Omega Phoenix: Provoked

Her Shifter Harem’s Babies 4

Layla Heart

Omega Phoenix: Provoked (Her Shifter Harem’s Babies 4)

Copyright © 2021 LAYLA HEART

Copyright © Easily Distracted Media

All rights reserved. No part of this story may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without express written permission of the copyright holder.

This book contains sexually explicit content which is suitable only for mature adults.

Cover Design by Easily Distracted Media

ISBN: 9789493139428

NUR: 343

Edition: 20210815

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Blurb

Cyra finally has all her mates back, but now they have to fight to make it through the rest of Cyra's pregnancy alive…

After weeks of being in hiding with two of her Alpha mates, griffin Spence and centaur Liam, not knowing where her other two Alpha mates, hydra Zack and cerberus Max, are or if they’re even alive, the five mates are finally reunited. Though things haven't gotten much easier since then.

From the moment Cyra agreed to attend the Night Gala with Max and Liam, and running into Zack and Spence at the party, everything seems to have gone wrong in her life.

She’s been hounded by the paparazzi. Her parents have been spreading lies about her in the media, including that she supposedly has already been promised to another Alpha. Two of her mates have been kidnapped and sent to the other side of the world. And they’ve all been attacked, multiple times.

Now, at ten weeks pregnant, Cyra is about to fight her toughest battle yet. Not against her parents, or the media, or society at large, but against the kidnapper of her mates. An Alpha phoenix who is convinced that Cyra, the first Omega phoenix in generations that the world knows about, belongs with her, and she’s already proven the lengths she’ll go through to get Cyra for herself.

The whole world watches as Cyra fights for her life, for her mates and her family. As Cyra does everything in her power to make sure that they have a future, that their struggles from the last couple of months haven’t been for nothing.

She shows the world that it's dangerous to underestimate an Omega, especially an angry Omega phoenix. She shows them that she won't stop until her family can finally live in peace, no matter what she has to do to get it.

This is the fourth and final book in the Her Shifter Harem’s Babies series, a paranormal Omegaverse reverse harem #WhyChoose story. This book may include any of these elements: steamy scenes, ‘I need tissues NOW’ moments, cries of ‘why, oh, why’ and cliffhangers that make you bite your nails (and curse the author).

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Author note

I’m not a US or a UK author and this story does not take place in the US or the UK, so it will use a mixture of both. Most of the spelling and grammar will be in UK style, but a lot of US slang is used.

I want to specifically note that the spelling of griffin is used over the spelling of gryphon, and cerberus is spelled without a capital at the start because it’s used as a noun to describe mythical three headed dog creatures and not used as a proper name.

Thanks!

Happy reading!

1

Cyra

The roofs of the buildings under me are nothing more than dark grey shapes as I shoot over them, my only focus the Alpha phoenix in the air in front of me.

She doesn’t notice me yet, still focused on Zack and Spence, trying to keep them off her. But the shifters she’s taken with her to attack us have definitely noticed me.

On my right, a dark form speeds towards me, but as I pull more of my energy inside me, the colour of the fire of my wings intensifies, becoming almost white in some spots. I’m aware of the heat of the flames, but it doesn’t harm me, it just makes me angrier than I already am.

I turn my head towards the shifter, some type of gargoyle, and I open my mouth. A ball of fire shoots towards the gargoyle, the ball so bright that it’s almost too bright to look at. The gargoyle quickly ducks out of the way and my ball of fire flashes past them, dissolving into nothing a few moments later. Oh, damn. I hadn’t actually planned to do that, it was an instinct. But it’s still pretty damn cool. Sadly enough, it won’t be useful against the Alpha phoenix...

My pregnancy has made me tired all the time. But right now, I don’t feel any of it. It’s like the babies are giving me extra energy to fight, to protect my family, or maybe it’s because my family is in danger that I can find some extra source of energy. I don’t really care which it is, I’m grateful for it.

After the ball of fire, and the heat surrounding me, the other shifters don’t seem to be in any hurry to attack me. So I fully focus back on the Alpha phoenix, who finally seems to have noticed me too.

Good.

Let’s hope that we can settle this quickly. Because I’m getting really tired of always being on the run and having to fear for my life. Really tired. This has to end.

Fury builds inside me. I can’t believe that the Alpha phoenix would do this, attack us right now, while we were doing an interview on international TV.

Hasn’t she done enough to hurt my family yet?

Hasn’t she put us through enough yet?

Why is she so set on getting me for herself?

So much so, that she’s willing to kill everyone I know to get to me. And I don’t doubt that if she still can’t get me that way, she’ll kill me too, just so someone else can’t have me instead.

And it has to stop. It has to stop right now. I’m going to make her stop, one way or another. I’m not letting her hurt anyone else anymore. Her reign of terror ends here.

This ends here.

Speeding towards the Alpha phoenix, I open my mouth on another screech. To warn Zack and Spence to get out of the way, to tell the Alpha phoenix off, to let out my frustration.

As the distance between us shrinks, I stretch my claws out in front of me, focused on grabbing her. Rip her to pieces in the air. Anything to hurt her, to make her stop.

