Page 61 of Damien’s Mate

One glance at Jaeda and he realized what she meant. Jaeda was still switching from animal to animal, too upset over Remy to hold one form.

She mimicked whoever she was near, he remembered. And he was the only person here who didn’t have an animal to confuse her.

He crossed the yard and grabbed her, just as Lila took aim and shot a tranquilizer dart at Brock. He dodged and she missed.

Callie had turned into a lynx and was grappling with Colt, who seemed to have forgotten he was trying to stop the fight and just wanted to get back into it.

She’d wrapped all four paws around him to try to immobilize him without hurting him. He was bigger than she was, still growling and struggling, but he didn’t seem to want to hurt her either, because he wasn’t clawing and biting.

Apparently his animal’s instinct not to harm his mate was just a tiny bit stronger than his instinct to protect his twin.

Titan’s bear had managed to get between Brock and Remy. He was bleeding from a number of scratches and bites, but he barely seemed to notice the wounds. As Damien watched, he waited for Brock to spring at him, then grabbed him in a bear hug and swung him around into Lila’s line of fire.

Lila shot, and Damien saw the dart bury itself in Brock’s furry neck.

Jaeda was nothing but a quivering mass, with paws and wings and snouts and jelly tentacles sprouting and receding, but more and more slowly. That couldn’t be good for her.

Damien wrapped his arms around her amorphous form, picturing the strong, determined, badass woman he knew was in there.

“Change back,” he said to where her ear should have been. “Be human, like me. Be Jaeda. Remy needs you, and you can’t help him like this.”

He kept talking to her, until the random changes slowed down and he felt her trembling. “Come on,” he said. “You took down fucking Ethan Sutcliffe and his SUV, all by yourself. You can do this.”

She exploded into human form all at once, panting. “I’m going to kill Brock,” she grated. “Or Remy’s leopard. Or both.”

“You don’t have to kill either one,” he said. “Look.”

The brawl was winding down. Brock’s wolf was stumbling drunkenly, though not completely out.

Titan was human again, sitting by Remy. As they watched, Remy’s body shimmered and he turned human too, sitting on the ground with his head on his knees.

Colt immediately Changed and ran to his brother, dropping to his knees and talking softly to him, hand on his back.

Into the middle of all this came Brandon’s truck, barreling up the driveway. He stopped right in front of them and got out. “Fuck it all,” he said, surveying the carnage. “Can I not leave you fuckers alone without a babysitter?”

All the same, his hands were gentle as he and Colt helped Remy to his feet. Jaeda, after squeezing Damien’s arm in thanks, went to Remy and put her arms around him.

Titan was sitting by Brock, talking to him. He was still wolf, swaying on his feet, and finally Titan picked him up bodily and carried him into the house.

Damien followed, picking up stray clothes from the yard as he came.

Inside, everyone clustered in the mudroom and kitchen, washing off blood and dirt before gathering in the dining room with the first-aid kits.

They patched each other’s wounds and stitched up bites and gouges like it was a regular thing for them.

Probably it was. And yet, nobody was angry anymore. Instead, everyone seemed to want to feel closer to each other. He noticed there was a lot of touching—from backslaps to a hand on the shoulder, or even just a small touch on the way past.

He noticed that Brandon made sure to make casual physical contact with everyone in the crew, as if his touch was holding them together.

Maybe it was. Being alpha of a shifter crew was almost a tangible thing, he’d begun to realize. Like being at the center of a big spiderweb of relationships and emotions, trying to keep them all balanced.

The rest of the crew mainly gathered around Remy and Jaeda, the contact calming their animals. The quiet talk gradually turned into teasing and even laughter, as everyone settled down.

The only one that wasn’t included was Brock. Titan had managed to get him to turn human and was doctoring his wounds, but even though the others didn’t seem pissed at him anymore and some of them also made contact with him as they passed by, it didn’t seem to help much. He still looked both exhausted and wound up.

Damien felt bad for the guy—always on the outside, and all because he’d tried to help too many people at too young an age. It didn’t seem fair.

Suddenly Brock stumbled to his feet and made for the mudroom behind the kitchen. Damien could hear him in the attached bathroom, throwing up.