CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Kyle
She looked determined but nervous. I swallowed, taking in the emotion I felt at reaching this moment with her. I had waited so long to be able to mate with my chosen one and now it was finally here I took a moment to feel the rush of purpose I felt.
Her hesitation reminded me of Flynn's warning. I pushed it from my mind as my mouth covered hers, gently at first. How could something that felt so right be so wrong? It wasn't possible. I kissed her harder, feeling my blood heat in my veins. My instinct to make her mine was difficult to slow down. I couldn't rush her.
I pulled away for a moment to look down at my beautiful mate. Her vibrant red hair framed her face, and I tucked a stray strand behind her ear.
There was a vulnerable innocence in her that I remembered seeing in her while growing up. Despite all she had experienced and endured, that hadn't been impacted, and for as long as I drew breath it would continue.
She lifted up and kissed me. Any intention to continue slower went out the window, and in moments I placed her on my bed, like a beautiful canvas for only my eyes.
I covered her body with mine and her legs hugged my hips closer to her. I kissed her. Her kissing was becoming more confident, and I liked it. Something stirred inside me when her tongue swept against my own. I groaned, needing more.
"I need you now," I murmured against her lips.
"Yes," she whispered, and I felt a tremor of excitement.
I had slept with loads of girls but this was the first time I felt a slight nervousness as I removed the rest of our clothes. Unsure of how her Keeper side would impact on the process for pregnancy in the werewolf, I put on protection before I aligned my body with hers.
There were no words. My eyes held hers as our bodies joined together. Her breath hitched for a moment and I soothed her with kisses. The warmth in my chest spread as we moved together, spiraling out of control as we peaked.
My mouth moved to her neck, scraping my teeth slightly against her skin. The need to make her mine gripped me with claws. Swiftly I clamped down, and she hissed with pain. My tongue soothed over the bite as I savored the taste of her.
"I'm sorry," I told her, kissing her cheek softly.
"I'm okay," she reassured me. "It didn't hurt too much."
Her fingers touched the bite tentatively. I didn't like that I hurt her but I couldn't deny the werewolf in me reveled in the possessiveness of my marking her skin. She was mine.
My feelings for her felt more amplified than before. I loved her with everything I was. Her eyes mirrored the same for me.
It had been the most moving experience of my life. Afterward, I lay beside her and she tucked herself in beside me. She fit perfectly. I kept her close, needing to reassure myself I wasn't dreaming and this was really happening.
"At some point you're going to have to ease the grip so I can breathe," she said, and I smiled, easing my hold.
"Sorry," I mumbled. "It's just I keep waiting to wake up and find out this isn't real."
She looked up at me. "It is." Something tightened in my chest.
"Are you okay?" I asked, reaching out to touch her cheek.
"Yes." Her answer was husky and satisfied. It made the alpha in me want to growl with pride.
I trailed my fingers lightly down her arm as she tucked herself back in beside me. Thoughts of what was happening with the Keepers infiltrated my mind but I refused to think about the outside world when I had everything I needed right beside me.
Her breathing evened out and I watched her sleep peacefully beside me.
Tomorrow she would go through the change. I refused to believe she would become anything other than the werewolf who was chosen by destiny for me. But the thought nagged at me until I decided to go and see Curtis. Maybe he could tell me if he had found anything interesting.
I shifted on the bed slowly so as not to wake Crystal, who remained in a deep sleep. I quietly picked up my clothes and got dressed. Giving my mate one last lingering look, I turned back to the task at hand.
Curtis.
I found him in the medical center.
"What can I do for you?" he asked, lifting his eyes up from the microscope as I entered the sterile room.
"Did you have a chance to look at Crystal's blood sample yet?" I asked, scanning his desk.
"I'm busy looking at it now," he answered, looking back down through the microscope.
"And?" I asked as I went to stand beside him.
I wanted to look too but it probably wouldn't mean much to me.
He lifted his eyes again.
"It's unbelievable," he admitted, looking really excited.
It wasn't every day we discovered Keepers, and now we also had a Keeper and werewolf mix. A hybrid. I didn't like that description for my mate. My feelings for Crystal had strengthened into an undying love that would hold me to her forever. I would do anything to keep her safe.
He rattled off some medical jargon along with mentioning something about the werewolf DNA. I put my hand out to stop him.
"English, please."
"Sorry," he said. "Her blood is just… amazing."
I crossed my arms and waited for him to explain why he thought that. I knew she was amazing but it had nothing to do with DNA and stuff like that. It was just who she was. The girl I had grown up with. The one who would rather turn her back on everyone she had ever loved to keep them safe.
