Mating Call (3 page)

She’d just put on her robe when a loud crash came from the bedroom.
SE.
The protective instinct hit and she bolted to the next room. Her mate was lying on the floor with his head against the wall. She knelt down and gently laid his head in her lap.
Another vision.
There was no point in trying to wake him. He would come around on his own when it was over. She stroked his hair gently until he opened his eyes.

“Ihkweea?”

“I’m right here, my male. Are you okay?”

He slowly sat up and shook his head. “Yeah.”

“Was it any clearer this time?”

“Some. I can’t piece a whole lot together, except that there was a female. It was kind of like I was seeing through
her
eyes.”

“Can you remember anything else?”

His eyes locked on hers. “Yeah. I’m almost positive she was human.”

Evy started to nod off on the couch. Warm sunshine was coming in through the big window and Joey had been watching a Fast N’ Loud marathon for two hours and she just couldn’t deal. Then she heard the sound of a key at the door. Her body responded automatically, pulling in on itself against the back of the couch.

Joey looked over his shoulder. “Yo, Nick, where ya been?”

Oh, no.

“Out doin’ the same damn thing we’ve been doin’ for a week, what else?”

Joey laughed. “Word.”

“I just got a call from Seth. He wants you to meet him at the Harvard Avenue T stop.”

Part of Evy’s bagel lurched into her throat.

“What the fuck for?”

Nick threw up his hands. “How the hell do I know?”

“Aight. I’m out. I’ll catcha later.”

Her body started to shake as the door closed.

Nick looked at her like a predator would look at its prey. He moved slowly toward her in that not quite right way they all had. And then he was in front of her, sitting on the coffee table just like before. Only this time there was no one coming back to stop him.

“Hey, little shorty.”

X walked down the compound’s main corridor to the medical facility. Diesel was sitting in a chair listening to his iPod making sounds that reminded him of a yowling male cat that used to hang out under his window in Brooklyn. He hated that cat.

“Yo, Dies. Dies!”

Diesel popped out an ear bud. “Hey, bro.”

“I’m not helping you with therapy until you promise to stop singing a crapella every time you got those things in your ears.”

The brother smiled and cracked his gum. “‘Fraid not. I gotta do something around here besides lab work.”

“You ready?”

“Yup. Any word on my missing appendage?”

“I think it’s made it as far as the Iranian border. He’s a cool cat, Dies. You gotta wait if you want the best, dig?”

Helen walked in the room. “Have you seen my glasses, my male?”

Diesel held them up.

“Damn it. I feel like I’m losing my mind today. Any word from Troy, X?”

He gave a nod. “Thinks he’s closing in.”

X froze suddenly.
The protective instinct.
Holy shit. He had a way to help his boy after all. The rogue was asking for immunity. There’s no way the motherfucker was going to take the Order’s word for it. He needed Evy. She was his insurance policy. He didn’t intend to give her up. All his boy needed was a little reboot brought on by some extra Evy related stress and…

Helen’s voice broke into his thoughts. “X, are you alright?”

“Uh, Dies, can we wait on therapy a bit?”

He left the ward without even waiting for an answer. He walked to his room and dialed his cell.

“X? What the fuck. I’m tryin’ to focus here.”

“We got a problem. The rogues that have Evy are asking for immunity, right? Even if the Order grants it, which it won’t, the only way to guarantee we follow through is to hold onto her. Troy, they don’t intend to give her up. Maybe ever, dig?”

Something inside Troy snapped. A feral growl rose up from his gut and his breathing picked up.

And then it hit.

The protective instinct.

He pivoted and ran flat out, hands pumping at his sides, breathing in perfect rhythm, shit kickers barely touching the ground. As he hit forty miles an hour he felt no pain in his leg. He was a machine. He existed for one purpose—to find his mate and end whoever had taken her from him. Cutting through the yards of endless apartments and triple-deckers, he hit Commonwealth Terrace and cut through to the next street. A row of bungalows lined the opposite side and his eyes focused, like two laser beams, on the brown one. He crossed the street and picked up speed.

Ilah.

Mine.

