A voice rang out, clearer than he’d heard before, “I’m going to make you forget all about him. You’ll be so full of me you won’t remember his name, or yours for that matter. I brought a bag of toys with me, Mate. I’m sure you’ll end up loving them as much as I do.”
Nails sprang forth from his fingers, digging into the soft flesh of his palms. He bit back a gasp of pain and slowly straightened his hands.
The other woman wasn’t finished however. “Have you ever been taken by a woman wearing a strap, baby? You’re gonna love it. I’ll take you hard because I know you like that. I saw you with him last night, you know.”
She what?
He took a step forward, so furious at the thought of her spying on them he nearly flew into the room. Instead, he forced himself to remain still, waiting to hear Kellie’s response.
Except nothing came. She remained silent, as if she wasn’t even there.
Could it be?
Hoping the door wouldn’t squeak, he tapped it a little. It opened wider, his eyes instantly focusing on the other side of the room. What he saw made his heart palpitate.
His mate was lying on her stomach, tied to the bed with her clothes in disarray. She was partially naked, her top pushed up and her jeans tugged down her thighs. Her ass was red, redder than it usually was, and he understood why when he saw that woman apply some kind of contraption to it. It sizzled and left a faint mark in his mate’s soft skin.
What the fuck is going on?
He took another step forward, hoping his former patient would be too enthused by their weird play she wouldn’t notice him creep into the room.
Was Kellie into BDSM? Why hadn’t she told him? If she got a kick out of it, he’d have dominated her like that, too. He’d have given her everything, but no, she’d thrown it all away at the first opportunity.
Nathan…
He jerked at the sound of his name. Neither woman had moved on the bed however. His lion pushed himself forward and focused on the lioness he’d claimed.
Hurt
, he told his human side.
She’s hurt. Do something!
He didn’t think. He sprung forward and slammed into the woman. She shrieked beneath him and immediately started batting at him with her hands. The tool she’d been holding fell on Kellie’s back, and this time, Kellie did call out. She screamed so high the whole room froze.
Chapter Thirteen
“Get it off! Get it off me! Oh God, it hurts. Please, make it stop.
Make it stop!
”
There was so much pain in his mate’s voice that Nathan instantly reacted. He knew he needed to stop that woman first. His hands were already partially shifted, and so he simply grabbed her neck and squeezed. It didn’t take long for her eyes to close, and her body to become limp. He kicked her off the bed, and seconds later, the tool that had marred Kellie’s skin joined the woman on the floor.
“Are you okay, baby? Kellie? Answer me!” He slashed the ties holding her down with his claws and retracted them before turning her around. He winced when she gasped in pain as soon as her back hit the coverlet. “Open your eyes for me. Let me see you,” he said as he lowered himself so he was lying beside her. “Please, honey. Let me see you’re okay.”
Her eyelids fluttered open, her gaze swimming in tears.
“Oh, baby.” He brushed tendrils of hair away from her sweaty forehead.
“Nathan?”
“I’m here,” he replied, bending his head to drop a soft kiss on her lips. “Where does it hurt?”
“Back. Butt. It…burns.”
Shit
. Slowly, making sure not to hurt her any further, he pushed her onto her stomach and peered at the reddened skin. Welts had formed on the small of her back and ass, marking her, branding her.
Rage unlike anything he’d felt before burst forth inside him. He slid off the bed and grabbed the other woman, shaking her with everything he had. He wanted her to wake up and face the music. He would hurt her as much as she’d hurt his mate. He would…
“Nate?”
He looked down at Kellie, only coming back to himself when he noticed her wide, wide eyes. “What is it, baby?”
“She’s not moving.” She’d paled even more, as impossible as that should have been.
He blinked. “What?”
“You…you killed her. I think.”
He stared down at the woman hanging lifelessly in his arms. Kneeling down, he watched as her body flopped to the carpeted floor. He took her pulse and felt nothing. He checked her nose, but no air came forward. Her heartbeat was nonexistent, silence the only thing he could hear when he bent over her chest.
He’d killed her.
He’d spent his whole life saving people, had taken an oath as a doctor, and one second had changed everything he’d built for himself.
He couldn’t even remember killing her. Sure, he’d used his claws, but he hadn’t been that forceful. Right? He’d been so worried about Kellie though, so angry that someone had dared hurt his mate…
“Shit.” He closed the woman’s eyelids and hung down his head.
“Nate?”
He couldn’t stay here and wallow. He had to treat Kellie’s wounds before they got infected. He should really get up now and go to her, comfort her as best he could. He also needed to call his dad and ask him to come here. Their Alpha would need to know exactly what’d happened.
Instead, he sat there and thought of the life he’d taken…and of the life he’d just lost.
* * * *
The pain had been too much for her, and Kellie had let go, letting her lioness take over, forcing the shift that would mean getting better. When fur started to cover the skin of her back, it hurt so much she cried out and fell into the dark abyss calling out her name.
She came back to herself minutes or hours later, she wasn’t sure. All she knew was that her bedroom had been invaded by men while she’d been out of it. She blinked and turned around, the blanket that had been covering her sliding down. She quickly grasped it and held it to her bare chest as she observed her surroundings.
Nathan was sitting on the floor, his head in his hands, looking as if the world had collapsed around him. She wanted to reach for him, yearned to snuggle into his embrace and let the rest of them deal with whatever needed to be done.
She watched as a tall, bald man knelt in front of him, kept on watching as he clasped his fingers around her mate’s shoulder. He said something, but they were too far for her to overhear their conversation. Almost as if he’d felt her gaze on him, the man turned and caught her staring.
