Talia pecked Damon's lips a few times, and she moved to straddle him on the bench.
Damon scooted lower slightly so she could sit on his crotch, which swelled already. He was eager to feel her right there. Preferably without clothes.
Damon wrapped his arms around Talia as he deepened the kiss with a growl. He loved when she initiated any type of intimacy.
The best feeling was when her body pressed against his while their flavors mixed, and Damon was careful not to apply too much pressure because he didn't want to risk harming their baby.
Damon knew they were in the garden, and someone might see them, so he didn't go beyond caressing Talia's skin under her blouse. But it was torturous.
"How about we take this upstairs?" Damon spoke into her lips.
Talia released a shaky breath. It's not that she didn't want to, but weren't both of them exhausted? Or maybe they could take it slow? Before she could respond, an angry shout reached them.
"Damon!"
It was Caden.
Caden didn't care that Damon and Talia were making out on a bench in the garden. "What did you do in the Shadowbite pack?"
Damon groaned in frustration when Talia moved away from him, but he didn't let her stand up.
"Nothing," Damon responded grumpily. How did Caden know they went there? Damon's strategy was to deny and investigate later. "How can I be on the other side of the country when I'm here, in the garden, with my mate?"
Caden cocked an eyebrow. "Don't bullshit me. The two of you teleported about half an hour ago."
Damon cursed under his breath when he realized... Keith. That snitch!
Well, there was no point in denying it further. "Sure, we teleported. What about it?"
"What did you do there?" Caden continued pressing.
"Why do you think we did anything?"
Caden narrowed his eyes at Damon. "Because I just got off the call with Alpha Silas. He told me a wild story about intruders, strange winds, Olivia's mate dead, and Olivia missing. Do I need more to know you were there?"
"That's all circumstantial evidence. It doesn't mean it was us."
Caden couldn't believe this! Was he talking to a grown man or with a child? "You can't go around kidnapping people."
Damon shrugged. "I'm not admitting to anything, but it wouldn't be the first time." Didn't they technically kidnap Talia? And look how well that turned out.
"This is different!"
Talia had enough. She was already stressed and hormonal, and she was having a moment with Damon! They were about to go up for some sexy time, but Caden came and ruined it!
"That was NOT kidnapping," Talia said. "I wanted to visit my friend. I found out she was abused to the point of her wolf suffering and her mate assaulted her right in front of me."
Caden wanted to say how they have no right to meddle in the internal affairs of another pack, but if he said that after Talia's story about abuse, it would make him look like an asshole.
"Where is she now?" Caden asked.
"If you must know, she is in the pack hospital, fighting for her life," Talia responded.
Caden's eyes widened. "In OUR pack hospital?"
"Did you expect me to turn a blind eye when someone is hurt because she dared to have a guest?"
"You don't need to tell me how bad the situation is there," Caden said to Talia. "However, the universal rule is that one can leave a pack amicably only to follow their mate."
Talia looked at Caden sternly. "Get your facts straight, Beta Caden. Olivia denounced her pack before she left with us, and she broke the mate bond before we killed Luis. That means Olivia was an unmated female who didn't belong to any pack before she stepped into the Dark Howlers pack. As for killing that violent buffoon, it was in self-defense. The only thing they can pin on us is trespassing. Assuming they can prove it was us, give them some compensation, and we will be done with it."
Damon looked at Talia with sparkles in his eyes. His kitten was brilliant!
"Trespassing?" Caden asked in disbelief to what both Damon and Talia nodded.
Caden needed a moment to process this. Damon and Talia went there, killed a person, and took away another. How can that be reduced to trespassing? But his Alpha and Luna were united on this matter, and his objections would be wasting his breath.
He still had to say, "We can deny this. However, if they confirm Olivia is here, it will blow out of proportion."
Damon smirked. "Why would they blow anything when we took in a stray she-wolf?"
"You will deny you were there," Caden said in disbelief. "Is our story that Olivia killed her mate, avoided their patrols to escape their territory, and crossed two thousand miles without being discovered until she reached out pack?"
"Sounds good to me," Damon said, and he looked at Talia. "What do you think?"
