I look him over. His mousy brown hair is a mess, and stuck to the skin on his blood-coated face. My eyes move over him, noticing the healing scratches and claw marks covering his body. He did say he got into a fight with a bear, and I purse my lips turning back to her foot.

“What do you want to do?” Trey asks her, and she looks at him, but turning my head, I see Trey is looking at me, waiting for an answer.

“I guess we’re going to have to yank it out,” I tell him. It’s the only obvious answer. Azalea scrambles back as I pounce on her, and she shrieks.

“No! Get the doctor!” she says, but the doctor is delivering a baby. Trey told me earlier he had sent someone to find him.

“No! Kyson, I can wait! No! Trey, please don’t let him!” she screams when I pin her to the bed. Suddenly, I’m thrown off with a roar and being flung into the dresser.

Shocked, I shake myself, trying to figure out what happened as I glance around. Dazed, I get to my feet to find Trey has shifted. “Fuck!” he curses, shocked, shifting back quickly.

He shakes his head and I can see he’s shocked at his own actions as he looks at his hands. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to...” He looks at Azalea while I observe him wondering what the fuck is going on.

“She screamed, I reacted. It’s her blood… it’s in my system… I’m covered in it… I.” He stutters out while he shakes his head, looking at her. I growl at him, kneeling on the bed and ripping her back to me, then covering her eyes with my hand.

“Put some fucking pants on.”

Azalea struggles against me, trying to escape, and I squeeze her even harder, holding her in place.

“Enough! Stop fighting me!” I command her, and she goes slack in my arms. Yet her tears, I can feel pooling in my hands. Trey retrieves some of my shorts and slips them on from the closet, and I remove my hand that was covering her eyes.

‘Damian, get in here now!’I order through the mindlink before hearing feet on the floor outside. Damian sighs and clicks his tongue as he hurriedly enters, quickly assessing the situation.

Azalea whimpers as I position her on the bed, tucking her between my legs. I shrug my suit jacket off, tossing it aside before rolling my shirt sleeves all while she sits there stuck under my command. Damian looks at her rigidness and his eyes darken before he glares at me.

“Is she under command?” he asks. I nod once. The tone of his voice doesn’t sit well with me, and the outrage behind it is getting on my nerves. “It’s one thing commanding her normally, but she is fucking pregnant!” Damian snarls at me.

“She isn’t in pain. I’m using the weight of it, and that is it,” I tell him and he shakes his head.

“She was moving!” My actions are justified. What else could he have expected? Trey looks away and swallows, clearly also agreeing with Damian. It pisses me off how they always jump to her defense against me.

I pull her against me, waiting for them to move, but they don’t. “Are you being serious right now?” I ask Damian when he doesn’t move. He growls but kneels next to the bed.

“May I?” he asks. “Yes,” she stutters out.

“See, she’s fine,” I tell them.

“She can’t move, only speak!” he snaps back at me.

“She kept fighting me! What the fuck did you want me to do, have her thrash around while we yank it out?” I tell him.

“She is barely fucking eighteen, or did you forget that? She has a nail stuck in her foot, and a raging mate! I would be scared too,” he snarls back at me. “Then, on top of that, you get mad at her for fearing you! What do you expect out of her when your reaction is always anger?” he snaps at me.

“She was fucking reckless,” I shake my head. Why am I even bothering to explain myself?

“Reckless? She went for a walk in the forest. She took someone with her, she never went alone! Do you think she can predict a fucking bear attack? Or a rusty fucking nail going through her foot? You are pissed because she didn’t stay in the castle. Locking her away like a caged bird isn’t how you get obedience, Kyson! How many times do I need to argue this with you? She isn’t going anywhere with your mark on her neck! So settle down! And drop your fucking aura off her! Now! Use the damn calling to calm her, not your fucking aura!”

I can feel her confusion at his words, and I sigh, dropping my aura and her body visibly relaxes and I let my calling slip out andshe melts against me. “Azalea?” Trey whispers before leaning down to grab her ankle to hold it for Damian.

“Use the calling, close your eyes,” he tells her softly and she turns her face, pressing her ear to the center of my chest, and he looks at me and swallows before looking at Damian. I cradle her head to my chest, stroking her hair and numbing her with the calling.

Yet as I watch Trey and Damian figure out the angle to rip it out at, I wonder what’s up with him. He shoves me off her and we suspect him to be the one poisoning her, yet he saves her. He then defends her and I try to rack my brain for an answer. Something is off, and if he didn’t poison her, then who did?

Damian taps my knee and nods to her foot and I clutch her tighter, my other arm going across her shoulders and I can hear her breathing. I see their lips counting down, and at three I flood her with the calling, almost knocking her out with it as they yank it from her foot.

Azalea jerks in my arms but doesn’t scream out, and Damian holds it up to examine it. While Trey checks her foot to make sure it’s all out.

‘You and I will be having a chat,’I mindlink Trey. He nods in acknowledgment at my words but doesn’t look up, instead retrieves a cloth from the bathroom.