Wild Wolf
Page 78

“He’s not good.” Andrea said now. The slim woman put her hand on Graham’s bloody stomach. “Too much blood loss, too long under a spell, dehydration, exhaustion. All that on top of his wounds. I’m going to need a lot of help.”
“I’m here,” Sean said. He put his hand on his mate’s shoulder, his other on the hilt of his sword, which rested tip-first on the van’s floor.
“What can I do?” Misty asked, not liking the sword so near. She knew what the swords of the Guardians did—were used to release a Shifter’s soul when the Shifter didn’t make it. “There has to be something.”
Graham tried to squeeze her fingers. “You’ve done everything, love. You found me. Twice. You rescued me. Twice. You tased Oison, then you shot him.” He chuckled. “That was fun to watch.”
“Shut up, Graham.” Misty kissed his scraped and blackened cheek. “Save your strength.”
“You’re going to need it to heal,” Andrea told him. “Misty, the touch of a mate helps. Put your hand next to mine, and think about how much you love him.”
“She’s not my mate,” Graham rumbled.
The others in the van turned heads to look at Misty, and Xav glanced back over the front seat at them. Misty found herself pinned under Feline and Lupine stares, including those of the cubs.
“She never accepted the claim,” Graham said. “Sucks, but there it is.”
“What are you talking about?” Misty put her hand on Graham’s chest, feeling his heart beating hard and erratically beneath her fingers. “We argued about this, remember? You said I didn’t refuse.”
“But you didn’t accept, either.”
“Well, shit, Graham, I don’t know everything there is to know about Shifter rituals. I’m going out with a man who doesn’t tell me anything.”
“Hey, don’t blame this on me, sweetheart—”
Dougal broke in. “Misty, you say, ‘Under the Father God and Mother Goddess, and in front of witnesses, I accept the mate-claim.’”
“See?” Misty glared at Graham. “Would that have been so hard?” She took a deep breath and spoke quickly. “Under the Father God and Mother Goddess, and in front of witnesses, I accept the mate-claim.”
“Oh, yeah.” Graham grasped her hand again and squeezed it. “I feel better already.”
The mood in the van lightened. Andrea’s face softened into a smile, and Dougal whooped. Even Reid, in the front with Xav, gave Misty a quiet nod. Sean grinned, and Xav gave them all a thumbs-up as he kept driving.
Dougal launched himself at Misty and enfolded her in a hard hug. “Thank you, Misty.”
The twins rammed into her other side, hugging her tight. Sean and Andrea had brought their clothes, which they’d put on more or less right, except Kyle had his shirt on inside out. “Aunt Misty!” They shouted. The cubs let go of her and jumped up and down together, then ran at her and hugged her again.
All the while Graham lay there, his eyes softening. “Thank you, Misty.”
Misty leaned down, being careful not to hurt him, and kissed his cracked lips. “Anytime, love.”
Graham tried to kiss her back, the glint in his eye telling her when he felt better, she’d need to watch out. Misty didn’t care. She loved Graham, she loved sex with him, and she yearned for him with every part of her.
Graham smiled the best he could as she rose from him, then he looked past her. “And you two,” he said to the twins, with a hint of his old firmness. “Goddess help me. I don’t know whether to lock you in your room for two months or take you out for pizza.”
The twins sprang away from Misty and high-fived each other. “Pizza!” they yelled.
“Earplugs,” Graham said, wincing. “I’m buying a bucket load.”
Laughter began, and then healing magic, as the van rocked and swayed through the dusty desert night.
 • • •
Andrea’s skill, bandages, Misty’s touch, and time healed Graham’s wounds, though he was the most impatient patient Misty had ever dealt with.
Graham was up and down constantly while he convalesced, picking at the bandages, reopening the closed wounds, grumbling when they were bandaged again. He said he couldn’t stay in bed when he had to take care of Dougal, and the cubs, and Shifter business, and run his half of Shiftertown, and fix his bike, which had gotten shot, if she remembered.
The Shifters would have to rebuild the house that had collapsed, away from the ley line this time. Plus, they needed to get the Shifter Bureau off their backs about the Collars—though the soldiers had tested every one and found them all functional. Still, the fact that a seed of doubt had been sown meant Shifters had to be very, very careful about the Collars. But Collars had to come off and be replaced with fake ones as soon as possible, now that Shifters knew about the Fae and their nefarious plots with the swords.
Then there was the question of arranging for the mating ceremonies with Misty, and Graham breaking it to his Lupines he was mating with a human.
The Lupines already knew, of course, because nothing could be kept quiet in Shiftertown. Wolves would walk by his house while Graham healed, staring up at his bedroom window, and not always out of concern for him. They left him alone for now, but Graham said that a time would come for confrontation.
Paul had taken over looking after Misty’s flower shop and its cleanup, so Misty could stay with Graham and help him. Paul proved to be good at the store, and Misty decided that once Graham was healthy again, she’d ask Paul to go into it with her as a full partner. She could do that for him, and Paul could finally begin his life.
Ben returned a week into Graham’s recovery to congratulate Misty on her victory. Graham almost ripped Ben’s head off as soon as he stepped inside through the kitchen door Misty enthusiastically opened for him.
“You ass**le,” Graham said clearly when he had his hands around Ben’s throat. Graham’s Collar sparked, but he didn’t seem to notice or care. “Misty told me all about you. You sent her straight into danger—alone. Never mind about your little spell book. If not for you, she’d have stayed the hell out of this.”
“Maybe,” Ben said, unruffled, even though Graham’s fingers bit into his neck. “But she wouldn’t have learned how to find you or fight the Fae’s spells, and you’d be a Fae slave now. Or dead. Maybe both.”