Authors: Marissa Dobson
“Did he say who did this to him? Why?”
“No, only that they were dead. Since then, he’s been unconscious, but we’re as eager to get information out of him as you are.” Austin looked at her and then at Patrick before his gaze finally stopped on her. “If you’re going to behave yourself and let him work, I really need to check the land. Make sure there’s no fresh blood spilled that will lead anyone here, or draw the attentions of any animals.”
“Go ahead, I’m not going to interrupt him.”
After a long moment, Patrick nodded. “Go on, Austin. He said the men were killed two towns away, just outside of town limits, so I suspect if you find anything it will only be his blood.”
“Then there should be very little.” Austin grabbed his jacket from the back of the sofa where he had discarded it. “He bandaged his wounds enough to keep from leaking a trail of blood everywhere.”
She waited until Austin was gone before she adjusted in the chair. “Patrick, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like it sounded.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
There was a hint of disappointment in his voice that made her stand and go to him. She was careful not to interrupt him as he stitched the last of Dean’s chest wound. “I never thought you’d do this to him. I was only scared.”
“I know what it’s like to find one of your siblings injured to the point you’re not sure if they’ll make it. Or, if they do, what kind of condition they’ll be in.” He grabbed a towel, wetting it with water from a pitcher before wiping his hands.
“When you found Jade, it had to have been worse.” She squeezed his shoulders. “But she’s fine.”
“Dean will be, too.” He began to clean up his supplies. “He’ll have to take it easy for a few days because of the blood loss, but there’s nothing I can do about that. I don’t have blood on hand, and if he killed someone, we can’t risk taking him to a hospital. We also don’t know how much danger he’s in because of whatever he found. So, he’ll just have to wait it out.”
“What about his other injuries?”
“He might always walk with a limp. He put the knee they dislocated back in place, but didn’t get it completely into the socket, so I had to adjust it again. The rest will heal in time.”
She grabbed hold of his wrist. “Will we?”
He stilled under her touch. “We’re fine.”
“Are we? Because it doesn’t feel like it.” She squatted next to him, careful not to hit her brother’s leg or any of the supplies. “It came out wrong, and I’m sorry. I know you’d never do this.” She blinked away the tears. “Oh, Patrick, I thought he was dead.”
He let the towel drop onto the table and rose, taking her with him. “Come here, angel.” With his arms tightly around her waist, he pulled her to him. “He’s going to be okay. I cleaned, treated, and stitched his wounds. Now you just have to wait for him to wake up, though hopefully not until we get him upstairs. Once the drugs have left his system, moving him is going to cause him agony.”
“Thank you.” She held a finger to his lip. “Did you find out what he thought was urgent enough to risk his life for?”
“Not yet, but he should wake up soon. I only gave him enough to sedate him, and I can give him more for the pain once he answers a few questions.” He let his hands slide down her body before he stepped back. “Let’s get him upstairs. His clothes are ruined, so just leave them, but grab his bag and I’ll carry him.”
She tossed his duffle bag over her shoulder and watched as he lifted Dean into his arms as if he weighed nothing. There was an ease to his movements that made her want to run her hands over his body to feel the tautness of the muscles under his shirt. Seeing the attention he used in caring for her brother made her heart swell.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Like what?” Without meeting his gaze, she strolled toward the stairs.
“Like you’re seeing me in a whole different light.”
“Maybe I am.” She caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of her eye. His eyebrows were raised in question while he waited for her to explain. With a deep sigh, she nodded. “I’ve seen how much you care for others, but I can also feel it within me because of this bond between us. The way you are with your siblings…I know it’s not how some Alphas could be.”
“You know that how?”
“I just do. I can’t explain it, but I know things are different in your pride than in others. You take into consideration their needs, wants, and feelings. Take Jade for example. Another Alpha would have just flat out denied her request. Not you. Instead, you sent four of them to pick up one little girl, leaving the castle more vulnerable. You can’t tell me you don’t run things differently here.”
“You’ve been talking to Austin.”
“Not about this.” They paused outside the door to their floor as she punched in the code to unlock it. “I’ve watched how you are with your family, your interactions with Nolan. Mind you, there’s been very little of those because of this proposal and LUNA, but it’s different than the way you are with your family. He’s committed himself to your pride, to this operation, and you act only as an Alpha with him. I’m not sure I’m explaining this very well, but there’s a difference.”
“I’ve heard it all before.” He entered the room across from MaKayla’s and waited while she pulled down the covers on the bed before he placed Dean on the mattress. “I’ve had this conversation with Austin several times.”
“I know.” She tucked the covers around her brother’s still unconscious body. “Jade mentioned it, but that’s not why I’m bringing it up.”
“Then why?”
“My brother was an ass when you first met him, and yet you have let that go because of me. The hatred in his words and the way he looked at you…” She went to him and slid her arms around his waist. “You cared about him because he’s my brother. To you, that’s the same thing as your own family. He was unconscious, so he’ll never know what you’ve done for him, but I’ll always know. Thank you.”
“Maybe I did it because of whatever information he found.” He smoothed his hand along the small of her back.
“Not a chance I believe that. You care more than you want people to know, and that’s one of the reasons I’ve fallen in love with you.”
“My angel, when you say that, it makes me want to pick you up, carry you to our room, and show you how much I love you.” He leaned down, pressing his lips to hers.
A throat cleared behind her and the kiss broke as quickly as it started. “What happened?” Dean’s voice was groggy.
“You’re awake,” Patrick announced as if she couldn’t already tell.
“Awake, and stopping you from shagging my sister.”
