She wasn’t allowed to enjoy it long before Clancy jettisoned her body and she hit the wall. The last thing she heard before she blacked out was Demons roar of rage.
As soon as Demon saw Clytie crumble to the ground he knew the fight he’d been having for control of his wolf was lost. Bones cracked and changed, hair sprouted and he grew a foot across the shoulders shredding his clothes. The rage of an animal whose mate had been hurt coursed through his veins and he welcomed it with a bloody vengeance. Halfway between man and beast, he charged Clancy with claws out and teeth bared. His jaw was still expanding when he drew first blood latching onto Clancy’s collarbone and crushing it.
Clancy fought back, teeth flashing, razor claws raking. He swiped at Demons face trying to blind him and missed, tearing strips out of his neck and shoulder instead. He lunged and bit at anything vulnerable but Demon was too fast. He had open wounds bleeding out faster than his body could heal. The fight began to take its toll. He was slowing down. A hardened and vicious fighter he was still no match for an enraged Demon. When Clancy realized he was going to die, he tried to make a run for it. Demon ripped out his spine. Then he started on the rest.
Demon dropped down beside Clytie shaking and covered with gore, but back in his right mind. He was afraid to touch her. She was the only spot in the whole room not splattered with Clancy. He wiped his hands off on the concrete as best he could then reached for her pulse, praying as he did so that her heart still beat. She shifted and groaned and it was the sweetest sound he’d ever heard.
“Oh God, Baby.” His voice was as shaky as his knees, but he carefully checked her over for broken bones, pulling her hair back from her face to study the cut there. There was already a knot forming that worried him. She still wore her panties, but nothing else. He had almost been too late.
Ben came through the door as Demon pulled Clytie into his arms. “I need something to cover her, and make sure the medic Lucas is sending is at the house by the time we get there.”
Ben pulled off his black top and placed it over Clytie like a blanket. She was so small and bloody in Demons arms. “What do you want us to do with the rest?”
Walking into the other room Demon found his team surrounding the four knocked out wolves. It had taken maybe two minutes for his men to shoot them full of drugs and take the house. He wanted to burn the place to the ground with them in it, but pack law was clear.
“Leave them, they can return Clancy to his father, if they can find enough pieces. They’ll be lucky if Gregory doesn’t kill them all.” He looked down at Clytie, the rage in his eyes simmering. “Any other messages I’ll deliver after Clytie is taken care of.”
Clytie woke screaming.
“Baby, it’s me. You’re safe. Clytie you’re home.” His words eventually registered and she stopped thrashing and fell back against the bed. She didn’t realize she was crying until he wiped tears off her cheek. “You’re safe baby.” She turned her head. Demon was kneeling beside her bed. One of his hands brushed her hair back from her face, the other held her cheek, his thumb brushing tears away as they fell. She swallowed, her eyes closed with the effort. Her head, a dull ache, throbbed when she tried to shift. “Clancy?”
His eyes glowed a wolf gold, his jaw grinding tight before he answered. “He won’t bother anyone again.”
She grabbed the hand he caressed over her face. “He heals.” She warned. “I shot him and stabbed my hair clip through his neck, he heals. Fast.”
“Not from this.”
“Demon, his hand was almost all the way off and he healed in a few hours.” She knew she sounded paranoid but she couldn’t help it. Clancy had become a nightmare she would relive every time she closed her eyes.
“Baby, there wasn’t enough left of him to fill a shoe box. He’s gone. He can’t hurt you any more.”
Clytie was not ready to deal with how Demon had accomplished that. She needed to think of something else, and getting clean became a necessity. Someone had wiped her down, the blood was gone, but she needed a thorough scrub before she would feel close to human again. “I want a shower.”
Demon stood, pulling her covers back, he helped her to her feet. She paused holding the mattress until her dizziness passed and the pounding in her head was bearable. Someone, she assumed Demon, had dressed her in one of her few long nightgowns. It seemed strange to be wearing a picture of a cartoon dog when she felt so used up. Demon tried to lead her into the bathroom but she shook his hand off. “I can do it myself.”
“Baby, you can barely stand. The Doctor said you have a mild concussion. You could fall in the shower.”
She stepped away from the bed. When he reached out again she pushed him away once more. “I said I want to do it myself.”
“Damn it Clytie let me help you!”
She moved toward the bathroom steadily, her voice shaky. “If I need help I’ll ask for it. Right now I need a few minutes to myself to think.”
“And I need to make sure you’re all right!”
She turned at the bathroom door, Demon crowding close behind her. “I’m not all right. I was kidnapped, beat, almost raped, and very nearly killed by an insane werewolf, oh yeah and my lover and all his friends probably turn into the same kind of monster and never told me.
I need a shower and time to process. Tomorrow can be about what you need. Right now I'm taking me time!” She slammed the door in his face and locked it.
“Fuck!” Demon roared, feeling as helpless now as when she was in danger and he couldn’t find her.
Clytie heard the roar and cringed but she didn’t relent. She didn’t have it in her right now. Instead she turned on the shower as hot as it would go and used a full bar of soap to clean off the invisible filth that covered her.
By the time she left the shower, the water was cold and she'd shampooed her hair three times, scrubbed her body raw, and cried the whole time. When she left the bathroom sometime later, her hair was blow-dried and her head felt like someone was using it for an anvil.
Demon was still in the bedroom but he kept his distance. He sat in the chair in the farthest corner from the bed. He had closed the curtains and there was a pile of sheets beside him so he must have freshened the bed.
When she looked, she found her favorite pair of pajamas across the foot with soft cotton panties in navy blue. Tylenol and a glass of water sat on the nightstand. His eyes followed her painful process until she had dressed, taken the painkillers, and climbed back in the bed. He stood as soon as she was settled, turning off the lamp and heading for the door.
“Demon.” He paused out in the hall with the door almost closed.
“Yeah Baby?” The tenderness in his voice made Clyties raw eyes tear up again.
“Thank you for rescuing me.” She hugged a pillow to her chest. “He would have killed me if you hadn’t shown up when you did.”
He came back into the room and knelt down on the floor until they were back where they started before her shower. “I know I fucked up Baby. I fucked up and you were hurt, nearly killed. You were kidnapped by the bottom feeders of the shifter world, nearly raped by that piece of shit Clancy and now you probably want to get away from me and mine as fast as you can sprint out of here.” He swallowed hard, pain graphic on his face. “I won’t keep you Clytie, not if you want to go. Just get well first, that’s all I ask. Give me a little time to make you safe. Then we’ll move you back into your place and you won’t ever have to see me again.”
She studied his face, with all that had happened the man she loved was still there. Brutal scar and howling wolf tattoo included. He had a healing claw mark down the side of his neck directly over his wolf that he must have received saving her life. She reached over and petted her hand down his scarred face. “Can you do something for me Demon, well three things really?”
He braced himself thinking she was going to evict him summarily, but he gave the only answer he could. “Anything.”
“In a month or two when this whole incident is behind us will you change for me? I bet you make a beautiful wolf.”
Demon forgot to breathe; afraid he would do something unmanly like burst into tears. He held her hand against his scarred face then kissed her palm. “I can do that. What else?”
