Purrfect Protector (17 page)

“Aleksi. Where’s Aleksi?”

“Your bodyguard is in the shifter wing. He’s alive, healing well, but still mostly out of it because of the amount of damage. He almost shifted and he was going feral. The police almost had to shoot him with tranquilizers, but somehow you managed to talk him down, even half-conscious. I swear to God, I’ve never seen anything like it. He stood in front of you and the gun and he didn’t move a muscle as all those bullets ripped into him. Then he wouldn’t let any of the police near you until the paramedics got there and some guy called Gio promised to look after you. For the past two days, there’s been three guards posted outside your room.”

Kale almost puked at the images Caleb’s description called up. He hadn’t seen what had happened but he could imagine and piece together the sounds he remembered. “Days?”

“Yes. It’s been two days since…”

Ignoring the pain in his back and Caleb’s fussing at him frantically to lie back down, Kale pushed up on his hands and gingerly shifted his legs until he was sitting on the bed, his legs dangling over the side. He shook with the exertion and he had to grit his teeth to keep from crying as his eyes filled with tears of pain.

“Dammit, Kale. Why don’t you ever do what I tell you to do?”

“Because I’m your little brother and it is my solemn duty to be the biggest pain in the ass possible,” he joked, forcing a laugh as he looked up at Caleb’s worried face.

He wasn’t the only one with wet eyes as Caleb grabbed him into a hug, pulling back when Kale yelped, but he held on and refused to let Caleb out of the hold. “I was so scared when he said he had you.”

“I told you not to come,” Caleb chastised.

“Of course I was going to come, you asshole.” Kale smacked Caleb on the arm. He cursed when the action tugged at the whip marks on his back. Pushing away, he must have accidently poked Caleb’s damaged ribs as his brother hissed in pain too. “Sorry.”

They stayed in silence for a moment as Kale breathed through the throbbing until it faded to a bearable level, thanks to the morphine drip in his arm. Thank God he hadn’t pulled that out when he’d decided to move.

As soon as he caught his breath, he held his hand out to Caleb for support and tried to ease his feet to the floor.

“I need to get to Aleksi.”

Caleb frowned but took his hand and fretted over him as they got him to his feet. As his weight settled, Caleb asked, “Why is he so special to you? Is there something more between you than sex? You don’t usually do relationships.”

Kale looked at Caleb in surprise. “You knew we were sleeping together?”

Caleb shot him an exasperated smile. “Please. I’m surprised you had enough restraint that you didn’t jump on him in the office when he first walked in. You’ve always had a weakness for muscles. Though, I get the feeling there’s more to Aleksi than muscles.”

Rolling his eyes, Kale gasped as his weight settled and the wounds on his back stretched “He is. I’m his mate,” he confessed quietly, flinching when his brother spun around, almost knocking him over.

“Shit, sorry. Are you serious?”

The incredulous tone didn’t exactly sound encouraging. “Yes. We’d just…claimed each other before…” He wasn’t sure how to explain something he didn’t really understand himself. He and Aleksi were essentially married in the shifter way and Kale felt the overwhelming, aching need deep in his chest to be with Aleksi.

Aleksi would have been with him if he were able. His tiger mate was more than a little possessive and wouldn’t trust his safety to strangers. They hadn’t exactly had a good and trust-inspiring experience with police lately. “We’re mated and now I need you to help me get to my mate.”

For a second, Kale was worried Caleb had had some sort of mental breakdown. His brother just stared at him open-mouthed then Caleb hugged him gently. “Congratulations, little brother. I’d give the obligatory speech about not knowing him and this is all too fast but I saw how much he cares or he wouldn’t have taken those bullets for you. You were all he was worried about.” Caleb ruffled his hair as he used to do when they were younger. He then unhooked the wheeled stand for Kale’s drip from the wall and carefully wrapped an arm around his waist for support. “Let’s get you to your man.”

* * * *

Getting his police guard to let him go down and see his mate had been harder than he’d thought and had taken almost an hour. He was still being chased by nurses, tutting and muttering words that Kale thought were unprofessional. Italian was a beautiful language but he only knew the bad words, thanks to a birthday book from his brother on how to curse in ten languages. Kale hadn’t expected nurses to be so foul-mouthed.

