Lover Awakened

It wasn't until Z nodded that the doctor administered a shot. When the tension in Bella's body eased, the doctor took out a pair of scissors and went to the bottom of the bloodied nightgown she had on.

As he lifted up the hem, Z felt a red rage. 'Stop!'

The doctor braced himself for a blow to the head, but all Z did was meet Phury's stare and then Wrath's. 'Neither of you is to look at her naked. Close your eyes or turn around.'

Both stared at him for a moment. Then Wrath offered his back and Phury lowered his lids, though he kept his hold on Z's chest strong.

Zsadist stared hard at the doctor. 'If you're going to remove her clothing, you cover her with something.'

'What shall I use?'

'A towel from the bathroom.'

'I'll get it,' Wrath said. After he handed one over, he resumed his post facing the door.

Havers spread the towel over Bella's body and then cut the nightgown along one side. He glanced up before lifting anything. 'I'm going to need to see all of her. And I'm going to have to touch her belly.'

'What for?'

'I have to palpate her internal organs to determine whether any are swollen from trauma or infection.'

'Make it quick.'

Havers pulled the towel aside—

Z swayed against his twin's hard body. 'Oh… nalla.' His voice cracked. 'Oh, sweet Jesus… nalla.'

Something was scratched into the skin on her stomach in what looked like three-inch block letters in English. As he was illiterate, he didn't know what it said, but he had a horrible feeling…

'What does it read?' he hissed.

Havers cleared his throat. 'It is a name. David. It says 'David.»

Wrath growled. 'In her skin? That animal—'

Z cut his king off. 'I will kill that lesser. So help me God, I will chew on his bones.'

Havers inspected the cuts, his hands light and careful. 'You must see that no salt gets anywhere near these. Otherwise the scars will heal as is.'

'No shit.' As if he didn't have experience with how wounds became permanent.

Havers covered her up and went to her feet, inspecting them and then her calves. He pushed the nightgown out of the way as he went to her knees. Then he moved one of her legs out to the side, parting her thighs.

Z surged forward, dragging Phury with him. 'What the fuck are you doing!»

Havers whipped back his hands, holding them up over his head. 'I need to perform an internal exam. In the event she has been… violated.'

With a quick move, Wrath stepped in front of Z and clamped his arms around Z's waist. Through the sunglasses, the king's stare burned. 'Let him do it, Z. It's better for her if he does.'

Zsadist couldn't watch. He dropped his head down into Wrath's neck, getting lost in the male's long black hair. The hard bodies of his brothers were sandwiching him, but he was too horrified to panic at the contact. He squeezed his eyes shut and breathed deeply, the scents of Phury and Wrath invading his nose.

He heard a rustling noise, as if the doctor were searching around in that suitcase of his. Then there were two snapping sounds, as though the male were pulling on gloves. A shifting of metal against metal. Some whispering noises. Then… silence. No, not really. Little noises. Then a couple of clicks.

Z reminded himself that all lessers were impotent. But he could just imagine how they made up for the deficiency.

He trembled for her until his teeth chattered.

CHAPTER 8

John Matthew looked across the Range Rover's front seat. Tohr was preoccupied as they went deep into the rural part of Caldwell, and though John was scared to meet Wrath, the king, he was more worried about all this quiet. He couldn't understand what was wrong. Bella had been saved. She was safe now. So everyone should be happy, right? Except when Tohr had come home to pick John up, he'd wrapped his arms around Wellsie in the kitchen and stayed there a long time. His words, low and in the Old Language, had come out of what sounded like a choked throat.

John wanted to know the details of what had happened, but it was hard to pry in the car in the dark, what with him having to sign or write. And Tohr didn't look like he was into talking.

'Here we are,' Tohr said.

With a quick swing to the right he shot them onto a cramped dirt road, and John realized he suddenly couldn't really see anything out the windows. There was an odd haze to the wintry forest around them, a buffering that made him vaguely nauseous.

From out of nowhere a huge gate materialized from the foggy landscape, and they skidded to a halt. There was another set of gates right beyond it, and as they entered the space in between, they were caged like a bull in a cattle chute. Tohr put down his window, entered some kind of code on an intercom pad, and they were free to go out the other side into a…

Jesus, what is this?

An underground tunnel. And as they headed down into the earth on a steady decent, several more gates appeared, the barricades getting more and more fortified until the last one. This was the biggest of them all, a shiny steel monster that had a high voltage sign smack-dab in the middle. Tohr looked up into a security camera, and then there was a clicking noise. The gates slid apart.

Before they went forward, John tapped Tohr's forearm to get the man's attention. Is this where the Brothers live? he signed slowly.

'Sort of. I'm taking you through the training center first and then we'll go to the mansion.' Tohr hit the gas. 'When classes start you'll come here Monday through Friday. Bus will pick you up in front of our house at four o'clock. My brother Phury's on site, so he's covering the early classes.' At John's look, Tohr explained, 'The compound is all interconnected underground. I'll show you how to access the tunnel system that links the buildings together, but you keep it to yourself. Anyone who shows up uninvited somewhere is going to have a serious problem. Your classmates are not welcome, you feel me?'

John nodded as they pulled into the parking area he remembered from a night long ago. God, it felt like a hundred years had passed since he'd come here with Mary and Bella.

He and Tohr got out of the Range Rover. Who will I be training with?

'A dozen other males about your age. They all have some warrior blood in their veins, which is why we chose them. Training will last through your transitions and then quite a while afterward, until we think you're ready to go out in the field.'

They walked up to a pair of metal doors that Tohr opened wide. On the other side was a corridor that seemed to go on forever. As they went along Tohr showed off a classroom, the gym, a weight room, then a locker room. The male stopped when he got to a door made of frosted glass.

'This is where I hang when I'm not home or in the field.'

John walked in. The room was pretty empty and very unremarkable. The desk was metal and covered with computer equipment, phones, and papers. File cabinets lined the back wall. There were only two places to sit, if you assumed flipping the wastepaper basket over was not an option. One chair was standard-issue office equipment, over in the corner. The other was behind the desk and hump-ugly: a ragged, avocado green leather monstrosity with dog-eared corners, a sagging seat, and a set of legs that gave new meaning to the word sturdy.

Tohr put his hand on the thing's high back. 'Can you believe Wellsie made me get rid of this?'

John nodded and signed, Yes, I can.

Tohr smiled and walked over to a floor-to-ceiling cabinet. When he opened the door and punched in a series