Doc Featherstone's Return (8 page)

“I’m sorry about Scarlett.”

“Yeah, so am I. She was a good assassin. It was a bitch that she had to go out the way she did.”

“What are you guys going to do now?”

“We’re going to give her a funeral per our customs and then I need to look for a replacement.

With Tatum basically on retirement, I’m running low on killers.”

Joshua gave him a dry look. “I’m sorry to hear about your problem.”
Shane, as usual, missed the message. He just shrugged. “I know. I keep asking Mitchell to let me promote Andrew, but he keeps saying no, so I’m going to have to look for outside resources for this. I need at least two warm bodies, and since he also wants me to look for some assassins for Chris’s pack, I’m going to have my work cut out for me.”

“It sounds like you have a tough job.”

“You have no idea, Doc. Plus Ava wants me to take her to some movie about fairies. How can I tell her no?”

Joshua smiled as he thought about the little Leopard girl. He didn’t think there was a shifter alive that could deny her anything. “I don’t think you can.”

Shane pulled his hood over his head. “Well, I better get going, I have a kill to do and a funeral to take care of before I can go home tonight.”

With that, he was off. Joshua shook his head as he wondered for the first time what it was that made Shane…well, Shane. How he could talk about movies in one breath and murder in the next like they were the same thing. But then again, Shane was unique like that.

Since Joshua knew that he wouldn’t be able to sleep, he went into the infirmary to help out. Not only was there a huge cleanup to take care of, but Scarlett had been very thorough in making a mess
of things.

When he walked to the spot where Kallen had made a stand and saw the blood still there, his stomach blanched. Had it not been for the Hyena, Ash would be dead. Joshua owed Kallen so much.

If it took him his whole life, he would find a way to make it up to him.

Everybody else was busy with other patients, so Joshua got out a mop and bucket and began to clean up the blood. It was normally a job an orderly would do, but at the moment, Joshua wasn’t a doctor, he was a man who was grateful to the one who had saved his mate.

Mate?

Yes, there was no doubt in his mind that Ash was his mate. Which meant Joshua had one thing to do. It wouldn’t be easy, and once he did it, there would be no going back, but he had no choice. It had to be done.

Although he’d rather do it face to face, he didn’t want to leave HQ with Ash fresh out of surgery. So Joshua put up the mop and went to his office. Taking a deep breath to steel his nerves, he picked up the phone and called home.

“Featherstone speaking,” his father answered, all business as usual.

“Father, it’s me, Joshua.”

“Hello, Joshua. You left in such a rush. We didn’t even have time for a proper farewell.”
Joshua sighed. As always with his father, his spoken word was so proper and stiff. He never relaxed, never even around his own family. Yet everybody wondered why Joshua was such a crank at times. If they only knew his history, they’d understand.

“I had to get back to my mate,” Joshua said.

Might as well get right to the heart of the topic and get things over with. No sense in dragging things out. The outcome would be the same either way.

“Mate? You never mentioned you found her.

What’s her name and lineage?”

Damn, his father acted like they were talking about a show dog instead of a person. Joshua took a deep breath to hold back his anger. To think that he allowed this man to rule his life, for so long, too. Damn, he’d been such an idiot. Thank God Shane had slapped some sense into him.

“It’s not a she, and it’s a Hawk shifter.”

There was a long silence over the phone before his father said, “This had better be a joke.”

“I’m sorry, but it’s not. I didn’t mean to, but I fell in love with him, and I’m not giving him up.”

“Pack your things up and come home

immediately. Those low-bred felines at that coalition have been a bad influence on you. I knew I should never have allowed you to go there. Once you get home, you’ll see things our way again.”
Joshua took the phone away from his ear and gave it a look of disbelief, his shock was so great.

“I’m not going anywhere. I’m a grown man. I can make my own decisions in life, and this is one of them. You can’t dictate my life anymore.”

“You do this and you will be letting down the entire family.”