At least he was finally in the shifter ward now. There were armed guards on every corner that their police escorts had told them carried several different types of tranquilizers, ready to knock out most shifters in the event that they became lost to their animal natures.

To be honest, Kale hadn’t understood much of what the doctors and guards had explained to them and he was more than a little freaked out. He wanted to go back home to Aleksi’s house and forget everything that had happened but at the same time…he didn’t.

The fact that Aleksi had been hurt protecting him was something he was going to have to come to terms with, along with how dangerous Aleksi’s job was and the issues of be committing to a relationship with a predatory shifter.

Before Aleksi, he’d never had to think about these things. Did it make him a bad person because he’d hesitated at Aleksi’s room?

“Come on. He’s on the other side of the door. You heard his doctor say he’s doing fine and that he woke up around the same time you did. It must be something to do with your mating bond thing. The doctor said there is no reason he should shift.” Caleb probably thought he was nervous in case Aleksi lost control, but that didn’t even enter into the equation.

The tiger didn’t scare him anymore since he’d cuddled with the beast at Aleksi’s house. Kale remembered talking Aleksi down from unintentionally shifting before coming to hospital and passing out.

Kale just needed to know he was enough, that he was going to be a good mate and not a burden. The police escort and the guard unlocked Aleksi’s door and held it open enough for Kale and Caleb to slip inside before closing and locking it again, securing it with a strong metal grate. The same grate covered several other areas, including the air vent and the window to the corridor where the guards were looking in.

“He’s not going to shift,” he assured his brother, when Caleb hovered by his side nervously.

His voice must have woken Aleksi because his mate’s eyes snapped open. The second Aleksi looked at him and groaned, Kale was all but running toward his mate—or at least hobbling clumsily with Caleb’s help. Aleksi’s doctor had said they could stay with his mate only as long as they didn’t make Aleksi worse or let him move.

However, Aleksi, with his damn shifter nose, must have known Kale was in pain and Kale knew it was only a matter of seconds before the stubborn man was up and coming over to him. So Kale forced himself to rush the last few feet to his mate before it could happen.

“Hey. I’m here. It’s okay.” Wiping the sweat beading on Aleksi’s brow, Kale perched on the side of his mate’s hospital bed so he wouldn’t fall as his body shuddered and shook. His doctor had only allowed him to visit after Kale had lied, saying he was feeling much better already.

He brushed his hand through Aleksi’s hair and looked down with blurry eyes at the mass of bandages covering his bare chest and stomach. The shifter made a mewling sound like a cat denied its food or something it desperately wanted. Kale entwined their fingers.

“Up.”

Touching Aleksi helped dissolve some of the doubts and fears because he was just so damn happy that his mate was alive and well enough to be bossing him around. Aleksi somehow heaved his big body over a few inches, giving Kale enough room to get onto the bed next to him.

“No. You’re hurt,” Kale forced out, wishing he hadn’t let the doctor call his bluff and remove his pain-relief drip.

Aleksi bared his teeth and pouted, making Kale laugh despite the pain at the ridiculous of it.

His mate smiled tiredly. “Need you. Up.”

He looked to Caleb for some sort of help but his brother just shrugged. “I’d do what he says, bro. Cats get pissy when you don’t listen to them.” With that, Caleb snagged a cushion that had fallen to the floor and balled it up under his head as he settled down to sleep in the chair in the corner of the large room.

Kale shot his gaze up to his mate’s, worried how Aleksi would take his brother’s teasing, but Aleksi was smiling, his eyes soft with amusement and affection. If Caleb relaxed enough to tease you, then he liked you. Caleb had never teased anyone Kale had dated. If he wasn’t on the verge of passing out again, he would have pumped his fist in the air.

“Fine,” he huffed, slowly wriggling farther onto the bed and easing back against the soft pillows. He winced as the lashes on his back protested but it felt good too, as he had been lying awkwardly on his stomach for two days.

Aleksi wrapped an arm around him and Kale let himself sink into the heat Aleksi was giving off.

