Ben’s quiet as he mulls over their words, finally scrubbing a hand down his face in defeat. “Fuck.” Locking his eyes onto mine he slowly nods. “So how do you want to play this? Pitch the same speech to the rest of them and hope for the best, or keep her...uniqueness a secret unless it comes up?”
Kaiden leans against the wall beside the window, arms crossed and not bothering to conceal the rage still etched into his features. “Nate’s already sniffing around asking too many questions. Honestly, I still vote we just kill him. Never liked the asshole anyway.”
Ben shakes his head. “Things are too rocky right now and you run the risk of people becoming even more skeptical of you than they already are. All the dominance in the world doesn’t matter if enough people band together. It takes away the already precarious balance holding things together.”
“If we just come up with a plausible story as to why I’d be comfortable hiding away from everyone else here without already knowing these three, he has no ammunition to cause problems, in theory.”
Ben nods absentmindedly, getting lost in thought and still staring at the scales coating my body. “So is this why you three can’t finish the mating process? Because of her issues?”
“Have you always been this much of a dick?” I snap, uncurling my fingers a split second before my nails lengthen into claws.
“Fuck off, Ben,” Kaiden growls, unsettlingly still.
Rather than let their aggression force them to lash out without thinking, they watch. Every muscle that Ben twitches they file away, any increase in breathing or shift in the air. Even amongst predators, they still regard each other as potential prey, whether or not they’re conscious of doing it.
“It’s because we aren’t willing to put her at risk to trigger it,” Kahl calmly explains. “And we aren’t about to just for the sake of shifting.”
“Maybe you don’t have to,” Ben muses aloud, better equipped to discuss the topic than any of us, better versed in their biology. “She’s different than regular females. The process might work differently, if it’s even possible at all.” His eyes light up as an idea forms, and I get an increasingly sinking feeling in my stomach. “Why don’t you guys come back to the hospital with me and I can run a few tests to see-“
“No tests.”
My breath hitches in my chest and I finally take a step back, wrapping my arms around my stomach.
“If I can just get a better understanding of what we’re working with here,” Ben continues, pleading for answers to mysteries he didn’t even know were out there before now.
His excitement at the thought, that gleam in his eye, is too familiar, the sort of look that haunts my dreams. My throat feels like it’s closing up, my thundering heart lodging inside of it. All of the things that I thought might kill me, and I’m about to asphyxiate in the middle of a room that’s steadily closing in around me while my mates are forced to watch.
“Shut the hell up, Ben,” Kaiden warns, getting in the man’s face.
“You’re a goddamn doctor. You have to see what you’re doing to her saying shit like that!” Kahl snaps, pulling Ben back a few steps to give me some space.
My ears start ringing, becoming so loud I can barely focus on any of the shouting around me. There’s just a steady pressure building in my skull, growing until it feels like my ears are bleeding.
“Wouldn’t you want to know about any potential complications she could run into if she ends up pregnant at some point? Or if there’s an alternate way we might be able to trigger the shift? Think about it! If we get rid of the need to mate to make it happen, then the threat to females will drop drastically!” he presses on, too keyed up by the possibilities.
A whimper slips past my lips as I finally manage a couple of small breaths, pressing my palms to my temples as Kinsley helps me sink to my knees without collapsing. I become hyperaware of the blood coursing through my veins, the temperature steadily rising until it feels like molten lava attempting to incinerate me from the inside out. Soon, she’ll have nothing left standing in her way.
Her freedom is forged from my ashes, but if it will finally make the pain stop, I’ll gladly cede control over once and for all.
“I’ve got you, love, it’s alright,” Kinsley assures on repeat, brushing the hair away from my face. “Nobody is going to run any tests and I’ll cut off my own hand before we let someone take you away from us.”
A muffled scream sticks in my throat as my body contorts, the agony so all-consuming that I can’t even tell where to start begging for relief. If a sledgehammer assaulted my spine right now it might actually be an improvement.
“You’re a doctor, any bright ideas?” Kaiden snaps, tearing a frustrated hand through his hair and pacing, restless and agitated.
Ben strides closer and crouches in front of me, reaching a hand out. “Has this happened before?” Kahl lunges forward to grab his arm as Kinsley bats his hand away, stopping him before he can make contact. “How the hell do you expect me to do anything for her with only half the information, no tests, and without being able to assess her!?” he shouts.
My wings cut through my back, slower than normal. Each inch takes its good sweet time to force its way through my flesh, drawing out the anguish rather than just the familiar flash of pain.
“Mother fucker,” I hiss, but it comes out rough as I try to clench teeth that aren’t built for it. It turns into a groan as I bend over, digging my claws into the ground and leaving deep grooves in the wood.
When none of them offer an alternative idea, Ben reaches forward again, but the second he makes contact, feeling for the pulse at my neck, a flash of nothing short of absolute torture makes me black out for a second.
Ears ringing and wrestling with the urge to vomit, my mouth fills with blood. The excruciating torment starts to ebb away enough for a bit of clarity to sink in, and with it comes the realization that the blood isn’t my own. My teeth are still embedded deep into Ben’s arm as he howls in pain, thrashing in my unrelenting grip.
His blood coats my jaw and drips to the floor as a steady growl reverberates around his arm, yet I can’t let go, no matter how much I want to. My head whips to the side, finally releasing its death grip on the man, and it gradually becomes clear that not only should I not have been able to do that, but I never consciously decided to.
Kaiden drags Ben out of the living room, but having him out of sight just makes my chest rumble louder, the menacing sound echoing around the small space. A shiver runs down the length of my body, beginning to turn so that my back will be against the wall.