At the last moment, she jerks to the side and my claws only manage to scratch one of her wings. The fire of her wing licks my claws, but has no other effect on me.

I swoop around, readying myself for another attack. I’m not used to fighting like this, but that doesn’t stop me, not even a moment.

When I turn back to the Alpha phoenix, she’s suddenly close, much closer than I expected her to be. She drops down from above me and I’m too late to duck out of the way.

She grips my shoulder with one of her claws, right where it meets the wing, and pain shoots through my body, setting all my senses on edge.

Fuck.

No.

I try to turn, try to make her let go, try to scratch at her with one of my claws. But she only holds onto my shoulder tighter and brings up her other claw to get a better hold of me.

Then, as I’m trying my best to get away from her, someone slams into her from the side. I get jerked to the side roughly, my shoulder screaming from the pain, and I have to focus to not accidentally shift back. But it’s enough to loosen the grip of the Alpha phoenix, and I finally manage to get out.

The moment I’m out, I’m in a freefall. The roofs of the building below me coming closer at a frightening speed. Fear shoots through me until instinct kicks in and I spread out my wings. The force as the wind catches under my wings and pulls on the wound in my shoulder nearly makes me black out from pain. Fuck.

When I look up, to find out who saved me, I spot Zack a little while off. From this close, I see the bleeding gash in one of his necks and how there appears to be a hole in the skin of part of his wing. Anger flares through me.

No.

No!

They can not hurt my mate. They can’t.

I won’t let them.

I frantically look around, trying to find the Alpha phoenix, and spot her higher up, looking down at us. Before she can decide the next part of her plan, I force my wings to fly me higher as quickly as I can, ignoring the pain in my shoulder. She won’t get away with this.

The fights around us become a blur as I only focus on the Alpha phoenix. Nothing else matters anymore. Nothing.

I need to take the Alpha phoenix out, or this is never going to end. She’ll just keep coming for me, until I put a stop to this. Until I really stop her.

Changing my tactics, I push myself up as fast as possible, making myself as small a target as possible. I’ll do anything, anything to win now.

Shooting upwards, I don’t focus on where I want to hit her, but I focus on the middle of her body. No matter which way she tries to get out of the way, I should be able to reach some part of her like this. I should be able to hurt her. Once I wound her enough to force her to land, this should be much easier.

When I’m close, she tries to dive out of the way at the last moment, but I know that I made the right calculation as I manage to get a hold of her wing. Fiery feathers and some bones snap in my beak, making her screech out in pain.

Only, at the same time, fire shoots down my side and my hip as she rakes her claws down my body. For a moment, I worry about my babies. She can’t hurt them! I can’t let her hurt them.

No!

Now, my focus becomes very narrow. Only one thing left in my mind. I need to stop her. No matter how.

Once I’m above her, I turn around and drop on top of her, my claws outstretched. I manage to grab hold of one of her wings, digging in to make sure she can’t get out, and then I simply close my wings, letting the both of us drop to the ground. It’s a desperate move, but I don’t know what else to do.

Our combined weights pull us down faster and faster, the world around us becomes one big blur. I’m slightly aware of shifters screaming out in alarm, but I can’t get distracted now.

The Alpha phoenix tries to get out of my grip, but I’m not letting her go. Her struggles become desperate in my claws as she realises what I’m doing.

Above us, the sounds of alarm get harsher, anguished, and I have no idea who they’re from, but I also don’t have the luxury to check. How this action will end depends on a split-second decision and I can’t miss it, or this will all be over for good, for both of us.

When the roofs of the buildings are scarily close, I suddenly let the Alpha phoenix go, her forward motion propelling her towards the roof, while I open my wings and manage to soar over the edge of the roof, scantily missing it.

My sight goes white from the pain going through my body, but I manage to stay conscious as I put distance between me and the Alpha phoenix. I’ll take a look at my wounds later, I need to protect my family first.

I glance down, and with a sinking feeling I watch how she has managed to open her wings too, slowing some of her fall. But one of her wings doesn’t look right and she doesn’t really move it. She lands on the roof roughly, the force of the movement making her sprawl in the gravel, fire bouncing around her. But, with a wing like that, she can’t come after me in the air anymore.

Then I glace around me and I feel sick when I see the fights going on. Spence is doing his best to fight off a gargoyle, maybe even the same one who attacked me earlier, and Zack is in hand-to-hand combat in the air with another hydra. The other hydra isn’t as large as Zack, but Zack is hurt and can’t defend himself as well as he’d normally be able to.

This needs to stop. This really needs to stop!

I turn back around and fly down to the rooftop where the Alpha phoenix is standing, pushing her beak against the hurt wing, testing for the extend of the damage to it. For a moment, I almost feel pity for her, the sorry state she’s in.

Then I remember that she wants to hurt my mates, my family, just because she wants to take me as her Omega, and if she can’t have me alive, she’s happy enough to kill me just so that nobody else can have me either.

Which is... That’s just sick. How can anyone think to claim that much possession of another’s life? It’s not right.