Talia confirmed without delay. "That's exactly what happened. The journey was so strenuous that the poor girl is recovering in our pack hospital."
Caden looked at Damon and Talia helplessly. So far, he had to deal with Damon's unpredictable behavior, and instead of stabilizing him, Talia was adding oil to the fire. What a headache.
Olivia was drifting in and out of consciousness, and her mind was swimming.
Somehow, there were hazy images of Talia showing up with a guy she called her mate, then Luis hitting her, and she broke the bond… Did that really happen?
But, if the mate bond was gone, what was this pleasantly prickling feeling on her right side? It was just like when she met Luis and when he held her before he took her to the Shadowbite pack.
The haze consumed her, and this time she could hear rhythmical beeping. Was this the pack hospital in the Red Moon pack? While growing up, Olivia would fall asleep on a free hospital bed while her father tended to his patients.
Olivia wondered if all that was a dream.
Maybe she never went to the Shadowbite pack. Maybe they were still in the Red Moon pack, and Luis was treating her nicely, and she was looking forward to a bright future. Or maybe she didn't meet Luis at all, but he was just a product of her imagination.
With that, Olivia drifted off to darkness again.
Something was off, yet it felt right. The scent of bergamot filled her senses, and this time Olivia was confident that she was close to her father. He was the only one who would add bergamot to sanitizer to make it minty and citrusy and to soften the harsh pinch of alcohol; it was the scent that seeped into her father's clothes and all their furniture.
Only after leaving home, Olivia realized how much she loved that scent which would always bring a smile to her face. She thought that comfort of bergamot was gone forever, yet here it was, all around her.
Olivia tried to move, but she felt trapped. Was she stuck somewhere?
Her body was pleasantly numb, but she could feel the little prickles on her right side, this time, with the scent of bergamot.
Olivia's eyes fluttered open, and it took her some time to focus her vision and observe where she was.
It was an unknown room, but white walls and the beeping of machines on her left were a giveaway that she was in a hospital. There was an IV stuck into her left arm and…
"Ahh!" Olivia cried when she realized there was a man on her bed. She didn't want to wake him up, but he startled her, and he was definitely a stranger. What kind of a hospital was this?
Travis' eyes sprang open, and he stared at Olivia. The horror in her eyes broke something in him.
When Valerian brought in Olivia, Travis couldn't believe this was happening. Talia told him to expect a patient, a victim of abuse named Olivia, and that she was Talia's friend.
Travis didn't expect that the girl would be so skinny and broken, and his heart cracked from the anguish that swelled within him. Who dared to ruin such a wonderful female?
She smelled of sweet mangoes, and his wolf was howling.
'MATE!'
Travis jolted when that word echoed in his mind, and it took every ounce of his control to focus on the girl as a patient. She needed him to make things better, and for that, he needed to stay present.
He wanted to know what had happened, but Valerian didn't have that information.
Travis' wolf growled while urging Travis to find whoever dared to harm their mate and rip those bastards into pieces. It was hard to focus, but he pushed through the exams and surgery, and then he collapsed on the bed next to her. Until now.
"Who are you?" Olivia asked. "Why are you in my bed?"
Travis' wolf urged him to stick close to Olivia, but Travis knew better. He slowly got up from the bed and took a step back. He lifted his hands, indicating that he meant no harm.
"You had surgery. Try not to move. I am Travis Arzt, a doctor in the Dark Howlers pack. Your mate."
"My mate?" Olivia asked while wondering if her ears malfunctioned. "How is that possible? My mate is Luis." Or did she imagine that?
Travis' expression darkened. "Luis? Is he the one who did this to you!? Where is he?" Travis was ready to give him the death of thousand cuts!
Olivia blinked. "Luis is… dead."
Travis' chest was heaving. He was full of this inexplicable rage without an outlet. How can he kill a guy who is already dead?
Travis stared into Olivia's hazel eyes, and he was not sure if he should feel happy or sad or angry. Nothing seemed right. He found his mate. She was right there, beautiful and smelling of sweet mangoes, but her body was battered, and she said someone else was her mate.
