SWNOVELS Chapter 39
Chapter Thirty-Nine
My hands shake as I unclasp my bra. I fumble with the straps and I know my face is bright red when I finally shove my panties down. I step out of them and stand there.
Cam's eyes are gold. Eric's eyes are gold.
"Lift your hair please," Dr. Glass says.
She walks around me, examining me from all angles.
This isn't a purely clinical analysis... at least not for Cam and Eric. Their scents carry to me, both men wanting me, and I can't help that my body responds to it-which of course, they can scent too.
And so can the doctors.
Dr. Lee covers his mouth, no doubt to mask his amusement.
Dr. Glass reveals nothing. Her skin is smooth and lineless. As she steps closer to me, I expect her scent to be astringent, or maybe I'm just projecting that for how cold she is, but she actually smells like wildflowers and summertime.
The Alphas stare at me.
Cam's breathing is heavy. Eric opens and closes his hands, his muscles rippling along his forearms.
Their gazes rake over me, as intimate as a caress. My breasts grow heavy. My thighs weaken. My nipples tighten as they watch.
I'm naked. And on display.
My every reaction is a visible feast for their senses.
And though vulnerable, there is something powerful about this too.
They want to touch me.
So when the doctor does, it makes me jump.
"This," she taps my back. "What is this?"
The faint ring of that white fur circle shows as a brown blotch in my human form. Not this again. "It's nothing, just some mark that appeared a few years ago," I tell her.
Like the thicker ass and thighs, and my once straight hair that now has some curl to it.
"Shift," she commands me. "Now."
I look at Cameron. He shrugs.
Eric shoves his hands in his pockets. "Probably a good idea," he says. Like me shifting will help him keep his hands off me.
I call to Nala.
She's happy to comply. My back arches and bows as my true form emerges. It doesn't take long.
I sit back on my haunches, like a good little wolf. The thought annoys me.
Nala stretches and preens.
She likes the attention.
Nala processes everything with different sensory capabilities. The scents are so much richer, layers of pheromones and desire, adrenaline and rage. The coffee and bits of fruit that spilled on Eric when Cam tumbled him over the table.
The detergent on Cam's clothes which is the same from our childhood.
Clean sweat and desire.
Dr. Glass probes my shoulder, studying that patch of light fur. She glances sharply at Eric. "Did you know about this?"
The implication is clear. He should've seen it.
Cameron growls.
I growl too.
Eric took care of me. He defended me and helped care for me when my wounds wouldn't heal.
"She's moon-marked," Dr. Glass says.
The three men in the room share a look, but it doesn't seem like any one of them knows what that means. I've never heard that expression before.
She crosses to the drawers and cabinets at the corner of the room, pulling them open and rifling through until she finds a syringe.
Then she goes to Ashley's bedside, slaps the luna's arm a few times and inserts the needle. It's not the nicest blood draw I've ever seen, and for certain, this doctor's bedside manner could use improving.
When I see the full vial of dark red blood, she turns back to me.
Nala snarls. Neither I nor my wolf, like where this is going.
"You're a Seer. The traits are passed in the matriarchal lines, manifesting after childbirth."
What now?
"Her mother is dead," Cam says.
"What does that matter?" she replies. "The gift is from the Goddess and passed down in the genes."
I scoot back when she approaches me with the needle. I bare my teeth.
Finally the doctor shows a hint of emotion. Her eyes light up and her mouth curves on one side. "It's just a little pinprick. You've had worse from these two brutes, I'm sure," she teases.
From too clinical to too personal, in warp speed.
My wolf head swings from side to side. No. I snarl again lest she think I'm consenting to this.
I'm not.
I growl louder, as if to say, get that fucking thing away from me.
"What will happen to her?" Cam asks. He's not okay with this. I know he wants to intercede, but he hasn't yet... which also angers me.
"She is linked to you. And you to Ashley. Ashley's blood will complete the bridge...and Mia will see."
"No," Cam says.
"See what, exactly?" Eric glances between my wolf and the doctor.
He wants answers, and I'm curious how far he is willing to go to get them.
This is a violation of my body. My will.
"Don't shift back," she tells me. "It's easier to cross the planes in our true forms."
She speaks...almost as if she has experience.
"No!" Cam argues again. He starts toward me. Eric does too.
"We'll find a different way," Eric says.
That gives the doctor a second's pause. But seeing their intent to stop her, she plunges the needle into me.
Cam and Eric freak out and lunge for me. But it's too late.
"Enough!" the doctor says. "She needs to see."
It's cold.
That's my first reaction.
Then... it burns.
Maybe it's the force of the blood being forced into my tissue. Maybe it's the fact that Ashley's blood is tainted-spelled in some way, and now, what... That dark magic is in me!?
I bite the doctor's hand, not caring anymore.
I draw blood.
She jerks her hand back, making me maul her worse. But she doesn't cry out. She nods.
"Follow the path," she tells me.
What path?
I'm in the medical building of Healmsworth pack. Two Alphas and two doctors stand before me.
There is no path.
Nala is angry. I'm furious.
There is nothing to see.
And so help me Goddess, if she infected me or did something that is going to hurt my kids, I will tear her throat from her neck.
I snarl and brace to lunge at her.
Cam tenses. To help me or restrain me, I'm not sure.
Then my vision tunnels.
I howl.
I'm helpless, and scared.
There is no path. Just the light collapsing around me until I'm consumed by darkness once more.
Cam and Eric are screaming but they're too late.....
When I open my eyes, I'm human. But I'm in that place.
That other realm.
It's not the familiar setting of the lake or the woods of our packlands where I came with Cameron. This landscape is completely different. It's a place I've never been before. Mountains loom in the distance. Covered with snow at their peaks and hillsides so densely covered with forests, it's like a green blanket swaddled around the snowcaps.
The land is bright, alive with blooming flowers and knee-high grasses and a trickling stream. It's pretty. The sun shines above.
But when I glance over my shoulder, the darkness is there, like a storm on the horizon, looming.
"Did you come here to finish me?" It's Ashley.
She wears a simple white dress. Her hair is swept up in a ponytail and she looks younger, softer, almost innocent.
"I don't want to be here at all," I reply honestly.
She sighs.
"You need to wake up," I tell her.
"For what? More war?" She sits beside the creek and plucks at the long strands of grass.
Part of me pities her. She's alone. Dying.
Separated from her child.
"You have a daughter, who's sick-"
"Don't you dare speak of my daughter!"
She lunges at me with more strength than I expected and I catch her before she can gouge my eyes.
We roll and scrape for purchase. I manage to pin her down and I'm through being nice. "What's to stop me from killing you, Ashley? You destroyed my life!"
She cranes her head to try and bite my wrist and I jerk back. I refuse to play her games; I'm done being a victim.
"An eye for an eye, Mia."
What? What is that supposed to mean?
I roll away from her and she stands slowly. She moves to the edge of the water and stares out, but there are only the mountains in the distance and the darkness behind us.
This place...whatever it is, there is no escape.
A chill traipses up my spine.
I don't want to be here. I don't want this woman's blood in my veins.
What's worse... I don't know how to get back.