Arms tightened around me and I forced myself to open my eyes. Luka was holding me firmly to his chest. We were in the back seat of a car as Walsh drove us and Sage sat shotgun. Sage had a phone pressed to her ear. “Yes, she’s bleeding out, and if she dies, Luka dies too. She’s his only food source now that they’ve bonded.”
Her words tore into me like a thousand blades.
Luka was working so hard to save me because I was his food…
Bile rose in my throat, and he looked down at me then, shame coloring his pale cheeks when he saw that I was awake. I closed my eyes, not wanting to deal with the reality of what was happening here. I was falling for a vampire who was fighting to keep me alive so he could have dinner.
My eyes sprang open and Luka opened his mouth to speak.
“Sterling?” I rasped, and Luka’s face darkened.
“They got him out.” Luka nodded to Sage and Walsh.
My eyes started to un-focus and I shook my head slightly in an effort to fix them. “I…” I didn’t have the breath to speak, and I couldn’t feel my body anymore. It’s like I didn’t have a body, which was weird.
“Don’t talk.” Sage flew into the back seat, straddling the center console to put her fingers to my pulse. “It’s weak but it’s there,” she told someone on the phone, and then pulled it from her ear, looking down at me. “We’ve got the alpha’s surgeon flying in via helicopter. You’re going to be okay.”
Alpha surgeon?As in Alpha werewolf? What the…? Maybe I hadn’t heard her right. We generally were not permitted to go to hospitals as our accelerated healing would tip them off that not all was right with the world. But we had some of the best doctors in the country on the society’s payroll … just not here right now. Portland would have had a medical safe house, I just had no idea where it was because I hadn’t planned on being attacked while here!
The car skidded to a halt and then I was moving. The door opened and Luka whooshed out with me in his arms. Everything blurred, then suddenly we were stepping into a helicopter.
A male doctor wearing full surgical gear put up two blue gloved hands. “Whoa, this is a completely sterile space,” the doctor barked at Luka. “Give her to my nurse and go.”
I felt Luka’s arm tighten around me slightly at the mention of letting me go. A female nurse stepped toward me with her arms outstretched. Her blue gloves were pulled up over her white gown and she wore a mask and clear face shield so that all I could see were her blue eyes.
My gaze darted around the helicopter. There was a gurney, IV bags, surgical tray…
They were going to do surgery on me in a helicopter!
I inhaled. They were wolves; they smelled like Sage, a smell I hadn’t really noticed before but now recognized. Luka was going to leave me with werewolves to die in a helicopter!
“No,” I whimpered to Luka. “Just let me die.” If God was ready to take me, then I was ready to go.
Luka pressed me to his chest, looking down at me with wild eyes. They burned with desperation, need, and … something I couldn’t identify.
‘I can’t,’he said, and then deposited me into the nurse’s arms.
The nurse had kind eyes and she gently lowered me onto the table.
“You can meet us in Werewolf City,” the doctor told Luka, who was standing there, blood covering his shirt as he stared down at me in shock. The helicopter blades whirred to life, making every tree and bush in the open field sway, and Luka took a step back, nodding.
Werewolf City?“No … I’m human. I can’t go there—”
“Don’t worry. We are going to take good care of you, dear.” The doctor placed an oxygen mask over me and suddenly a sweet smell coated my nostrils and tongue. Heaviness pulled at my limbs as I felt the drugs course through my system.
‘No,’I pleaded.
‘I’m sorry.’Luka’s voice bled through mine and then I let go. I didn’t have the strength to hold on anymore.
* * *
“If she didn’t haveregenerative capabilities, she would have died instantly.” The male surgeon’s voice pierced my brain and my eyelids flew open.
“Regenerative capabilities?” Luka’s unique, deep timbre was slightly warbled as the effects of the drugs still left my system.
“DNA modifications. When younger,” I croaked.
“Aspen?” Luka called out and I moaned, looking around. I was in a hospital room. The four walls were white and clean, but the door … was blown off; scorch marks kissed the edges.
