Resilience (30 page)

Mika and Gabe came in the room before Adam was done, and Gabe’s steps were a bit

off, which Todd didn’t want to think about. He wasn’t freaked that Gabe and Mika played rough, and now that he knew Adam and he were on the same page there he wasn’t nearly as weirded out by it. Actually, he wanted to spank Gabe himself on more than one occasion, but not for the same reasons Mika did. Then again, he didn’t know all of Mika’s reasons, did he?

“We’ll help Aidan and Zane get to their room,” Gabe announced as soon as Adam had

finished. “Adam needs a long, hot bath and some TLC—Todd’s lovin’ care, how sweet is that?”

“Dork.” Todd tried not to chuckle but it was impossible when Gabe seemed so proud of himself.

“You know you love me.” Gabe grunted as he helped take some of Aidan’s weight.

Todd suspected Aidan was leaning extra on Gabe, and Aidan confirmed it with a wink at him. “Oaf. I’d elbow you but you’d cry and lose all your alpha points.”

It was almost pleasant to listen to their bickering, especially since they were heading out while they were doing it. Todd locked the door behind him then turned and froze as Adam pulled off his sweats. Acres of naked flesh were bared and Todd wanted to lick every bit, but his gaze landed on the deep purple bruises on Adam’s side and his arousal

dwindled.

“Sit, or lay down, whichever’s easier for you. I’ll go start a bath.” He walked over and covered Adam’s face in kisses, a gentle apology for the order. “I just don’t want you hurting.”

“I know.” Adam caught his chin and slanted his mouth over Todd’s. There was no

gentle invasion—Adam thrust his tongue in and laid claim to Todd’s mouth. When he leant back, Todd was pretty sure he had a goofy, lovestruck look on his face.

Adam grinned, dimpling even. “Go on, and make it a hot bath. Maybe I won’t be so

sore between that and the drugs, and we can experiment.” Adam waggled his eyebrows.

Todd’s mouth went dry. “I’m all for experimentin’.” He went and started the bath.

Adam woke the next morning so sore he whimpered. The pain, added with the guilt

over having conked out before any experimenting got done, pretty much ensured he was going to have a sucky day. He knew it for certain when Todd rolled over and kissed the line of his jaw just as someone banged on the bedroom door.

Todd jerked back and yelped when he went over the edge of the bed, the sheets tangled around him—and Adam. He barely kept himself from tumbling after Todd, kicking and

scrabbling out of the material and hissing and cursing the entire time.

“Someone’s gonna get their butt kicked,” Todd grumbled as he sat up. His green eyes

warmed Adam as Todd looked him over. “Are you okay? I didn’t mean to try to take you down with me.” He leaned over and this time even the banging on the bedroom door didn’t distract them. Todd kissed him full on the mouth, morning breath unheeded and, Adam

hoped, not too bad. He would happily kiss Todd any time, any place.

“You need help getting up?” Todd asked, tenderly stroking Adam’s cheek.

Adam’s bladder let out a warning throb. “Yeah, bathroom?” He could get up, but with

Todd’s help he’d be quicker and it wasn’t like he was ashamed to admit to his man that he needed help.

“Just a sec!” Todd hollered. The banging stopped and Adam was soon in the bathroom.

“Let me get you some clothes, then I’ll deal with whoever interrupted our morning.”

Adam nodded and shuffled over to the toilet. In short order Todd had clothes laid on the countertop for him and Adam was feeling marginally better. He listened to a voice he didn’t recognise as he moved over to the sink. He couldn’t make out the words, but there was an urgency to the tone. Adam gave up on eavesdropping and ran the water to wash his face and brush his teeth. His bruises still looked awful, and he surely wasn’t his most attractive, but he shrugged that off.

Getting dressed was tedious even though it was just sweats and a shirt. He was sorer today than yesterday, probably because he’d tensed up so much when all that stupid alpha shit had gone down yesterday. Really, though, the shifters were interesting. It had to be an amazing thing, changing from man to wolf. How much did one control the other?

He wasn’t ever going to know. Adam finished tugging the shirt down then went to the

bathroom door. Whoever had been talking to Todd was either being quiet or had left. Adam opened the door. Todd was reading the labels of the medicine bottles on the nightstand and turned to him, holding one up.

“This one?” Todd rattled the bottle. “I know you need something.”

