Darkest Wolf (6 page)

“How long will the test take?”

When Rex asked questions it sounded like he barked orders and Dr. Smith responded as if his life depended on it. The faster Rex spoke, the quicker the doctor answered. Liz was getting enough of it. She was the patient, not the wolf with the attitude problem who apparently saw nothing wrong with taking other people’s property whenever he felt like it.

So why wasn’t she outing his theft to the doctor? She bit down on her lip. Sure, she needed his information to trade for her family. But was it something more? He acted like he genuinely cared about her condition. When was the last time someone had?

“Is that fine, Elizabeth?” She looked up as Rex addressed her directly. Both he and the doctor stared at her. Well, the doctor winced more than stared, but he got credit from her for making the effort.

“Is what fine?”

Rex turned his attention to the doctor. “Should she be losing track of conversations like this? Is this normal?”

The doctor scratched his head. “I think she was just not listening in this case.” He paused for a second. “Who are you to her exactly?”

“I’m her husband.”

Elizabeth couldn’t suppress the little shriek escaping from her mouth at his pronunciation. Married? To a wolf? It was bad enough he’d declared them mated. He wouldn’t be announcing them married without so much as a by your leave by her.

Unless wolves behaved strangely was what mated meant. She groaned. There was no question about it; she was in a ton of trouble with this wolf. Even if he had dreamy near-black eyes and an intensity which made her want to shiver. Goddess, what was the matter with her? Maybe she really needed a CT scan.

“Is he not your husband?” The doctor looked at her with such sincere concern mixed into his disgust at viewing her that she had to smile at him.

“Oh, yes, he’s my husband.” Rex smiled a look of pure male satisfaction at her announcement. “But only because I felt sorry for him.” The doctor looked back and forth between them. “Sorry for him?” She could imagine what he saw. Rex—tall, strong and intense—married to her—

someone who appeared to be the most physically horrific person he’d ever laid eyes on.

Why would
she
feel sorry for
Rex
?

“Well, we only got married because of his problem.”

“Problem?”

Rex crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t think the doctor needs to hear about my problem, Elizabeth.”

“Oh, but, sweetheart, he asked.” She sat up in the bed feeling more jovial than she had in years. Life might have picked her up and shoved her into her own personal hell but that didn’t mean she couldn’t poke fun when she wanted to. At least for now. With the twins from hell, she could never make jokes.

“We don’t have to share.” Rex said the last word like he might choke on it.

“Rex, I think he can hear our story.” She turned her attention to the doctor. “Rex grew up in a cult. If he didn’t get married, his people were going to have him killed.” The doctor looked between them. “A cult.”

“Yep, a cult.” She was enjoying this. If she wanted to, she could give Rex any past history she could invent and he wasn’t going to be able to say a damn thing about it unless he wanted to expose them. “They thought they could become wolves.”

“Did you say something about a head CT, Doctor?” Rex seemed calm, but Elizabeth felt she could sense currents of anger radiating from his very pores.

“I’ll order it.” The doctor turned on his heel and exited the room fast.

Rex stared at her in silence, but Elizabeth didn’t feel intimidated. By contrast, her heartbeat was fast from excitement. She’d thrown down the gauntlet for Rex. He wasn’t going to get to run this show simply because he could be scary.

“I am going to wait and see if your head has been damaged in any significant way.” She raised a challenging eyebrow and hoped he took it the way she meant it. “And?”

“And when I am assured you will fine…” He walked to the bed and leaned over her until his head was just above hers. “I am going to punish you for your little stunt, witch.”

“Making physical threats now, wolf-boy?” His breath was warm, and she couldn’t help but wish he’d lean down just a little bit more so she could feel the firmness of his mouth on hers again.

“No. You need never fear me.” He smiled. “But I think we both know there are other ways I can amuse myself with you, Elizabeth. There will be ways to make you pay for your stunt.”

She swallowed, her mouth had gone dry. “I think you overestimate yourself.”

“No.” He sniffed the air. “Even now, you
want
me.” His damn nose. There would never be any hiding anything from him. “I’m not an
animal.”
She said the word with more disdain than she actually felt. “I can control my baser instincts. I can decide to ignore my hormones. Particularly if I don’t like the person for whom those feelings are directed.”

“We’ll see.”

She was working on a clever retort when the first shudder wracked her body. Her body seized up under the onslaught of pain. She screamed out but heard no sound. Tears plunged from her eyes. This was death. It had to be. She would perish in this hospital bed never having done any of the things she wanted to accomplish. Despair for chances not taken warred with the physical distress destroying her from the inside out.

“Oh no.” She tried to swallow, forcing herself to remember she could breathe.

“Elizabeth?” Rex voice penetrated her haze of pain. “What is it?”

“The twins.” She could barely get the words out as another shudder drove into her body. She hoped her mother knew how sorry she was she would never be able to help her. If only she’d been stronger, better, more than she was…

Rex pulled her into his strong embrace, holding her head up against his chest. She could hear his strong heartbeat. After a second, the pain in her body receded. How was that possible? They’d hit her hard. Time would stop their magic assault but the twins had too much power to wait out. They’d knocked over Rex’s car and not even been drained for a full day.

“How?” She had to ask even as her eyes started to close. Her body needed to heal, to recharge her magic after the energy assault she’d taken.

“They can’t hit me. For now, although it won’t last forever, I am protected from them by a wolf-spell my sisters-in-law bestowed on me. You are in my arms. They can’t touch you.”

She rubbed her nose against him, not caring, for the moment, if it made her look needy. “If only I could spend forever in your arms.”

Elizabeth could feel the blackness of sleep pulling at her. It was seductive and more powerful than she was at the moment.

