Fire licked its way along every single one of Saber’s nerve endings.  He would have screamed in agony, except he couldn’t make his vocal cords work no matter how hard he tried.  The only place that didn’t hurt was his right hand.

Saber flexed his fingers in an effort to figure out what was different and felt soft skin touching his, soothing the ache that was just under the surface.

“Saber,” the voice of an angel whispered.  “Can you open your eyes for me?”

He would do anything for that voice, even the impossible task that was being asked of him.  For several minutes he struggled to open his eyes until, finally, he managed to crack them.  Well, he could only see out of one of them, so he wasn’t entirely sure he’d managed to open them both, but at least he could see the angel that had been coaxing him to wake up.

Chadwick.

His heart instantly started to beat erratically at seeing his mate.  The fire that had been unbearably consuming him now burned for a whole different reason.  “Kitten,” he just barely managed to get out around his parched throat.

He had to fight back the darkness that was threatening to take him under once more as Chadwick leaned over him and oh so gently touched their lips together.  A pulsing throb of pain ignited from where their mouths touched, but Saber pushed it away, choosing to only feel the pleasure of his mate kissing him.

But the darkness continued to creep into his brain and try as he might, Saber just couldn’t hold it back any longer.  But at least he’d been able to kiss his mate.

 

***

 

The door opened a few minutes after Saber had passed out again and Nole walked in.  “How’s our patient?”

Chadwick smiled.  “He woke up.  It was only for a minute, but he was awake.”  Saber had been unconscious for two days.  His body had healed a lot, but it still had a long way to go.  He had been far closer to death than Chadwick had wanted to know, but at least he was finally on the mend.

“Good.”  Nole looked relieved as he checked Saber’s vital signs.  “Did he say anything?”

Chadwick looked down at the man he was realizing he didn’t want to live without and said, “He called me Kitten.”

Nole shook his head and snorted.  “Clearly, he is still delusional,” he muttered jokingly.

Chadwick didn’t care.  He was too damn happy that his mate had finally woken up.  “Does this mean he’s out of the woods?”

Nole nodded as he continued to listen to Saber’s chest with his stethoscope.  “Yeah.  Don’t get me wrong, his injuries were quite severe, especially since he couldn’t shift, so it will still be a few days before he’s up and walking, but…” Nole made a note in Saber’s chart then looked over at Chadwick.  “I would definitely say he is recovering nicely.”

Chadwick let out the breath he hadn’t even realized he’d been holding in.  The fear of losing Saber had been weighing on him and for the first time since his mate had entered that Challenge Ring, Chadwick felt as if he could finally breathe.  “Thank you, Nole.”

The doctor smiled at him.  “You’re welcome.  Now Jari just made breakfast.  Why don’t you go down and fix yourself a plate?”

The thought of food had Chadwick’s stomach grumbling, but as he glanced back at Saber, he wasn’t sure he wanted to leave his mate, even if it was only long enough to eat.  “But he might wake up again.”

“I’ll stay,” Nole offered.  “Jari told me he’s saving an entire plate of bacon, just for you.”

Chadwick stood up.  “Bacon?” he asked.  His stomach gave another loud rumble.  As he started to take a step toward the door, Chadwick gave one more glance at Saber.

“He’ll be fine,” Nole insisted.  “And if he wakes up, I swear, I’ll call you.”  Nole held his hand up as if he were swearing on a stack of bibles.

The decision was more difficult than it should have been.  The thing was, Saber had only been awake for maybe a minute, which meant if he had to wait for Nole to notice Saber was awake, then call him, it was very possible he wouldn’t make it back up here before Saber fell back to sleep.

He was just about to say he would rather stay when the tantalizing aroma of bacon wafted into the room.  His stomach gave another loud growl as if it were threatening to go get the savory treat for itself if Chadwick didn’t hurry the hell up.  “Okay,” he said, although he wasn’t sure if he were talking to Nole or his stomach.  “I’m just going to run down and grab a plate.”

Nole nodded at him absently as he made more notes in Saber’s chart.

“I will only be a minute,” he said again, this time he was talking to Saber, who’s hand he squeezed as he silently pleaded with his mate to understand.

