Authors: Joyee Flynn
“I look forward to it,” he whispered and leaned in to peck my lips with his. “I’m not the best healer, but I put a calcium solution all over your burns. And I’m sorry to say that’s about all I have left in me right now. Creating that much fire is exhausting.”
“Some of the wolves are putting out his blazes right now and making sure it doesn’t go toward the house,” Jasper said gently as he plopped his butt down on the ground by us. He was bleeding, though not bad, and, oddly enough, smiling. As if he knew what I was thinking, he answered my unasked question. “They’re dead, we’re not. Ain’t nothing like a good brawl to keep life interesting.”
“Glad we could perk up your day.” I chuckled and then moaned in pain. “Fuck that hurts.”
“Can you shift?” Avery asked gently, and I wanted to smack myself in forehead. He must have understood what I’d been thinking. “Don’t chastise yourself. When it hurts this bad, you’re not thinking.”
I nodded and let the change flow over me. I lay there and tried to breathe through the pain as it started to lessen. No one really knew why shifting helped jump-start healing any more than why shifters healed faster. Some truths in life were just there no matter who found them out.
My mates were petting me, saying soft, comforting words, and I found myself purring. I knew there was chaos still going on around us since people were shouting out orders and one person was snarling we were all going to die. My guess would be that one vamp was kept alive. That was important enough to get through my injury-induced haze, and I shifted back.
“Send vamp to Conley,” I panted and pushed to sit up. “He needs to interrogate the guy.”
“Already called him,” Trey said gently and knelt down. “You just relax for a minute, bro. From what I heard, Cass’s injuries burned down to his muscle, and it was a painful bitch to heal.”
“Always so glass half-full,” I groaned as Aaron helped me to lean back against him on my side. He had shifted back as well, too. “Thanks for the save, guys.”
“I couldn’t get to you,” he whispered in my hair and sniffled. “You were moving around too much that I couldn’t grab the zombie.”
“I did that on purpose. I didn’t want you to get burnt, too, and I heard Imogen. I thought if I could dislodge the zombie, he could fry it.”
“We worked well as a team,” Imogen said gently and laid his hand over Aaron’s and my joined ones. He stared directly at Aaron and changed the tone of his voice to something more commanding. “You will take care of our mate while I’m gone, right?”
“Of course, just hurry home.”
“Wait? What? Where are you going?” I sputtered after what they were saying sunk in.
“I need to cross into my realm and warn everyone about what’s going on. I expect they’ll send me back with guards.” He said that last part with a frustrated sigh. “It won’t take me long, and I’m sure I’ll be back before you wake from your healing nap.”
“What nap? I don’t like you going over—”
“This nap, my feisty kitten,” Imogen said gently, interrupting me. He leaned over and brushed his lips over mine, and I felt the magic…and then nothing.
* * * *
“I am going to kick his little fairy ass,” I groaned as I woke up. He fucking used his magic to knock me out! We needed to have a serious talk about that.
“You were going to fight him about going, you both would have argued, and in the end, he would have still gone.” Aaron wrapped his arm around me tighter, and I realized we were lying in my room with the huge bed for all of us. “And you needed the rest, but we both know you wouldn’t have calmed down or let everyone handle things while you did.”
“You don’t know me very well then,” I whispered as my eyes burned with tears. Listening to him and even some of what Imogen said yesterday made me sound like a control freak that always had to be in charge, always dominant, and a pain in the ass basically. I pulled away from him, ignoring his protests, and sat up. I hissed in pain but didn’t stop.
“You’ve only been out for a few hours, Sasha,” he said with a sigh and moved off the bed with me. “Can’t you please go back to sleep? I’d like very much for you to heal and rest some more.”
I thought about it for a minute, and it was a reasonable request even if he’d just hurt my feelings. “I’ll shower and get some more sleep after I get something to eat and talk to Trey. As long as I crawl into bed alone. Deal?”
“What did I say that was so wrong?” he asked, hurt in his voice. I couldn’t look at him as I made my way slowly to the bathroom.
“I just thought you knew me better,” I answered and shrugged my shoulders. It hurt because the zombie had tried to choke me with his arms and gotten his blood on my back. Hell, it fucking made me want to cry to swallow.
He let me go, and I took a nice cool shower. My muscles screamed for hot water but given how sore and burnt my skin was, it so wasn’t happening. I’m sure I missed a few spots with my limited mobility, and the pain kept bringing tears to my eyes. I wished one of my mates was there to help me, take care of me, but I wanted some distance, too.
They hurt me. It hurt that Aaron thought I was so controlling and Imogen seemed to think I was so unreasonable I would have fought him on going to warn his family. That wasn’t the person I was, and if they didn’t see that… What were they seeing in me?
“Why does Aaron look like he just lost his best friend?” Trey asked from my bed as I walked out of the bathroom several minutes later after I’d finished and dried off.
“Drop it,” I answered and shook my head. I wasn’t ready to put my feelings into words, and after everything Trey went through with his mates, I didn’t want to seem like a baby.
“Okaay,” he drawled and handed me some shorts to put on that someone laid out. “You wanted to talk to me?”
“Fill me in on what’s going on, please. I just need to know what happened and what I missed.”
“Of course you do,” Trey replied, looking confused. “Did someone tell you that you couldn’t know? I mean, I figured I’d fill you in when you woke up.”
“Did you know Imogen knocked me out with his magic?” I asked instead after a few moments. “He basically drugged me to sleep because he thought I’d throw a hissy fit or something to keep him from crossing the plane into his world.”
