Hagen, Lynn - Tater's Bear [Brac Pack 22] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove) (13 page)

He collapsed onto his back as his arms instinctively wrapped around his midsection. “Oh god!” he cried out as he rolled back and forth, the pit of his stomach feeling as though molten lava was burning a hole through him.

“Tater!” Olsen shouted as he dropped next to him. “Baby, what’s wrong?”

“I…
ahhh
,” Tater screamed, sweat covering his body as his head felt like it was being squeezed tight. He barely registered his mate getting up and running out into the hall, screaming for Christian. Tater couldn’t breathe.

He couldn’t fucking breathe.

He felt a cold hand run over his head and then a loud curse as he writhed in pain on the floor.

“Did that vampire blood do this to him? Did your fucking guy infect him?” Olsen shouted from beside him.

“No,” Christian said loudly. “That wouldn’t have happened. I think I know what’s wrong with him.”

“What?” Olsen bellowed.

Christian’s cool fingers touched Tater’s neck, his pulse beating so fast that his heart actually hurt. “The one who bit him was infected, Olsen. He was high off of Liquid Wrath. It is now running through Tater’s veins. The only way to save him is to convert him.”

Tater could feel his face growing tight, as if all the blood had pooled there. His eyes hurt and his temples throbbed so hard that he feared an aneurysm at any moment. “Do it,” he bit out right before his body began to convulse.

Chapter Nine

Olsen paced back and forth, running his hands through his hair so many times that it was standing on end now. He began to pull at it as he watched helplessly. Tater was going to die, and there was nothing Olsen could do about it.

“I have to exchange blood with him. If you cannot handle this, leave,” Christian said over his shoulder at Olsen.

“Just save him.” Olsen’s voice was hoarse as he watched the prince of vampires lean over his mate.

His bear was going crazy, banging his head into Olsen’s ribs, trying its best to break free as Olsen’s pacing became more manic. Olsen wanted to ask the prince about taking the tainted blood into his body, but feared stopping him.

The man must know what he was doing.

Olsen watched as his mate’s body went rigid, Christian leaning over him, what he was doing hidden. Olsen was scared shitless. He ran his hands through his hair once again, pulling at it as time seemed to slow down.

 
Olsen gasped and took a step back as Christian roared and his fangs elongated, black claws erupting from his fingernails. His skin began to take on a purplish hue as he rolled away from Tater.

Not knowing what else to do, Olsen dove for Tater, covering his mate’s body. Just then two Asian men burst into the room, hissing at Olsen.

“Please,” Olsen croaked. “Please save my mate.”

The one with short-cropped hair took a step in Olsen’s direction. “What happened to the prince, shifter?”

Olsen looked over at Christian. The prince was on his knees, his hands smashed against his temples. “He tried to convert my mate. The drug Liquid Wrath was in my mate’s system. Christian took it into his body.”

The man cursed as he approached Christian. Olsen looked away, staring down at Tater, who was finally calmed down. The ear-shattering screams were no more.

He leaned forward, placing his cheek close to Tater’s lips, feeling little puffs of air caress his skin. Olsen breathed a sigh of relief.

“You must go.” The man turned to Olsen. “I must calm him, and you cannot be here.”

Olsen wasn’t so sure the prince could be calmed from the way the vampire was lashing out. He didn’t know any way to escape as quickly as the small vampire wanted him to.

He had no way of getting his mate home without calling his family and waiting around, something he knew the small vampire was against.

Olsen had no other choice…“Ahm!”

* * * *

Dr. Nicholas Sheehan paced back and forth as he waited to be let into the room. His mate, Jason, stood close by, watching everyone closely.

He wasn’t sure what he could do for the human changed to vampire. Normally he would, but the drug running rampant through the paranormal community changed the rules of the game. He knew he was walking into unknown territory, but Nicholas knew he had to try and help Tater any way he could.

“Go in,” Mr. Lakeland said as he stepped aside, allowing Nicholas to enter. Jason was hot on his heels, dogging his back as Nicholas approached the bed.

Holy hell. He had no clue what to make of this.

“Help him, doc,” Tater’s mate begged from the other side of the bed. “This isn’t normal.”

Nicholas glanced back down at Tater. Fuck if that wasn’t the truth. He couldn’t have agreed more. He’d seen what happened when Christian converted someone. Josh was living proof of what took place.

This was not it. It wasn’t even close.

“What did Christian say?” he asked the bear as he laid his medical bag onto the bed. Nicholas rolled his sleeves back as he took out his stethoscope.

“He wasn’t able to tell me. I think he went mad.” The bear’s voice was filled with worry and guilt. “Is someone going to check on him?”

“The wolf physician is getting in touch with the vampire doctor. They’re taking care of him,” Maverick said as he leaned against a wall on the far side of the room.

Nicholas nodded as he approached Tater. The man’s fangs were twice as long as a normal vampire’s should be. They were still sharp as razors though.

Tater hadn’t gained consciousness yet, and Nicholas didn’t want to be near those lethal-looking things when the man finally came around. Tater had also grown in size, almost doubling, and his skin was an eerie shade of pale green.

