Unbound

Chapter 16

Jack's voice gave me everything I needed to face the next day, and the next, and yet another after that. I learned quickly that if I avoided everyone else—which wasn't difficult when they avoided me, too—I didn't have to listen to the gossip swirling about Gabriel and Odette.

I was settling back into the routine I'd established before being pulled away to the Alpha gathering. It wasn't one that I particularly liked, nor was it one I looked forward to repeating indefinitely, but I appreciated the consistency nonetheless. And now, having ripped the band-aid off that first conversation with Jack, I could satisfy my craving for social interaction by calling him in the evenings over dinner.

I also found I'd been right about Aubrey warming up to me: she'd started bringing her lunch back into the storeroom to sit with me while I worked. Though she could be brash at times, I liked her company.

I was making good progress on the inventory that morning, clearing out the expired ingredients and listing them neatly on my pad of paper, when there was a loud commotion toward the front of the clinic. I heard Marie's voice, stern and commanding, then another, low and angry. Gabriel. My body seemed to recognize his voice ahead of my brain. Ice-cold adrenaline shot through my veins and I was on my feet moving towards the hallway before I could think it through. If he was hurt, I needed to get to him.

But Gabriel wasn't the one hurt: his arm was around the waist of a younger male, half-carrying him down the hall. One of his legs dangled uselessly at an unnatural angle. Broken, I was sure. It would need to be set before it healed improperly. I once had to help rebreak and set an arm and wasn't keen on reliving the experience.

The male raged against Gabriel, struggling to get out of his firm grasp.

"Get him on the table," Marie instructed. I used the confusion to slip into the room behind Aubrey. It was only her and Marie on shift, and I thought that this might be my chance to show Marie that I could do more than sort and count.

"Hold him still!" Both Aubrey and Gabriel fought to keep ahold of his flailing limbs. Gabriel bared his teeth, snarling a vicious warning at the male that raised goosebumps across my skin, but it only seemed to anger him further. His eyes were blown-out black. Feral. He was shifting now, halfway between his human and wolf forms, operating on dangerous instinct.

I spun around and sprinted down the hallway, back to the storeroom. Skidding to a stop and dropping to my knees, I tore through my medical bag until I found a packaged syringe pre-loaded with enough sedative to take down a bear.

I raced back to the room and pushed past Gabriel to reach the male's arm. He roared, lashing out just as I slammed the syringe into his shoulder and injected the sedative in one quick movement. He went limp almost instantly, head lolling to the side.

"You're welcome," I said to Marie, defiantly.

"Shit, you're bleeding." Aubrey was looking across his still body at my stomach. Her eyes were wide. I looked down and saw three long slashes through my shirt. The frayed edges of the fabric were rapidly turning crimson where his claws had torn through and bit into my skin. I hadn't felt the wound until I looked at it, but now the searing pain ripped through me without warning.

"Oh." Bile crept up the back of my throat as a wave of nausea overcame me. I normally had no problem with the sight of blood, but something about seeing my own spilling out over my fingers sent me reeling. It was hot where it flowed down my stomach and seeped into the waistband of my pants. I stumbled back and reached blindly for the chair I knew was somewhere behind me in the corner.

Gabriel was the quickest to react, hooking a strong arm around my back and sweeping his other behind my knees to hold me cradled against his chest. I hadn't been expecting to fall, so it took me a second to register why my feet were no longer touching the ground. If I had the mental capacity to respond I'm sure I would have been much more affected by the feeling of his body pressed against mine.

Aubrey was close behind him with a towel and she pressed it against my stomach, hard. I swore.

"Take care of that someplace else," Marie ordered. Moving together, Aubrey and Gabriel carried me up the hall into a clean exam room.

"I can walk," I protested, knowing full well I could do no such thing. Gabriel kept his eyes straight ahead.

When he laid me on the table, Aubrey was already in motion.

"Hold pressure on that for me," she directed Gabriel. He did as he was told, moving to my side and pressing down on the towel. He still refused to look at me and kept his grim stare fixed on the backs of his hands. I curled my fingers tightly around the edges of the table.

"I can do that, you can go." I said through gritted teeth. He ignored me, jaw taut.

"Here, move." Aubrey returned to the room and shooed Gabriel out of the way. She got rid of the towel and cut off what remained of my shirt before spraying my wounds with something that smelled almost as harsh as it felt on my skin. I sucked in a sharp breath and tried not to pull away.

Standing silently beside me, Gabriel reached out and laid a hand on the top of my head. I looked up at him, my surprise at the gesture distracting me momentarily from the pain. I could feel the heat of his palm through my hair and instead of the usual bolt of electricity and nervous energy I felt when I was near him, I almost instantly felt a rush of calm.

"That should stop the bleeding in a minute." Aubrey sounded breathless. "I don't know how this works for you, do you heal like we do?"

"Slower. Wounds this deep will probably take a few days." I closed my eyes, focusing on the warmth of Gabriel's hand, the sense of safety it provided. Aubrey worked efficiently, spreading a thick salve into the open wounds. I bit the inside of my cheek in a vain attempt to keep quiet and tried to concentrate on the sounds of her working.

"No stitches?" I choked out. I heard her shake her head.

"This works just as well for wounds that will heal on their own." When she was finished, she covered my stomach with a sterile dressing and helped me sit up. I winced as the movement sent a fresh wave of pain coursing through my abdomen. He'd only removed it seconds before, but I already missed the weight of Gabriel's hand on me.

"Easy," she said, steadying me when I swayed. "This is going to suck for a while. You need to keep the salve and fresh bandages on it."

I tried to listen to her instructions, but my head was swimming and I could hardly make sense of her words. The adrenaline that had been keeping me going was wearing off and my body was beginning to feel the full extent of the injury.

Gabriel was still standing nearby, his hands balled tightly into fists at his sides. I wanted to reach out to him, to reassure him somehow, but I didn't know what he needed. I was still processing; the fact that he had touched me with such care, even if it was just to offer comfort, was maybe more dizzying than the blood loss.

I needed to stand. Being seated in this position was becoming nearly unbearable. Ignoring her protests, I braced myself on Aubrey's arm and slid off the table with a groan. As soon as my feet hit the tile I knew it had been a mistake. My knees buckled and the room spun, ceiling and floor making a concerted effort to swap places. I tried to blink back the dark black fog that was pushing in from the edges of my vision but in an instant it had swallowed the room whole.

I only very distantly felt Gabriel's arms around me, and only very faintly heard his low voice in my ear: "Rest."