Wolfe's Mate (7 page)

Jared concentrated on the mating bond, following the link back to Esme’s mind. He joined their thoughts, pulling Esme into the connection. He sent her reassurance through the bond and began to dance, leading Esme around the room.

Through the heartmate bond, they
became two pieces of a whole. Jared let the music take them. Esme responded in kind, her steps following his. She looked up at him, her face glowing with happiness, as he twirled her around the room.

He smiled in return, feeling her joy through their link. When the song ended, they were both breathless
and happy. Several onlookers clapped for the two couples on the floor. Jared pulled Esme close to hug her. Being with her gave him such a sense of freedom—freedom to have fun and be Jared the man, instead of Jared the Alpha.

The next song started, a slow love song. Jared continued
to hold Esme close. She put her arms around his neck and played with his hair. He moved her with the music, feeling each word in his heart. How lucky he was to have Esme as his mate. He sent his feelings through the mating bond, swamping Esme with love.

She gasped and stared into his eyes, her lip qui
vered. She pulled his head down and kissed him. This kiss was anything but tentative. Jared responded in kind, his wolf rising to the surface, hungry for its mate.

He licked her lips
, demanding entrance. She responded immediately, her tongue dueling with his. Jared pulled her closer, needing to feel her pressed against him, needing her to feel how his body craved hers.

Someone tapped him on the shoulder. Jared growled low in his throat. “Here you are
… I hate to interrupt, but the car is here, and if you don’t stop devouring each other, you might get yourselves kicked out.”

Reluctantly, Jared broke their kiss. Esme looked up at him, her eyes glassy with desire and her lips moist from his kisses. He glanced at Granger. “Do you know how lousy your timing is?”

“Well, that depends. If you want to be arrested for indecent displays of affection … This is England after all.” Granger smirked.

“Very funny
. We weren’t doing anything wrong, and you know it.” Jared glared at Granger.

“Maybe, maybe not. But you were headed in that direction. Come on
. The car is waiting out front. Time to get back on the road.”

Jared looked down at Esme. She gazed up at him, her eyes clear. He hated to let her go. Leaning down, he kissed her on the nose. “Our chariot await
s …”

Esme nodded
, and Jared let his arms fall to his sides. She stepped back out of his embrace, then grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze. “Thank you, Jared. That was the best dance I ever had.”

“It was the only dance,
ma petit louve
. I’ll make sure, it isn’t your last.” Jared leaned close to whisper in her ear. “I liked having you in my arms.”

Esme
shivered and licked her lips. “I liked it too.”

“Come on, you t
wo. I’m feeling very left out here, you know. You two could burn the house down with one look.” Granger waved them ahead.

As Jared walked by
Granger, he couldn’t resist teasing his friend. “Get a mate, Granger. Then, you won’t feel left out.”

Esme giggled
. Her gaze went back and forth between the two men.

“Easy for you to say
. The heartmate bond snapped into place for you two. I’m still waiting for mine.”

Jared wasn’t fooled by
Granger’s teasing tone. He looked sad. “It will happen for you, Granger. I’m sure of it.”

§

Esme slipped into the front passenger seat, while Granger and Jared put the bags in the trunk. The suitcases had arrived from London, which was a relief. If Esme heard Granger complain again about not having clean clothes, she would scream.

The car the English Alpha sent was a
good-sized sedan with leather seats. Esme didn’t look forward to being stuck inside a car for more than seven hours. At least, it was roomy.

Jared opened t
he driver’s side door and smiled at her as he got in. Granger climbed into the backseat, and they headed back to the M1 highway.

“We should be able to make Aberdeen tonight, if we don’t make many stops,” Granger said from the back.

“Well, then, I guess we push through. Everyone get comfortable.” Jared winked at Esme.

She reached over and patted his leg. He grabbed her hand and brought it to his lips for a kiss.

§

Norris went from patient to patient
, checking their vital signs and giving them the next dose of morphine. He hated knowing that pain would soon wake them from their drugged states. For the moment, everyone seemed fine.

Norris remembered how quickly Esme started
feeling pain from the change as lycan cells spread throughout her body. He had sedated Esme, slowly working up to using morphine. Now, morphine was already in the patients’ systems. However, the more lycan cells there were in their bodies, the less time morphine worked.

He
’d lied when he told the nurse the change could take as long as five days. Esme had shifted after a few hours. He didn’t want the nurse to make plans to transfer the patients. He wouldn’t be able to get them out if she suspected they would be changing that soon. He didn’t need any thugs forcing the wolves into cages.

