Resilience (33 page)

Gabe was definitely going to kill Spiegel, and that was no joke. God or whoever better help anyone who got in his way.

So help him, if Zane gave him another shot, Adam was going to find a way to beat his ass! He needed to see Todd, to know…to know he hadn’t killed him. It was a burning in his gut, a buzzing in his head that set his heart to slamming in his chest, the need to see Todd. To touch him, and, oh God, to beg him for forgiveness. If Adam were any type of man, any type of good man, he’d leave Todd after what he’d done to him.

But Adam couldn’t, even thinking it set off that fucking nightmare of a thing inside him. It scratched and clawed and howled and tore him up from the inside out all over again.

He couldn’t think of leaving Todd, he couldn’t, he couldn’t, he couldn’t—

“Adam, Adam, stop.”

Stop what? Adam snarled as pain ripped through him.

“Do you need another syringe?”

Nonononononono! No more! He just needed to see Todd! And he needed the pain to stop so he could do that, find Todd, hold him. He couldn’t be dead, Adam would know if he was.

He’d die too, the ache of the loss killing him slow or fast, alone or by his own hand.

Somewhere inside Adam, a part of him whimpered at his need. He’d loved Todd more than life for years now, but this, this was a new industrial-strength version of that love. As if, it’d always been there, hidden under a filmy layer of glass, but now that glass was clean or broken or just…just whatever, and the emotion was clearer, sharper, more intense. Todd truly was his other half, and Adam had hurt him, badly.

“Give me another one.”

“No!” Adam roared, the single word tearing out of him, burning his throat.

“It’s for your own good, Adam.”

He knew that voice. Adam blinked through the haze of red-tinged pain to see silver—

grey eyes. Zane. Zane with his creepy pale eyes. If he weren’t miserable, if Zane weren’t the one knocking him out, Adam might be more charitable.

“Todd…” Adam begged.

Zane moved out of sight for a moment then was back, peering at Adam. “Todd’s going

to be all right. He was…” Zane paused, glanced away. “Hurt pretty badly. He’ll be all right, though,” he reiterated. “You need to calm down. This constant shifting, the partial shifting—

I don’t know what is happening to you. I’ve never seen someone turned, not like this. With Gabe it was a simple matter of sex and blood from his mate and blood from his Alpha Anax.

I don’t understand how you’ve become a shifter.”

Oh fuck. Fuck! Adam’s lungs froze up as fear flooded his mind. He didn’t want to be a shifter, he wanted to be a man, who loved his partner dearly and would grow old with him and, God damn it, Adam worked on animals, he didn’t want to be one!

He was utterly terrified.

The needle pierced his skin and he hardly noticed it until the unnatural sleep grabbed at him with icy fingers. And Adam screamed at the realisation that he was still being kept from Todd.

Gabe didn’t give a flying fuck if Maarten and Aidan and the whole goddamned shifter

hierarchy was in that office fighting and yelling, that office was also where Dr Spiegel was and Gabe was going to go in there and beat some answers out of the fucker. Normally he wasn’t violent, didn’t think it was the way to handle most situations.

But this wasn’t a normal situation at all. His friends had been hurt, Todd almost dying because Adam had gone all shifter-batshit crazy. And Adam wasn’t even shifting right! But, beside that, he knew, he knew Adam wouldn’t have consented to being changed, especially not when it would have involved sexual intercourse with someone else. Adam loved Todd, that true, forever kind of love—like him and Mika. And the other mated pairs. That kind of love. So no way would Adam have screwed around, which meant Spiegel did something.

Maybe he knocked Adam out or…

But Adam hadn’t been in his office very long. Gabe stopped a few feet from the door, frowning and trying to block out all the yelling. Hadn’t Spiegel gone to Adam and Todd’s room? And wasn’t Todd in there at the time?

What. The. Hell?

Gabe couldn’t put all the pieces together. All he knew was, Adam had been a human.

Now he wasn’t, and Todd had nearly died because of it. Was there some sort of recessive shifter gene or something? Would they know if there was?

Hell, this was so confusing! A loud screech made his brain throb and Gabe started for the door hiding all the chaos from him.

“Wait.”

Oh hell’s bells on a banana, Gabe knew that voice. He stopped and looked at the other end of the hall to where, sure enough, Marcus Criswell stood. “Hey, it’s the Grand Poobah,”

he joked, but his heart wasn’t in it. “What are you doing here? I thought you weren’t supposed to be in this place since there’s been a coup and crazy shit and—” Gabe felt a spurt of happiness despite all the awful shit that was going on. “Nathan!”