He leapt forward, phasing into Wolf in mid-air, pounding into the bay window. Glass shattered everywhere, splintering all around him from the impact. He landed on all fours, phasing back to his New Breed form. Evy was crouched on the couch, her hands over her head as glass fell onto her back. She had a heavy chain around her ankle and some cock-sucking rogue had his hands on her.

The roar that left him shook the room.

Evy covered her ears and screamed as the deafening sound rattled everything in sight. Troy reached over and pulled the mutant off of her with one hand. There was a sickening crack as he twisted Nick’s neck and let him drop to the floor.

“Is anyone else here?”

But she couldn’t answer. All she could do was look into his glowing aqua eyes.

He was the one.

She was right all along.

She watched dumbfounded as he pulled the cushion off the couch and slammed his boot into the metal bedframe underneath over and over. Suddenly, she heard the key in the deadbolt. “They’re coming back!”

He pushed her against the couch. “Put your head down. Put it down!”

Frantically she obeyed. She heard Seth’s voice.

“What the fuck?”

One minute Troy’s legs were right next to her, the next they had just vanished. How was that possible? She looked up just in time to see Troy pull a long knife from under his coat and take Joey’s head off in one swift motion. She heard herself scream until an arm came around her neck from behind the couch.
Seth.

“Yeah, you want her. I could tell the second I saw you watching her at the club. Well, guess what. Time’s up.”

Suddenly there was a sharp pain in her gut. She felt Seth release her before everything went black.

CHAPTER THREE

Dimitri was using the leg press in the gym when Viktor walked in.
Aw, Christ.
He watched him take a seat at the arm press on the other side of the room.
Good move.
Maybe if he didn’t open his mouth they’d have a shot at getting through their workouts without all hell breaking loose.

“Like what you’ve done with the place. I always did think it was kind of stuffy. You’ve got everyone all settled in. One big happy family.”

Well, there went that. “You weren’t there when papa was sick. What did you expect?”

“I didn’t want any of this. I never cared about the money.”

“God forbid, you should be responsible for something.”

Viktor’s nostrils flared. “Same old Dimka. Always believing whatever the old man said. Haven’t you been wondering where I’ve been all this time?”

“Newsflash, asshole. Sharing DNA does not make us tight and it sure as hell doesn’t make us brothers.”

Viktor sneered. “What, and these males are? Because you took some oath?”

“It’s not about that, Viktor. If you’d ever given a shit about anyone but yourself, you’d understand that.”

“Fuck you, Dimitri. I don’t have to listen to this.”

“That’s it. Bail. There’s a shocker!” he yelled at his brother’s back.

Evy opened her eyes. Bleach white ceiling. Same with the walls. Was she in the hospital? She blinked at the harsh lighting and looked to her side. A gorgeous blond woman was walking toward her.

“You’re awake. Good.”

Evy tried to move away, but got tangled in a bunch of IV lines.

The woman smiled. “Easy. Don’t pull out your IV. You’re okay. You’re safe here. My name’s Helen. I’m a doctor. You were stabbed in the abdomen. Do you remember that?”

Evy thought for a moment and nodded. She glanced at the other side of the room. Troy was lying on a bed a few feet away.

“Oh, he’s okay. He’s been asleep for hours. He passed out as soon as he knew you’d be alright. I don’t think he’d eaten or slept for days. He was looking for you for quite a while. Evy, right? Is that short for Evelyn?”

She nodded and watched the doctor sit down on a stool.

“Pretty name. Well, you’re just outside of Boston, Evy. Troy brought you back here with him this morning. Luckily, the knife was small and whoever stabbed you decided getting away was more important than pulling it out. I took it out myself. Your CT scan looks good, but you’ll be here for a bit, I’m afraid. It appears he missed your major organs, but we can’t take any chances. Not with a stab wound like this.”

“Can I…are you human?” She felt her face get hot. “Oh, God. I’m sorry. That was so rude.”

“You’re allowed. You’ve been through a lot. I’m a shifter.” She turned around and lifted her hair so Evy could see her mark. It was of a beautiful gazelle.

She exhaled. “As long as you’re not what those…
things
were.”

“No. This is the last place you’d find any of them.”

She focused on the ceiling for a moment. “New Breeds.”

The doctor cocked her head. “How do you know those words?”

