Should have Put a Leash On It (6 page)

He strode to the inner window and peeked out from between the blinds. No one was looking his way. Now was his chance.

Micah slipped out of the door and hotfooted it around the corner before anyone noticed what room he’d come out of. In his haste to escape he almost bowled over a young male doctor.

The doctor he’d bumped into looked him up and down and Micah scented the human’s instant interest and arousal. “Hey, I have a shirt just like that.”

He flexed his arms a little to distract the man from remembering what Micah looked like later, hopefully. The human’s gaze dropped from his face and focused on his body instead. Micah gave the doctor a warm smile when the man dragged his gaze back up to his face. “No kidding. You must have good taste.” He winked and walked away before the man could say anything else.

Micah heard the human male take in a swift breath and knew the doctor was checking out his ass. He swerved around a group of nurses and tried not to blush when one of the women shamelessly stared at his crotch as if he were naked. These tight clothes were certainly gaining him a lot of attention. Perhaps the dress would have been better, after all.

It was a relief when he finally reached a fairly quiet area and he could concentrate. The overabundance of scents and noises made it hard to focus as he pulled in a deep breath. He found the thread of scent that could only be Remy and Skylar, woodsy and powerful with the hint of engine oil and blood.

He opened his eyes to start following the trail now that he had a lock on it, but drew up short when he noticed a doctor standing a few meters away and staring right at him suspiciously.

He sent her the same warm, flirty smile and wink he’d given the other doctor, but her stony expression didn’t change. Damn, struck out.

Pretending he was lost, Micah checked the sign hanging from the ceiling, then pointed in the direction he needed to go as if he’d just realized it. Micah didn’t so much run away from her as walk fast and try to ignore the raised hairs on the back of his neck that told him she was still watching him. He didn’t relax until he turned the corner.

Micah followed Remy’s scent trail to a large hospital room at the end of the corridor. Micah approved of the choice. The room was large, on the ground floor so it was easy to escape from and on the end of the two joining corridors on a corner so that anyone on guard would have a complete view of the hospital and see anyone coming.

He slowed as he reached the door. He could scent Remy, Skylar, Sage and Asher, but that wasn’t what made him hesitate. Rylan. Micah had thought that he’d never smell that mix of wild apples again. Rylan’s scent was polluted by blood, pain and whatever medication the doctors were pumping into him.

The decision to open the door was taken away from him when it was opened from the other side to reveal Remy standing there looking haunted and exhausted.

“It’s not good.” Remy’s eyes were flat and his voice hollow.

Remy’s emotional grid was locked down. Micah couldn’t scent anything from his little brother. He stepped inside and refused to be startled when the door swung shut faster than he expected and rattled on its frame. Damn, he was wound tighter than a bungee cord.

Micah shot a glance at Skylar and the vampire did his freaky seeing without seeing thing, sensing he was under someone’s attention and started talking. “When they brought him in, the doctors said it was only a matter of time, but Elder Lavi managed to get enough blood into him to make a slight difference and the doctors decided to operate to repair the internal bleeding and realign Rylan’s ribs. When we found out Remy freaked out and almost tore this place apart, but then it was as if the anger and desperation leached away. Was that you?”

Realigning Rylan’s ribs...internal bleeding?

Skylar’s question sank in and he swallowed the bile that rose at thinking of how Rylan had gotten so hurt. The uncertainty and violent imaginings were going to drive him mad. The second he had a shot, Micah was ripping the bastard’s fucking head from his body.

“Micah?” Skylar stepped closer to him, head tipping slightly on its side. The move was almost wolf-like.

Skylar’s gratitude, the scent much like baking bread, surrounded him like a cloud. As tempting as it was to let the vamp believe it was planned, he couldn’t lie. “It’s called siphoning. It wasn’t intentional, the emotions just hit me,” Micah admitted reluctantly, clearing his throat uncomfortably.

Skylar nodded and stepped back, going to Remy and hugging him closer. As he watched, Remy all but melted into his mate, letting the vampire hold both of them up.

He had to look away when he felt his wolf getting agitated. The last thing he needed right now was to become host to the grief and pain he imagined Remy was feeling. He had his own shit to deal with and it was taking all his strength to do it.