A small moan came from one of the women, Miss
Scott. Her head began to thrash as she awoke. Norris shuddered in sympathy. The pain must have been horrible to wake her. He walked to her bed and pressed the button for another dose of morphine. What he was doing was dangerous to a human, but it wouldn’t be long now before the patients were fully lycan.

He took the
woman’s hand. “I know it hurts. When the pain is gone, the cancer will be gone, too. Hang on. Try to sleep if you can.”

Her silver
-gray eyes looked up at him. Tears glistened in her lashes. “Thank you, doctor,” she whispered. Her eyes closed slowly as she drifted back to sleep.

§

Granger moaned in the back seat. Esme looked behind her, worried that something was wrong. Granger had fallen asleep an hour ago. Now, he seemed to be sweating. He moaned again. Esme reached over the seat and felt his head.

“Jared, Granger is burning up
. I think he’s sick.”

“That’s impossible
. Lycan’s don’t get sick. Granger, wake up. You’re having a nightmare.”

Granger moaned again. Jared used his Alpha voice, calling to his friend telepathically as well as vocally. “
Granger!”

“The pain
. It hurts. I hurt all over,” Granger mumbled before he sat up. He blinked his eyes and looked around. “What happened? Where are we?” Granger rubbed his chest.

“Not far from the Scottish
border. What is wrong with you? Should I pull over?” Jared frowned and looked at Granger in the rearview mirror.

“No, I’m okay now.
For a moment there, I felt like I was someone else, or maybe linked to someone else. There was a lot of pain.” Granger shook his head, his hand resting on his heart.

Esme looked back at Granger and gasped. “Granger
, look. A mating bond, at least a thread of one …”

“Holy heavens
! She’s right. Great Goddess Asena, I have a mate …Wait, that pain I felt must be hers. We have to find her and help her. Something is really wrong.”

“Can you re-establish the link with her? It would help to know where she is.” Jared glanced back at Granger.

“Right. I’ll try.”

Granger closed his eyes and
went into a trance. Esme knew some part of him wasn’t present anymore. Granger jerked, and his eyes flew open. “She’s with Norris. He’s doing something to her. I saw him for a moment in her mind, then everything went dark. I think he drugged her. I’m going to kill him. If he harms one hair on her head, he will answer to me.”

“Now
, Granger, we don’t know that my brother is hurting her. He could be trying to help her. Did you see anything else?” Esme asked.

“Well, they did seem to be in a clinic of some kind. Maybe you’re right, Esme. I’m sorry if I jumped to conclusions.”

“It’s okay. I understand. Congratulations on finding your mate. Here, have some water.” Esme handed a bottle of water to Granger.

“I haven’t found her yet. But I will.” He took the bottle and downed half the contents.

“You can follow the mating bond to her. She can’t hide from you,” Jared said.

“And if she’s with Norris, we can fi
nd him too.” Esme smiled.

Norris sat and put his head in his hands. Things were getting progressively worse. All the patients were in extreme pain
, and a morphine dose alleviated the pain for only a very short time. Nurse Campbell had come in to help and now washed the patients with cool cloths.

In a few hours
, morphine would be useless. Shifting into a wolf would be the only thing that would help after that. Esme accomplished it the first time on her own, probably by accident. Then, she hadn’t known how to shift back to her human form. She stayed in her wolf form for three days before she could shift back.

Norris got up. “I’m going to get something to drink. I’ll be right back.”

The nurse nodded and watched as he went down the hall. Norris hurried to the room where he and Nurse Campbell changed into scrubs. The nurse hadn’t noticed that Norris watched while she opened her locker and put away her things, including the key card to the door. He quickly turned the dial of her locker and took her card out. He put it in his pants pocket.

He grabbed a bottle of water and m
ade his way back to the patients’ rooms. The three men didn’t seem to be reacting to the lycan cells quite as quickly as the women. Morphine still worked to some extent in the men. Norris wasn’t sure why. Was there something different about the cells Pierre donated?

§

Granger writhed on the back seat of the car. Sweat dripped from his face.

“Jared, we have to stop. We have to do something.” Esme wrung her hands.

Jared signaled and pulled over. As cars passed, he quickly got out and into the back seat. He held Granger’s head on his lap. Jared used his Alpha voice to command his friend’s attention. “Look at me, Granger. Look at me! The pain is not yours. You cannot help your mate if you allow pain to control you.”

“Jared, it’s horrible. I don’t know how she
’s surviving this. It feels as if her body is being ripped apart.” Granger panted.

