The Burning Claw: Book 10, The Grey Wolves Series (16 page)

“Does it ever get easier?” Drake asked.

Decebel laughed. “If it does I’ll let you know, but so far, no, it definitely hasn’t gotten easier.”

Drake was lost in his own thoughts when the scream came. His head snapped up and on the second scream he was on his feet running without a second thought.

“Jen is with her, Drake. She isn’t alone.” Drake heard Decebel’s voice somewhere behind him along with the Alpha’s footsteps. He knew that Bethany wasn’t alone, but that didn’t stop his driving need to get to her and make sure that she was alright. Her scream and the fear he felt through their bond was like the crack of a whip against his flesh that only pushed him harder. Drake could feel her heartbeat racing, or maybe it was his? He wasn’t sure. Their emotions were so intermingled that he couldn’t tell where hers started and his ended. The only difference was the amount of fear rolling off of her. Even when he’d been crouched over her as a snarling wolf, the fear coming from Bethany hadn’t been this potent. Whatever it was, it wasn’t just scaring her; it was terrifying. 

J
en glanced at the closed door and then resumed her pacing. Bethany had been in there for about twenty minutes and, though she’d been pelleting the young girl with questions, Bethany just wouldn’t crack. Jen knew she had to be dying to ask questions about Drake and the whole
mated to a werewolf
thing, but no matter how many openings she gave the new she-wolf to speak up, Bethany didn’t take the bait. “Time to get serious,” Jen muttered. “So, Bethany,” she called through the door.

“Hmm?” came the reply.

“Do you like Drake? I mean not just like as in
hey how’s it hanging, caught any good fish lately
kind of like. I mean does he make your kitten purr?” Jen paused as she thought about how that sounded and then grinned to herself. Jacque and Sally would have totally appreciated that one. “I mean, do you—” Jen’s words were cut off by a toe curling scream. Okay, so either Bethany really doesn’t like Drake or something was terribly wrong.

“Bethany!” Jen banged on the door. “Are you okay?” She hated to ask such a dumbass question. The girl had just screamed as though she’d been thrown out of a window thirty stories high. Of course, she wasn’t okay. “Bethany unlock this door, now!” Jen tried the door handle but it was still stubbornly locked. The scream had subsided and now Jen heard only sobs and unintelligible words, but the younger girl still sounded quite hysterical.

“Please let me in. Beth, let me help,” Jen pleaded with her. “What’s wrong?” Still no answer, just more tears and strained breathing. “You do realize that at any moment that mate of yours is going to break down this door right? Are you dressed? Bethany, please answer me!” Jen put some power behind her words.

“Drake,” Bethany finally said something that Jen could understand. “Where’s Drake?”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to come in first?” Jen asked, thinking that perhaps the girl was in shock, not realizing what she was saying.

Before Jen could hear the answer, the door to the suite flew open and slammed into the wall. A frantic looking Drake came barreling in with an equally upset looking Decebel right behind him.

“Where is she?” Drake practically snarled. Jen knew he was just responding to the emotions he could no doubt feel coming from his mate and so she excused his tone. Instead, she pointed to the door.

“She went in there to take a bath. As far as I know everything was fine.”

“Her stomach was hurting before I left,” Drake said as he stepped up to the closed door and knocked in a surprisingly gentle way. “Bethany, love, are you okay?”

Jen turned to Decebel and met his eyes.
“We might need Rachel. Can you get her?”

Decebel nodded.
“I’m on it.”

Jen turned back to Drake as he banged on the closed door. After a few moments he paused and there was silence. Then they both heard Bethany whimper, “There’s so much blood.”

D
rake felt the wind being sucked from his lungs as her words penetrated his mind. Blood. She’d said there was so much blood. “Bethany, what blood? Why is there blood, baby?”

He could feel her confusion and he wanted to reassure her, but he didn’t know what was wrong; he didn’t know if everything would be alright. What he needed to know was where the hell the blood was coming from.

“Bethany, please unlock the door so I don’t have to break it down,
” he said to her through the bond, hoping it would jar her into action. She seemed to be frozen.

“I don’t want to get blood on you,”
she responded and her voice sounded far away as though she were in a trance.

“Did you cut yourself shaving? Is that why there is blood?”
he asked. There was no response. After several seconds Drake lost the little patience he was clinging to. “Jen I’ll replace the door.”

He grabbed the door handle and started to twist it but stopped when Jen’s hand landed on top of his.

“What are you going to do once you get in there?” she asked him quietly. “She’s probably naked as the day she was born and not in her right mind. Are you just going to barge in there and see her in all her glory?”

“I don’t give a damn if she’s naked or dressed in a potato sack. I want to know that she’s okay,” Drake bit out.

“Let her keep some of her dignity. Don’t let the first time you see her be like this.”

“Do you honestly think I really give a damn about how she looks?” Drake knew he needed to bring his temper down, but it angered him that Jen could imply that he would take advantage of the situation. “All I want to know is why there is blood, how much blood, and how to stop it. I want to keep her safe!”

