Page 105

ACE

P ain.

It was scorching me. Burning through my entire body. Flames licked at my nerves, my muscles, all the way down to my bones. I heard nothing but the blood rushing in my ears. The coppery taste coated my tongue.

My body gave out. I hit the grass and found myself eye to eye with my brother.

No, the body that used to be my brother.

The corpse.

The coppery taste in my mouth was his blood, as was the sinew between my teeth. In our battle, the first bite had been a warning to get him to submit. Of course, he hadn’t. I was stupid. I should’ve known.

It took him trying to shoot Harley for me to finally do it.

I’d barely been in control. For a moment, I’d felt feral as I charged him. Dragged him to the ground. Grabbed the most vulnerable part of his spine, right beneath his skull, and ripped it out.

A quick death. A painless death. One he didn’t deserve.

I had won.

So why was I hurting so much?

Hawk’s voice. What was he saying? Then—oh, that sweet voice. Soft. Soothing. Harley. Her hands on me.

“Steph, look at me.”

How could I resist that demand? I opened my eyes. When had I closed them? Harley was pale. Her hair was wild, and her face was a splotchy pink in places—new bruises. Her hands were pressed against my chest and covered in blood.

My blood.

Ah.

Sean had shot me.

I realized that now. He’d tried to shoot Harley, and he’d shot me instead. That was better than him shooting Harley. I’d protected her. Even if I didn’t make it, she’d be fine. That was what mattered.

“You have to hang on, Steph,” she whispered. “For me. For our son. Okay?”

Dylan.

My heart clenched with a pain that was more than physical. I’d never see my son again, would I? He’d be okay. He’d have Harley, Hawk, Mia, and Bella. He’d grow up fine without me. But, God, it hurt. I’d only just gotten my mate and my son back. I hadn’t had enough time.

I wasn’t ready to die.

“Stay with me, Steph,” she said. “You have to stay with me.”

I’m trying, I wanted to say. I’m trying. But it’s hard.

Inside me, my body was trying to stitch itself together, but the bullet was in the way. It was like getting shot over and over again. My muscles and veins stitched themselves together, then were ripped apart by the bullet in the way. Over and over.

Painful. Exhausting.

“Ace.” Hawk’s voice again, coming from somewhere above me. “Ace, you have to shift.”

Shift? Now?

How could I shift when I was so tired? When everything hurt so much?

“We can’t get the bullet out,” Hawk said. “The ambulance is on the way. You’ve got to shift, Ace.”

I rumbled out a moan in acknowledgment. I needed real treatment, and that could only happen in my human form.

“You can do it,” Harley whispered. Her voice was close to my face. “Please. Shift back, baby.”

It took every ounce of focus I had. Every drop of strength I had left.

I pulled my dragon back.

It was, without question, the worst shift of my life.

It’d never felt so slow, so painful, so challenging.

I felt every bone grinding, every scale sinking inside, every fang retracting.

It all concentrated down into the burning, throbbing pain in the center of my chest, and as I transformed into my human shape, the pain somehow escalated.

Someone was screaming. Maybe it was me. The pain fell over me like rain, soaking me down to my bones. Spots of color encroached on the edges of my vision. The agony overwhelmed me, and the darkness dragged me down.

Consciousness came in moments.

Pain. My body being lifted up onto a stretcher.

Lights shining down. An unfamiliar face looking down at me. Pain in my chest. My body still trying to heal around the bullet.

Harley. Where was Harley?

Darkness again.

The stretcher shaking. Movement. The bright lights of the hospital, more unfamiliar faces above me.

Where was Harley?

I made a sound and tried to get up, but found I couldn’t move. Strapped in. Trapped.

Harley. I needed to get to her.

I growled. My fangs dropped. A chorus of voices around me. Something was injected into the IV.

Darkness again.

How much time passed in the darkness? I had no idea. When I opened my eyes, it felt like no time at all.

My body hurt, but now the pain felt different.

It wasn’t overwhelming and burning through me.

It was a slow, deep ache. It was manageable.

That terrible coppery taste was gone from my mouth—small victories.

Something was beeping quietly. I was lying in a hospital bed, hooked up with what felt like millions of wires.

The bed was slightly propped up, and the lights were dim.

A curtain separated the bed from the door, giving me an additional layer of privacy.

A thin blanket was spread over me. My chest was wrapped in bandages, and there were more on my arms. Every part of me hurt.

But there, with her cheek resting on her arms on the bed, was Harley.

She was asleep. There was a small crease in her brow, and her lips were downturned. Her hair was tied up into a bun at the top of her head. She looked pale and exhausted, like she’d been through the same hell I had.

And in a way, she had been through it.