Adam squinted then shook his head. “Nope, that’ll knock me back out. Just one of the heavy-duty ibuprofen for now.”

Todd went back to reading the labels, then prised the lid off and pulled out a tablet.

Adam walked over and took the pill along with a bottle of water he’d left out last night.

“So, who was the psycho door-banger?” he asked after he’d swallowed the pill. Stupid thing had tried to stick to his throat. Adam had done well not to upchuck all over.

Todd scratched his head, cocking it to the side in a way Adam knew meant he was

worried. “That was one of Maarten’s betas. He said Maarten wanted us all in the meeting room. Didn’t tell me where that was, though, and damned if I was awake enough to ask.

Plus, I could hardly understand the guy. His accent was really thick.”

“Well, Gabe and Mika will be going, along with Aidan and Zane.” Adam felt a slight

lessening in his pain level and sighed. “They can sniff out the way if nothing else.” He glanced at the doorway and shook his head. “Speak of the devil, Gabe.”

“Yup, we can do that, except Aidan and Zane are already gone. They met with Maarten

earlier,” Gabe said. “Morning, guys. How are y’all feeling?”

“Like shit.” Adam kind of envied the shifters if they healed as fast as Gabe had implied.

“How’s everyone else?”

Gabe pulled up his shirt. The pink lines were gone. “I’m dandy, so’s Mika. Aidan still has a gross-looking bite, but it’s nothing like it was before. Zane won’t let Aidan overdo it.

Dunno about Maarten or anyone else, we haven’t seen them yet.” Gabe frowned at Adam

and waved a hand around. “Are you sure nothing’s broken in there?”

“There’s not, but having the shit scared out of me for a wakeup call didn’t help.”

Todd eased an arm around him and nuzzled his temple. “Yeah, Esb-Esb—” Todd huffed. “Whatever that guy’s name was, he about beat the door off its hinges.”

“Esbjörn.” Mika actually blushed when Adam and the others looked at him. “What? I

can pronounce it, why’s that so weird?”

Gabe sidled up to his mate and purred, “’Cause you sound so sexy when you say it. Got the accent down and everything.”

“That isn’t why I was looking,” Todd sputtered, voicing Adam’s denial. “I just can’t believe you can say it. I get hung up when there’s heavy accents involved. Like, I don’t even know where we’re supposed to go.”

“I heard.” Mika hitched a thumb over his shoulder. “Down that way, if y’all are ready.”

“Any idea what this is about?” Adam asked, because, now that he wasn’t in so much

pain, his mind was prodding at him. He laced his fingers with Todd’s as they followed Gabe and Mika.

Mika grunted and Gabe elbowed him in the ribs before craning his head around

enough to glance behind himself. “Not really, although Mika suspects we’ll be heading out to hunt for Jameson as soon as you can move around better.”

“We ought to go without you two,” Mika said, earning another elbow. “Cut it out,

Gabe. You know it won’t be safe for them out in the wilderness. Y’all are more likely to be bait than help.”

“Condescending asshole,” Adam muttered, aware Mika would hear. “We aren’t helpless.”

Mika stopped and pivoted on his heel so quickly he wasn’t more than a blur. He had a hand on Todd’s chest and a finger pointed at Adam. “No, y’all aren’t, but you aren’t shifters, either, and I would think, after that display yesterday, you’d know well and good how much more powerful we are than humans.” He dropped his hands to his hips and glared at the floor. “We just don’t want either of you hurt…more than you already are. Not that I wanted you hurt in the first place, but—oh hell, you know what I mean!”

“He means he’s worried about y’all,” Gabe offered, and, yeah, Adam had caught the

gist of Mika’s ramblings. “But I know you can’t sit back and wait.”

Maybe Gabe understood because he hadn’t always been a shifter. He knew being

human didn’t mean you were weak, or cowardly.

“We have to go,” Adam said.

“I won’t let anyone hurt Adam again.” Todd sounded so sincere it sent a chill down

Adam’s spine. “But we do need some time. Adam’s not fit to travel right now.”

Mika turned back around and started walking again. “We’ll need to plan and I

seriously doubt Maarten has any better an idea of where to look than he did before we showed up.”

Adam didn’t have anything to say to that. He just wanted to find Jameson and take him back home if he could. If not, he wanted to make sure he was okay. If he wasn’t alive…

Adam wasn’t going there.