“And if I don’t, I’ll be letting down myself.”

“Don’t you have any respect for your heritage, your ancestors?” his father yelled.

“Of course I do, but that doesn’t mean I have to live an unhappy life.”

“You do this and I’ll disown you. You won’t have a family anymore.”

You’re wrong, I have my family here and that’s all
that matters,
Joshua thought.

Instead, he said aloud, “I’m sorry, Father, but my mind is made up, my mate is more important to me.”

Then he was listening to dead air because his father hung up on him. Joshua held the receiver to his ear for a few more moments before setting it down. It was only then that he realized his hands were trembling.

He’d done it. Stood up to his father. Now all that stood between him and Ash was Ash forgiving him, something that Joshua knew wasn’t going to come easy. He’d hurt his little Hawk badly, and Joshua honestly didn’t know if he
deserved another chance. But he was going to do everything in his power to make sure he got it.

Ash woke up and blinked a few times before the events from the night before came back to him.

Then he sat up with a gasp as panic gripped him.

“Shhh…you’re okay. Everything is over now.

You’re safe now,” a familiar voice said.

Turning, Ash was comforted to see Isaac sitting there. From the bags under his eyes, he’d been there awhile, too.

“Scarlett?” Ash asked.

“Dead.”

“Shit,” Ash breathed as he closed his eyes.

Even though she’d gone off the deep end and tried to kill him, he never wanted it to end that way. Before everything had gone into the crapper for her, she’d been a decent person. She hadn’t deserved any of what had happened to her.

“Shane made sure she had an honorable funeral,” Isaac said.

“At least she had that.”

“How are you feeling?” Isaac asked.

“A bit groggy, but otherwise great. For the first time since being shot, I have complete feeling in my legs. Was I dreaming last night or did they say that I could walk again?”
Isaac smiled. “No, you weren’t. They said that not only would you be able to walk again, but that you can shift, too. Before you know it, you’ll be back in the field with us.”

Ash fell silent for a moment before another thought occurred to him. “Did the doc come back to see me after I came out of surgery?”

“Are you kidding? He couldn’t wait to get in to see you. Why?”

Ash ignored the question as, all of a sudden, bits and pieces of the conversation between him and the doc came back. Letting out a gasp, Ash brought his hand to his mouth. “I am such an asshole.”

“Why would you say that?”

“Do you know I never even asked Featherstone his first name?”

“So what are you getting at?”

“I’ve been mad at him for not giving up his family to be with me, yet I’ve been so selfish and caught up in my own drama, I never asked him about himself. I didn’t even know until yesterday that he can’t operate anymore because of the injuries he got in the attack. But he knows my medical history back to front.”

“Well, he is your doctor,” Isaac pointed out.

“You know what I’m talking about. I’ve been such a brat, moping around, that all I’ve been thinking about is me and not even caring about
how this all affects him. No wonder he doesn’t want me. I know I sure as hell wouldn’t if I were in his shoes.”

“So what are you going to do about it?” Isaac asked.

“I’m going to go to him and beg him for his forgiveness. Then I’m going to make him tell me everything about him, even if I have to pry it from him.”

“Are you going to tell him why you were exiled from your last cast?”

The thought made Ash’s stomach clench with dread, but he nodded. “I just hope he still wants me after he hears everything.”

wo days later, Joshua found Ash on the roof of T HQ. While Ash was able to walk, he had to use two canes to help him, but each day he was progressing and it would only be a matter of time before he was back to his old self.

For a moment, Joshua just stood there and studied Ash. He’d put back on most of the weight he’d lost, and his face had filled out. The wind blew through his hair, making it ruffle slightly, the brown locks blowing into his eyes. He wore a pair of jeans that hung low on his hips and a t-shirt that was bright red with some cartoon character on it that Joshua didn’t recognize.

“What’s your first name?” Ash asked.