“I was so scared. I thought I was never going to see you again.” Saying it aloud brought it all to the fore again. Even though he still couldn’t remember everything that had happened, he remembered being scared. Scared he couldn’t help Caleb, scared he wouldn’t see Aleksi again and scared that the dream of having a home and something real and meaningful dangled in front of him like a carrot was going to burn to ashes around him.

At first, he thought Aleksi wasn’t going to respond, but then his mate purred deeply and lulled him into a peaceful sleep. Just before sleep claimed him, he heard Aleksi say something in Russian and kiss his head.

Chapter Ten

Aleksi slowly came awake to the sound of quiet snoring.

He rolled his head on the pillow to see Kale fast asleep with his head hanging back on his arm that was around the man. Kale’s mouth was open and Aleksi felt a small damp patch on his arm where his mate must have drooled a little.

“You’re making goo-goo eyes at my brother. Eww. Please tell me you don’t think the snoring and drooling thing is
cute
.”

Aleksi turned to see Kale’s brother sitting in a small armchair, looking tired and uncomfortable. He stretched his neck and winced when it cracked.

“It
is
cute,” Aleksi defended, smiling when Kale snored louder for a second before settling into a quiet slumber again.

“Yeah, right. You’re sunk, bro.”

“Bro?”

“Kale said you’ve mated and according to the Internet on my phone that means you’re basically married and it can’t be broken. You can’t cheat, because your animal won’t let you and you’ll always protect him, even with your life. I saw the last one for myself.”

Aleksi watched as Kale’s brother cleared his throat and glanced away, plucking at some imaginary fluff on the arm of the chair.

“I would do anything for him and my tiger loves him already.” Usually he wouldn’t be so candidly honest with his feelings with someone who was a stranger. But Caleb was offering him something precious, a place in the small, loyal family consisting of the two brothers.

Caleb finally looked at him again. “Thank you.” The man’s face changed from serious to curious and Aleksi realized the two brothers were more alike than probably either of them would like to admit. “You’re a tiger? Can I see?”

The innocent question and the excitement he heard and smelled from the man made him smile. “My tiger is a little different from the ones you’ve seen on The Discovery Channel or in a zoo. I’m a saber-tooth tiger and if I changed in here, there wouldn’t be any room for you and Kale to breathe. Once I’m healed, I may be persuaded to shift so you can meet my cat.”

As Caleb’s eyes grew wider and wider, Aleksi wondered if he should have broken the news of what he was more carefully. “Holy freaking duck balls bouncing on a bicycle. That’s so cool!”

Laughing, Aleksi had to put a hand on his stomach so he didn’t bust any of his stitches as he wiped tears from his eye. He’d never laughed so hard before but it was simply the sheer amazement and excitement on the man’s face. It was definitely not the reaction he usually received.

He supposed it wasn’t every day someone met a saber-tooth tiger shifter in the regular human world view of things. Wolves were a dime a dozen and there were other shifter races that were courting the media to experience the limelight. But most of the rare races still hugged the shadows because they had big, fat targets painted on their asses. Shifter hunting and trade was as common as human trafficking, but there was hell of a lot more money involved—tens of millions more.

He sobered and checked on Kale. Aleksi suspected Kale had actually woken several minutes ago and was pretending to sleep in order to listen in on Aleksi and Caleb interacting with each other. His sneaky mate was eavesdropping.

Any other time Aleksi would probably call him out on it and tease him but he imagined Kale was concerned about how they would get on, so he didn’t rat him out. “Kale, wake up, mate.”

Kale made a show of yawning and nuzzled into Aleksi’s chest, careful of the bandages. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt Aleksi even more.

He opened his eyes and peeked up at Aleksi, only to see the shifter staring down at him with a knowing look. “Shit,” he whispered, hiding his face as he blushed at being caught eavesdropping. It had just been too tempting to listen in. Whatever. No one had ever accused him of being a stickler for etiquette.

“Hey, you’re awake. You know, you drooled all over your pussy cat, right?”

His brother laughed at his own joke, but Kale was mortified. He wiped his mouth. Maybe if he prayed hard enough, the ground would open and he could hide in a hole until everyone forgot that he had drooled on his lover.

“No name calling or I might decide to eat you when I shift.”

Caleb’s smile died and he went pale before scowling. “No eating your brother-in-law.”