Rex whispered against her ear. “You can.”

Nothingness took her in its arms.

Chapter Five

Rex scooped Elizabeth up in his arms. He didn’t have time to wait for this damn CT

test. He had to get her out of there. One way or another, he had to transport them to Florida and deal with the mother of the horrific twins who were attempting to kill his mate.

Her neurological exam had been good. He was going to have to hope she was fine.

His sisters-in-law could examine her in Westervelt if there was no one in her pack who could help her first. Now he just needed to figure out how to sneak her out of the hospital without getting arrested. He scoffed at the thought. No human jail would hold him.

Keeping his head down, he carried his small mate as if he had every right to exit the hospital with her in his arms. She was still wearing the paper gown but he didn’t dare take the time to dress her. Instead, he’d scooped up her clothes and carried them out with her. She could change later when she woke up.

Rex gritted his teeth and moved forward as fast as he thought it was safe to do without drawing attention. Perhaps he need not have worried. The humans didn’t like to look at Elizabeth. It was their loss as far as he was concerned. If they couldn’t see past the curse, then they were simply blind or stupid.

His next problem? He didn’t have a means of transportation. This was not an insurmountable issue. Like his newly borrowed phone, he would simply take a car for as long as he needed it. He couldn’t help the grin that crossed his face. Elizabeth had hated when he had called his taking of the phone “borrowing it.” Her moral indignation had been plastered all over her face.

She was going to be upset all the time while in his presence. He stole things when he needed them. As much as possible, he returned the items when he no longer needed them.

Perhaps if he left the island more often, he’d be better prepared for what he needed on the outside. In any case, he wasn’t going to concern himself too much with the right and wrongness of things. He had never promised anyone he would be a hero. Certainly his pack didn’t think of him as heroic.

Moving into the parking lot, he pulled Elizabeth even closer. She might get cold. He didn’t feel the chill the way she would, and to make matters worse there was the issue of the paper gown. Horrendous the way these humans treated their sick.

One-handed, he managed to manipulate the car door open to a black SUV he hoped would blend in pretty well on the drive to Florida. There seemed to be a lot of them on the road.

Hurry up, people are coming
.

His wolf had been monitoring the surroundings while he focused on taking the car.

Once upon a time, Gabriel had brought him out to learn how to do this type of thing. It had been an odd outing. Rex had been around ten years old and although his second oldest brother had looked thirty, he’d been hundreds of years old at the time.

Why had Gabriel done that? He’d never questioned it before but Rex couldn’t get the question out of his head. Why had Gabriel taken him out at ten years old to break into cars they didn’t need and ultimately wouldn’t even drive away in?

He felt the latch give under his hand. After getting the door open, he laid Elizabeth down gently in the passenger seat. It was dangerous to leave her alone even for a second—no way did he want to give the twin witches the opportunity to continue their assault on Elizabeth. Still, he needed to get this done without getting caught. He’d have to be really fast.

Working meticulously to start the car, he let his wolf fill him up inside. Together, they were stronger. As one, they never failed. It was only when he lived by his own dictates he screwed everything up.

Don’t be so hard on yourself
.

He ignored his wolf as he finished hot-wiring the car. The leather seat of his stolen—

or borrowed—SUV crunched under him as he adjusted things to his liking. Really, he felt badly for the person who was going to come out and not find their vehicle where they’d left it. Unless he or she worked there, it was bad enough they had to be in the hospital in the first place.

But he had to get a move on to Key Biscayne. The witches had to be dealt with before he returned with his witch to Maine. When Rex had phoned Tristan earlier, his brother, the alpha, had been clear on that point. Westervelt needed Elizabeth, and to not bring her there as fast as possible was akin to betrayal.

His words had stung. It seemed every time Rex breathed, someone spoke of his betraying everyone around him.

They just don’t understand you and you don’t do a good job of explaining yourself.

Yeah … well … everyone else seems to get the benefit of the doubt except me.

He pulled the car out of the parking lot, careful to avoid going too fast. What he really wanted to do was speed away as fast as he could without stopping until he reached Florida.

Patience.

He sighed.
I know
.

Rex rubbed his eyes. He was tired. There was no question, but it would be days before he would be able to rest and it’s not like he really required much sleep. Wolves could go a long time without having to close their eyes for rest. These days it was more likely he was mentally exhausted than anything else.

He glanced over at his sleeping mate. Yes, she defined fragility. She would need to be protected at all times, and unfortunately he was all too aware he was not the wolf for the job.

Do you think she’s close enough to me? Or do I need to move her closer to protect
her from the magic assault?

His wolf looked back and forth between them.
You need to adjust her
.

I’m not sure exactly how to. I need to drive this car
.

Adjust her so she’s on our lap
.

Rex knew his wolf was correct. He also suspected Elizabeth would hate to wake up with her head on his lap like they’d been doing something really raunchy in the car.

Grinning at the thought, he tugged on her gently until he had her where he could protect her if there was a bump or a jolt in the car. The witches had already proven they could take down cars. This time, however, he had to hope the fact they didn’t know Elizabeth was on the move would protect them for a little while. Also, it might help they didn’t know in which direction he and Elizabeth travelled.

Perhaps his holding her alone would make it impossible for them to magically detect her.

His wolf snorted.
Maybe
.

Rex couldn’t disagree. He was basically flailing around in the dark, looking for a way to get through this.

Of course it doesn’t help you’re still on the outs with the alpha. We could have used
him on our side
.

Yes. Rex gripped the wheel tightly with one hand as he followed signs for the turnpike south. He could basically straight shoot the car all the way to Florida if he stayed on that particular highway. Then when Elizabeth regained consciousness she could help him get to Key Biscayne.