Nathan, gorgeous redhead that he was, looked fabulous with his hair pulled back in a severe braid and his tight, firm body displayed in some kind of Spandex-cotton-mix-looking pants and a long-sleeved shirt that fit him like a second skin. The deep green colour set off his pale complexion and eyes beautifully. If Gabe didn’t love the guy he’d be so envious he’d hate him. As it was, he was just really, really happy to see Nathan.

Nathan hugged him hard enough that Gabe thought he was going to snap in two. “We

had to come. Marcus and I consider you and Mika to be more than just pack members, y’all are family to us. And your friends, they’re important because of that. Add to it the total weird factor of, what the fuck happened? And Aidan wanting to kill a few people? There’re lots of reasons we came.”

“Exactly.” Marcus, freaking giant that he was, hugged them both and Gabe nearly

popped out a lung. “I’m thinking Aidan is in the office here?”

“Like you really had to ask?” Gabe said right after Aidan yelled a string of curse words.

“I was just going in here to kick Dr Spiegel’s ass. Now I’m not sure who did what.”

Marcus caught Gabe’s chin and pulled his head around to look at him. Gabe snarled

and slapped Marcus’ hand. “Stop being an ass!”

Marcus huffed and shook his hand. Big wuss, like Gabe had really hurt him. “I just wanted to ask you something.” Gabe arched a brow and fisted his hands on his hips. “Is it possible that Adam had one of the shifters—”

As much as Gabe loved Marcus—not that he’d tell the arrogant jerk that—he wasn’t

going to tolerate that shit. One fist left his hip to land with a nice thud on Marcus’ thickly muscled arm.

“Ouch,” Gabe whimpered, because it’d been like slamming his fist into a concrete wall.

Marcus rubbed at his arm and frowned. “I had to ask, Gabe. I don’t know Adam or

Todd, except through you. And that hurt, the hit and the snit.”

Gabe snorted so hard his nose burned. “Fine, I’m sorry, sorta. But no, Adam cheating on Todd would be like…like you cheating on Nathan.”

“He wouldn’t,” Nathan said when Marcus said, “Not possible. Mates aren’t capable of

cheating.”

Gabe arched both brows. Marcus would get it eventually.

Marcus sighed and nodded. “Okay, you know them, I don’t. That leaves force, then. But surely Adam would have, er, been sore if he’d been bitten, and he’d have confided in Todd, right?”

“Well, at least you’re asking me now and not making judgements,” Gabe muttered.

“I wasn’t—”

“Hush.” Gabe grinned when Marcus did just that. He thought it was cute the way the

big bad Alpha Anax could behave so well. “I’ve thought of that. I can’t figure out what happened. Recessive shifter genes…uh. Well, that and rape were the only two things I could come up with. I was ready to come beat Spiegel but I just, I think Adam would have said something, and Spiegel wasn’t alone with him that I know of. Oh fuck, I don’t know.” Gabe deflated a little. He was still pissed off, but wasn’t sure who he could justly be pissed off at.

Marcus cocked his head and frowned at the door. “Well, right now, someone who isn’t Aidan is tearing into a doctor for being a fucking idiot.”

Gabe listened for a second. “That would be Maarten.”

A loud thud shook the door. Marcus and Nathan nodded at it. “If they kill the doctor, and he’s the one that changed Adam, we might never find out how.”

“Why are we out here?” Gabe snarked.

Marcus banged on the door, and when no one answered immediately he tried the knob.

“Locked.” Marcus drew a deep breath and Gabe thought he was going to do some cool karate chop to take the door out, but all Marcus did was shout, “Aidan! Alex!” and in two seconds flat the door was being opened.

“Alpha Anax, you shouldn’t be here,” Alex said, shock pinching his handsome features.

Aidan nudged Alex aside. “Seriously, bro. What gives?”

But Marcus was looking at Maarten, who had Spiegel pinned to the wall with one big

hand around the doctor’s neck.

“Let him go.” There was no mistaking the command in Marcus’ voice, and even Gabe,

who knew he had authority issues, wanted to whimper and roll onto his back. Everyone in the room with the exception of Aidan, Maarten and Dr Spiegel, dropped to their knees in a show of respect for the powerful AA.

Maarten gulped and slowly released Spiegel. “I’m sorry, Alpha Anax Criswell. My God, it’s been too long since I’ve been in the presence of a true leader.” Maarten tipped his head down and knelt.

