Kane's Mate (Armageddon Mates) (13 page)

She ignored Faith, continuing on, “I was wondering if you—”

Her fingers crawled up his arm, he removed her hand. “Dr. Balanco, Dr. Stark will have to take it as I’m heading home with my wife.”

She looked startled for a moment then finally noticed Faith. “We didn’t know Kane was married,” she said to Faith. “He’s never mentioned you. I hope you know how disappointed all the ladies will be. Kane was thought to be one of our most eligible bachelors, and we have all wanted to get our hands on him.”

He felt Faith straighten against him. “We’ve only been married a couple of days, but I’ve been a family friend for years. I just returned from overseas, and Kane grabbed me and hasn’t let me go. So all the other women will have to find a new bachelor to hang off, because this one belongs to me.” Faith held out her hand. “Well, it was a pleasure to meet one of Kane’s colleagues, but if you’ll excuse me, I need to go help my colleague make something disappear.” Faith dropped her hand when Dr. Balanco glanced at her outstretched hand then ignored it.

Giving a shrug at the woman’s rudeness, Faith turned and her lips met Kane’s. She nipped his top lip as her tongue traced his bottom lip. He moaned, forgetting where he was and who was around. Kane held her tight, not wanting to let go.

Faith ended the kiss, whispering, “I love you.”

She then went over to talk to Major Black and his companions. Kane bit his cheek to stop himself from laughing at the horrified expression on Dr. Balanco’s face as Faith made a dramatic head gesture her way. Dr. Balanco didn’t even say bye when she left.

Kane walked to his office with a huge smile on his face.

* * * *

Faith walked out of the hospital with Major Black beside her.

“I called Jack to let him know Kane is going to take us home. I think it’s probably good for you to get to know Kane better since he’ll be the head alpha when Jack retires.” She sat down on the seat in front of the hospital. She leaned her head against the back with more force that she’d intended and she winced, then sighed as all the adrenaline went out of her. She looked up at the major’s concerned face. “I never wanted this.” She whispered, but he caught it.

“I’m assuming he wasn’t supposed to be there.”

Faith shook her head. “Fuck.” She banged her head back. “Would you believe me if I told you I wanted to be normal?”

He smiled at her. “I thought you were their sister as you fight like a werewolf. I didn’t know you were human and related by marriage.”

She closed her eyes, fighting the exhaustion. “I’m human, well, psychic, supernatural. I grew up with them, that’s how I learned to fight.” She opened her eyes and stood up, looking across the grass area. “I’ve just returned from two years overseas away from all this. I needed to find myself. I wanted to be normal, I had to get away.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “I came back from overseas and straightaway I’m thrown back into all this, and mated to Kane, who I love with all my heart. I would gladly go through anything just to be with him. I loved him from the first moment I laid eyes on him, but being thrown back into it all...” She sighed. “My visions before I left were never this strong, long, or thorough. I’m really just trying to figure out my place in all this.”

She looked up at him before turning away because she didn’t want to see his reaction to her selfishness. “I’ll tell you a secret, when I was overseas I stayed away from everything paranormal. I even held off my visions until I had them so rarely I actually felt normal for a while. I didn’t want all off this.” She pointed to the hospital then herself in her leather getup. “I wasn’t going to be special, psychic, odd, weird, or strange. I was going to be a normal-with-no-paranormal-in-my-life woman. At least I got to try it. I knew they had weres check on me, but for a little time I got to live like a normal nineteen to twenty year old single woman.”

Faith laughed a hollow sound. “Do you know I’ll be twenty-one in a couple of months? I sure do feel a lot older.” She shook her head as tears slid down her cheeks and she wiped them away. “Don’t get me wrong, I love all my werewolves, but they always kind of smothered me. I could never tell them what I’ve just told you, they would freak out.”

She finished her ranting and was turning around to thank the major for listening when she felt
him
, and then she saw Kane, Arden, and Griffen. She wondered how long they had been there. From their faces she would say a decent amount of time.

Shit!
She forced a smile on her face. “So, are we ready to go?”

She took two steps closer, looked up into Kane’s face, and what she saw broke her heart. His eyes were cold as ice, his face set in stone, his body tense and rigid. He clenched his fists, and she instantly took three steps back, terrified of him for the first time in her life.