“Link with me, my friend. Esme and I will help you
ignore the pain. Then, you can help your mate.” Jared closed his eyes a moment and shuddered. “I will try to shield you, Esme, but I need your strength to help us.” He reached for her hand and telepathically pulled her into the link.

Fire licked at Esme’s insides
, and she immediately recognized the feeling.
“Oh, my God. She’s going through the change. Norris has given her lycan stem cells. She needs to shift. Only shifting will stop the pain.”

“She doesn’t know how…
I’m losing her.”
Granger moaned and shuddered but appeared to be regaining some control.

“Hold onto her spirit, Granger. Speak to her
,”
Jared sent into the link.

Esme held her breath. All three of them could feel Granger
’s mate slipping away. Her pain was horrendous, and she started to give up.

“No, don’t leave me. I know you don’t know me, but I am connected to you. Please fight, sweetheart. I will help you
,”
Granger begged the woman as he began to send her his strength and reassurance through the mating bond.

Esme quickly added her strength to the link, as did Jared.

The woman took a shuddering breath.
“Who? Why in head? Dying.”

“NO!”
All three of them sent.

“Sweetheart, I am meant for you. You are the one woman who can join with me
—heart, body and soul. Fight to live, for our lives, for our future.”
Granger shuddered. Tears ran down his face.

“
Cure not working. Pain. Cancer… kill,”
the woman sent through the link.

“No, the pain is pr
oof the cure is working. Hold on,”
Esme sent.

“Another. Who? Woman
?”

“Yes, I am Doctor Fortesc
ue’s sister. He used this cure on me. It works. The cancer will be gone. I know the pain is terrible. Just ride it out.”

“What
… aren’t … you … telling … me?”

“The pain will get worse very quickly
now, until there is nothing except pain. You must give free rein to the wildness that rises within you. Feel how you want to growl? Go with it. Your hearing will get sharper, and your sense of smell will become so sensitive you will feel as if your nose is burning from chemicals in the room. It will feel like something is moving under your skin. Don’t fight it. Just let it happen,”
Esme instructed.

“Scared
… Crazy.”

“No, you aren’t crazy. Trust me
. I’ve been there.”
Esme sent more reassurance through the link.

“Please, sweetheart. Listen to Esme. You must keep breathing. Feel the ener
gy I am sending you. Live for me,”
Granger sent to his mate.

“
Brenda … not sweetheart.”

Esme smiled. Granger’s mate was strong. Now that she knew she wasn’t alone, she
fought the pain.

“A
ll right, Brenda. Just breathe. I am here with you. We all are with you.”

§

Norris prepared a syringe of sedative and slipped it in his pocket. The shift would come soon to the women, and he needed to sedate Nurse Campbell. He couldn’t have her calling for help or locking the patients up in cages. He had no idea how he would get out of the building unseen, especially with five panicked wolves by his side.

“Doctor, Mr. Philips is failing. His heartbeat is irregular. I
’m afraid we’re going to lose him.”

Norris hurried to
Philip’s bed and checked his vital signs. The man was indeed struggling. “Mr. Philips, you have to fight. If you want to live, you must ignore the pain.”

The man moaned and might have said something, Norris wasn’t sure. This was the part Norris hated, the feeling of being helpless. There was really nothing he could do. Either the patients would shift into wolves, or they would die.

§

The sound of a siren behind the car
broke the telepathic link Jared had established among himself, Granger and Esme. He climbed out of the car and walked toward the officer.

“Is there a problem, mister?” the officer asked.

“It’s my friend. Ate some bad food, I’m afraid. He isn’t feeling well,” Jared answered.

“Well, you’ll have to be moving on. This isn’t
a good place to stop. There’s a turnout a few miles ahead. Take your friend up there.”

“Thank you, officer. I’ll do that.” Jared walked back to the car and got in
the front seat. “I have to move the car. How are you guys doing?”

“Brenda needs to shift. She isn’t fighting it, but I
’m afraid what her reaction will be when she realizes she has paws,”
Esme sent to Jared.

“You must help her,
mon coeur
. You know what it feels like to shift unwillingly.”

“I will. Get us to Aberdeen. The quicker we find Brenda and Norris, the better.”

Jared agreed wholeheartedly. He pulled the car into traffic and headed north. He hated to consider that Esme had gone through such a horrific ordeal. He should have been there for her. Why hadn’t he felt something when she went through the change? Was it because an ocean separated them?

Granger hung on
. His whole being concentrated on saving his mate. If Brenda died, would Granger die, as well, even though the mating bond hadn’t been cemented into place and the couple barely knew each other?