“Who even says
shagging
anymore?” She shook her head and went to stand next to the bed. The wound along his face that was fresh the last time she’d seen him was nearly healed, but now he had more all over his body to take its place. It was as if he was seeking out trouble, to see how much he could push his limitations before he ended up getting killed. “If we wanted to
shag
, as you so kindly put it, we wouldn’t be standing in your room. Now, why don’t you tell me what the hell happened to you?”
“Mom.”
“What?” She glanced back at Patrick. “Did he hit his head? Was he making sense before you sedated him?”
Dean cut him off before Patrick could answer. “Your first question. It was Mom who always said
shagging,
and I don’t know, it just popped out.”
She didn’t want to think about her parents, or how each of them had been snatched away from her before she graduated college. First her mother to cancer, and then her father in a car accident. Until she met the O’Reillys, Dean was the only family she had and they stuck together. “So, you didn’t hit your head?”
“No, I believe my head might have been the only thing I didn’t injure this time.” Dean glanced past her toward Patrick. “I think I told you before I passed out…there’s no threat to your home. I was careful I wasn’t followed, and this happened a few towns over. The man’s dead.” His words came out groggy from the medication and his eyes fluttered shut.
“Why were you attacked?” Patrick asked.
Before answering, Dean glanced at her. “Sis, why don’t you give us a few minutes?”
Patrick’s arm tightened around her waist, holding her there, not that she had tried to leave. “She’s staying. Anything you have to say, she needs to know. This will affect her as much as the rest of us.”
“He’s right, I’m not leaving. So, why don’t you just come out with it? Tell us what information you found, that was important enough to risk yourself for.”
Dean’s gaze never left Patrick. “I’ve done a lot of research on your kind. You’ve mated with her, haven’t you?” When Patrick nodded, he added, “I was afraid so.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” The first flickers of rage started to burn within her.
“I only want to protect you, and mating with a shifter will bring you more danger than anything else. I’ve got contacts, and I might have been able to clear your name for what happened at Hathaway Medical, but if you’re mated to him…”
“Dean.” She sat on the edge of the bed and took his hand into hers. “You’re my big brother, and have always tried to protect me, and for that I’ll always be thankful. But this isn’t something I need or want to be sheltered from. Patrick and the pride have opened my eyes to new things, to a love I’ve never known before, and to what’s wrong with our world. I’m staying here not out of some duty, or because their battle is the right thing, but because I love them. Not just Patrick, but all of them. Honestly, I don’t have any desire to clear my name. What’s the point when I know it will only be tarnished again? There’s a war coming, and I know which side I’ll be on. Do you?”
“Now I do.” He nodded. “I didn’t know before, and when you went with him and the other one I was angry. I said some nasty things and acted like a complete ass. For that, I’m sorry. You, little sister, deserved better from me. They didn’t deserve my hatred because of the scar on my face. They had nothing to do with it.”
“Which side?” She forced herself to swallow the lump that was forming in her throat.
“This one.”
“What you’ve found changed your mind?” Patrick asked.
“It’s in my bag.” He started to move until his face became distorted with pain, and his hand shot toward his stomach wound. “I’ve done a lot of research on your kind,” he gasped. “That was my job before all of this happened. Unlike Clarissa, I wasn’t anywhere near the experiments.” He took a deep breath, seeming to work through the pain. “I was a technical manager. It wasn’t until a few days before she called me that I knew what they were doing. That’s when I really dug into the computer systems so I could duplicate them for Brazil. Before that, I never realized the torture they were doing, only that they did have shifters in those labs, but I thought it was legit.” He paused for a moment, relaxing against the pillows. “I was preparing to leave, put in my vacation request. I had to do it by the book or they could have hurt Clarissa before I even got back to the states.”
“What did you find that made you ready to give everything up?”
“Before, all I had was bits and pieces, but now I have evidence.” He glanced at her. “I’m sorry, but what happened at Hathaway Medical went deeper than you think. They tested on humans, not just shifters.”
“I already know.” She reached up to cup Patrick’s hand, which was resting on her shoulder.
“Oh, then you might already have the information on Mallory Barrow and her daughter.”
“Who?” Patrick’s hand stilled under hers, and her heart sank.
Was this the little girl they’d experimented on?
“Mallory has a daughter who is a year old, and she’s the only known
human
survivor of the experiments. All the others are dead. So, I take it from the looks on your faces you didn’t know about them. Well, the information I was able to gather is in my bag.”
“We knew of a child who was used, but a name wasn’t in the files, only an identification number. Luke has been working on it. Do you know where they are?”
Dean shook his head. “I haven’t found their current location, but after I broke into Doctor Songborn’s house, I had someone on my tail.”
“You went to his house?” She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“You know him, then?” He didn’t wait for her to answer. “Yes, and he’s dead. Before you even ask, it wasn’t planned. I knew he was connected, but I didn’t know how. I broke into his house, found the files he kept and the few things on his computer. That asshole kept video recordings of it. He’d watched them over and over again, like he was getting off on the torture he put the Barrows through. When he stumbled into the house after a few too many drinks, I couldn’t stop myself. My rage got the best of me, and I killed him.” He leaned his head away, his cheeks reddened. “His son had come home with him that night, and he was the one who followed me. We got into an altercation, and I ended up with a few stab wounds, but…he’s dead now. I think I got the better end of that deal.”
“Get what he has in the bag, and I’ll take it to Luke,” Patrick said. “He can get started on it, and maybe it will bring us closer to a location. At least now we have a name. Meanwhile, you need to rest. I’m going to grab some medication, and I’ll be back.”
When Patrick left the room, instead of going for Dean’s bag, she sat there staring down at her brother. All she wanted to do was hit him, or scream at him for risking himself. He could have told them about what he knew when they first met Patrick, or at least told her. Instead, he rushed off on some errand, nearly getting himself killed in the process.