Pax turned, his eyes burning with anger. “She’s my mate. It was as true then as it is now.”

“Really?” Grisham raised an eyebrow. “Then why didn’t you look for her?”

“Don’t lecture me with that head of the house tone. You’re her father in name only, you sorry son of a bitch. I know you’re here to try to help, and I’m grateful. But let’s not kid ourselves. You’re shitting yourself because you know you’re dying, and that’s the main motivation for this sudden epiphany.”

“Believe what you want, Doctor.”

Pax crossed his arms in front of his chest. “You never answered my question.”

“What question?”

“Do you know who’s behind Evie’s attack? You were about to answer when the elevator opened,” Pax gestured to the door with his head.

Grisham exhaled. “Yes. If I had to guess, it would be Regina del Mondo. She’s a two-bit hustler who fancies herself La Bella Mafiosa. The head of the newest of the organized crime families in the New York area. Except she’s not, nor will she ever be. The minute I suspected she’d stolen the remaining samples from Ferrell, I knew she’d come after me. I never dreamed she’d find Evie.”

“Are you so sure it’s her? The man that attacked Evelyn was a bear. Dual-natured, but that’s it. Someone else stole into the ICU unit and was in Evie’s room the other night. They carried the same bear scent, but they were in bird form,” Pax explained.

Grisham’s eyes turned to his daughter lying in the bed across from his and sighed. “I failed her, and I failed her mother, but mostly I failed myself.” He turned back. “I’m not wrong in this, though.

Regina is too much of a narcissist to give anyone else the abilities present in those little vials from Ferrell. She may have sent some underling to inject Evie, but she was the one who came to the ICU in bird form. I know it. I can smell her trace even now.”

“You put on a very convincing front, but I’m not convinced. I still think you’re worried about yourself. This magnanimous act is the one you want Evelyn to remember. Not the years she spent abandoned.”

Slow clapping sounded from the doorway. “Very good, Doctor. Grisham never did worry about anything but his own ass, but I should warn you, right now, you should be worrying about you.”

Pax wheeled around, putting his body between Evie and whoever was at the door to her room. He glanced to the collection unit hanging beside the senator’s bed and followed the line to Evie’s drip. The transfusion had barely begun. This was so not good.

A woman stood in the doorway in a lab coat smeared with blood. The name embroidered across the pocket read, Dr. Craig Adams. She lifted a lanyard with Craig’s keycard and waved it slowly. “Such trust, you men. All it takes is a quick smile and a flash of tit and you forget whatever mission you’re on.”

“Is he dead?” Pax asked, worried for his friend.

She looked down at the blood smears across the white coat and chuckled. “Don’t worry about your friend, Dr. Noble. This is the good senator’s blood.” She flung a hand out toward Grisham. “Dr. Adams is simply knocked out. I don’t like killing, really. Too much mess and the cost in police payroll paperwork is astronomical.”

“How did you know I was here, Regina? Have you been tailing me?” Grisham asked, coughing.

She laughed. “Tailing you? Why would I bother when the hospital has been more than helpful with their reports to the police?” Her hand slipped from her pocket. “I’ve got what you want, Grisham. The antiserum. But to be honest, you haven’t suffered enough.”

She shoved the vials into her pocket again, and reached inside the lab coat, drawing a gun. “You shouldn’t have come here, Ward. I warned you a long time ago, I always get what I want. Then again, you’re as easy to read as a book and even easier to track. I knew you couldn’t resist once I caged your pretty little bird. See, whatever the noble Dr. Noble thinks, I know you truly love your daughter. I also know you sent her out of the country the moment I threatened you with her life all those years ago.”

“You? You’re the reason?” Pax asked.

Regina tsked. “Sorry to have been the one to break up such a passionate teenage lovefest, but I had my own plans and what better way to get what I want than to dangle a carrot. Still, I have to admit, I couldn’t locate the little dear. Not until she returned stateside. If the twit had just stayed in Canada, she’d be alive and kicking right now.”

Paxton moved to block Regina’s line of sight to Evie. “She’s still alive, and I mean to keep her that way. As for kicking, if you let me finish the transfusion, she could be both.”

“He’s right, Reggie. You got what you want. I’m cornered like a rat. At least, let me help my daughter.”

She looked at them both, curling one finger around her chin considering while the other curled around the trigger of her gun. “Nope. The good doctor knows too much. I think tonight, this will be a triple murder.” She sniffed. “So sad, really. A doctor obsessed with his beautiful patient, kills her father and then himself because he failed to save her. As for dear Evelyn, the venom will take care of her pretty quickly in the end.”

“A shifter who needs a gun is no shifter,” Pax goaded. “Why not put your toy down and face me. Animal to animal.”

Regina laughed out loud. “Are you seriously challenging me? Little boy, do you have any idea the number of beasts I have coiled inside just waiting for release? Your puny wolf wouldn’t stand a chance.” She lifted her gun and pointed it his way. “Nice try, though. I think you die first.”

A gunshot sounded from behind, and Pax found himself flung across to Grisham’s bed as the largest predatory cat he ever saw launched from Evie’s bed. Long, lethal sabers descended from massive jaws, and with a single leap, enormous paws knocked Regina back on her ass.