3#Unlikely Mates: BBW Shifter/Vampire Romance (Their Everything) (13 page)

“No.”
Rushe growled softly, wincing as soon as the word was out. “You don’t have to,”
he managed to continue between clenched teeth.

Ward
turned his green eyes on Ross. “Rushe didn’t want to fight you. He only did
this because I asked him to…that’s not right. I made him do it. Your kings and
I decided that this fight would happen.”

Ross
felt his brow crease. He turned to face Zane. The male remained passive and
calm. “Is what the alpha is saying true?”

Zane
walked towards them. “The fight already started, you had no right to stop
them.” He turned to face Ward. “Leave them be. This whole thing is already in
motion. The fight must continue until there is a winner.”

“I
told you that I have information that will change everything,” Ward said.
Thankfully the rain had let up slightly, but it was still coming down in a soft
mist.

“What
the hell is going on?” Ross growled. His hands were still fisted at his sides.

“I
told you.” Ward scrubbed a hand over his face to try and remove some of the
moisture that had gathered. The alpha pulled a hand through the strands that
clung to his forehead. “Rushe didn’t want this. He didn’t want to fight you. If
I hadn’t stopped the fight just now, then you would’ve killed him. He was
allowing you to win because he couldn’t go back on your agreement.”

“Ward’s
right,” Rushe sounded a bit stronger now. His more superficial wounds were
healing.

“Fuck!”
Ross looked away for a few beats. “You wouldn’t have conceded though either.”

Rushe
shook his head.

“How
the hell did you keep a handle on your beast?” He swallowed hard. “You would’ve
allowed yourself to die if Ward hadn’t of intervened?”

Rushe
nodded, this time wincing. He held his broken arm gingerly and then turned to
Ward. “Why did you intervene?” he muttered

“Because
I care dammit! You are one of mine, you were supposed to win,” Ward growled.
“He was supposed to concede.” The alpha gestured to Ross.

What
the fuck?

 “You
shouldn’t have agreed to this in the first place,” Rushe growled.

Ross
noticed that the wolf looked pissed. Rushe stood more upright, his lip curled
away as he did belying the pain that he still felt.

“I
didn’t wish for any of this. You know why I made the agreement with the kings
in the first place. I didn’t want you hurt. I can see that this vampire is a worthy
male in your eyes. You wouldn’t have lost on purpose otherwise.”

“This
is bullshit, we had an agreement.” Zane said, his eyes on Ward.

Ross
felt his blood turn icy as a feeling of betrayal settled in. “Are you saying
that this was planned?” His eyes were firmly on Zane. “You told me that the
wolf wanted to fight me. That he had insisted on it.”

“Your
place is with this coven,” Zane growled. “You had no business going after that
female. Striking up a deal with this wolf. Potentially becoming mated to a
human. Your place is here.” He snarled the last.

Shock
and anger coursed through him. “You bastard! The only reason you insist on my
place being here is because you don’t want this union. It has nothing to do
with me. You were ready to throw me to the wolves.” He didn’t care if he was
beaten for speaking his mind. It would be worth it.

“I
can understand why you’re upset. I’m going to therefore let that comment
slide.” Zane’s whole demeanor eased up. “Maybe we went about it the wrong way.
The agreement was for the wolf to beat you. You are one of our best warriors
and yet that beast in berserker mode would have taken you. Then you would’ve
come back here to where you belong. It is where you still belong.”

“It
irritates the shit out of me that you insist on not hearing me.” Ross took a
deep breath. “I’m going to repeat this one last time. I have chosen the female.
Claimed her
.” He paused, “I have an agreement with the wolf and you
should not have interfered. Brant told me that if I left, I would be exiled.”
He took another deep breath. “I no longer consider myself a part of this coven.
I want nothing to do with you.” Ross turned and strode away, making for the
SUVs.

“Wait
up.” He heard a loud grunt behind him.