Something told
Jared that Granger would follow Brenda anywhere, even into the next life. Jared gritted his teeth and pushed down on the accelerator. They needed to get to Aberdeen quickly.

§

Esme continued to pour strength and reassurance into the link she shared with Granger and his mate. Brenda stopped communicating with them, but they could feel the battle being waged in her body.

Granger continued to whisper encouragement into Brenda’s thoughts
, his soft voice caressing and stroking his mate. The mating bond that stretched between them grew and was now as thick as a pencil. Glowing softly, the golden cord of light ran ahead of Granger as if leading the way.

Now, if
Granger, Esme and Jared could get Brenda through the shift, she would be cured of cancer. No one knew whether she could accept being a lycan.

Sweat continued to drip from Granger’s body. He still suffered from sharing Brenda’s pain. By the time she shifted, he would be exhausted.

How to find Brenda and Norris lay heavy in Esme’s mind. She still didn’t know exactly what was going on. Was Norris working for the ruthless doctors or just trying to help someone who had cancer?

Jared took Esme’s hand.
She squeezed his fingers without opening her eyes. They faced many unknowns and several more hours of travel.

§

Norris rushed to Mr. Philips. The patient seemed to be failing. His heartbeat was irregular, and he struggled to breathe. Could his body be rejecting the stem cells?

“
Nurse Campbell, give him anti-rejection meds. Let’s see if we can get him through this.”

The nurse dutifully responded by injecting the
meds into the man’s IV. Norris continued to monitor him but didn’t see any significant changes. What would happen if the patient’s body rejected the lycan stem cells? Would he die, or would he continue as a human with cancer?

Norris hadn’t seen this reaction in Esm
e, and he was unsure how to proceed. The other two male patients seemed to be moving through the process at a slower pace than the women. However, they continued to experience waves of pain as the stem cells changed the cellular structure of their bodies. Both were young enlisted men, one nineteen and the other twenty-three, whereas Mr. Philips was an older officer, who was used to leading a unit. Could the ages of the patients be causing the differences? Esme was only nineteen when she changed to a lycan. The women, who were in their early twenties, were not much older. Perhaps, the body of an older person couldn’t take the strain.

“
Dr. Fortescue, Mr. Philips is going into cardiac arrest.”

“Do you have a
defibrillator?” Norris started giving the man CPR. The nurse nodded.

“Well
, don’t just stand there. Go get it. This patient won’t last long.”

The nurse hurri
ed back with a portable defibrillator, and Norris pulled the gown from the man’s chest. In moments, the pads were on.

“Clear,” Norris said. Electricity jerked the man’s body. Still no heartbeat. “Again, Nurse. Come on
, Philips. Don’t give up now. You have a chance to beat this cancer.” The nurse pushed the button, and the man jerked. Still, no response. Norris gave the man two quick breaths of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, before going back to chest depressions. “Again, nurse. Clear.”

Suddenly, growls
started coming from Miss Scott’s and Miss Adam’s beds. While continuing to work on Mr. Philips, Norris looked over and saw two beautiful grey wolves lying on the beds. Nurse Campbell’s eyes grew wide.

Norris feared
Mr. Philips wasn’t going to make it. As a doctor, he needed to take care of the living. “Take over, here, nurse. I need to speak to our newly shifted lycans.”

§

“She did it. She shifted. Brenda is okay,” Granger shouted.

Esme and Jared looked at each other and smiled. They were only a couple of hours from Aberdeen
, and traffic had thinned. The rest of the trip should go by quickly.

“Brenda
says the other female patient shifted as well. Her name is Susan Adams. One of the men is in trouble, and the two others are still suffering through pain.” Granger shook his head.

“Five? Norris is trying to change five patients?” Esme couldn’t believe it. Was her brother out of his mind?

Jared swore low under his breath as he continued to drive.

“Brenda is kind of freaking out. I’m trying to reassure her. Could you speak to her, Esme?” Granger looked at Esme, his gaze filled with trepidation.

“Yes, give me your hand. I might have a better connection when I’m touching you.” Esme took Granger’s hand and followed the mating bond from Granger’s heart to the woman who was his mate.
“Brenda. You need to stay calm. Tell Susan to relax as well. Use your telepathy. Can you communicate with Susan?”
Esme felt Brenda’s assent.
“That’s great. I know turning into a wolf is a shock, but you aren’t a beast. You can think. You are still you. You’ve just changed your form. How are you feeling? You need to be strong before we attempt your change back to your human form. And, yes, you can change back, and you will.”