The expressions on his brothers’ faces were enough to make him scared to look at Rylan.

Asher looked horrified and Sage was even more withdrawn and silent than usual. Asher caught his eye and Micah audibly gulped when Asher teared up and turned away.

Fuck. He couldn’t put this off forever.

Gathering himself, Micah looked at the man in the hospital bed.

Rylan seemed so small and fragile, lying motionless in the cold, impersonal, white bed. The injured wolf was deep asleep, knocked out from whatever the doctors had given him. There were so many bruises and cuts. He wasn’t even sure it was Rylan for a moment, his brain refusing to connect the broken man in the bed with the familiar scent of wild apples.

“He came out of surgery a few minutes before you got here and the doctors said that it would be a while before he wakes up.” Remy’s voice was marginally warmer and Micah took that as a sign that his brother was processing the negative emotions better. At least that’s what he hoped.

Micah nodded and continued staring at Rylan. His wolf struggled inside him, trying to get out, wanting to howl the injustice at the sky. Rylan was always so full of life and energy, to see him lying so still and broken was unnatural and wrong.

“Where...how?” Micah was incapable of forming a complete sentence right then.

Remy cleared his throat “He was dumped in some hard-to-reach part of the forest an hour or so away from pack lands. He was left for dead, naked and bleeding in the snow.”

Taking over, Skylar wrapped an arm around Remy’s waist. “The shifter patrol grid you helped set up found him. They only went that far up the mountain because the road was backed up from a truck overturning and they didn’t want to be sighted in wolf form.”

God, they could have so easily missed him.

He approached the bed and took in the damage. Rylan’s face was so swollen that his facial features were distorted out of recognition.

A thick coating of what smelled like honey covered Rylan’s right forearm, several bandaged wounds and the protective gauze over what must have been the surgical wound. It was gut-wrenching to witness and frankly he was glad that Rylan wasn’t awake. There was no way Micah could have hidden his horror.

They may argue and fight, but Rylan was family. He’d gladly switch places with Rylan to spare him this pain. As a beta, he’d protect his pack until his last breath, but his family were the only ones he’d willingly give his life for.

Micah cautiously reached down and gently picked up Rylan’s left hand. When he noticed Rylan didn’t have any fingernails, his stomach dropped and he almost shifted. It confirmed that Trevor had tried to get information out of Rylan. The fact that all five fingernails were ripped off also revealed that Rylan didn’t talk. If someone didn’t break after five fingernails, there was no point continuing with that method...the interrogator would move on to something else.

Looking down at Rylan, Micah swore to himself that he’d do whatever he had to in order to keep Rylan safe and prevent him being hurt again, no matter what it cost him. Whatever Rylan needed, Micah was going to make sure he got, even if it was himself standing naked on top of the church, singing
I’m a Little Teapot.

Micah stood off to one side of Rylan’s hospital bed and waited. The doctor had lowered Rylan’s pain medication and said that he could wake up at any time, but not to get their hopes up. The way the pompous jerk acted as if they shouldn’t be bothered if Rylan never woke up.

They had all seen the disgusted looks the doctor had shot Remy and Skylar as the mated couple slept together in the uncomfortable hospital chair, Skylar on Remy’s lap and curled against his chest.

Asher had had to restrain him so he didn’t bite the jackass.

The doctor had left in a rush, mumbling about getting security to throw the perverts out of his hospital. But Micah wasn’t worried by the threats. It wasn’t what one knew, it was who one knew.

Elder Lavi had come to give Rylan more blood and to voodoo the hospital staff into not writing any notes or even noticing anyone was here once they left the room. It was a quick fix. Rylan still needed the hospital facilities and the doctors to help him heal at the moment.

The elder vampire was keeping an eye on the samples taken by the doctors, swiping them for Jake to look at later while keeping everyone else out of and away from the room.

Micah and Sage were standing guard while the other slept. It was stormy outside so Skylar had been able to stay even though the sun had risen a few hours ago.

Zeke had wanted to come, but Remy had told him to stay and guard Jacko in case Trevor tried to make a play for the little wolf. Trevor was smart enough to use Rylan as a diversion to storm the castle, as it were.