The Alpha phoenix looks up at me, her eyes flashing with fury and then she opens her beak, letting out a ball of fire and a loud screech in my direction.

I soar to the side, just barely missing the ball. It’s not that the fire would hurt me, but the force behind it would still push me off-balance, and it’s painful enough to fly in the state I’m in already.

As a reply, I open my mouth and shoot a ball of fire at her, then, a split second later, I soar after it. Hoping to get closer to her so that I can take her out once and for all. The ball of fire in front of me moves fast and I can’t see anything ahead of it. I’m hoping and trusting that I shot it in the right direction and I didn’t just do something dangerous.

I get closer and closer to my target, the roof suddenly appearing underneath me. Almost there.

Then, the ball of fire suddenly seems to fizzle out against an invisible barrier.

Panic shoots through me. Not good.

For a split second, I notice the Alpha phoenix behind the barrier, sprawled out on the ground in a strange position, slowly shifting back to her human form, her fire fading away.

What the fuck?

I try everything I can to not crash into the invisible barrier, but it’s too late.

The crash against the barrier is more painful than anything I’ve ever experienced before. My whole body impacting against something that feels like the side of a mountain, even though I can’t see anything.

I fall on my back on the gravel roof, my whole body hurting now.

While I’m still trying to clear my head, trying to understand what’s happening, I hear soft sounds a little while off. And then two small pricks of pain on my back, and my body goes numb.

What?

What’s going on?

I try to move, try to look around, but it’s no use as the world around me goes dark, until the last thing I can see is the blue sky above me, before that disappears too.

One moment, I was fighting the Alpha phoenix, my body filled with fire and anger, and the next moment, it was all gone. The next moment, there was nothing...

Emptiness.

Darkness.

2

Max

Confusion and fear battle inside me as I’m trying to make sense of what just happened.

Cyra and the Alpha phoenix were fighting, first in the sky, and then after an anxiety-inducing action from Cyra, they were fighting on the roof. But, suddenly, they seemed to have both disappeared, their flames no longer visible from this distance. And my eyesight isn’t good enough to see their human forms from here.

What’s going on?

Liam and I couldn’t really do much during the battle, apart from cheering them on and hoping that they wouldn’t get hurt too much, since we can’t fly, so we couldn’t fly out of here and mix in with the others.

After taking down the handful of shifters who did come into the building, we’ve only been able to watch what’s going on in the sky.

After Cyra saw that the Alpha phoenix was fighting Zack and Spence, she couldn’t stay out of it. Her fury made her fire burn so bright that there’s not much flammable left in the path between where she was standing before and the window through which she left the building. We all had to quickly get out of her way, and I still managed to scorch some of the fur on my side from standing too close. Damn...

The fight between Cyra and the Alpha phoenix seemed to drag on, but in reality, it didn’t really take that long. My heart tried to break out of my chest and I nearly jumped out of the room to protect her when I saw how Cyra grabbed the Alpha phoenix and plunged them both towards the ground.

I held my breath tightly, until I saw Cyra soar past the other end of the roof, and my heart beat like crazy after that. That was so fucking dangerous.

Then I got distracted as Spence was attacked by a gargoyle. Even from this distance, I could see how the gargoyle dug their claws into Spence’s side. One of Spence’s legs was hanging at his side oddly and the fur on his leg was turning dark really quickly.

I took my eyes off Cyra and the Alpha phoenix for only a few seconds, and suddenly they were gone. They were fighting one moment, and the next moment they seemed to have disappeared.

I try to focus all my heads on where I last saw Cyra and the Alpha phoenix, but it’s no use. I take a step forward, only to realise that I’m almost stepping out of the building. Fuck.

“I can’t see shit from here,” Liam growls at my side and I jolt away from him, too focused on what was going on outside and forgetting where I was.

I shift back into my human form and reach out to him. “We have to get to them. We have to get closer.” My voice is rough. “We have to find Cyra.” The urge to find her is getting stronger by the second.

Then I glance around and find Maeve staring out to the fight in the sky, her eyes wide as she’s holding Gavin tightly to her. Her tears are close to the surface and I realise that Dec isn’t here with us.

I scan the air in the direction she’s staring and find Dec’s blue dragon form in an intense fight with a fire dragon. Dec is much smaller than the fire dragon, but he’s also faster and seems to be able to hold his ground, or air, I don’t know.

Then, from the corner of my eyes, I notice movements on a nearby rooftop, and two shifters drop out of the air, like stones.

“Fuck.” Liam’s voice is tight. “Shifter enforcement. Someone called them. That’s what must have happened to Cyra.” He eyes me. “We have to get down there. We have to...” He swallows hard, panic setting in his gaze. “We have to get to her.”

But before we can move, men in black outfits burst into the room, their weapons focused on us.

I quickly put my hands up, and Liam does the same while Maeve stills, holding Gavin close to her, as the little one bursts out crying. He’s been really good the whole time, but he’s obviously had enough of everything now.

The men in black look around the room, and as I follow their gazes to the shifters scattered around the room, bile rises in my throat. Crap. This doesn’t look very good for us...