His eyes gave him away. This must be Andy, Nate’s other brother. He was taller than her mate, wider too, towering over every other man in the room. He looked as if he ate small children for breakfast, his lion so close to the surface she felt it from where she sat.
She gulped when he stepped closer to the bed.
“Are you okay?” he asked, his voice unbelievably soft.
She nodded, not sure she could speak.
“Nate said you’d been hurt.”
“I…” She licked her lips. “I shifted.”
“Is the pain gone now?”
She nodded once again, and he smiled at her, almost as if he were trying to comfort her. That was nice of him, it was, but he wasn’t her mate. She needed Nathan. As soon as the thought hit, she found herself with her feet on the floor. She blinked, wondering how she’d gotten there.
Someone pushed her back down, murmuring about her needing clothes first. That’s when she remembered she was naked underneath the thin blanket. That woman had touched her…
No!
Her lioness roared inside her, forcing her to think of something else.
Our mate needs us. Something is wrong with him.
“Wrong?” Kellie mouthed to herself, wondering what her animal was talking about. She looked around and wondered how she’d even manage to get dressed when there were still so many people in her house. Maybe she could ask someone to hand her some clothes? Or maybe she could avoid them all and slip into the bathroom?
Their Alpha chose that moment to stride into the room. Tension rose in the air almost immediately, every single man staring down as he stopped at the foot of her bed.
His gaze took it all in, from his son still prone against the wall, to the body on the floor, to Kellie hiding in plain sight. He went to her first, shocking her so much she had to ask him to repeat his question.
He growled, “How are you?”
“Okay.”
“Don’t lie to me!”
Her lioness flattened her ears inside her, moving further away. “I…I need to go to Nate. He’s hurt.”
Something flashed in his eyes. “I was asking about your physical condition, Kellie. Andy told me she tortured you with an electrical device.”
She shivered at the reminder, hoping she’d never have to feel such pain ever again. Jane had kept talking about her sex toys, but that thing hadn’t been one. It’d been an instrument of torture, pure and simple. And by God, Kellie was tired of being tortured. What had she done to deserve this? Was her karma really that bad?
“I asked you a question.”
She looked up, realizing she hadn’t answered Alistair. Considering he was already close to the snapping point, she really should pay more attention to her Alpha. “Can I go to Nate first?”
He nodded and stepped forward. She frowned. He was going to help her? “Here. Grab my hand,” he said, sitting on the edge of the bed.
She did as ordered, unable to move away. As soon as she touched him however, the world seemed to right itself. She found herself leaning against him, her head falling onto his shoulder. His arm curved around her shoulders, tucking her closer.
For the first time in hours, she felt alive. All thanks to her Alpha, the man who was supposed to hate her… She was even more grateful when he helped her stand up, wrapping the blanket around her so she didn’t flash anybody. With his hand around her waist, he led her to her mate who still hadn’t moved.
“Nate?” she asked, leaning forward and nearly falling flat on her face.
“Careful.” The Alpha pulled her back in the nick of time. “You’re still weak. Son?”
They both looked down at the man sitting in front of them. Nathan had his face adverted, his palms hiding his eyes as if he didn’t want to look at the room.
Kellie felt a sharp pang inside her chest. No longer numb, she felt emotions surge through their mated link. Fear, despair, shame.
Shame?
He’d saved her!
“Nathan?” she tried again.
He moved then and she rejoiced…but it didn’t last long. He stood up and without looking at anyone in particular, said, “I need to leave.” And just like that he was gone.
She watched his disappearing back and fought the urge to run after him. He needed some time to come to grasp with what he’d done. She would give him that, she promised herself.
It didn’t stop her from crying out however when the link between them suddenly became muted.
Nathan!
Chapter Fourteen
“I didn’t raise you like this.”
Nathan heard his father’s words, but he didn’t care. Nothing mattered anymore. He’d killed someone. Had taken a life away with the strength of his claws, using his animal side as the savage he really was.
“Get out,” he finally muttered when he realized Alistair was still there.
“It’s been three days, son. I don’t care if you feel bad. I don’t even fucking care if you think you’ve committed some grand felony. All I see is my own flesh and blood wallowing in self-pity when all you did was save your mate.”
“I killed someone!” he snapped, looking up so he could glare at his father. “I killed her!”
“So fucking what?” his dad roared, the sound echoing throughout the otherwise silent condo. “She’d tortured your mate, the woman you’d chosen to spend your life with. She deserved to be hurt!”
“But not to die, damn it. Not to die!” His voice croaked on the last word.
“You chose to become a doctor, Nathan, and I let you do it. I could almost understand it too, but don’t you remember what I said at the time? That you’d have to choose between your chosen life and your own self? You’re a shifter, son. You might have passed for human all those years in the city, but you’re not human. You never will be.”
Nate thought back to that fateful conversation and shook his head. “It still doesn’t excuse what I did.”
“It doesn’t, but it explains it in a way. We don’t live according to human rules, son. You know if Jane had been captured alive, I’d have condemned her for what she did to Kellie. You know that. So, why are you hiding in here when your mate is alone and hurting?”
“Hurting?” He frowned. “I saw her shift. The marks were gone.”
“She’s hurting inside. Think about what she had to go through, Nate. Be an Alpha for once. Can’t you see she needs you? You bonded with her for a reason!” his father added, whirling around a moment later. The front door slammed shut, declaring to all and sundry their Alpha had left the building.