From
the heavy panting and painful moaning. Ross knew that it was the wolf. He was
tempted just to keep walking, to get into the vehicle and to drive away but how
could he? On a heavy sigh, Ross paused.

“I’m
sorry.” The still bloodied torn up male said as he arrived at Ross’ side.

“I’m
the one that should be apologizing to you,” Ross said. “I should’ve actually
stopped for a second and used my brain. You weren’t fighting back. Zane was
right, you are the stronger of the two of us.” He sighed again. “I should’ve
known and realized that I was winning far too easily. That you were holding
back.” It hurt him to admit it but he owed the wolf that much.

“Yeah,
well. I should have given Ward and your two kings the middle finger but I
couldn’t.”

“Why
the fuck did they need to interfere anyway?”

“Ward
explained to me that your kings are fearful of human females becoming hurt.
Apparently a whole bunch of your males tried to head up to Sweetwater yesterday.
The consensus was that if you are allowed to rut with the human then so could
they.” The male nursed his broken left arm.

“What
they don’t seem to realize is that the vampire males are eventually going to go
after these human females whether they want them to or not. Fact is that we are
naturally driven to procreate. It will need to be strictly controlled, managed,
but there is no reason why it couldn’t work if done the right way.” Ross shook
his head “In the end though, I don’t care. I’m out of here. Can I give you a
lift?”

“I
meant what I said yesterday…” the wolf said. “Vampires are able to successfully
mate with humans. They become stronger whether the male is royalty or not. Most
of the lores are bullshit.”

Ross
could see that Rushe believed what he was saying. The male had no reason to
lie. If anything, it would be in his favor to say the opposite. He eventually
nodded. “About that lift?” Ross raised his eyebrows.

“Please.”

“I
think you need some help with that first.” Ross said, looking at the broken
arm. It was already setting at the wrong angle, which meant that he was going
to have to break it again.

“I
think I’m good thanks.” Rushe grinned, his healing lip split open all over
again, blood dripped down his chin. The male made a pained noise. “It’s hardly
even noticeable,” he looked down at his arm and started to chuckle. He made
another pained noise using his good arm to clutch his chest. “You really fucked
me up, man.”

“I
told you that I’m sorry,” Ross said. “I really think we should take care of
that before we go.”

Rushe
nodded.

“This
is going to hurt like a bitch.” Ross said while taking ahold of the other
male’s arm. “On the count of three. One…” He gave his arm a sharp twist and he actually
heard the bone re-break.

Rushe
hissed through clenched teeth. “I think someone needs to teach you how to count,
vampire.”

Ross
chuckled.

“Thankfully
it doesn’t hurt one bit.” Rushe somehow managed to get out. Ross could see that
his skin was pale. Although some of the swelling had gone down on his eye, it
was still puffy. The male’s skin looked taut, pain marring his features. He
knew that it wouldn’t take long for the wolf to heal but until then, Ross would
feel seriously guilty. He should’ve realized something was up.

“I
just need to stop at the castle to grab my bag.” Ross hadn’t even unpacked the
thing yet. “And then I’ll take you to Becky. She can patch you up. You should
be able to score yourself some serious sympathy points in fact, she will probably
hate me for doing this to you.”

They
made their way to the SUV, although Ross was tempted to help the wolf. He knew
it wouldn’t go down well. What he did do though was open the passenger door for
him. Rushe gave him a look of thanks and carefully got into the vehicle,
wincing and grunting as he did.

Thankfully
no one tried to stop them. Ross could see the alpha talking with Zane and
Brant, then all three males moved off in the direction of another waiting
vehicle. He and Rushe would have to hurry, he was sure that the males were
headed for the main castle as well. The last thing he wanted was another
confrontation. He just didn’t feel like dealing with those bastards. If he
didn’t see any of them again, it would be too soon.

“Buckle
up.” He glanced at the wolf who lay back in his chair, his eyes closed. “I’ll
get that for you.” He carefully leaned over the male and pulled the device
across his body, clicking it into the slot. “You’re already banged up as it
is.”