Then he took off down the stairs.  He was going to pile as much food onto a plate, or maybe two, as he could, then race back up the stairs.  Except as he turned the corner to enter the kitchen he hit a wall of people standing around, not giving him room to get inside.

That’s when he heard someone say, “But if he dies, who becomes Chief Council?”

“I told you, he’s not going to die.”  From Edrick’s tone, it was obvious he had already had this discussion before and was getting tired of having it come up.

“But since he isn’t around to take control of the Council, shouldn’t we appoint someone else to take his place?” another voice said.  The room erupted as people tried to make suggestions for Saber’s successor.

Chadwick had no idea who had the nerve to make the suggestion but he wasn’t about to let anyone get away with taking Saber’s position away from him.  “And just who would do that?” The anger in Chadwick’s voice cut through the chatter.

The crowd parted to let Chadwick in.  More than half the room had the decency to look away as they had been caught trying to undermine what Saber had done for all of them.  But that wasn’t nearly enough for Chadwick.  He wanted them all to feel like the shits they were for even discussing the topic.

“If any of you honestly think you can lead the Council, I’m more than willing to take you on in Saber’s place.”  He met the eyes of each of the twenty men in the room that he didn’t know.  Chadwick knew his friends wouldn’t have been involved in the discussion other than to insist Saber would be fine.

“No?” he asked when no one took him up on it.  “You actually might stand a chance since I haven’t slept in two days as I took care of the only man who dared to take on that snake, Refugio.  You know, the one who had ordered our deaths for being gay,” he reminded them.  “The one all of you were too chicken shit to challenge yourselves.”

This time, every man in the room bowed his head in remorse.  Disgusted with them, Chadwick turned to find Jari with a tray that held two heaping plates of food and several bottles of water.  “Thank you, Jari.”

Jari smiled at him.  “You’re welcome and congratulations on your mating.”

There were several gasps at Jari’s announcement.  Clearly not everyone had heard the news.  “Thank you and you’ll all be happy to know, Saber woke up.”  Then he stormed out of the room, hoping that put those greedy assholes in their place.  Here he’d thought it was only the Council and their minions who were so callous.

He stomped along the hallway and banged open the door, completely forgetting, in his anger, that his mate was sleeping.  Nole glared at him when he walked in.

“I get that those men are assholes, but Saber is trying to sleep,” Nole reminded him.

“Not anymore,” Saber squeaked out from the bed, his eyes still closed. A grimace on his face let them know how much pain he was in.

Guilt ate at Chadwick for waking Saber up.  The man needed his rest but Chadwick hadn’t even thought of Saber’s condition when he came storming in there.  “Sorry,” he mumbled as he set the plates of food on a small table.  “How are you feeling?”

Chadwick once more took his place in a chair next to the gurney Saber was on.  It wasn’t until he’d once more taken Saber’s hand in his that Chadwick felt as if he were where he belonged.  He couldn’t explain the feeling as he never had considered himself someone who depended on others before, yet with Saber, his entire being was out of sorts until he was near his mate.

“Like I’ve been hit by a truck,” Saber joked, his voice barely above a whisper.

Nole handed Chadwick a plastic cup filled with water and a straw.  He stared at it, then back over at Nole, not quite sure what he was supposed to do with a cup of water.

Nole shook his head and rolled his eyes.  “Saber’s mouth and throat are dry.  He could use a drink.”

Heat flooded his cheeks and Chadwick knew he had to be as red as a lobster.  Turning back to Saber, he ignored the slight grin on his mate’s face as he offered him the straw.

“Just a sip or two,” Nole cautioned.  “We don’t want to put too much in your stomach too quickly or you’re liable to throw it right back up.”

Saber took a small sip and laid back.  “Thank you,” he said those dark eyes staring right at Chadwick.  “So, what happened?”

Chadwick considered pretending he had no idea what Saber meant, but they were mates and even though he’d resisted the idea before, now that they had completed the mating, Chadwick had to admit he didn’t like the thought of lying to Saber.  Even though he knew it would likely mean Saber would try to get out of bed too quickly.

Already regretting his decision, Chadwick sighed.  “I walked into the kitchen to find a group of men discussing who should replace you as Chief Council.”