Evy tried to think, but everything was so fuzzy. She looked back into the doctor’s pretty gray eyes.

“Yes, Evy. You’re in the New Breed compound. And you’re safe.”

An emotion tugged at Troy so hard it woke him part way out of his sleep.
Evy.
Half awake, the events of that morning played in his memory.

“Evy!” He sat straight up and looked over at the female lying in the other bed. She was staring right at him, her big brown eyes wide and her breathing elevated.

“I’m okay,” he said softly as he lifted a few fingers, gently tugged at a layer of her stress and let it dissipate.

Helen got up from her chair and walked across the room. She adjusted his IV bag. “The hell you are. How long has it been since you’ve eaten?”

He shook his head. “I dunno. A few days.”

She pulled down the sheet and touched his leg where his jeans had been cut away. He started to pull away before he managed to stop himself.

She looked at him thoughtfully for a moment and then went back to examining his shin. “We’ll get a couple of good meals in you and this hairline business will be healed in no time.”

When she touched his face to check the cut above his eyebrow he flinched and looked back over at Evy. She hadn’t moved. Not at all. He closed his eyes and called away another layer of stress. Then it was his turn to have his eyes pop. Underneath was a well of emotion so strong, it made him suck in his breath. Gratitude. Curiosity. Desire. Heat hit his cheeks. He never dreamt anything like this could happen to him.

And he was terrified.

James pulled on his sweats and opened the door for Pax.

“Hey. I’ll be ready in a sec. I know my other sneaker is around here somewhere.”

“Could we talk first?”

He sat down on the bed and started to put on his shoe. He recognized his
camzah’s
tone. Whatever he had to say was gonna hurt.

“Troy came back this morning.”

He looked into the brother’s warm browns. “He did? Is he okay?”

“Yeah. He’s exhausted, but he’ll be fine. He and I were talking while Helen worked on the female. He found her in a rogue den in Allston or Brighton somewhere. Well, I guess you can’t really call it a den. It was basically an apartment.”

James slid on his other kick. “Hold up. Did you say the rogues have an apartment?”

He nodded. “When Troy brought her in, she’d been stabbed.”

“Oh, my God.”

“Helen thinks she’ll be fine. The human was able to give the name of the rogue who stabbed her. Look, James, it was Seth.”

He froze. “Seth stabbed the female?”

Pax nodded. “I’m sorry. I just didn’t want you to find out from someone else. With the way shit gets around here…”

He got back to the business of tying his shoe. “No, it’s fine. Listen, I think I’m going to go for a run instead.”

“Want some company?”

“Nah. Thanks, though. I’ll catch you for duty later.”

Troy heard the familiar sound of Helen’s shoes out in the corridor. He kept his eyes closed. If Evy knew he was awake she might want him to talk to her. And he had zero idea what to say, so he just kept his eyes shut and tried to stay out of her emotional business—which, considering most of it was directed at him, was next to impossible.

Helen walked through the swinging door. Troy sniffed at the air. More snacks. He heard her put them down and walk over to see about Evy.

“How is she?” he whispered.

“Sound asleep. How do you feel?”

“Like a Thanksgiving turkey.”

She sat down on her stool. “Sorry, kiddo. Food’s your medicine.”

“I guess there’s worse.”

She dropped her voice. “Listen, how many of the brothers know Evy’s human?”

“What? Why?”

“You talk in your sleep.”

Fan-fuckin’-tastic.
“Just X. Wait, what did I—”

“Are you mated to this female? I need you to be honest with me, hon, or I can’t help you.”

His mouth went dry. “I dunno. I found her mostly through the protective instinct.”

“Any headaches or other pain?”

He shook his head.

She leaned against the side of the bed. “Troy, look at me. Are you in love with her?”

He stared down at his hands.

“Oh, Troy. How long?”

“Pretty much forever, I guess.”

She took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes. “She’ll be ready to move upstairs to finish her recovery tomorrow morning. I can keep everyone out of here until then. After that it’s up to you. We’ll put her in the room next to yours. No one ever goes to that end of the hallway. I’ll keep this confidential. They aren’t looking for it. She’s human so there’s not much
k’ul
to sense. You may luck out. Whatever that means.”