Trying
to be as careful as he could, Ross pushed his foot down on the accelerator. The
dirt road was slick. Ross could hear the small sounds of pain that Rushe made
whenever they hit a pothole or drove over a particularly rough patch, so he had
to ease his weight off of the accelerator. Looking in the rearview mirror, it
seemed as if they were still ahead of the others. He didn’t want to hurt the
male any more than he already had.

****

Becky
adored wet weather. She always had. It was cold rainy days like this that her
mother had allowed her to stay in bed till late. She could hole herself up and
just read. She wouldn’t be forced to run around the block, or to play tennis or
any of the other methods that her mother had devised to try and help her to lose
weight. She loved the sound of the pitter patter as raindrops fell on the roof.
Loved to watch as it hit against the windowpane. Rain was life-giving and she
liked to think of herself in that way as well.

“All
right, Miss Taylor,” she addressed the middle aged lady on the chair across
from her. “You can lie down on the bed now please. I need to do some
palpitations on your stomach.”

The
woman was suffering from a simple case of the 24 hour bug, but Becky just
needed to make one hundred percent sure that there wasn’t something more
sinister going on. Miss Taylor positioned herself on her back and lifted her
blouse so that her midsection was exposed. Becky got right to work.

After
performing the necessary examination, Becky looked up at her patient. “All
done. I’ll write out a prescription and your sick note.” She smiled at the
woman and made her way back to her desk.

Becky
had only just sat down and grabbed a pen when there was a knock at the door.
Her assistant stuck her head around the jamb. “Mr. Ross just arrived.” Her eyes
were wide and her voice held an edge of panic. “He has brought a friend along
with him. Not the same one from last time. A different one and this guy looks
badly injured. There’s blood everywhere.” She spoke so quickly that Becky could
hardly make out what she was saying, but there were two very distinct words
that she had heard. The one was Mr. Ross and the other was blood.

Within
ten seconds, Becky had scribbled out the prescription as well as the sick note
and was handing them to Miss Taylor. “It seems that we have an emergency. I put
you down as off tomorrow as well, just as a precaution, but you are free to go
to work if you are feeling up to it.” She practically shoved the poor woman
through the now open door and turned to assess the situation.

“It’s
your two favorite males,” Rushe grit out. Ugly purple bruising pretty much
covered one whole side of his face and right up along the jaw of the other
side. He was covered in congealed, crusted blood. Even his jeans were pink
stained around the waist and thighs. She could see that he was being careful
with one of his arms.

Ross
was dressed all in leathers, and on any other day she so would’ve checked them
out but right now her heart was racing. “What the hell happened to the two of
you?”

Ross’
nose looked slightly swollen and there was a definite blue twinge. Aside from
that, he looked fine.

“Please
patch him up,” Ross said.

She
gestured to her exam room, “Take him in there.”

She
turned to Elizabeth. “Please put a hold on my appointments.” She started
walking towards the room and on second thoughts turned back. “Actually, it’ll
probably be better if you cancel the rest of my day. At this rate I’ll be out
of business in no time.” She mumbled the last to herself.

Her
assistant nodded, her eyes wide in her skull.

Closing
the door behind her, she turned to face the males. “What the hell happened?”

“It’s
not as bad as it looks,” Rushe said. “I’m already healing.”

“I
don’t care,” Becky replied. “I can see that someone gave you a hell of a
beating. If it was one of those vampire kings or both of them, I swear to God.”
Becky gestured to the clinic bed. “Go and lie down, I need to have a look at
you.”

“It
wasn’t the kings.” Ross looked down at his hands and then at Rushe. Lastly, he
looked at a spot somewhere behind her. He refused to look her in the eyes.

She
didn’t have time for this shit. “You’re both going to tell me who did this and
I swear to freaking God that I’m going to go and beat up that piece of shit
myself. I don’t care if they are royalty. I don’t give two shits if they have
superhuman strength. It doesn’t give them the right to do this.”