"Well, to sum it up, from what I've seen so far, she is a mix of the Keepers and werewolves."
I knew that much already but I didn't interrupt him. I didn't want to delay his explanation.
"I expected there to be certain limitations when it came to both but so far it looks like there isn't."
"Limitations?" I questioned, not quite following what he was saying.
"She not only has all the perks and powers of a werewolf, she also has the same powers the Keepers have."
We had suspected as much. But were there more traits we didn't know about? So far we knew the Keepers were unbelievably strong, they could sense werewolves, and had the ability to pick out rogues as well as the mix of werewolf and Keeper. They could heal like we did as well, and I was pretty sure that despite what Flynn had said about the birthmark on his hip, I believed the Keepers had mates like we did.
"Do you know what that means?" he asked me, looking more excited than before.
"Enlighten me."
"I believe that if this is her capability before mating, she is going to be an unstoppable force once she has."
Flynn's words echoed in my mind, but I refused to believe him. That she would be more powerful didn't automatically equate her to evil. Her heart was too good.
"Did you find anything else?" I asked, wanting to make sure I had all the information.
He frowned and his excitement waned. "The changing process for female werewolves, once mated, is quite painful."
I didn't like where this was headed, but then Cade walked in. I gave him a nod before I gave my attention back to Curtis.
"Well, it's hard to gauge but I believe the process for Crystal is going to be much more painful and last longer."
That wasn't good at all. I rubbed my forehead.
"Is there any way to ease the process for her?" Cade asked.
Curtis bit his lip and frowned. "I don't know."
He went to a laptop that was open on the table and began to type away.
"It isn't going to be easy," Cade said to me, and I gave him a side glance. He would know.
It was the part about mating no male werewolf liked to see—his mate in pain, and being unable to stop it. Pure torture.
I didn't want to sit back and do nothing, though. There had to be something. Nothing helped with the werewolf change but maybe there was something that could be given that could ease the Keeper change.
Crystal
My skin was clammy when I awoke. The place beside me was cool and there was no sign of Kyle. Just thinking of him made my heart lift and I smiled. I had always had feelings for him, even before I had discovered he was my mate. But what I felt for him now outweighed anything before.
Where are you? I asked through our mind-link.
Sorry. I had some stuff to see to this morning. You okay?
Yes. I'm fine. I didn't admit to him that waking up alone hadn't been what I had hoped for. But I had to remember he was an alpha of a large pack and he had lots of responsibilities.
I'll be back soon. How are you feeling? he asked.
He wanted to know if I was showing any side effects of the change. I was sure the clammy skin was the first sign of the change that was coming but I didn't want to worry him yet. When it became more painful I would let him know. Hopefully by then he would already be back.
I haven't had any side effects yet, I answered, sitting up and pulling my knees to my chest.
Take it easy, he instructed.
I will.
Not ready to start my day, I lay back down. My thoughts went back to the night before. A blush heated my cheeks as I thought back to our union.
Feeling warmer, I pushed the covers off. I felt my forehead to feel for the start of a fever. It was happening a lot sooner than I had expected.
With the change so near, I thought back to Flynn and what he'd said.
You have no idea the evil she will be capable of if you mate with her.
I wanted to ignore the warning but I felt the first shiver of fear as my body began to heat up. I needed to keep myself busy so I got up and went to take a shower. I kept the water cool to ease my growing fever. Once I was done, I changed into some new clothes and went back to bed.
It had been a while since I had spoken to Kyle and I wondered what was taking him so long to return. A slow ache crept over my body.
Kyle? I pushed the thought to him.
Yes, he responded.
It's starting, I finally told him, too scared to handle this on my own.
I'm on my way, he assured me before he broke our mind-link off.
The ache began to intensify and I gripped the sheets as sweat beaded my body and began to soak through my clothes. I gritted my teeth as a spasm of pain gripped me, stiffening my body like a board.
Somewhere outside the pain, I heard Kyle's voice.
"I'm here."
A cool wet cloth pressed against my forehead, giving me a slight reprieve from the fire burning inside of me. The spasm eased and my body relaxed.
"It hurts," I managed to whisper before gritting my teeth.
"I know, Crys." I felt the smallest touch of his lips on my cheek.
I closed my eyes briefly as another wave of pain spread through my body. It felt like every cell in my body was being torn apart. Tears began to slide down the sides of my face while I tried to ride it out.
"Hang on," Kyle soothed somewhere outside the agony that gripped me like claws right into my heart.