“On the floor. Hands above your head.” One of the men in black shouts and I try to comply as best as possible, my wounds making it hard to move.

Then I hear a shot and next to me, Liam slumps to the ground.

What?!

No.

No!

Anger flashes through me as I glare at the men in black and I throw myself between the men and Liam. My skin ripples, my cerberus ready to break out and protect Liam. I try to suppress my cerberus, not wanting to get shot too, but it’s a losing battle. Between not knowing what’s going on with Cyra, Spence being hurt, and my family being in danger, I can’t suppress him any longer.

Then there’s the sound of another shot, followed by a pinch in my back, before the world around me goes dark.

Fuck.

Not good...

The white hospital room feels way too sterile for the storm of emotions fighting inside of me. Everything is wrong. Nothing is right.

I stare at Cyra’s unconscious form, her skin pale, almost the same colour as the sheets she’s lying on, between the quickly darkening bruises that cover her whole body. She looks so close to death, way too close to death. I can’t lose her. I really can’t, not after everything we’ve been through. Not now our family is finally reunited.

I lean closer to her, reaching up with my good arm. I wince as I pull a muscle on my bad arm, but then push through the pain and softly touch her cheek, needing to make sure her skin is still warm, that she’s still alive. Her chest goes up and down in calm movements, but somehow that doesn’t ease the fear.

I want to scream and cry at the same time. I want to hurt someone, anyone, like they’ve hurt my mate, my love. But all I can do right now is sit here and wait for her to wake up.

“Please, sleep for a while longer, just a while longer.” My voice is barely above a whisper as I try to keep my emotions in check. “So you won’t have to...” I swallow hard, blinking fast. So she won’t have to face reality yet.

Out of all of us, it seems that I got off the easiest. I needed stitches in my shoulder and back, but nothing too bad. I’m sore, but that’s about it.

Liam just got out of surgery. The jaguar who attacked him luckily hadn’t hit any major arteries or organs, but his side was shredded and they had to perform surgery on him to get as much of it back together as possible.

They said that his blood loss from the wounds was much more dangerous than the initial wounds had been. The only thing keeping him up during the fight had probably been the adrenaline. Hell.

Right now, both Zack and Spence are still in surgery. Zack has broken bones that have to be reset and he’s also lost a lot of blood. Plus, they have to treat the burns on his side, which looked pretty bad when I saw him for a few moments earlier.

But Spence...

My throat closes up and tears blur my sight. I don’t want to remember how he looked when I saw him as they rolled him right into surgery as he arrived at the hospital. What I’ve understood of things, it’s not good. He got hurt really badly, and they’ve been trying to stitch him together for the last two hours, but I have no idea how that’s going.

And soon... Soon, they’ll come to take Cyra into surgery too. When she arrived, they took a couple of scans of her, to make sure the babies are okay. The good news is that the babies look to be fine, but the doctors don’t like how some of her wounds look, and they want to make sure that the wounds down her side didn’t hit anything important.

They quickly cleaned her up, but they now want to wait for her to wake up first, before they do more. The way she’d apparently crashed into a force barrier when they caught her makes the docs worry that there might be more damage than they can see on scans right now. They don’t want to put her through surgery two or three times, for her and the babies, so they’re letting her wake up first.

I wish she’d wake up already, just to let us know that she’s fine and the doctors are worrying over nothing. But I also don’t want her to wake up yet. I don’t want her to experience what’s going on right now. The uncertainty, the pain, the stress. I don’t want her to have to go through that.

I don’t want her to have to go through waiting on news about Spence. Not knowing if he’s doing well. Not knowing what’s going on with him. Please, let her wake up when we know that he’s going to be fine, that he’ll pull through. He has to pull through.

Staring at Cyra, my only light in this darkness, I try to convince myself that everything will be okay. It has to be. The only way to make sure I don’t do something stupid is to keep my attention, all my attention, on her. She’s the only thing keeping me here.

If it wasn’t for her, I would have hunted down the Alpha phoenix and finish what Cyra had tried but failed to do earlier. But I can’t, not now, not when she needs me.

A shadow falls over me and I glance up. Audrey is standing on Cyra’s other side, her eyes dark, her lips squeezed together tightly, tears brimming in her eyes.

My heart hurts, fear taking hold of me. “Any news?”

Audrey came as soon as she saw what happened on TV and she’s been trying to keep everything together for us. She’s been the one talking to the doctors, to the nurses, the police, to anyone.

She slowly shakes her head. “No news.” Her eyes flit to Cyra’s face as the tears drop from her lashes and slide down her cheeks. She takes a shuddering breath.

“Then, what is it?” I frown at her. Not sure about her reaction.

She takes Cyra’s hand, holding it tenderly. “It feels like it’s taking too long. Cyra not waking up. Spence’s surgery. It’s all taking too long.” Her voice breaks and she clears her throat. “Too long.”

I nod. “I know.”

