Gifted With Hydgrangea

                                                           Gifted With Hydrangea

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ryker is finally claimed by his mate Rudo, and all he wants is his happily ever after, but their mating is threatened when Rudo's ex-alpha betrays them, sending Rudo back into captivity. Things only get worse after their rescue when they find more labs, each worse than the last, the final lab leaving them exposed to a new and severely lethal virus that was created using shifter DNA.

 Enzo finds that his secret admirer is actually his mate; Heath. But a misunderstanding leaves Heath traumatized. Now Enzo has to try and convince Heath that he isn’t a monster. Not easy when he has to take over the entire pack when his alpha and their entire team gets exposed to a weaponized virus. Tension is high and Enzo wonders how he could possibly convince Heath to let him claim him, and not run screaming for the hills from all the drama.

 

 

Insert:

 

Alphy looked out the window. “There’s Kace and Marley with the trespasser.”

Ryker was curious, so he followed Alphy out into the main room. He felt Rudo following close behind.

They were both in the main office area when a naked Kace and Marley escorted in a man about Ryker’s height. The little man was pale, and Ryker could hear his heart beating at a dangerously fast rate. He had some minor cuts and bruises, and his fear was so palpable that Ryker could taste it on his tongue. Yuck.

Ryker smiled at him, careful to hide his fangs. “Hi, I’m Ryker. My brother’s a doctor, and you look like you can use one. How about I call him over?”

The young man didn’t say anything, so Ryker just took out his cell and dialed his brother. As he was waiting for Seamus to pick up, he saw Alphy give Kace and Marley stern looks.

“What the hell happened to him?”

“Sorry, Alphy,” Kace answered guiltily. “I guess he didn’t know how to ride a horse. He fell off.”

Seamus’s voice came over the line. “Hey, Rye, what’s going on?”

“Hi, Sea-salts. Hey, I’m up here in the office. Kace and Marley just brought in a human. He’s not doing so good. His heart-rate is nearly through the roof, and he apparently fell off a horse. He’s got some cuts and bruises.”

“On my way.” And the line went dead.

Ryker placed his cell in his pocket and motioned for the young man to take a seat, all the while offering him a kind smile. “Take a load off, uh—what’s your name?”

The man looked at the seat that he had offered and took a moment to contemplate, as if he wasn’t sure it was a good idea. But he soon made his decision and sat down. He was shaking pretty badly, and only whimpered in response.

“Hey, calm down, buddy. No one’s gonna hurt you.” Ryker tried to calm him down, but the young man shied away when Ryker tried to pat his arm. The man looked up fearfully at Kace, who was dressed now. There were always extra clothes strategically placed everywhere.

Alphy glared at Kace. “Kace, wanna tell me why he thinks you’re going to hurt him?”

Kace tilted his head slightly, submitting to the alpha, and winced. “I may have threatened him a little bit, before I put him up on Marley’s back.”

Marley added, “Don’t forget how vicious the two girls were. You would have almost thought them rabid, and with how skinny they were, I bet he thought they were going to eat him.”

Alphy rubbed his forehead and sighed heavily. The sound of a quad rumbled down below, and shut off.

Ryker perked up. “That would be my brother, Seamus. You remember, he’s the doctor.”

The man didn’t respond. A moment later, both Seamus and his beloved, Maysa, walked through the door. He went directly to the man and knelt down in front of him.

“Hi. My name is Doctor Seamus Rossi, but you can call me Seamus. I can tell you’re very upset. Your heart-rate is at a dangerous level. If you’d like, I can give you a mild sedative to calm you just a bit. It wouldn’t knock you out. It would just calm you.”

The man was shaking his head, furiously, and he backed away from Seamus. Seamus put his hands up and spoke calmly.

“It’s all right. I won’t give you anything you don’t want. Do you have any allergies?”

Everyone gave them more room as Seamus continued to question and examine the man. Kace and Marley took up guarding positions by the door, and Alphy backed up a bit, pulling Ryker and Rudo with him. Things felt like they were starting to calm down until Enzo walked in the door. That was when all hell broke loose.

 

Bonus insert:
(this is from a different part of the book )

 

Rudo sat quietly and listened to the others around him talk, but his mind wasn’t focused on it. It calmed him to hear the tapping and clicking noises his mate made as Ryker did his magic on his laptop. He would forever be amazed by how smart his little mate was. He was proud of Rye, and could hardly believe his good fortune that fate had chosen him to be his mate.

He looked over to where Seamus had gone. His body slightly tensed as he saw the shifter they were working on start to get a little combative with Seamus and another man in a HazMat suit. A hand, partially shifted, shot up and clawed Seamus through his suit. He heard Seamus shout to the other doctor to sound the alarm. The sound hurt Rudo’s ears, but he ignored it as he grabbed his mate around the waist, and began pulling as far away from the other tent as possible. The others in his tent followed, all huddling against the far end, away from the chaos. He now had both arms wrapped around Ryker as he heard Neto finally answer Enzo, whose shouts weren’t helping their nerves any.

The minutes felt like hours as they watched helplessly. He felt his mate shaking in his arms, but it wasn’t fear he sensed, as much as it was sorrow.

“Shh, everything will be all right, little mate.” He rubbed one hand up and down Ryker’s arm. He didn’t want to lessen his grip with the other hand, so he just used his thumb to rub Ryker’s side. And even though he wasn’t using vocal words, he dipped his head, lightly grazing the shell of Ryker’s ear with his lips.

“My brother’s suit was compromised. I can see blood from here. He’s bleeding. If that shifter was infected, then now my brother is, too.”

Rudo continued to watch silently as everything began to get back under control. Alphy had a little bit of blood on him, as well as the other guy he had tackled, who now lay limply over the nearby up-turned bed. The alarms were finally shut off, which had Rudo breathing out a sigh of relief.

Slowly, everything was put back into place. All of the suits and Alphy congregated together, discussing something. Finally, Seamus and Alphy, walked over to the window. Everyone approached to hear what they had to say, but they didn’t sit down or make themselves comfortable.

Seamus removed the top of his suit. The tips of his strawberry blond hair stuck to his sweaty skin in places. The look on his face was somber, and Rudo tried to mentally prepare for the undoubtedly bad news.

“Three of these men are infected,” Seamus began. “When a host becomes infected, there is an incubation time where the virus doesn’t cause any symptoms until it matures, and becomes active. When the virus becomes active, the first part of the disease causes the patient to be crazed, and if they are a shifter, their animal takes over. The human scientists neglected to tell me the shifter’s animal takes over violently.”

Alphy growled low, and his look, though it wasn’t directed at any of them, made Rudo feel intimidated.

“They said they forgot, because they always gave the shifters a shifting inhibitor to prevent that from occurring.” Alphy nearly spat the words out.

“What happens now?” Enzo asked.

“Now,” Seamus continued, “Alphy and I are going to start the serum that we have created so far. Maybe if we get it early enough, it will stop it from progressing.” But the look of doubt on Seamus’s face indicated that the chances of that were highly unlikely.

Rudo hadn’t let go of his mate, and it was a good thing because Ryker’s legs buckled, and he felt his mate’s sobs rack through his slim body. Rudo turned him and held him close to his heart.