YENA
My phone started going off, something I hardly even noticed at first. The little pinging sounds didn’t register as important, in the midst of everything that I was thinking and feeling. They just joined in with all the other miscellaneous noise out there on the tarmac.
But the notifications did not stop. They were persistent, coming in one after the other, and started forcing their way into the center of my attention.
And then I realized they weren’t just from my own phone, actually. All kinds of different electronic chimes and buzzes and rings were sounding out from all around me and Evan. Everyone’s phones were blowing up with calls and notifications.
I looked around. Every person in the crowd was now doing same thing—they had their phones out and were either holding them to their ears or staring, slack-jawed, at the screens.
And then, a few at a time, they all started looking at me expectantly.
Even my
YENAI had never run as wolf before.It was exhilarating.And Lily was right—she did know where to go. I didn’t have to think about anything. I just put my trust in her, like she asked, and let her lead the way. The instinct was so strong, it felt irresistible. I was being drawn in one direction. Pulled, almost. Like there was a magnet somewhere dragging me forward.All I had to do was keep putting my paws to the ground, keep running, and I would get to Nolan.I had healed him before. I could heal him now.He was in a very bad state, yes. But I had the cure in my veins. I knew that I did. I knew that if I could reach him in time I could do it. I could bring him back, make him whole again.The airport, the crowd of people there—everything vanished into the distance behind me.My wolf body felt light as air, full of power and energy.The city passed me by in a blur of sensations. Every smell
EVANThe royal staff that had been fussing over him and Yena earlier were now coming up to Evan, ready to serve him. He was taken aback. His mind had been on deeper concerns than what he was going to do now, so he didn’t know what to tell them.“How can we help you, sir? What do you need?” they were all asking. “What can we do for you? Would you like us to retrieve your luggage? Would you like us to call you a car?”“Yes, thank you,” he said slowly, suddenly very grateful for these people and their helpful guidance.“Right away, sir.” They got all of his and Yena’s belongings piled up in a cart and were pushing it alongside Evan back through the airport, heading for the exit. Daring glances around as they moved through the throngs of people, he realized all regular business in the airport had come to a stop. At this moment, every werewolf in the nation was pausing their lives to watch the news, waiting as the fate of their world hung in
My chest still heaving, I walked over to the side of Nolan’s hospital bed and climbed up into it, trying to catch my breath. His huge frame filled the entire bed. I had to straddle him.And I could feel, as our bodies came into contact with each other, how very close to death he was. His usually hot skin was cold to the touch. The bandages wrapped all around his chest were red-soaked, wet and tacky and getting darker every second.“Oh, Nolan,” I mumbled over and over. I placed my hands carefully on either side of his face, stroking the scruff on his cheeks. A tube was stuffed into his mouth and down his throat. It connected to one of the machines and was doing his breathing for him.I had to take it out.Nolan needed to drink my blood, and he wasn’t going to do it with that thing in his mouth.I went ahead and just grabbed the tube and wrenched it up and out from his throat before I could overthink what I was doing. A deep, gravelly gaspi
YENAThe knocking on the door stopped but then the voices got louder and more frantic. They were panicking, listening to the machine that was telling them their patient had stopped breathing.I gulped in a huge inhale, covered Nolan’s mouth with mine again and blew every bit of breath I had into him. “Come on,” I begged when I came up for air. “Please wake up, Nolan.”And just when I started to seriously doubt that my prince would ever breathe on his own again, he did.His eyes opened first. And then he gasped. The sound was dry and frightening.“Nolan! Oh thank Goddess, you’re alive!”He coughed, gagging, as he tried to exhale. My hands were clasping his face. His next breath was a little better but still stertorous. His eyes flickered around my face, recognizing but not recognizing me, and he whispered hoarsely, “Yena. Is that really you?”The ecstatic relief that was washing over me allowed me to burst
Nolan swooped me back up into his arms and carried me into the shower. The hot water poured down over both of us, sending rivers of blood off our bodies and down into the drain. It felt wonderful, even healing, but it did make me even sleepier too.He set me down on a white marble bench and set about rinsing off his own face and hands first. Then he brought over a bar of soap and a bottle of shampoo and carefully knelt on the stone floor in front of me.“Can I wash you?” he asked politely. It seemed like a funny thing to be so courteous about, after the way he’d just thrown me around and broken furniture underneath me, but that was Nolan. A beast sometimes, and a perfect, charming gentleman the rest of the while.I smiled and nodded. Nolan wiped the blood away from my face first, planting sweet kisses on my skin after it was clean. Then he shampooed my hair, his long fingers massaging my scalp in a way that started putting me into a trance. He soaped up my
Nolan found Yena was awake when he went back into the bedroom. She was seated cross-legged in a chair at the dining table and devouring a piece of chocolate cake.“You’re up.” He smiled and made his way over to her, stroked her hair and kissed the top of her head. “I’m glad you’re eating. I just heard about how you ran all the way here from the airport.”Yena finished licking frosting off her fork and set it down. Took a sip of water, wiped her mouth, and smiled. “I was just thinking about that too. I can’t really believe I did that. It was just instinct, though. I didn’t even think about it.”Nolan sat beside Yena, absentmindedly stroking her back as she continued eating.“I’ll tell you this,” she continued, “food has never tasted this good in my life. I was so, so tired.”“I’ll bet. I drank a lot of your blood, Yena.” He frowned, looking pensive, and gently swept her hair back over her shoulder, inspecting the bite wound on her neck.&nb
ADANKerr descended the ladder into the bunker, grunting at every rung. “Clarice is on her way,” he said when he got to the bottom. “She has Soren with her. And three humans.”Adan had been using a very sharp knife to slice up some cured meats. He finished his task before he then took the knife and stabbed it hard into the wooden cutting board with a WHACK!“Three humans? That was all they could get between the two of them?”“I asked her about that.” Kerr put the sat phone back in its charger. “She said they had to get rolling before they caught a tail.”“Who was on her?” Adan arched an eyebrow at Kerr. “And is she sure she wasn’t followed?”“Asked that, too. She said yes, she’s sure she lost them. As far as who it was…”“Gamma warriors?”Kerr frowned. “No. She doesn’t know who, though. Said she didn’t see them.”Adan considered this for a moment. “What’s their ETA?”“Ten minutes out.
YENAI woke to the smells of breakfast and the distinct sound of TV news reporters talking.Nolan wasn’t in bed. I rubbed my eyes, sat up and looked around. He was over by the TV, standing right in front of it, his body tense and still.“What is it?” I asked, my voice raspy with sleep. “What happened?”He wheeled around and immediately headed over to the bed, meeting me at my side. He sat on the edge and gave me a quick, soft kiss.“I’m sorry to wake you up like this. But some humans went missing overnight. I’ve got to get dressed, meet my team and start dealing with this.”My brain was still waking up. “Missing? How many of them?”Nolan glanced back at the TV. “At least a dozen have been reported so far. I’d bet even more were taken, their absence just hasn’t been noticed yet.”“Taken? By whom? Adan?” I’d answered my own question while stuttering through it. Nolan nodded. “I know it’s him. I just hope