The rest of the pack inner circle was guarding the sisters and the mini spices. His wolf wanted everyone under one roof so he could keep an eye on them. That just wasn’t possible right now. The need, however, didn’t go away and both he and his wolf were getting twitchy about the pack being divided.

A pained whine came from Rylan’s direction and everyone in the room was suddenly up and wide awake, clustering around the bed. They watched Rylan blink sleepily and shake his head slowly as if coming awake from a bad dream. Micah didn’t breath as he stared, waiting.

“Remy,” Rylan called out croakily.

Remy all but pushed him out of the way to get to Rylan’s side and Micah bit back the growl he felt brewing in his chest. He had no rights over Rylan and no reason to feel so jealous. There was no reason Rylan would want him here. Especially not with how their last conversation went.

His little brother took Rylan’s hand and leaned over so Rylan could see him easier without having to move his head. Micah appreciated the thoughtfulness. He wouldn’t have thought to do that—the fact irritated him.

His wolf’s need to get closer was overwhelming. Micah walked around to Rylan’s other side and straightened the sheet covering Rylan, untangling it from where it had become knotted against the metal rails at the side of the bed.

When he raised his head, he saw Remy and Rylan watching him intently.

“How are you feeling?” He coughed and let go of the sheet.

Rylan just stared at him for a long moment.

Micah wondered whether he should leave. Remy had said that it wasn’t Micah’s fault that Rylan had been taken, but perhaps Rylan felt differently.

Guilt flooded him and he wanted to slink off with his tail between his legs. He took a step back from the bed at the same instant Rylan inched his hand over. Micah stilled at the contact of skin on skin. It was a little thing.

Yet he couldn’t look away from their joined hands.

“I’ll go and get the doctor,” Sage said.

For some reason he realized that beyond the few times they had scuffled, Micah had never touched Rylan.

“No. I don’t want any more doctors,” Rylan said, stopping Sage in his tracks.

Micah frowned, his wolf immediately scenting Rylan’s unease and fear.

Remy must have picked up on it, too. “What do you mean, no more doctors, Ry?”

Rylan’s face scrunched up as if were thinking hard. The wolf growled and smacked his hand against the bed, wincing as the action obviously caused him pain. “I don’t know. Damn it, I can’t
remember.
..just no more. Please, Micah.”

“Okay, no doctors,” he agreed.

The scent of fear intensified and Micah’s wolf rose in response, desperate to fight off any kind of threat to Rylan. Rylan rocked side to side on the bed and pressed the palm of his other hand to his eyes.

“Why can’t I remember?”

Sage hovered by the door, obviously waiting in case they needed a doctor to come and sedate Rylan. Asher shifted from foot to foot. Remy and Skylar simply stayed silent. His little brother looked broken seeing his best friend in this much pain.

When Rylan screamed the sound was filled with such agony, it made everyone in the room flinch, and Remy even scrubbed a tear away from his eye. Remy tried to calm Rylan down, but his words didn’t seem to penetrate Rylan’s rising panic and frustration.

“Rylan, calm down. You need to calm down.” This was getting them nowhere.

Micah caught the flapping hand and stopped Rylan hurting himself. Rylan looked up at him, eyes wet and red.

He could see Rylan was terrified on a primal level, his wolf not far from the surface. He held Rylan’s gaze and tried to exude calm. He breathed in deep and waited until Rylan did the same before slowly letting it out. Rylan’s wolf responded to his and slowly started to calm. Micah guessed the second they were out of here and back in home territory, Rylan would need to shift.

The problem was that Micah had no idea what sort of conditions Rylan had been kept in and he was worried about how Rylan’s wolf would react. Rylan might not have the strength of will to keep the beast in check.

On the third deep exhale, Rylan broke his gaze. Micah found himself missing the connection. Normally Rylan would be giving him hell right now for something. That he wasn’t put Micah and his own wolf on edge. He squeezed Rylan’s hand gently and smiled when Rylan immediately squeezed it back.

He and Remy shared a glance and Remy gave a minute nod. Whatever happened to Rylan, they’d need to find out. Fast. There was a chance that Rylan didn’t remember because of the trauma, but he didn’t think any one of them believed that. Rylan’s fear of doctors spoke of something dark.