She did her best to stab him back, but the blood loss affected her timing. She managed to punch him in the face and break his nose, but it healed. He shook her like a rag doll, and her vision blurred.
“No!”
She recognized Gray’s voice and Bas’s scent at the same time she fell to the ground.
Watts must have dropped her. She blinked through a haze to see Gray and Bas punching, biting, and kicking at Watts until he fell. They almost had him, and then he pushed past them and put himself between them and her.
“Another step and I’ll crush her,” he slurred, obviously weakened. But he was close enough to do just that.
Gray shocked her by stepping away from Watts. Blood poured down his face from a gash in his brow. Bas looked little better beside him.
“Come on, Colonel,” Gray sneered. “Your pathetic attempt to be like me failed. Again. When are you going to learn you’re just a loser? A human wishing he was so much more. Too slow and too weak. You resort to fighting women? Please.”
Bas took a subtle step toward her while Watts concentrated on Gray’s insults. She didn’t understand why they’d cater to Watts at all. With him nearly dead and threatening to kill her, they’d kill two birds with one stone. Let Watts kill her, then kill him.
“Hold on,” Bas mouthed at her, worry clear on his face.
Were they seriously asking her to believe they cared? She coughed and choked, having a hard time breathing. Blood covered her lips, the coppery taste bitter.
“Fuck this,” Bas muttered and leaped between her and danger at the same time Gray threw himself at Watts.
She didn’t see what happened. Bas held himself protectively over her. Then darkness took over.
“Dammit. Don’t die. Not now. Come on, Ali. Wake up, baby.” The voice wouldn’t stop. Constantly badgering her to wake up, when she just wanted to sleep. “Please. I miss you. I’m sorry. I love you. I swear. So does junior. Bas, I mean.”
She knew that voice. “Gray?”
“I wasn’t lying. Yeah, we were sent to kill you. Al Ross, a supposed mutant who was killing humans,” he said in a rush. She swore she felt fingers over her hair. Familiar scents around her. A soothing voice, calming, entering and passing through her. “When we met you, we knew. Bas and I. We love you. Weird as it sounds. I wasn’t lying about being mated. You’re mine—ours—baby. Wake up.”
She didn’t understand, but her beast prodded her to move. Lying so still was a bad thing. She needed to see Gray. If anything, she needed to make him pay for his lies. And what about Bas? Her beast pushed her to anger. Love and hate, same but different. Not right if they aren’t punished, her beast snarled, stirring her enough to rouse herself.
“Oh, thank God.” Bas’s face came into view as she slowly blinked, trying to process her position in contrast to everything else.
The scent of home penetrated. That and Gray and Bas, so near, together. Her beast purred loudly, and Bas’s smile warmed. His eyes looked wet, as if he’d been crying. Stunned, she could only watch as he wiped his cheek and hurriedly dried his eyes.
“I can’t believe you put me through all that.”
She opened her mouth to answer and coughed.
“Hold on.” Bas left her side and returned with a glass of water. “Some quick answers. Trenton is dead. Watts is dead. We took care of the lab. It’s totally gone now. You’re here, recovering in your cabin with me and Gray.” A look passed over his face she didn’t understand. “We thought you’d be more comfortable here. And no, we didn’t tell anyone where your cabin is located, though one of our contact psychics has an idea about the whereabouts of the place. Guy sees the past, so he saw your great-grandfather build the cabin. Nothing I can do about that.”
“Bas?” She sounded weak. She didn’t like that.
“What?”
“What aren’t you saying?”
He fell silent.
Now that she took a good look at him, he looked leaner, haggard. Worried. “You look like shit.”
He laughed, and his joy made her feel better. “Thanks. First real laugh I’ve had in days.”
She tried to sit up and felt a jolt of pain.
“No, no. Lie still. You’re still recovering from a massive injury.”
“How long was I out? What happened?” Where was Gray? If he loved her so much, where the hell was he? The big liar.
“It’s been a week, and it’s been touch-and-go.” Bas stroked her cheek, his blue eyes impossibly bright. “Ali, I thought you were going to die. I love you. I didn’t say it before because I thought it might freak you out.”
“And you might have to kill me.” She felt better with each breath she took. Hearing the big lug say he loved her didn’t hurt either. But that didn’t mean she trusted him.
“Okay. I know Gray told you the truth. We thought Al Ross was a guy, a mutant or rogue trying to kill, or start an army. When I saw you, I knew I could never harm you. Even before you took horrible, sexual advantage of me, I was in lust and in love.”
“Shut up.” She didn’t want to smile but couldn’t help herself.
“Seriously. My beast knew you right away. You make me feel the way Gray does. Yeah, it’s gonna take time for you to trust us. And that’s okay. But we’re not going anywhere. Not without you.”
Her head started to spin. Bas seemed like he meant what he said. She remembered him putting himself between her and Watts. His worry, his kindness. “All this we talk. So where the heck is Gray?”
Bas frowned.
“Bas, where is he?”
“He’s downstairs in your room under the cabin. He’s been out of it since he used himself to heal you.” He paused. “Without him, you would have died.”
She didn’t understand. “He can heal?”
“No. But it’s different with you and me. Gray’s family comes from a long line of shape-shifters and shamans, apparently. He connected with both of us, and that mental and physical connection allows him to plug in to us, so to speak. He can share his energy to keep us alive, because without us, Gray hurts.” Bas smiled, but she could read his anxiety. “He’s fully healed from the wounds Watts inflicted. Bastard was on death’s door and still nearly tore Gray’s heart out.”
“Oh my God. I need to see him.”
Bas nodded. “Slowly.” He helped her sit up.
She hissed at the pain as he helped her to her feet, his arm around her.
“I know you’re still pissed that we lied. But we didn’t lie about loving you. Gray nearly died to heal you. And he’s not out of the woods yet. After you lost consciousness and he healed you, he’s been asleep. I can hear him sometimes, but he’s growing weaker. Maybe you can talk to him.”
They made their way downstairs, and with each step, Ali willed herself to recover. She still couldn’t absorb the fact Gray had nearly died for her. First killing Watts, then healing her with his psychic crap.
“He really means it,” she whispered.
“Yeah. He does. He’s conceited, bossy, and he’s a know-it-all. But when he commits, it’s all the way.”
They stopped in the room at the foot of the bed. On it, Gray lay still. A blanket was tucked around his waist, but his torso remained bare. No new scar marred his chest that she could see, but his breathing was too slow. His eyes didn’t flicker under his lids. She could barely detect the rise and fall of his chest.
“Okay, you. Wake up.”
Nothing.
She moved closer with Bas’s help and stroked his chest. “All healed up, aren’t you? Don’t think taking on Watts for me relieves you of that problem you have about telling the truth.” She felt tears well, the past connecting with the present. And her sudden future unfolded before her. “You say you love me? Well, prove it. Because if you don’t wake up, that’s just another lie, isn’t it? Wanting a future with me, but you’re too much a coward to face me.”