Griffen broke the silence. “Ahhhh, we thought we could take the major home so Faith could go with Kane.”

She took another step back, bumping into Major Black. He grabbed her arms to steady her. She waited for the growl from Kane but heard none. She knew tears were rolling down her cheeks, and she took a deep breath.

“Look, I don’t know how much you all heard, but can we please talk about this at home?”

She felt the major touch her again, then he touched her head. She took a step forward and suddenly felt faint. She took another step toward Kane only to feel herself fall.

Chapter 10

Kane didn’t know what to feel, one minute he was on cloud nine, the next he was being stopped out front by Arden and Griffen to see Faith with her back turned to the major, telling him how she didn’t want to be a part of his world.

Kane knew when Faith was younger she had struggled with being psychic and being called odd, weird, and so on. But he thought she had sorted all that out and accepted that she would never be what she called normal. Maybe he should have given her more time before he mated her. He should have let her choose.

Kane looked up at Faith, and knew he could do it. He loved her enough to let her go, so she could have her normal life. He thought of the child she carried, but he could still give her a normal life as his family would help if that was what she wanted. He mentally prepared himself, resolved with what he was going to do, but it took all his strength not to growl when the major touched her. Kane tuned Faith out when he noticed the major’s hand covered in blood. He knew that wasn’t there when he came in.

The major touched Faith’s head again, coming away with more blood. Kane quickly looked at Faith as she took a step toward him. Her arms were covered in blood and she was white as a sheet. He rushed, using wolf speed to get to her, but didn’t make it before she fell to the ground. He would never forget the sound of her body hitting the concrete. He roared in terror. They all surrounded her, and he kind of blacked out. He remembered yelling for someone to go in and get Dr. Stark. He knelt beside her, not letting anyone touch her until he knew the best doctor was coming. Jerome came out and took in the situation, asking Kane about her medical history and what had happened. It was Arden who remembered to add she was pregnant. Kane made sure Jerome knew that she was first priority over the fetus. He quickly calculated a due date as werewolf pregnancies took only six months instead of nine.

Twenty-five minutes later, he sat with his brothers in the waiting room while a five-year resident student came out to give them their fourth update. This one looked hesitant as he slowly walked over to them. Kane didn’t blame the guy, they looked like a pretty intimidating bunch, twenty to twenty-five massive werewolves with more family coming in.

“Ahh, Dr. Wolfen, they’re just finishing up in the operating room. Dr. Stark will be out in a moment. They had to take caution as from the scans we could tell it had just missed the brain.”

He nodded as the student rushed away. Calmed a bit at knowing it was almost over, he looked to Arden first for answers. “How far away is Dad?”

Arden shrugged. “Five minutes to ten minutes tops.”

Kane nodded then turned to Major Black. “What the hell happened?”

The major cleared his throat and told the event the best he could in a public place.

Once he had finished explaining what had happened Kane felt his father’s hand on his back. Furious, he turned and slammed him against the wall. Plaster smashed, and everyone froze as alpha-to-alpha he got right up in his face.

In a harsh whisper, he growled, “What the hell were you thinking letting my wife, my pregnant wife, go out with only four werewolves and a fucking human? You would never have let my mother, your mate, do anything that dangerous, pregnant or not. I know you didn’t know she was pregnant, but she still shouldn’t have gone out. You don’t let any of the women in the pack fight, and they’re shifters. Why did you let my little human mate fight? Faith almost died, but thanks to me mate marking her it gave her extra strength and healing skills which saved her, but now we have to fucking cover it up.” He spoke the last statement loud so all the werewolves could hear. Without even giving his father a chance to respond, he let him fall to the floor and walked away, not caring what excuse he came up with.

A minute later the nurse came and collected him, but before he left he turned so all could hear. “Keep Rane away from me. Father, I stopped myself from killing you by a thread, but that won’t be there for him. If Rane had done what he was ordered to do and kept the major with him, instead of Faith having to watch his behind, this wouldn’t have happened.”