Then the door to our room opens and Liam is pushed inside. His bed is parked opposite Cyra’s. He still looks a little out of it, but he’s awake. As soon as they’ve parked him, he looks around, awkwardly meeting my eyes, his gaze filled with panic. “How is she?” He tries to look at Cyra, but I suspect that from his angle on his back on the bed, he can’t see her well. “Is she okay?”

With a groan, I carefully push myself up and drag myself over to him. My lifelong best friend, one of the few people I’d trust to always have my back, one of the few people I’d give my life to protect. “No change yet. She hasn’t woken up.”

“That’s bad, right?” Liam frowns. He moves and looks about to push himself up so that he can look over to her.

I thoughtlessly shoot out my arm, trying to prevent him from sitting up and hurting himself more, but the arm I reach out with is the one that’s hurt and I feel how I pull too hard on the stitches.

The sudden pain and then the wet sensation spreading over my back lets me know that I’ve pulled at least one of the stitches. My head feels a little too light and I sway slightly before I grab hold of the side of the bed, managing to remember to do it with my good arm. Fuck. Not good.

Liam meets my eyes, alarm flashing through them, and his good arm shoots out to me, grabbing my good wrist. “You need to get that checked out. Don’t wait.”

“I’m fine.” I take careful breaths, breathing through the pain and the lightheadedness. “I’m fine. I’m just... I’m just staying with Cyra until they take her in for surgery.”

I carefully walk back to the chair where I was sitting as my head swims from the new pain and exhaustion and I sit down, my eyes back on Cyra. As soon as I sit, darkness seems to overwhelm me for a moment, the lightheadedness not seeming to go down, but I ignore it. That can wait.

I just need to stay at Cyra’s side until she’s awake. I can’t leave her side. Of all of us, I’m the least hurt. That means that I need to be the one looking out for our family, looking after Cyra. I just need to hold on a little longer.

Just a little longer.

3

Liam

Everything is a little fuzzy around the edges, mostly from the painkillers, which is probably good, as I’m very aware that I’m not doing very well... Once the fuzziness wears off, I’m not sure that I want to actually deal with the pain I’ll be in.

My side is one big canvas of stitches, just like my insides. The doc said that I was lucky that the jaguar hadn’t hit anything important, but that I was going to have to be really careful for a long time, as the jaguar had shred just about everything else, flesh, muscles, anything like that.

Me turning to Cyra the exact moment that I did, to tell her to flee with Maeve, was probably what saved me from worse injuries. If the jaguar had jumped on me just a little further up my side, he would have done a lot more damage, potentially lethal damage.

The wound hurt like hell, and when the shifter enforcement burst into the room, I was starting to lose grip on reality from blood loss. And then I wasn’t quick enough with getting through my knees...

Between the pain in my side overwhelming me and the dart they shot me with, I don’t know which of the two actually took me out, but it was probably a combination of the two.

A Beta male nurse comes into the room, checking up on Cyra and then on me. He moves efficiently, having read the room and realising that making chitchat right now would not be appreciated.

I try to glare at Max, to make him tell the nurse about his pulled stitches, but no matter how much Audrey and I glare at him, Max is just staring in Cyra’s general direction, ignoring us. That won’t do, not when he’s looking white as a sheet.

“Nurse?” I try to get the Beta’s attention, as he’s about to walk away, after having checked my vitals. “Could you check on Max? I think he pulled some stitches.”

That gets a response from Max and he glares at me, his gaze deadly dark, though it’s not as impressive at the moment when he looks about to keel over. “Mind your own business.”

“You are my business.” I glare back at him. “You can’t just walk around with a bleeding wound. You’re no use to any of us like that.”

“It can wait,” Max deadpans and he gives the nurse a dark look.

But the Beta isn’t intimidated by it and walks over to him. “Take your shirt off, I’ll take a look. If it’s nothing, you can stay here. If you need stitches, I’ll get someone to do it.” His voice is no-nonsense and I suspect that Max isn’t the first Alpha he’s encountered who’s being difficult, probably not even the first one today.

Max stiffens for a few moments, but then he carefully takes his shirt off. My stomach churns when I see the large bandage on his shoulder and back, and it’s not just the size that makes me queasy. The whole piece is soaked in blood, enough that there’s a small trickle of it going down his back.

Oh, damn. That can’t have been just one stitch that he pulled...

“Okay.” The nurse’s voice is short, clipped. “You’re coming with me. Someone needs to redo those stitches. And, after that, you’re not allowed to walk around anymore. You’re going to have to stay in bed. You’ve already lost a lot of blood, you need to rest, not walk all over the place.”

For a couple of moments, I expect Max to fight, tell the nurse to fuck off, but when he sluggishly stands up, his steps are uneven and his face pales, before he has to lean on Cyra’s bed to not fall. Fuck. Max is really not doing as well as he’s trying to pretend.

I meet Audrey’s eyes and see the same worry in her gaze. Fucking hell... Max is great at pretending to be fine, but he’s really not okay right now.

Once Max and the nurse have left the room, Audrey comes over to me, her eyes on me serious. “How are you?”

I try to shrug, but a shot of pain through my body makes me stop. “I’m fine. I’m not going to do anything stupid. I’m just going to stay here and try not to move too much.”