Joshua startled, shocked that Ash had realized he’d been there all along. “Joshua.”

Ash smiled. “Joshua. I like it. It fits you.”

“I thought that you wouldn’t want to talk to me again,” Joshua admitted as he moved closer.
Ash turned and gave Joshua a sad look.

“Actually, I should be the one apologizing to you.”

Now Joshua was doubly shocked. “Why? What did you do?”

“It’s what I
didn’t
do. I’ve been so caught up in my own issues and being a brat, I neglected you.”

Joshua dared to reach out and cup Ash’s cheek, when Ash leaned into the touch instead of pulling away, Joshua felt as if he’d won a big victory.

“You haven’t neglected me.”

“Yes, I have. I don’t know anything about you, and it’s because I’ve been too self-centered to take the time to ask. I don’t even know what tribe your ancestors came from.”

“Cree.”

“So you’re actually from Canada then?”

“Yes, my family still lives there.”

“Do you miss them when you’re here?”

“Not when I’m with you,” Joshua said. He was rewarded with a dazzling smile.

“That stuff you said to me the night of my surgery, did you really mean it?”

Leave it to Ash to remember that. “You recall that, huh?”

Ash nodded. “Yeah, I was out of it, but I still heard every word you said.”

“Yes, I do.”

Ash nibbled on his bottom lip and looked
troubled. “Before we go further, there is something I should tell you. If you don’t want me after, I’ll understand.”

“There’s nothing that could ever make me not want you.”

“Don’t be so sure of that. What I’m about to tell you is a doozy. I lied to everyone when I first came here. Well, to everyone but Mitchell and my closest friends. I didn’t just leave my old flock, I was exiled.”

Wow, that hadn’t been what Joshua was expecting. It usually took a lot for a cast to exile a member. Whatever Ash did had to have been pretty bad.

“What happened?”

“Well, as you probably already know, most of our casts are small because we were nearly wiped out by the Ravens. So, we tend to be very protective and secretive about our security and stuff. With good reason.”

“That makes sense.”

“I fell for a Hawk from another cast. I thought he was the one for me. Boy, did he have me fooled. He was the leader, and he was a lot older than me. Before I knew it, he had me wrapped around his finger, and I was letting things slip. I didn’t even realize it at the time because I was so young and stupid, but I was giving away all my cast’s secrets. One night my lover’s cast came and
destroyed my cast.”

“Damn, I’m so sorry,” Joshua said, his heart breaking for Ash.

“Oh, it gets better. Did I mention that my father was the leader of my cast? By the time my lover was done, there were only a handful of survivors left, and one of my father’s first acts after the attack was to exile me. I haven’t seen or talked to him since.”

Joshua wrapped Ash into a tight embrace. “You can’t blame yourself for that.”

“How can I not? So many of my cast members died that night, and it was all my fault.”

“No, it wasn’t. Like you said, you were young and being used by somebody who was older and wiser than you. You were just a pawn in his game, and your father should have realized that.”

Joshua was so angry at that moment that had Ash’s father been there, he would have taken the man out. How dare he blame all that carnage on his son? And then to send him away like that? To make him carry all that guilt? Only a monster would do that.

“You don’t hate me?” Ash asked.

It was only then that Joshua realized how much Ash was trembling. Joshua pulled back and placed a tender kiss on his lips. “I could never hate you.

Don’t you know that I love you more than life itself?”
Ash’s eyes grew wide as he shook his head.

“No, I must have missed that part of the conversation.”

“I love you so much that I called my father and told him about us. I also told him that no matter what he thinks, I want you as my mate. That is, if you’ll still have me.”

“Of course I still want you. I love you, too.”

A feeling of joy went through Joshua and he couldn’t remember a time when he’d been happier. “You do?”

“Yes, more than anything.”

Joshua cupped the back of Ash’s head and brought him in for a proper kiss. Slanting his mouth over Ash’s, he pressed their lips together.