was it possible that the woman was actually cured? Juno watched the thermometer readout in amazement. Just as Jack had said, the woman’s temperature was steadily dropping a tenth of a degree or so every minute. The four shifters crowded around the woman, watching as she started to stir. She moaned slightly, and then, to Juno’s utter astonishment, she opened her eyes. She had beautiful blue-green eyes, and when she opened them Juno could clearly see that they didn’t have the glassy look of a sick person anymore. They were clear, wide, and alert. And, as the woman looked around the room, it didn’t take long for those eyes to register fear.

“Who…who are you?” she asked, trying to sit up but wincing from the pain. “Where am I? What’s going on?”

Jack immediately stepped into the familiar doctor role. “You’re going to be all right,” he said. “I’m Jack, and this is Juno. We’re here to help you. These are our friends, Grant and Wyatt.”

“Okay,” the girl said slowly. “But where am I? What’s going on here?”

“You’re in an exam room at Hook Labs,” Juno said. “We’ve been working on a cure for bear flu, and we think that we may have found one.”

The girl was silent for several moments, trying to take it all in. She tried to sit up again, but she was still too weak. Slowly, tears formed in her eyes and spilled over onto her face.

“There is no cure,” the woman said. “I know because I tried so hard to find one. I researched as much as I could. I asked everyone I could. I even broke into hospitals. But there’s nothing. There’s no cure, and I lost my whole family. My younger brother died in my arms.”

Juno felt her heart twisting in her chest. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “So very sorry.”

“I guess I caught it from them,” the woman said, “I don’t feel so great. Nothing is going to make me better. There’s no cure.”

Juno put her hand on the woman’s shoulder. “We’ve been working on one,” Juno said. “We tested it on you, and we think it’s effective. That’s why you’re even conscious. You might not feel great right now, but you were much worse a few hours ago. You were unconscious, and on the brink of death. You’re on the mend now.”

The woman pondered Juno’s words, then looked at her suspiciously. “I don’t know what to say. Is this for real?”

“It’s for real,” Juno said, feeling a small puff of pride in her chest. She had actually done it. She had just saved someone’s life. It was incredible the way it made her feel. But the woman still seemed confused.

“I don’t understand. There is no cure.”

Juno opened her mouth to try to explain again, but Jack held up his palm for her to wait.

“What’s your name, dear?” he asked.

“Lily Young,” she said.

“It’s very nice to meet you, Lily. Like Juno said, I’m Jack. I know this is a lot to take in. Why don’t you rest for a bit and we can go over more details once you’ve recovered a bit more. Are you hungry? We can get you something to eat.”

“No, just exhausted,” Lily said. “I feel like I haven’t slept in a month.”

“You probably haven’t slept properly in a month, that’s for sure,” Juno said. “Between taking care of your sick family and being sick yourself, you must have a lot of sleep to catch up on. Rest. We’ll be back in to check on you in a little bit.

Lily nodded. She still looked confused but she seemed a little more relaxed as the shifters quietly left the room. As soon as they made it back to the main outer lab, Grant and Jack started shouting and pulled Juno into a big hug.

“You did it!” Grant said. “You did it.”

Juno smiled. “I guess I did. I almost can’t believe it myself, but it looks like we found a cure.”

“YOU found a cure,” Jack corrected. All anger over Juno sneaking away seemed to be forgotten in the joy of the moment.

“Hey, you helped,” Juno said. “If it wasn’t for the fact that you realized we could use shifter blood to cure Drew, I may never have finished this cure.”

“Look, it doesn’t even matter anymore who was more or less responsible,” Grant said. “The important thing is that bear flu is cured.”

With that he let out another whoop, and Jack started cheering again too. Juno laughed and wiped away the tears of joy that were starting to fall from her eyes. She looked over to find Wyatt and pull him into the hug, but that’s when she saw him slinking out the front door of the lab.

“Wyatt!” she cried. “Wyatt, wait.”

There’s no way he didn’t hear her, but he didn’t pause or turn around. He kept going, letting the door slam behind him with a thud.

“What’s that all about?” Grant asked.

“I don’t know,” Juno said. “But I have to find out.” She started running toward the door, but Grant reached out to hold her back.

“Juno wait,” he said. “You’re wasting your time. He’s a dragon. Don’t you know they’re solitary? They don’t pair off. Not permanently. They’re loners.”

Juno furrowed her brow. “No, Wyatt’s different,” she said. “He likes to spend time with me. We’ve only been together for a few days and we’ve already had some really good times together.”

“Look, Juno, I can see you love him,” Jack said. “But he’s only going to break your heart. Grant’s right. Dragons are solitary. He’s going to feel smothered before too long. In fact, he probably already does.”

“You guys are wrong,” Juno said, her voice rising a little. “He might be a dragon, but he’s
my
dragon, and I’m going to go chase after him.”

Juno shook off Grant’s hand and ran out of the room as fast as she could. She saw Wyatt at the very end of the long hallway, only a few steps away from the door that led to the exit.

“Wyatt, wait!” she said. This time, he turned around and looked at her with sad eyes and shook his head.

“I can’t,” he said. “I’m sorry. I have to go.”

And with that he took off running again.