I reached out and brushed the hair off her forehead, then tucked a lock of it behind her ear.

Her nose wrinkled cutely, and then her eyes fluttered open.

“Hi,” I said. My voice was rough. My dragon’s roars had shredded my vocal cords, and my healing ability had likely been diverted to the wound in my chest.

Harley’s eyes widened. She shot up like a bolt and scooted closer, then took my hand in her own. She was trembling. I could tell she wanted to climb onto the bed and embrace me, but I was too injured for it.

“Steph,” she gasped. “You’re awake.”

“How long was I out?” I asked.

“Too long,” she said. Her eyes were bloodshot and red-rimmed. “Way too long.”

“I’m sorry.”

Tears spilled down her cheeks. She leaned over the bed, close to me, and pressed her forehead to mine. “Don’t ever do that again,” she whispered through her tears. “Don’t scare me like that.”

“I won’t.” I ran my thumb over her cheek, gently brushing away the tears. “I promise. It’s over now, Harley.”

It really was. It was over.

It didn’t feel real, but it was. Sean was… Sean was dead. The man who had tried to destroy my life, who would have stopped at nothing to do so, was gone.

Forever.

We were free.

“Harley?” The door opened, and Hawk’s voice was barely loud enough to hear over the monitor beeping. “Is he awake yet?”

I pulled away from Harley, albeit a little reluctantly. “I am.”

“Ace!” Hawk shoved the curtain aside. He stood at the foot of the bed, eyes wide with relief.

He looked as awful as Harley did. Dark circles ringed his eyes, and his hair was oily, like he hadn’t even stopped to shower in a few days. He stepped to the other side of the bed and squeezed my shoulder. “Jesus, man, you scared the shit out of me.”

“I’m all right.” I patted Hawk’s hand. “Really.”

“You didn’t look all right,” Harley said. “We thought you were going to die, Steph.”

Hawk nodded. “It was bad.”

Before I could respond to that, there was a knock on the door. “Stephan Cole?”

“Yes?” I asked.

A doctor in a white coat stepped inside. She was a small, severe-looking woman with dark hair cropped short around her angular face. “Glad to see you’re awake. How are you feeling?”

“Sore,” I admitted.

“That’s to be expected,” she said, glancing down at the clipboard in her hands.

“You lost a lot of blood, Mr. Cole. With your alpha shifter physiology, surgery was challenging and took longer than we would’ve liked.

We were able to successfully remove the bullet, but you were so weak we had to keep you in a medically-induced coma for nearly forty-eight hours to give your body time to heal. ”

Two days? Jesus. No wonder Harley looked so bad.

“They almost lost you on the table,” Harley whispered, squeezing my hand. “They weren’t sure you’d wake up from the coma.”

“With that in mind,” the doctor continued, “we’ll be keeping you here for observation for a few more days.”

Hawk and Harley both looked at me, and I knew they were both expecting me to push back. Before all this happened, I would’ve. I hated feeling weak, or like I needed care. I often pushed myself too hard and licked my wounds in silence. I didn’t want anyone else to see me hurt. See me weak.

I knew better, now. I was stronger with my family beside me. My mate. If I was to be to be the alpha this clan needed, I needed to heal properly.

“That’s fine,” I said. I glanced sidelong at Hawk. “Don’t look so shocked.”

“Damn, a near-death experience will really change you,” Hawk muttered, but there wasn’t much humor in his voice.

“Good,” the doctor said. “I’ll give you some time to rest up. The nurses will be in shortly to get your vitals.”

“Thank you, doctor,” Harley said. “For everything.”

The woman smiled warmly at Harley, then nodded at me and Hawk as she left the room. She closed the door behind her.

I sighed heavily and tipped my head back. That short conversation had left me exhausted.

“I’m sorry,” I said again. “I didn’t mean…”

“Nothing that happened was your fault,” Hawk said firmly. He sat down at the edge of the bed. “Nothing. Okay? It was Sean. It was all him.”

“He shot you,” Harley said. “Because he was trying to shoot me.”

“There was nothing you could’ve done differently,” Hawk said. “Don’t apologize, okay?” His voice broke a little. “Not for this.”

I realized, then, how terrifying this ordeal was for Hawk. It had been so hard for him to accept that Sean was beyond saving. Until the very last moment, he’d maintained hope that our brother might come back to us. That was what he’d wanted more than anything else.

And then Sean had shot me. Hawk must’ve thought he was going to lose both his brothers.

“Okay. I won’t apologize, Hawk.” I squeezed his forearm. “You did good, brother. If you hadn’t been there to tell me to shift, I would’ve passed out in my dragon form.”

His eyes widened. “Seriously?”