He was at a loss to know what was going on with Olsen’s mate. Nicholas leaned close to the hybrid, praying things didn’t turn ugly fast.

* * * *

Maverick watched Nicholas try his best to figure out what was wrong with Olsen’s mate. He had never seen anything like this before. Tater was an anomaly that they would probably try to figure out for years to come.

But there was one thing he could do for the hybrid. This was going to be good. Most people thought Maverick was irresponsible. They thought he took his job lightly. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

In fact, in making them believe this, he was able to observe things most thought he had missed, overlooked. And god love it, he still was having his dreams.

“Chey.”

The entire room turned to look at him. “Pardon me?” Olsen asked as he cocked his head to the side.

“I said Chey. He’s a wolf over in Zeus’s pack that has this healing thing he does.” No sense in spilling all of the grey wolf’s secrets. He wasn’t going to divulge that Chey was an omega either. That was no one’s business.

“I’m not following you,” Olsen said as he reached a hand down and rubbed it up and down Tater’s arm. “How can he help my mate?”

“I’m not really sure. But from the looks of things, Tater needs some help getting through this transformation. I think Chey could be beneficial.”

Oh hell, Zeus was going love him for this. The alpha was going to shit rainbow-colored kittens when he found out Maverick knew about his little omega. Maverick himself wasn’t interested in having one around. They were more trouble than they were worth.

He already had a houseful of headaches.

“Can you bring him here?” Olsen asked, desperation lacing his voice. Maverick had no clue how the bear felt, so he wasn’t even going to try with the bullshit line of
I understand how you feel
.

He hated when people said that.

“Let me give Zeus a call,” he said as he walked out of the room.

A whole litter of the rainbow kittens.

* * * *

Olsen sat on the edge of the bed, placing his back to the headboard as he pulled Tater’s arm onto his legs. He ran his thumb over his mate’s discolored skin and worried about Tater still being unconscious.

He focused on the fact that Tater had confessed his love for him. Olsen held on to the confession with an iron fist. He glanced up when a short man with brown hair stepped into Olsen’s bedroom.

“Is this him?” the man asked as he nodded toward Tater. Olsen’s defenses immediately went up. He didn’t know the stranger or the large wolf who had walked in behind him. He glanced over at Maverick, who was back to leaning against the wall.

“My name is Chey, and I’m told I may be able to help someone.” The man stepped a little closer, the wolf behind him doing the same. “And this is Eagle.” Chey pointed behind him to the glaring, blonde-haired man.

“How can you help him?” Olsen asked.

Chey moved around the bed until he was on the side Olsen was sitting on. The short man leaned close, dropping his voice to a whisper. “Normally, I can heal those that are injured. But with your mate going through a change unlike any other, I’m not sure if it will work. But if you would let me try, I can see if I can help him.”

Olsen knew he would let Chey try. He was lost as to what to do for his mate. He was running out of options. No one seemed to know what to do for Tater.

He glanced at his pa, who was standing by the window, watching everything that was going on. When his pa dipped his head in a nod, Olsen swallowed around the lump in his throat and then looked back at Chey. “Help him, please.”

Chey’s jaw tightened as his expression went from compassionate to determined. “You may want to move. I’m not sure if he will thrash around or not, and I don’t want you to get hurt.”

This coming from a man half the size of Olsen.

He wanted to argue, to shout, to tell the man to get the hell away from his mate, but this wasn’t about him. It was about helping Tater. Olsen slid from the bed and walked over to his pa, needing his father’s closeness for comfort.

He glanced out of the window, feeling as if his entire world was falling apart around him. He noticed strangers standing there in the backyard as if they were guarding something. Their stance was rigid. “Who are they?” he asked no one in particular.

“Men here to protect Chey,” Eagle growled.

Olsen looked over his shoulder, seeing the fierceness in the man’s eyes, and wondered if he was Chey’s mate. He had to be. No one could look that lethal about someone he was just watching over. Not in Olsen’s opinion anyway.

He wrapped his arms around his abdomen as he watched Chey climb up on the bed and then kneel at Tater’s side. Nausea rolled through him as Chey laid his hands on Tater’s bare chest, and then his mate began to scream.

It was instantaneous.

The moment Chey touched him, his mate began to thrash around. Olsen took a step toward the bed, desperate to give Tater some kind of comfort. His pa laid his hand on Olsen’s arm, stopping him from going to his mate.

“Let him work, son.”

Olsen’s bear roared, standing up on its hind legs as it, along with Olsen, listened to the horrific screams coming from the bed. Olsen’s head began to hurt, and his stomach began to cramp at the pain his mate was broadcasting.

He wasn’t sure if it was their bond or if it was empathy, but Olsen thought he was going to lose his mind as Tater traversed through a hell Olsen could only imagine.

“His body is confused. It doesn’t know what to do,” Chey said as he pressed his hands harder onto Tater’s chest. “It’s fighting the drug, but unsure if it should change Tater into a human or a vampire.”