I opened my eyes. It was like looking through amber glasses that changed everything in my eyesight. Despite the heat, my body began to shake. It became so bad that I felt my teeth rattle together as my body shivered.
"I'm so…cold," I murmured, trying to wrap my arms around myself to keep warm.
"Here," Kyle said, and I felt the softness of a blanket wrap around me.
I looked up at him. The amber effect had disappeared from my vision and I stared deep into his familiar gray eyes.
"So…cold," I said, trying to stop myself from shivering.
There was a feeling of being shifted and I felt something wrap around me.
"I've got you. I'm here." His words soothed me through the haze of change that had gripped every part of my body.
My body continued to shake. It was too much. The darkness beckoned to me and I gave in, needing the pain to stop.
I drifted in and out. When I did regain consciousness, the pain was so bad it felt like someone was tearing my body apart limb by limb.
"Please, make it stop," I gasped.
"Hang in there. We're going to give you something to try and ease the pain."
The shivering had stopped and my body was no longer on fire, but the pain was more intense than before.
"Please," I whimpered, needing it to end. I gripped his hand in mine.
"Curtis," Kyle called out, and I heard hurried footsteps.
"I got it," Curtis said, his eyes filled with concern.
He got out a syringe and inserted it into my skin. A coolness spread from the needle point into the rest of my body. There was a sound of something beeping in the background but I couldn't concentrate on it.
My body began to relax as the liquid spread through my body with every pump of my heart. I closed my eyes briefly, feeling exhausted but relieved the pain was easing.
"It's working," Curtis said.
"Thank God," Kyle said. He enclosed my hand in his and kissed it.
I had no idea what they had given me and I didn't care. The only thing that mattered was that it had helped. My body was tired. It took so much strength to stay awake. My eyelids grew heavy, and then they closed.
"Sleep, Crys," Kyle murmured beside me while his hand gently caressed my cheek.
The sound of his voice comforted me as I drifted off to sleep.
The next time I woke up, I felt weak and tired. The sound of a beeping noise pulled my attention to my surroundings. I wasn't in Kyle's room anymore. The sterile white walls revealed I was in medical.
When had they moved me here? And why?
It wasn't normal for female werewolves to go through their change in a hospital environment. Years of trying to ease the pain they experienced had ended with no way of easing the process. But even through my foggy thoughts, I remembered Curtis giving me something that had helped.
Beside me, Kyle slept with his head resting on my bed while he held my hand.
He looked tired. I wanted to reach out and soothe the tired lines in his face. My heart filled with my love for him when I remembered he had stayed with me the entire time I could remember.
It was the only thing I wanted to take with me from this experience—the way he'd cared for me. I wanted to forget about the pain I had experienced.
It's over, I reminded myself.
My throat felt raw and I wanted a sip of water. Slowly I tried to extract my hand from Kyle's to reach for the cup beside me, but Kyle stirred.
"Hi," I said softly as he lifted his head while trying to focus. Even with messed bed hair, he looked gorgeous.
"You're awake," he said, pulling his chair closer to the hospital bed. "How are you feeling?"
"Tired and thirsty."
He reached for the cup beside me, and I took a sip of water from the straw.
The water soothed my dry and sore throat. I lay back down. It was the first time I realized I wasn't in my clothes anymore; instead, I was in a hospital gown. In my other hand was an IV drip.
"What happened?" I asked softly, lifting my hand with the drip in it.
"You nearly died."
The look in his eyes was haunting. His hand gripped mine tighter, like he was reminding himself that he was here with me.
"I don't understand," I mumbled, trying to remember, but I came up blank. It was rare for a female werewolf to die while she experienced the change. Granted it was excruciating but it wasn't enough to push the body beyond its limits.
"Curtis thinks it's the Keeper part of you that was too much for you to handle."
"What happened?" I asked, feeling the prickle of fear despite the fact it was over.
"Your heart just stopped," he explained. Seeing the suffering in his eyes, I gripped his hand tighter. "I started CPR on you. Curtis arrived in minutes and he managed to restart your heart."
Feeling damaged by his words, I lifted my hand and touched my chest.
"I should've insisted you go to medical from the start," he said, keeping the full weight of blame on his shoulders. I frowned.
"There was no way you could have known."
"Curtis told me that you would be more likely to experience a more intense change than just an average female werewolf."
"You saved me," I reminded him, but he shook his head.
"I'm supposed to take care of you and look what happened. I nearly lost you."
The guilt in his eyes made my heart squeeze.