Page 51 of Brick

Brent rolled his neck in frustration. “Come back to headquarters. Make sure you’re not followed. Meet me in my office. I’d like to make you my new number two.”

There was a pause, and Joey said, “Thanks, Brent. We’ll be back shortly.”

The call ended and Brent rubbed his eyes. He was tired. So damn tired. But he was not going to give up. He’d come to Northern Ohio for a reason and he was going to finish the job. The wolves might have used witch magic to protect their borders, but they couldn’t stay there forever. He’d figure out a way to get to them, starting with the high ranked ones and their women.

He rose to his feet, too on edge to stay seated, and paced the length of the dimly lit office. He was determined not to let the beasts’ small victories deter him. Three setbacks were nothing compared to the vision that burned in his mind of a world free of shifters and their supporters. Humans were supposed to have dominion over beasts, and he was going to ensure that happened.

He was angry at the failure tonight, at losing people, but the war was going to rage on. He would regroup and recalibrate, using Joey’s expertise in warfare, and strike the wolves again. Harder. Smarter.

One way or another, the wolves would perish.

Jade woke to the soft hum of medical equipment and the sterile scent of antiseptic. She opened her eyes and found herself staring at a white tile ceiling with dappled sunlight dancing on the surface.

Brick leaned over her. “Jade, you’re awake! You’re in a clinic that’s run by our pack doctor. He’s been taking care of you. Doc!”

She tried to move, but everything ached. Not terribly, but badly enough to make her wince and freeze. Brick noticed her wince and said, “You’re still recovering. Lemme move the bed for you so you can see.”

There was a whir of a motor and the head of the bed slowly lifted. She found herself in a hospital room. Sunlight poked around the edges of blinds that covered a window on one wall. She frowned. How much time had passed? It had been nighttime when they’d been on the way home from their double date.

Cinder!

“Is…is everyone okay? You? Cinder? The baby?”

Brick gave her hand a squeeze. “I’m fine, and Cinder and her baby are too. And Adam, hell, everyone is okay. You were the only one we were worried about.”

A male wearing a polo with the Whalen Family Clinic logo on the pocket and a stethoscope around his neck walked in. “Nice to see you’re awake, Jade. I’m Doc, and I’m not only the pack doctor, but I also run the clinic here. How are you feeling?”

“Confused.”

He smiled. “I’m sure it’s disorienting. Brick can fill you in on everything that happened, but I’ll tell you the medical things. You came into the clinic unconscious last night. I ran bloodwork and discovered you’d been injected with a drug called Lupios7. It’s a synthetic compound created by some very unsavory people in a lab in another country and it’s actually illegal to have it in the States. It attacks a shifter’s heightened metabolism and nervous system and suppresses the ability to shift. It inducesunconsciousness and lingers in the bloodstream for hours. You would have eventually regained consciousness without my intervention, but you were dosed with a high concentration of the drug, and my guess is it would have been a half day or longer.” The treatment had been two-fold: he’d had Brick donate plasma, which he’d used to bolster her natural healing and help her body neutralize the drug, and then he’d used a saline solution with an herbal compound that included milk thistle, which accelerated toxin breakdown.

The IV was still in her arm, the bag nearly empty.

“You’ll need to stick around until the drug is completely gone from your body, probably a few hours from now.” He walked to a counter and returned with a bottle of blue electrolyte drink. “This will help replenish what you’ve lost. I’ll check on you in a little while.”

“Thanks, Doc,” she said.

“Thanks,” Brick said.

Brick opened the drink for her and she took a few sips before putting it back on the small table next to the bed and settling against the pillows with a sigh.

He kissed her hand and breathed out shakily. “I thought I was going to lose you, sweetheart.”

“It’s a blur,” she said. “What happened?”

He told her about rescuing her from the anti-shifter group’s attack, learning that Foley had targeted her to use as bait to lure him to his death, and how Foley had taken out his own people after the police had taken them into custody.

“Holy crap,” she said. “He’s really crazy, isn’t he?”

“Yeah, and dangerous.” His eyes got bright and his brow furrowed. “Jade, I’m so sorry.”

“For what?”

“You could have been taken from me. You could have died. I said I’d keep you safe and I failed.” His voice got low and rough at the end and she could see him struggle with emotion.

“You didn’t fail.”

“But—”

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