“Good.” Her voice is quiet and she looks at Cyra, pain in her gaze obvious. “Fuck. I wish she’d wake up already. The longer she takes to wake up, the worse things might be. If she’d just wake up...” She worries her lower lip between her teeth, trying to hold herself together.

I nod, which is apparently a movement I can still do without too much pain. “Do you... Do you know how Dec and Brian are doing? And Maeve and Gavin? Where are they?” My voice is raspy, but I’ve not heard about any of them yet.

Audrey stills, not meeting my eyes as she bites on her lower lip.

“Audrey?” Alarm shoots through me. “What is it?”

She shakes her head, like she’s trying to get her thoughts together. “Brian is... He’s in one of the next rooms. He’s hurt, but he’ll be okay.”

“And Dec?” My heart sinks. He was fighting a big fire dragon when I last saw him.

She quickly blinks, pulling up one shoulder as she takes a shuddering breath. “They don’t know yet. He... He got hurt badly. They got him stable but...” She swallows. “It’s not clear yet how bad it is. We’re still waiting on more news.”

Oh, fuck. My chest constricts and I move too quickly when I try to cover my face with my hand, and I let out a groan. Fucking hell. Dec has to survive. He has to get through this. If it wasn’t for me going to Maeve’s family for help when we fled from the apartment, he wouldn’t have been here. He has to make it, or I’d never forgive myself.

Audrey’s voice comes through the stream of thoughts. “Maeve and Gavin are with him right now. Maeve is fine, just a few scratches, and Gavin is being fussy because he doesn’t like being here, but that’s all.”

I nod, and when I don’t say anything else, Audrey goes back to Cyra’s side.

Cyra still hasn’t woken up, but at least she’s stable. Her wounds aren’t life-threatening, just not good. Which sounds ridiculous, but knowing that she’ll be fine, even though she looks on the doors of death is what’s getting me through this.

But Maeve doesn’t have that, she doesn’t know if Dec will be okay, or what their lives will look like if he does make it. That uncertainty... It hurts. Knowing that without me, they wouldn’t have been here, they would still have been safely at Maeve’s clan’s village. And even though it’s because of me that they’ve been in any danger at all, I’m not able to help them. I feel so useless. So fucking useless.

The door to our room opens and Zack’s brash voice comes through it. “Well, I could let you sign my cast, if there’s any space left...”

Oh, fuck. I groan. I so do not want to deal with that asshole right now, not when he’s like this. Just hearing him is already getting on my nerves.

Then he’s pushed into the room. As soon as he passes through the door, the grin disappears from his face and he looks worried, tense. He looks at me and then Audrey and then the still form of Cyra on her bed. He frowns and it almost seems like he’s about to get up, but he can’t.

His eyes shoot to me, a range of emotions passing behind them. He looks like he wants to say something, but he doesn’t seem to be able to find the words. It’s interesting how quickly he can go from playboy to overprotective mate.

“She’s not woken up yet.” I push the words out, even saying it hurts. “They’ll take her in for surgery as soon as she does.”

He keeps glancing in Cyra’s direction and then around the room. “Where are Spence and Max?”

“Max is getting his stitches redone, he pulled some of them open. Spence...” I swallow. “He’s not out of surgery yet. We’re still waiting on news.” Spence is a fierce fighter, but he really did get badly hurt. He kept fighting even after one of his back legs started to hang unnaturally, but I have no idea how much they’ll be able to fix...

“Liam?” A quiet voice comes from Cyra’s bed. “Zack?”

She’s awake!

Cyra is awake!

My heart skips a beat and I unthinkingly try to sit up. My whole body objects and the best I can do is to lean on my good arm for a few moments before I ease myself back onto the bed.

“I’m here.” I suppress a moan of pain. “I’m right here.”

“Me too.” Zack’s voice is rough. “We’re here. How are you feeling?”

“Everything hurts.” Cyra’s voice is strained. “Where are Max and Spence?”

Audrey has started to flutter around Cyra’s bed, probably trying to do her best to make her comfortable.

I meet Zack’s eyes and he’s the one who replies. “They’ll be back soon. You rest now. Everything will be okay.” He tries to sound soothing but even from here, I spot the worry in his eyes. “Do you remember what happened? Anything important?”

For a moment, I’m confused, but then I remember what the docs had said earlier. That if she does wake up, no matter how tired she is, we should try to keep her awake until the doctors are able to run tests on her. Just as a precaution.

Cyra falls quiet for a while, and then she speaks again, her voice unsure. “Zack? Where are the others? How are they doing?” She seems to start to panic slightly. “Are the babies okay?”

My stomach drops. This is not good. Not good at all.

“I’ll go tell a nurse that you woke up.” Audrey’s voice is quiet as she stands up. Then, as she passes me by, there’s a deep worry in her eyes.

As we wait for Audrey to return, Zack answers Cyra’s questions, keeping his voice light and carefree, trying to not let his worry show. This is bad, really bad.

Pretty soon, Audrey comes back with a couple of nurses, who are all looking very nervous and they quickly take Cyra away without any words to us. That sets me on edge even more.