A low menacing growl rumbled around the room.  Saber’s already dark eyes turned darker, more sinister.  “And just how did they plan on killing me to do it?”

Chadwick shook his head.  “That’s just it, they didn’t.  They figured either you were dying or you were too incapacitated to do the job, so one of them should be nominated to the position instead.”  With each word, Chadwick’s anger grew.

He hadn’t realized just how upset he’d gotten until Nole said, “Don’t make me put more stitches in him, Chadwick, or I will make you scrub this room from top to bottom.”

Chadwick glanced first at Nole in bewilderment, then down at Saber.  That’s when he saw red staining the sheet he was laying on.  Horror filled him as he realized his claws had come out and he’d allowed them to pierce Saber’s hand.

Instantly he dropped Saber’s hand and backed away from his mate, but Saber wasn’t about to allow that.  He jerked into an upright position, the grimace on his face expressed how much pain that caused, and he reached out to grab Chadwick’s arm and pull him back to Saber’s side.

“Stop,” Saber spat out when Chadwick once more tried to get away.  “I’m fine.  You just nicked a scab.  I promise, it doesn’t hurt.”

Not sure he believed Saber’s dismissive words, Chadwick turned his mate’s hand over to check for himself.  Relieved to see that he hadn’t done any damage to any stitches or caused a new injury, he sagged against the bed.

“Now, why don’t you help me get up so I can explain to anyone who thinks I can’t perform the duties of Chief Council how wrong they are,” Saber said as he started to swing his legs over the side of the bed.

“No need.”  Edrick walked into the room and went over to kiss his mate.  Nole easily sank into Edrick’s arms, looking happy to be there.  Before mating Saber, Chadwick used to scoff at the pair for looking so sappy.  Now?  He wanted the same thing.  He even thought, maybe, they were on the way to being that couple.  Well, maybe not so sickly sweet, but happy.

When Edrick had his arms around Nole so his mate was tucked securely to his side, he said, “Chadwick took care of them.”

Saber grinned at Chadwick.  “Oh?  And how did you manage that, Kitten?”

Edrick choked.  “Kitten?  Chadwick?”

Nole slapped his mate lightly on the stomach.  “I know, right?”

But Saber only had eyes for Chadwick and for some reason Chadwick couldn’t figure, that meant everything to him.  “I just told them to back off.”  It wasn’t strictly the truth, but it was close enough.

“Who are you kidding?” Edrick asked.  Then his alpha turned to Saber, his blue eyes sparkling.  “Chadwick challenged each and every one of them to a fight if they thought they were man enough to take him on.”  The pride in Edrick’s voice took away the irritation Chadwick was feeling about the big deal his friend was making.

“It wasn’t like that,” Chadwick tried to insist.

“Yes, it was,” Hudson said as he strode into the room with Kellach and Trygg right behind him.  “I swear to you, several of those men peed their pants when you threw down that gauntlet.”  His friend shook his head.  “Whatever made any of those idiots think they had the balls to be Chief Council boggles my mind.”

Kellach chuckled.  “Yeah.  I don’t think any of those pansy-assed, weak-minded assholes actually thought they might have to fight to become Chief Council.  It was as if they actually believed someone would just hand them the position because they asked for it.”

“Chadwick’s challenge definitely abused them of that notion,” Trygg joked.  “I don’t think they will be making that mistake again.”

“I still don’t understand why any of them thought to try something like that.”  That had been bugging Chadwick the most.  “I mean, they were supposed to be on our side.  So why would they try something so underhanded?”

Saber’s hand went slack in Chadwick’s.  When he looked down, it was to see his mate had once more fallen asleep.  He couldn’t help but smile as Saber started to snore softly.

“Maybe we should have this discussion another time,” Nole suggested.  “Saber needs to rest if he’s going to get back on his feet as soon as possible.”

“Yeah,” Edrick agreed.  “Chadwick may have squashed any uprising for now, but if Saber doesn’t show himself in the next couple of days, I fear there will be another one.”

“They can try,” Chadwick warned.  But there was no way he was about to let anyone take his mate’s right to Chief Council without going through him first.