"You're welcome, Chairman Gruber." I hung up the phone and smiled. I'd gotten more than I'd expected from the call.
Now, I had to pray the Council didn't ever connect our Den with their rogues.
(Apologies to Quentin Tarantino for the dialogue abuse)
Ch. 21
Nathan Storm's POV
Sunday, September 9th, 2007
Pain.
Pain pushed through the fog in my brain, the sources competing for my attention as I started to wake. My headache was legendary, like the worst hangover times ten. My chest and left shoulder were equally bad, a feeling like knives stabbing me with every labored breath.
Nothing could compete with the loss I felt in my soul. Half of my heart was gone, the emptiness confirming my worst fear.
My mate was gone.
I began to pray as my head cleared. I could have begged Luna to take me, and I should have prayed for her to take Carol's soul to rest, but I didn't. I prayed for our baby. I had to know what happened to our little girl. Did Carol live long enough to deliver her? Did the Council Enforcer kill them both? And why was I still alive?
A daughter would give me hope, a reason to continue living after the death of my fated half.
I could sense the smells around me. It smelled like gasoline, alcohol, antiseptic, and bears. I recognized Georgina and Julie's scents and relaxed. Our friends had saved me.
The vibration and road noise told me I was in a vehicle. I tried to move, quickly stopping due to the pain in my chest spiking. It didn't matter; I could feel the leather cuffs and straps.
"He's waking up," Georgina said. I felt her hand on mine as she tried to calm me.
"Good," Julie said from above my head.
I opened my eyes, closing them again in the light. Georgina dimmed the lights for me. On my next try, I kept them open. I saw two identical faces, though. "Ugh," I moaned. I looked between them before my eyes closed again.
"You got your bell rung, boy," she told me. She pulled my eyelids back one at a time, shining a light on them momentarily. "The bullet bounced off that thick head of yours. The other went through your left lung and broke a rib on the way out. You damn near bled to death."
"Nore...uh..dead." My lips felt like the desert, and my throat was sore.
She put a few ice shards in my mouth. "I had to intubate you, so try not to talk. When my family arrived, the wolf already left with Carol. He had a big head start. Stanley decided to save you."
"Ba..by."
"I don't know. Nora lost a lot of blood at the scene, and we are a long way from town. You lost her bond?" I nodded. "I'm sorry, Nick."
I didn't say anything as she completed her exam. She let me go back to sleep, waking me every hour to check on my concussion. I'd fall back asleep as quickly as I could, welcoming the escape from the pain.
I barely stirred as they rolled the gurney inside. The scent of cat shifter was strong as unfamiliar hands picked me up and set me in a bed. "Rest, young rogue," a female voice said. "Georgina? We need to talk."
The flashlight in the eyes and the blood pressure cuff on the arm kept me from getting good sleep until midday. The sun streamed into the bedroom, illuminating nothing. There were no decorations on the wall, no shades on the one window, and no evidence of an owner. All I saw was the white dresser, bedside lamp, white rocking chair, and a bed with white sheets. My legs and wrists were free now, but my chest hurt like hell if I tried to move around. "Hello?"
I heard someone walking my way. The door opened, revealing a middle-aged werecat of Vietnamese ancestry. "You're awake," she said. "That's good. My name is Isra Roberts. Welcome to my home."
"Nathan Storm," I replied. "Where am I? Where is Georgina?"
"We're on the west side of the Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming. Georgina and Julie went back home. Georgina said your name was Nicholas, but the Packs used your true name," she said. She sat in the rocking chair and considered me. "No need to hide your identity now. The Packs think you are dead."
"How do you know that?"
"There is an encrypted message board us independent Were use. Rogue wolves, werecats, werecoyotes, and werebears all have needs. The online community gives us a place to help each other outside of the humans and the Packs. Health care, safe houses, identifications, and news are all posted there. When Julia contacted me privately, I agreed to hide you until you recovered."
I could have used that information. "Why didn't Stanley tell me about you all?"
"You were so hot you were radioactive," Isra replied. "The Packs were going to every independent Were they knew about to find you. The den decided they were risking enough by knowing you. They weren't willing to endanger anyone else."
I had to ask. "What happened to my daughter?"
"I'm sorry, Nathan," she said as she reached for my hand. "Your mate died in childbirth. Your baby girl didn't survive until morning." I sobbed, sending stabbing pains through my chest. "The Council Chairman himself informed Stanley earlier this morning. As far as the Packs are concerned, Stanley's Den burned your body and disposed of your car. They also emptied your home, burning your possessions. They only kept the foodstuffs and the cash you had stashed."
"They can have it," I replied. "There's nothing left in Great Falls for me. They should have left me to die in that ditch."
"My father taught me that misfortunes never come singly," she replied. "You have suffered a terrible loss, Nathan. Your heart aches, but your death would only grant your enemies victory. Who will carry the memory of Carol if not you?"
Who would avenge my family if not me?
No one.
I was the only survivor. Alpha Todd deserved death a thousand times over. I could not kill him from the grave.
"Your father was wise," I said.
"He was, but my misfortunes came in bunches as well. The Vietcong killed my parents, my older brother, and my grandmother. I was four, all alone in a Catholic orphanage. I was there for almost two years until 1970. Sergeant Frank Roberts sniffed me out when bringing food to the nuns. He and Betty Roberts adopted me and brought me to Wyoming."
"You're a shifter," I said. "What kind? You aren't a jaguar or a mountain lion."
"Clouded Leopard."
My eyes got wide. "Seriously?"
She nodded. "Only a handful of us remain, and only two in the United States."
"Your mate?"
She shook her head sadly. "Our kind do not have mates. My adoptive father was a soldier and a mountain lion shifter. His wife was human; she died of cancer in 1987, and he died in a car accident a few months later."
"Who is the other cat I'm scenting, then?"
"My daughter was here until last week. She is a student at Stanford studying computer science."
I nodded. "And the father?"
"He's a mountain lion shifter in California I used during my heat back in eighty-five. He's not in the picture."
I'd heard about heats among the jaguars. When a female was in estrus, the other cats and even humans would go crazy. The pair would head out to the middle of nowhere for a few days of constant sex because fights would break out otherwise. "You have heats like the jaguars?"
She nodded. "They are SO painful without a partner to help you through. My adoptive father could have helped, but that would have been too weird. I wanted a kitten, so I would leave and hook up with lion shifters until my heat passed. That one took, and Jade was born. She was a breech, and I might have lost her without Georgina's help." I heard a timer going off in the other room. "I'll be right back," Isra said. "You need to eat to heal and regain your strength."
My stomach growled at that exact time. Isra smiled and left the room, leaving the door open. I could smell baked bread and stew, and I was drooling when she returned with the food. She set the tray on the dresser before going to the closet and pulling out a bunch of pillows. "This is going to hurt, but you need to sit up so you can eat," she said.
It hurt a lot while she helped me scoot up the bed, but being able to feed myself from the bed tray was worth it. The bread was warm and soft with a good crust, while the beef stew was tender and flavorful. "This isn't a Vietnamese dish," I teased.
"I grew up eating cowboy food," she replied with a small smile.
"It's great." We talked about her life as we ate. She had someone to talk with, while I was happy talking about anything except the void in my heart.
