Page 41 of Tamed Wolf

Then I have to call Beckett and try and rein in my anger enough to be coherent as I recount what we’re going through, what we found, how Lark is, and that we’re going to be bringing her to the Alpha House so that the healer can look her over.

“I’ll meet you guys there. Just let me know when you have an ETA,” he tells me without further questions.

Chapter Seventeen

Brooks, Now

I’ve been told many times throughout my life that I’m too soft to be an alpha. A lot of people told my father that my empathy was something that needed to be trained out of me if I was going to help my brothers take over the pack someday. But right now, as I cradle this woman in my lap and we get her to the healer, it's exactly what she needs. Blake is so pissed that he’s vibrating, and I know that if we weren’t such high profile in the pack, Blake would have murdered those scumbags the second we walked into the club tonight.

“You’re so beautiful, and you’re so strong. I’m so sorry that they didn’t know what they had, I just want to give you everything. I guess we both got dealt pretty shitty hands in the mate department.”

She looks up at me and blinks. “Mate?”

Gods I love how that word sounds coming from her mouth. I know she’s out of it, so I have no idea how much of this she’s going to retain later, but I know I need to keep talking to her like she’s herself. “Yeah, mate. I’ve wanted one for so long.”

“You’d be perfect,” she sighs dreamily. Then adds, “Good dad.”

“Is there anything I can do for you right now as we drive to make you more comfortable?”

“Don’t let go,” she whispers before her consciousness seems to fade away.

“Never,” I whisper as I kiss her forehead.

Maybe some people would think it’s weird that we’re attracted to this woman who is so much older than us, but I can’t really think of age as anything other than a number now that I’ve had a taste of who she is. I don’t even know her much, but my wolf tells me I’d be the dumbest shifter alive to let her go.

When we finally make it to the Alpha House, a few healing assistants bolt outside, ready to carefully bring her inside. Nobody questions why we’re so attached to her, and my dad is there checking everything out, seeing the condition she’s in, which is only going to build a stronger case against her ex-mates.

I stay by her side and hold her hand while Blake passes the stupid syringe to the healer, explaining what we know. Her vitals are all shit of course, but her heartbeat is strong enough that he’s not worried about anything real serious happening immediately.

“Alright you guys, stay with her. I’m going to run some tests and see if I can figure out what exactly is in the vial.”

I can see that Beckett’s just itching to be where I am, so I switch places with him and take Rowan, needing something to hold on to. “You should use some of your sweet baby magic on her. She could really use it, buddy,” I whisper to him as I use him as an anchor, kissing his head and hugging him to me.

I try and keep Rowan calm as we walk around the room, because I can’t bear to walk away and not be here.

Just when my patience starts running really thin, the healer comes back in looking somewhat resigned. “Alright. Her blood work just came back. They’ve administered a lot of that stuff, and her body hasn’t been given what the medication makes her body need. The way these hormones work is that they make the body believe they’re going into heat, but if the brain isn’t willing, or the partner isn’t acceptable, then oftentimes we see a lot of adverse reactions. We use this in packs that are struggling to conceive, to try and kick start a heat or make them arrive sooner so that they can try for a baby, but clearly, it’s being abused here.”

I bite back the urge to give a sarcastic reply, but I'm going out of my mind witnessing Lark in this state. It's wrong.

“Okay,” Beckett drawls. “Can we help her? It's reversible, right? What are the long-term effects? How do we help her through this?”

The healer removes his glasses, pinching the bridge of his nose and exhaling as if he doesn't want to say what he's about to say. “Reversible, if the heat is satisfied. We could potentially sedate her for a few days while her body tries to metabolize everything they gave her, but I worry about adding anything else to her system right now. She could be just fine, or she could react even worse to that course of action.”

I get up nice and close to her, resting my hand on the shin of her leg. The hospital blanket is thin, and all I want to do is pull her out of here and bring her somewhere soft and cozy. “What do you suggest?” I ask him.

“I take it you all are romantically involved with her? I don't say this to be nosy, but in interest of medical pursuit.”

I'm sure by the look on all of our faces he realizes that saying we're romantically involved with her is a stretch, but we're about to be involved any which way if it helps her through this. “What does she need?” I try asking again.

“The best and quickest way to get her through this,” he starts explaining slowly, “is to fully trigger the heat, let her give in to it, and indulge it. If that were to happen, the hormones her body would naturally produce would flush out all the false ones and help her regain balance. And I suspect that with a proper heat, she'd be back to normal as soon as it ended.”

“The problem, Doc,” Beckett says, “is that she's not quite able to give consent to us, now, is she?”

“Maybe not with her human side,” he insinuates, “but you could see if her wolf is amenable.”

We all shake our heads. “Not good enough. If we don't know if she wants this, we can't touch her.”

“What he said,” Blake agrees, nodding his head toward me.

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