Everyone's Mate (BoyxBoy)

Chapter 34

Everything faded in and out. The lights were blinding and then all-together gone, like a candle blown out. The ceiling tiles swayed in my vision and I swallowed the blood in my mouth.

I felt my limbs change, felt Riordan do the same above me. I felt the scars of his pressed against me in stark relief, looked up into dark eyes as he worriedly lifted me and held me.

I was limp against him. I felt my arms sag and my chin rest on his shoulder as he sat back on his knees, cradling me, a hand on the back of my neck as one of his brothers took care of the remaining rogues in the room.

A smile graced my features for a fleeting second. His warm scent enveloped me. I felt something viscous drip down my chin, staining Riordan's shirt red.

There was yelling. Screaming, in fact, but the ringing in my ears kept it at bay.

Tears, unbidden, welled up and out. I found enough strength to grasp for Riordan, burying my face in his collarbone.

My mind went back to that night, the smell of whiskey and the taste of him in the morning.

And then it all caught up to me. Too quickly, much to quickly, and the pain with it.

It felt like each of my limbs were on fire, like someone had set the match and flung it at me. I felt cut open, I felt raw, and when Riordan's hands held my face and made me look at him I nearly fell back into that blackness again.

"Aaron?"

Not his voice, but a feminine one. A familiar one.

I turned and with a heavy heart saw Allie sitting up in the bed. She'd ripped the tube from her throat, a bit of blood on her lips, the metal bars of the bed bent and broken in her hands.

We met eyes and Riordan was snarling at her, pulling me behind him as she issued a challenging growl.

Ah, I thought to myself. She's...one of us now. She's...Unmated.

Before the two could fight I stood on unstable legs. Riordan reached for me but I gave him a gentle look. The rest of them were staring, confused, the sounds of gunshots spilling into the open doorway.

Without the ability to make words – my throat had been ravaged during the fight – I made my way to her bedside. Her eyes were golden and her wounds healing rapidly. She was in a lot of pain, I knew, and probably confused beyond belief.

She hadn't asked for this. But in being my friend, her fate was inevitable. It was either death or this, and I'd break all the laws in the world to keep a friend from that.

I'd done this without a thought to the repercussions. And as I saw her awake, breathing, reaching for me, I realized the repercussions could be damned.

I sat on the bed with the weight of more than just my body and her arms found me, wrapping possessively around me as she began sniffing my wounds. She wasn't herself – wouldn't be, for maybe the longest time.

It was the first time in my whole life I'd been thankful for my quirk. She'd be going insane now without it.

I combed a shaking hand through her hair and looked at everyone. She was here now – she wasn't dead. But she might be soon; we weren't safe yet.

Gabriel was cursing, restrained by Alex's hand on his arm, saying something about me never listening to him. Riordan was on his knees, his eyes wide and looking at me.

It was then that Jeremy came closer, raising up a placating hand when Allie snarled at him, her hands gripping me with the strength only a newly turned wolf could muster.