Dr Spiegel slid down the wall and landed on his butt. The man didn’t look as battered as Gabe had expected, considering all the yelling and thudding. He had a split lip and a black eye—did that make him guilty?

“Get up, and everyone but Aidan, Alex, Maarten, Spiegel, Gabe and Nathan, leave.”

The exodus was over in seconds as everyone hurried to obey the powerful alpha.

Marcus and Nathan walked up to Dr Spiegel who was still sitting on the floor.

“Tell me what happened,” Marcus commanded, and, just like that, Spiegel began to

talk. Not that Gabe understood a goddamned word he said, since Spiegel spoke in German or some other language Gabe didn’t know. He could speak some Spanish, knew how to say

‘fuck me’ in it as well as in French, Russian, Arabic, and Farsi…that was about it. The things he learned when he was bored and online.

But, whatever Spiegel was saying, waving his hands in the air and whining every few

words, was beyond Gabe. He just knew Marcus didn’t look like he wanted to kill Spiegel.

Then again, Marcus was this badass leader who probably couldn’t run around ripping off heads. Or shouldn’t, anyways.

Nathan looked at Gabe then and frowned, worry creasing his brow. He didn’t look

mad, either, just very concerned. Gabe’s stomach plummeted. What new awful thing or

things were they finding out? Nathan jerked at something Spiegel said, or maybe some thought Marcus shared with him, then he moved over and slid his arm through Gabe’s. He tugged and Gabe leant down, because, well, Nathan was short—but he packed more of a

punch than any bigger guy except Marcus and Mika.

“He didn’t touch Adam like that,” Nathan said on a whisper so light even Gabe’s

enhanced hearing barely caught the words. “It was a family medicine that has been passed down for generations.”

Oh, Gabe had so many questions. Nathan shook his head slightly and Gabe thought he

was going to fucking explode if he didn’t get some answers.

Marcus, still listening to Spiegel, spoke to Adam, telling him to get Shania. Gabe stood beside Nathan until Shania returned with Mika.

“Adam is sitting with Todd for a few minutes,” Mika murmured. “Nathan, thanks for comforting Gabe.”

Nathan nodded and moved back over to Marcus, touching his hip. Marcus waved Shania over. “Go with Spiegel to his office, and get the vials from him, please. I want you to examine the contents of them, or at least one of them if you’re certain they contain the same substance. And use only what you must, because, if it’s what Spiegel believes it to be, the stuff is to be guarded and used sparingly.”

“And what is the stuff supposed to be?” Gabe asked when Shania and Spiegel had left.

He’d had enough of being talked around or whatever.

Marcus glanced at Maarten. “Did you know of this?”

Maarten shook his head. “No, Alpha Anax, I did not. I’m not the Alpha Anax here, and would never want to be. I just trusted Spiegel to do his job.”

“Marcus…” Gabe growled and Marcus shot him a look that actually almost made him whimper. But not quite. He did, however, shut up.

Marcus waved Maarten over to stand by Gabe and Mika. “I don’t want to be trying to look at the three of you on opposite sides of me.” Marcus sighed and Gabe thought he looked suddenly tired, until he saw the spark of excitement in Marcus’ dark eyes. “So, here’s the thing. We know shifters originated in Europe thousands of years ago. It’s possible that at one time man and shifter coexisted knowingly, but something happened and we hid ourselves from humans. Anyway, there’s always been this legend, about a shifter named—”

“Matamesius,” Mika interrupted, blushing when everyone looked at him. “What? I paid attention to the pack story time. That was the best part about gatherings.”

Marcus grinned for a second then continued. “Yes. And Spiegel’s family have been healers of one sort or another since as far back as they can trace their lineage. Granted, that’s nowhere near the beginning of our existence, but still. One of his great-great-great-great-great grandfathers was very close to someone who was supposedly a direct descendant of Matamesius. He was, according to the family legend, hundreds of years old, still very young in appearance, very healthy. He told Spiegel’s ancestor it was because he was a descendant of Matamesius, that his body, his blood was age-proof because of it.”

“But he died, right?” Gabe asked. Seemed like the dude would have had to if this story was going where Gabe thought it was.

Marcus nodded. “When this shifter died an unnatural death, beheaded by his lover,

Spiegel’s ancestor slayed the woman and took the man’s body. He… Well, this part is really gross, especially for Adam. But Spiegel said his ancestor stripped the meat and muscles from the body, drained the blood, took the marrow from the bones. He dried it and pulverised it.