What’s going on with Cyra? How bad is this? How bad is her asking the same questions multiple times in a row?

And why is it taking so long for Max to come back? It can’t be that hard to put a couple of new stitches into the guy, can it?

When the shifter enforcement showed up, I thought that things would be okay from now on, but everything seems to have only gotten worse.

And on top of all of it, I can do jack shit about it.

The most frustrating thing is that I feel like I need to do something, but I can’t. I’m stuck here, waiting on news about the people I care about, unable to help anyone, and it’s just so frustrating.

4

Cyra

My whole body hurts. I don’t think there’s any part of my body that doesn’t hurt right now.

I slowly become aware of my surroundings.

I’m in a quiet room in the hospital. For a couple of moments, I need to wrack my brain to remember what’s going on, why I’m here.

Then I remember getting attacked during the interview and trying to take out the Alpha phoenix. And then there was something and then everything went black. I’m missing a lot of time between those moments.

But no matter what I try, I can’t seem to remember anything. And the more I try, the worse the pain in my head becomes, so I stop.

I have a flash of maybe having been awake earlier. But it’s unclear. I have the impression of a different hospital room, people who care for me and who I care about. But as I try to get the picture into focus, the pain in my head spikes and the image becomes dream-like, like I might have seen it in a TV show or something. I don’t know. Maybe I just made it up, or I’m mixing reality and fiction.

I close my eyes again, too tired to stay awake for much longer. If I sleep, I’ll remember everything better later. I’m just too tired, and the pain in my head doesn’t help.

The next moment, someone is talking to me, something about some surgery, that I’m doing well, and that the babies are fine. I nod. Of course, I was attacked, they probably had to stitch me back up. That makes sense.

Then they ask me something and I have no idea what they’re talking about. It’s like their words don’t even make sense.

I wish my mates were with me. They would be able to make sense of all of this. When will they let me see my mates again?

The person asking me questions seems to be worried about something, and suddenly more people show up. Now there are more questions and they start to poke and prod me. Can they just stop?

I think I mumble something about wanting to go back to sleep, and they don’t like it.

Well, fuck them. I want to sleep. I’m tired.

It’s like I’ve only closed my eyes for a few moments, when they start asking questions again. Can’t they just let me sleep for a few minutes? Just a few minutes.

Then, finally, they seem to give in and I’m rolled to a different room. Finally.

As we’re going down the hallway, I suddenly hear my name being called out. “Cyra!”

“Max!” My voice is rough, but when I see him coming over, my heart seems to light up. He’s here! I’m not alone, not anymore.

Max exchanges some words with the doctors or nurses, I don’t know, I’m just tired and I’m so happy that he’s with me finally. I catch one word, ‘concussion’, but I don’t really know how to place it, not really sure who that is about. Do I have a concussion? Or maybe someone else? Does Max have a concussion? That’s not good.

“Max.” My throat feels weird as I try to speak. “What’s going on?” I open my eyes, but it’s not easy to really focus on anything.

“I’m here. You’re going to be okay. We’re all going to be okay.” His voice is rough and soothing and then he takes my hand and I finally manage to focus on him. His eyes are dark with pain and worry and he doesn’t look good. “We’re all going to be okay.” He repeats the words, then he looks to the people around me. “I’ll just come with you.”

I close my eyes, relaxing now Max is with me. If he’s with me, it will okay. I’ll be okay. He’ll protect me. He’ll take care of me. If he’s here, everything will be okay.

“Stay awake, please.” Max’ voice is low. “Don’t fall asleep. Can you tell me how you’re doing? What did the doctors say about your surgery and the babies?” There’s a tightness to his voice and I open my eyes, trying to focus on him. Then I notice that he’s at a strange height.

“Why aren’t you taller?” He doesn’t move like he’s walking. He’s constantly at the same height, but really short, like he’s sitting or something.

Max flashes me an exhausted grin. “They want me to stay in a wheelchair, that way I ‘can’t overdo it’, according to the doctors. I’m not so sure about it.” His smile makes me smile too.

Then a pang of worry goes through me. “Where are the others?”

“They’re staying in a different room.” His voice is tight and I see him glance to the doctors, like he’s upset with them. “The doctors are keeping you in a special room for a while, just to make sure you’re okay. But one of us will always be with you. Don’t worry.”

“Okay. Thank you.” It’s good that I won’t be alone. I’m so tired and everything hurts. I don’t want to be alone. Being alone is scary. Nothing makes sense anymore and that’s scary.

As we roll down a hallway, I stare at Max, at the fact I can only see his shoulders and head, which is odd. Hospital beds aren’t that high. If he’s walking next to the bed, he should be much taller. He’s very tall. Him being so low makes no sense. “Why are you so short?”

Max looks away for a moment, something passing over his face that I can’t catch, it’s too fast. “The docs put me in a wheelchair so I won’t exhaust myself too much.” His voice is measured, but I don’t know why.