* * * *

Faith awoke slowly to a splitting headache and looked around the unfamiliar room. She tried to remember what had happened but the last thing she could remember was waking up in Kane’s arms before he had to go to work. She tried harder, clutching her head in pain. She started to freak out, looking frantically for something, anything she could remember. She heard the toilet flush as she cried out, “Kane! Please, where are you, Kane?” She felt him then as he came running out of the bathroom.

“Princess, I’m here. I’m here, calm down.”

She clung to his hand. “Please, don’t leave me. What happened?”

He kissed her forehead as a nurse came rushing in. Kane barked for her to call Dr. Stark, and the nurse hurried off to do Kane’s bidding.

He turned back to Faith. “I’ve never been so afraid in my whole life, Faith.” He sat on the bed, carefully bringing her into a hug. “I love you so much.”

Faith snuggled closer to Kane. “I love you too, Kane. I have never, will never, love anyone else. I’m so sorry if I scared you, but I don’t remember how I got here.”

Kane hugged her tighter. “You don’t remember your vision or helping the women? This…” He touched her head. “…that you have now was a gift, you could say, from a demon.”

She touched her head which had a bandage around it.

“Faith, you took on a demon pretty much all by yourself, and I know you helped kill a second, but princess...” He shook his head just as a knock sounded on the door.

Faith looked up to see a tall black man, about six feet one, with broad shoulders and one of the most handsome faces she had seen. If she didn’t know better she would swear he had the genes of a were. Her paranormal gift came in handy helping her find and know paranormal people, and she knew this man wasn’t a shifter, but she was picking up that he had some sort of paranormal gift, she just couldn’t figure out what it was.

He grinned at her, showing perfect white teeth. “Hi, Faith. I’m Dr. Jerome Stark. How are you feeling? You’re a very lucky woman.”

Faith smiled, wincing in pain. “Nice to meet you, Dr. Stark. I’m not feeling that hot, my head is throbbing.”

“That’s to be expected when a woman has a claw removed from the back of her head. You’re lucky it hadn’t embedded in your brain. You’re even luckier to have such remarkable healing abilities.”

Kane shot the doctor a shut-the-fuck-up look.

“I would have liked for you to stay a day or two so I could monitor you and make sure everything heals well, but with the military clearance and having a doctor as a husband we’ll get you on your way home in an hour or two.”

Kane spoke up. “Jerome, she’s forgotten the past twenty-four hours, but I think she did well to only forget that much.”

Jerome nodded to him and looked at Faith. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

She smiled. “The last thing I remember is hugging Kane this morning, groaning about losing my heater, and begging him to stay before I pushed him out of bed or he would have given in to me.”

The doctor smacked Kane on the back of the head. Kane turned. “What the hell did you do that for?”

Dr. Stark glared at Kane. “Because if I had a wife like this I would have stayed in bed.” He turned his focus on her. “Faith, if you ever come to your senses about this idiot give me a call. I would gladly take his place.”

Faith giggled. “Thank you, Dr. Stark. I’ll have to think about that.”

He chuckled and came over to check her out, taking off the bandage. She breathed a sigh of relief as her hair tumbled down. He chuckled again.

“Yes, I tried to save as much of your beautiful hair as I could, but the bottom half is shaved.” He gently lifted her head. “Unbelievable. You’ll be going home—with a military escort, I understand—as soon as I can do the paperwork. And somehow your husband has now been cleared for indefinite leave.” He shook his head then looked at Kane. “Don’t worry, I will be calling.” He smiled at her again and left.

Kane said nothing for a long time and just stared at her. When she couldn’t take the silence anymore she sat up. “Where is everyone? I thought at least Jamie would have been here to see if I’m okay.”

His face never changed from his deep-in-thought expression as he said, “They would have all been here if they were allowed, but you need your rest, so rest, Faith.” He walked out the door.

Something was up. Everything felt very wrong.

* * * *

At home the feeling got worse as Kane placed her on the bed, kissed her forehead again, not her lips, and left, telling her to sleep. She lay in bed for fifteen minutes, and the sense of wrongness just got worse. She had never seen Kane like this. The whole ride home from the hospital he hadn’t said a word, even when she asked if he was okay. She asked if she could help make anything better, but he was so emotionless. Sitting up, she tried to feel for him with their bond, but like when she had tried in the car, she got nothing.