The room where Maarten and the others were waiting was large and rather barren, no

paintings on the dark panelled walls and no rugs on the wooden floors. The windows were covered in heavy drapes and the lighting was adequate but not great. Adam had been

expecting something more like a corporate meeting room for some reason, not a big empty room with shitty stools to sit on. No way was he putting his ribs through the hell of sitting on one of those things.

“Here.” Maarten stood and limped over to the door. Adam wondered how bad his

wounds had been yesterday. “Daan! Bring Adam the padded chair from my office.”

Within minutes, Adam was seated in a comfortable chair. Todd propped his hip on the

arm of it.

Maarten looked at Aidan, who didn’t seem to be hurting even if he did still have a nasty bite on his shoulder. Aidan nodded once and Maarten grimaced as he steepled his fingers.

“Okay, so I don’t have any new information on where Luuk and Jameson might be, but there are more places I haven’t looked than I can name. Truthfully I haven’t been able to go far or leave for very long for fear of what would happen to us if we were caught, but Aidan assures me he and Zane are strong enough to ensure we’re as safe as we can be.”

Aidan took over then. “Marcus will be sending some of his guard over. I’m not thrilled about that, as I prefer my brother protected at all times, but he will have a few of his most trusted men with him. I did request Alex, one of our best trackers. He’s wily, and I think he can come up with the most likely places for us to search.”

“How long until we leave?” Adam asked, touching his ribs before he realised what he

was doing. He put his hands in his lap and mentally cursed himself for possibly pointing out how injured he was, or at least reminding the others of it.

Aidan looked at Zane, who walked over and stood in front of Adam. “May I?”

Adam wasn’t sure who he was asking, him or Todd, but he answered. “Okay.”

Zane knelt and, after a quick glance at Todd, lifted the hem of Adam’s shirt. He hissed as soon as the bruises were uncovered. “This looks like it could take a while to heal.”

Adam fought against the desire to jerk his shirt back down. “It doesn’t matter. We can’t be gone for too long, I do have the clinic and Todd has his job. I can handle whatever I need to.” Maybe if Todd helped him wrap his ribs it’d help.

“Dr Spiegel might be able to give you something, that man knows all kinds of natural remedies and the like.” Maarten waved at someone behind Adam, which he guessed meant Spiegel was being sent for. “Shifters aren’t susceptible to most human illnesses, or most human medicines, so perhaps Spiegel will have a healing agent not known to humans.”

“Then how do you know it’d be safe to use on Adam? He isn’t some guinea pig.” Todd

stood and hovered beside Adam.

Zane released Adam’s shirt and stood as well. “Todd has a very good point. It’d be

beyond stupid to use something unproven on him.”

Maarten rolled his eyes. “I wasn’t suggesting Spiegel pour whatever concoction he

could find down Adam’s throat. Spiegel did attend medical school. He also knows about human physiology. And he knows what would happen to him if he hurt Adam.”

Adam felt marginally better about Spiegel helping if possible, but he would still

demand to know each and every thing the man was doing. No matter how nasty or painful the cure might be, if one existed he’d be all for it. They were running out of time to find Jameson. He and Todd had to be home in less than two weeks. How the hell would that be enough time when Adam was in such bad shape?

Whatever the doctor, Spiegel, had given Adam, it seemed to have helped. Within two

days the bruises were faded to a pale yellow and Adam didn’t grimace in pain every time he sat, stood or moved around.

“Wish I knew what the hell that stuff was,” Adam muttered again as he ran a palm

down his ribcage as he checked himself in the bathroom mirror. Todd nodded mutely,

uneasy and aroused at the same time. Adam smirked at him via the mirror and arched his back. His pert ass was every bit the temptation he had to know it was.

Todd shook off the unnamed niggles and let his desire come to full focus. He still had some residual soreness, twinges in his head and back, but they were nothing compared to how much he wanted Adam. A look passed between them, and Todd’s cock jerked, the

tender skin pinched in the fold of his jeans. He stood and strode over to stand behind Adam, the silence an agreement between them reached in that look. Eyes locked on Adam’s in the mirror, Todd bent and bit his neck, hard enough to ache. Adam vibrated against him, a low groan rippling up from his belly.

Todd slid his arms around Adam, holding him tight as he began to suckle and nip,

marking Adam in a spot that’d not be easy to hide. That was okay, Adam wouldn’t want to hide it. He was purring and undulating beautifully against Todd. Adam rubbed down