Something is bothering him about me asking why he’s in a wheelchair, but I don’t know what it is. I want to ask him more, but I don’t seem to have the energy for it. I wish they would just let me sleep again, if I’ve slept for a couple of hours, I’ll feel better. I’m sure of that.

When I wake up, Audrey is sitting next to the bed, dozing off, her head on her chest. The room is dim, and I notice that it’s really quiet. Unnervingly quiet.

“Audrey?” My voice is rough, but it seems to immediately wake her up.

“Cyra.” She sounds so relieved and she immediately turns to me, taking my hand. “How are you feeling?”

“Everything hurts.” I swallow hard. “Where are the others?” I want my mates. I love to see that Audrey is okay, but I really want to see my mates. I need to make sure that they’re okay.

I almost start to cry just from how much I suddenly miss them. I need my mates.

“They’re in one of the other rooms.” Her voice is tight, strange. “The doctors just wanted to keep you under close supervision for the time being. Make sure that you’re okay. You’ll see them again soon.”

I nod, pain shooting through my head and I groan.

“Does your head hurt?” Audrey’s voice is tense.

“A little. Do you have...” I let out a long breath, trying to make sense of the world. “Do you have something to stop it?”

She nods. “I’ll ask one of the nurses. Anything else that you need?”

“My mates?” I try to laugh. It’s the truth. Then I move and my hand falls over my belly, my growing belly, and panic flashes through me. “The babies? How are the babies? Are they okay?” Did they get hurt during the fight?

Audrey puts her hand over mine, her voice calm as she smiles at me. “They’re doing well. They’re doing really well. They’re perfect.”

“Okay.” I let my eyes wander around the room. “When are the others coming back? I want to...” That’s all it takes and suddenly I’m sobbing. Too much pain, too exhausted, everything is too much.

I try to keep it under control, but I don’t seem to be able to and every shock through my body sends waves of pain after it, making everything even worse.

“Cyra. Cyra. Love.” Max’ voice is nearby and then his hand is on my shoulder, holding me awkwardly. “Cyra.”

“Max.” I sob, reaching out to him and trying to cling to him. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” His voice is low, rumbling, calming. Then he moves away slightly and the next moment I feel a straw against my lips. “Try to drink something, that should help with the headache. You’ll feel better after eating and drinking something.”

I wet my lips and take a couple of sips through the straw. Then I look at him and see that he’s at a strange height. He’s not standing next to me, but he’s sitting next to me, but not on the bed. He’s sitting next to the bed. “Why are you sitting so far away?”

He glances up and when I look up, I find Audrey next to me, but before I can say anything to her, Max is speaking. “I got put in a wheelchair because the docs think that it will stop me from pulling open my stitches or doing anything else I’m not supposed to do.”

“Stitches?” I frown, trying to look him over, reaching out to him, though it really hurts my side and shoulder when I stretch too far. “Where? Where are you hurt?” My voice skips and I feel my heart race. “Where did you get hurt?”

Max takes my hand between his and kisses my knuckles. “Just on my back. It’s not very serious. It just needed some stitches. I’ll be back to normal in no time.” He gives me a soft smile. “How are you feeling?”

“Tired.” I look behind him, out the small window, though apart from the sky I can’t see much. “I just wish the others were here too. I don’t want to be alone.”

“You won’t be alone.” He kisses my knuckles again. “And the others are nearby, but since they’re all kind of stuck in bed, they sadly enough won’t be able to visit you.”

“How are they? I remember the fight, but not much else.” Then a flash of Zack and Spence getting attacked goes through my mind and I gasp, my heart suddenly beating fast, panic going through me. “Are they okay? How are they?”

“They’re fine.” Max’ voice is steady. “As soon as the docs allow it, you’ll be able to come to the same room as the rest of us.”

“Okay.” My breathing is still harsh, my heart finally slowing down a little. “I just want everyone here. I don’t want to be alone.”

“You won’t be alone. I promise.” Max comes even closer. “You’ll never be alone again.”

“Okay.” I wish my voice didn’t sound so weak, but between my head pounding like my brain is trying to break out of my skull and feeling exhausted, I don’t have much energy at all. “I just wish they were here already.”

“I know.” Max smiles softly. “That will happen soon enough.”

I close my eyes, just wanting to go back to sleep. Sleep is so good right now. Maybe my brain will stop trying to escape from my skull if I sleep a little longer.

Then I realise something and I open my eyes again. “Why are you sitting in a chair next to the bed? Why won’t you just climb in bed with me? That way we can cuddle. I’d feel better that way.”

Max blinks, then answers carefully. “I’m in a wheelchair. I don’t think the docs would be very happy if I climbed in bed with you. We’ll have to wait for the docs to give the okay before we attempt that.”

I blink back at him. Definitely feeling like I’m missing some piece of information. “Why would they do that? Why can’t we just cuddle?” It feels so unfair.

I need my mates. I need them so much. And now somehow the doctors won’t allow us to cuddle? That feels so unfair.

“Why?” My voice breaks. “I just need you. You’re the only one here. I don’t even know where the others are. I need you.”

I need them so much. The world is a confusing place, and the only place that I feel safe is when I’m with them.

I love them. I need them.