“Good,” said a new female voice. “Then let’s figure out what’s going on so that we can accomplish that.” Rachel, the Romania wolves’ gypsy healer, was calm and collected not only in her words but also in her appearance.

“Perfect,” Jen said in a completely different tone than she’d been using with the angry wolf.

He frowned at her. “You were stalling me.”

His Alpha female nodded. “Yes, yes I was. If you want to break in now, by all means,” she said, motioning toward the door. “Go ahead.”

“Maybe let me or Jen enter first, okay?” Rachel suggested.

That was fine with Drake; he just wanted the door removed from in between him and his mate. He twisted the handle of the door until he heard an audible snap and then slowly pushed the door open, not wanting to startle her.

“Jen, myself, and Rachel, she’s one of the gypsy healers, are coming into the room,” he told her, hoping that explaining what was happening would keep Bethany from being startled. Regardless of how badly he wanted to see her, Drake didn’t want to frighten her more than she already was, so he pushed the door open slowly. Rachel started to step around him but was stopped by the projectile body flying at him. Drake immediately opened his arms and found them quickly filled with his towel-clad, crying mate.

Her arms had a death grip on his neck and she’d buried her face into his shoulder. Drake rubbed a hand down her back trying to calm her. “Shh,” he soothed. “Calm down, love.”

He didn’t pay attention when Jen and Rachel both walked around them and moved further into the bathroom. He also didn’t pay attention to the silent hand gestures and soundless words coming from Jen. It wasn’t until Rachel tapped him on the shoulder that wasn’t currently occupied by his crying mate that Drake finally gave anyone else a second thought.

He turned his head to look at the healer. “It would probably be best if Jen and I handle this one.”

Drake started to pull away but Bethany just held on tighter. When he looked at Rachel again she nodded her understanding and leaned forward to whisper to the young girl. Drake tried really hard not to listen despite his excellent wolf hearing, but he wasn’t able to tune it all out.

He got bits and pieces, the main one being about the bleeding. He felt her stiffen in his arms as Rachel’s words began to register in her mind. Clearly, the girl was embarrassed. Just as she was about to scramble out of his arms, Drake held her tighter and pulled her back to look down into her aquamarine eyes. “Never be embarrassed with me. You’re safe with me. In all ways, you’re safe.”

She held his stare and finally nodded. “Okay.” Bethany wiped away some stray tears as she continued to look at him. “I think you should probably wait outside.”

Drake’s lips lifted ever so slightly in a small grin. “I’ll be waiting for you when you’re done. Take your time.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead and then set her on her feet and quietly left the bathroom, pulling the door gently closed behind him.

As soon as the latch caught, Drake let out an audible sigh.

“Everything okay?” A deep voice asked. Drake turned to find Decebel and Gavril, Rachel’s mate, standing in the living area.

He nodded. “Getting there.”

“Good, now let’s go for a run while the females deal with female stuff,” Decebel said in a much quieter voice than his usual.

“I can still hear you, you big fur ball.” Jen’s voice came calling out through the closed doors. “And by all means, go! We would hate for some of our icky female stuff to somehow infect you.” She paused, but the she-wolf wasn’t done. “Oh and don’t come back unless you have chocolate— lots of it. Toodles.”

“She could have told you all of that from here.” Drake tapped the side of his head.

Decebel smirked. “She could have, but then she wouldn’t have had the pleasure of baiting me in front of other males.”

Drake gave him a questioning look.

Decebel shrugged. “It’s her idea of foreplay.”

Drake decided not to touch that with a ten-foot pole. Instead, he sent a parting thought to Bethany so that she’d know where he was and then followed the other two males out of the mansion and into the surrounding forest that they called home.

B
ethany was pretty sure she was going to be the first person ever to die of embarrassment. If such a thing was possible, it was about to happen. She’d freaked out, plain and simple. She’d seen the blood and all those years—all the horrors she’d endured—came rushing back and she’d simply lost it. If Drake didn’t see her as helpless and delicate before, he probably did now after that little display.

“Hey.”

Snap, snap. Fingers were suddenly thrust in her face and they continued the snapping until she finally met the eyes of their owner.

“You were seven when they took you,” Jen said. “How could you have known?”

She was referring to the aforementioned bleeding. It had been her period.
How do you like them apples?
she thought to herself. She had freaked out over her period. No, she’d never had one before, but she knew a little bit about them from the snippets she remembered her mom telling her when she was a child. But over the past eleven years, that knowledge had slipped away, locked behind survival instincts and fear.

“Bethany,” Rachel’s gentle voice drew her attention from her thoughts. “I’m not a doctor, but I have spent years studying the body, both human and werewolf. Your body was in survival mode for such a very long time and, it’s my bet that because of that trauma, your menstrual cycle was delayed. Your body is finally returning back to normal after your ordeal.”