“Yeah, I wasn’t a fan of that.” My eldest brother’s face was a mix of anger and frustration. So it wasn’t just me then! “You’re not a demanding person or controlling. I thought they were jumping the gun. They should have told you they were knocking you out because it obviously helped you. I mean you look worlds better than you did a few hours ago. But why not just talk to you?”
“Because they
do
think I’m controlling. They thought I’d fight them and try to handle everything instead of trusting them to deal with it. Aaron said I wouldn’t have been able to let go and not take charge of everything.”
Trey gaped at me as I pulled up my shorts and sat down. He shook his head a few times and then finally found his voice. “Have they met you?”
“Thank you!” I exclaimed and jumped to my feet. Which had been stupid because I got dizzy. “Okay, I need food and liquid.”
“Come on, I’ll make you a few sandwiches. Jasper practically brought over the deli section of the grocery store when the wolves set up your house as, like, command central.”
“I really love your mate right now,” I whimpered as he moved his arm around my waist to support me. Partially because it hurt but the other part was fresh sandwiches just sounded so damn yummy.
“I love yours, too.” He chuckled and led me out of the room and to the kitchen. “He saved all our assets with that flame-throwing trick.”
“I love how you say assets like that.” I giggled and then froze when I giggled. I wasn’t one to giggle, and given the severity of the situation, it seemed really odd that I would now.
“The wolf doc came and gave you some fluids and drugs. I’m surprised you’re just noticing now.”
“Everything’s been hazy, but I assumed that was the pain and maybe a concussion. Now I just want to giggle and snuggle.”
“Good, then maybe we should talk to you now,” Imogen said with a bright smile as we walked into the room. Then he eyed my brother over with a raised brow. “I’m not sure how I saved your assets though.”
Trey chuckled and sat me down in one of the kitchen table chairs. “Most people say someone saved their ass. Well, I see it as you saved more than just my butt, and I feel it’s an asset anyway…” He held his hands out to the side as if to say, “that’s the meaning of it.”
“So it’s a pun,” he said with a nod of understanding when my brother trailed off. Trey gave him a thumbs-up that he got it, and my mate focused on me while my brother made me food. He wasn’t kidding about the spread Jasper had gotten. Our counters looked like they should have a deli case over them. “Aaron says you’re upset.”
“Whatever,” I replied with a shrug and wouldn’t look at them. “It doesn’t matter. You saved me, knocked me out, and did what you wanted without asking me. I’m just glad you’re back and safe, not that you talked to me about it like I was an adult.” Passive aggressive? Me? Never!
“You would have fought my leaving.” He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. It reminded me of my dad, Beck, when he was looking for patience when we were kids, dealing with all six of us wanting different things. The analogy didn’t make me feel any better. “And you needed rest to get better. It was the right thing to do, and I resent you questioning my motives.”
I stared at him with my mouth hanging open in shock. Where was my little cuddly fairy, and who was this pompous prick? Trey growled as he handed me my plate of sandwiches and chips along with a pop.
“Sasha, you’re being unreasonable about this,” Aaron said slowly as if trying to appease a crazed mental patient. Were they fucking serious?
“You want to come stay with me until they pull their heads out of their asses?” Trey asked me as his eyes shifted to his tiger ones. Yeah, he was good and pissed, going into protective mode.
“Trey, do not presume to know what’s best for our mate and jump in when this doesn’t involve you.” Imogen’s eyes flashed violet, and he crossed his arms over his chest. I almost felt bad for him considering I had an inkling what would happen next.
“He’s been your mate for a whole twenty seconds,” Trey growled as he shook with anger. “We’ve been
brothers
, litter-mates for forty-six years. Do
not
tell me what to do concerning Sasha when someone’s hurting him because I don’t give a rat’s ass if you’re his mate. I won’t stand by and say nothing. And if you think him being upset when I’m standing right fucking here doesn’t involve me, you’ve got blinders on, fairy.”
Yeah, that was what I expected. It warmed me on the inside that someone was defending me. And I was still shocked at how I’d become the bad guy here!
“Sasha is one of the most easygoing people I’ve ever known.” Trey wasn’t finished it seemed. “He can take charge when he needs to and knows how to get something done, but it’s not who he is. He doesn’t
have
to be the boss. He defers to others in our family all the time because he trusts us to do what’s right. Maybe you should try to fucking trust that he’s not a douche bag and have some faith in him to be reasonable.”
“Is this how you feel?” Aaron asked, tilting his neck as he stared at me as if gauging my reaction. “That we assumed the worst unfairly about how you’d react and we were wrong?”
“You didn’t even
try
to discuss any of it with me,” I answered with a nod and stared at my food, no longer hungry. “You treated me like a child, still are, and basically drugged me by knocking me out.”
“That’s not at all—” Imogen started to yell until I cut him off.
“I’m done.” I pushed up from the table and turned to leave the room with my pop. “I’m too tired and too sore for this. I don’t know who the two of you are, but when you find my mates and they want to reasonably talk and treat me as an equal, come find me.”
“Sasha.” Aaron sighed in frustration. I shook my head and kept walking. I wasn’t going to fight with them over this. What they did was wrong and for the wrong reasons. I wasn’t unreasonable or flying off the handle. Hell, if I did, I’d be fighting with them. I wasn’t the type. For now I’d sleep and get better, hoping that they saw the error in what they did.