10

"I gave you my trust." Venom dripped from Freya’s lips as she picked the discarded cell phone off the floor, pulverizing it into dust with her hand. Fury suffused her, her feral side dominating. She loomed over the fallen woman, talons out, fangs bared, black pitiless eyes boring into her curled-up body.

"As Liam gave you his." Dayton’s quiet words held more than a hint of command in them, his emotions backing them up as he pressed hard down his mate bond with Freya, working to rein in the fury holding her tightly in its grasp. "She’s hurt, Freya. Back away from her... now."

She was hurt? The words seeped into the vampire’s enraged mind and she took two steps backwards, trying to loosen the hold of her vampiric side by shaking her head. Dayton was in her mind, his cold ruthless determination assaulting her senses and making her want to weep. He was never like that with her. He always supported her.

Freya’s eyes turned back to their normal shade as his disappointment continued to wash over her. She stared down at Reasa, seeing the mask of pain on her face, the tears soaking her cheeks as whimpers came from her lips. She’d hurt the human. She’d given Liam her word and she’d hurt his mate. Her stricken gaze met Dayton’s. "I didn’t mean to. She took my phone. I was just trying to stop her."

Dayton held in his sigh of relief when he saw his mate revert to normal. He hadn’t liked being so hard on her, but he’d had to get through to her as quickly as possible to ensure she didn’t do any further damage to Reasa. Placing a human in the midst of the mixed pack had been a recipe for disaster from the beginning. It had only been a matter of time before some injury occurred to Reasa, be it deliberate or an accident.

He moved past Freya, wanting to reassure her but also needing to check that the other woman wasn’t hurt too badly. He automatically slipped into Beta mode, adopting the role he had held for most of his life. He could see her shoulder was dislocated but at a cursory glance, the rest of her looked okay. "We need Mallen. Her shoulder injury needs to be attended to immediately. We need Rafe too. He needs to know what’s happened and that Reasa managed to get a call out. I’ll stay with her. Let’s try to make sure Liam doesn’t get wind of this. He’ll overreact."

"Dayton... "

"Go, Freya. We’ll talk later. Right now, we need to prioritize Reasa’s needs." His words sounded harsh and he sent a wave of love through their mate bond to reassure her.

"Everything will be okay, honey, I promise. Just hurry now and do what’s required so we can relieve the girl’s pain." He had to soothe his mate with his mental caress. He could feel the self-doubt filling her soul and knew she would hold onto it and it would fester until she could verbalize her feelings of failure. He would have to nip that in the bud as quickly as possible.

He sensed her leave the room, his gaze watching the human avidly for any signs of further distress that may indicate an internal injury he couldn’t see. He had thought this would be easy, taking Reasa into their home at their Alpha’s request. Maybe he should have put his foot down and refused. Freya’s actions had been unintentional, but the fallout from them would haunt her more than anyone else would ever know. He couldn’t allow his precious vampire to be hurt. If having his nephew’s mate in their home was going to do that then Rafe would have to come up with another solution.

"Try not to move, Reasa. I know it hurts but Mallen will be here soon. Once he puts your shoulder back in place the pain will subside. I won’t lie to you; that’s going to be more painful than the original injury, and then you’ll have to face Rafe over your actions. You’ve just made life a whole lot harder for yourself."

Reasa opened her eyes long enough to look at Dayton, trying to ignore the agony shooting through her body. Every nerve felt like it was on fire and she wasn’t used to suffering like this. Injuries had always healed instantly when she was still a vampire. Now her vision was blurred and it was hard to concentrate. "And for your mate."

He gave her a rueful smile, stroking a hand through her hair because he didn’t like seeing anyone in pain. "That’s par for the course with Freya. Believe me; she’ll give herself a harder time for this than Rafe will. He’s Alpha, so he’ll factor in that the safety of the pack was in jeopardy, and that will be the priority with him. As for Freya, she’ll see it as a personal failure regardless of the circumstances and react accordingly. It will make my life a little bit more difficult, but we’ll work through it."

He paused, sitting back on his heels, and tilting his head towards the door. He could hear Mallen approaching and let out a slow breath before turning back to the human. "The main danger is Liam finding out. We have to avoid that happening at all costs. We don’t want a repeat of what happened up at the Praetorian Compound."

Personally, she didn’t care at the moment. All that was registering was the agony flowing through her body and the fact that it wouldn’t stop. It wouldn’t be her problem, anyway, even if he did find out and lose control. She was human now and wouldn’t be aware of anything. Her fragile mind would implode instantly.

"Let me get near her, Day." Mallen knelt down beside Reasa, his gaze intent as he quickly catalogued her outward injuries with a practiced eye. Since she was human, he realized he would have to be more careful with her than his usual patients, but he was confident in his ability to do so. His hands gently ran over her body and he was relieved to determine her shoulder dislocation was the worst wound. She would have some bruising, aches, and pains; once he set the shoulder, she should be fine.

"How bad is it?" Rafe growled out the question, entering the room with Freya in tow.

"Not too bad," Mallen answered, glancing quickly at his Alpha. "She has a dislocated shoulder and some bumps and bruises, but apart from that she’s fine."

The Alpha nodded, turning his gaze on Freya and Dayton. He wasn’t surprised to see his beta had automatically come to stand beside his mate when she’d entered the room. He would have done the same had it been Lacey who’d made a mistake. "Do we know who she got the call out to?"

It was Freya who met his gaze and answered him, her tone emotionless, and her expression neutral in the face of his displeasure. "I destroyed the phone, but if I were to hazard a guess, I believe it was to her former coven."

Her answer brought a frown to Rafe’s face. "Why would she do that? She’s human now. They wouldn’t be the least interested in her."

"You’re right; unless she didn’t tell them, she was human," Dayton mused, running a hand down Freya’s stiff back. He could read her body language so well and knew she was working hard on maintaining her control. "If they think she has gathered intelligence of events which directly endanger the Covens...there’s a strong possibility they’d show a great deal of interest." He was relieved the Alpha was concentrating first on the pack security issue. If he was assigning more importance to that, then maybe he’d cut Freya some slack.

"I overreacted and forgot both my strength and Reasa’s vulnerability. I failed in my duty, causing harm to her instead of keeping her safe. You must remove the human from my care, Rafe. I am clearly incapable of performing this task or keeping my word to Liam." Freya moved away from them to stare out the window, her posture rigid.

Rafe shared a glance with Dayton, raising an eyebrow. His Beta was always the best barometer when it came to dealing with the volatile vampire. The fact that his expression displayed concern wasn’t a good sign. Once more, he found himself in the position of having to deal with an issue that wasn’t as simple as it appeared. Yes, Freya should have thought before she reacted. Realistically though, with Reasa being so much weaker as a human, the same thing might have happened regardless of whose care she was in.

"There’s nowhere else to place her, Freya, not which will appease Liam anyway. The only reason he’s content to have her here is because she’s with you. There’s no denying this situation shouldn’t have happened. Reasa shouldn’t have had the opportunity to get access to a cell phone and allowances should have been given to her frailty before corrective action was taken. However, it’s happened and we have to learn from today so it doesn’t happen again."

She spun around to look at him, fury in her eyes. "The best way to ensure it does not happen again is to remove her. I am incapable of ensuring no harm comes to her. I allowed her access to my phone and I broke my word to Liam."

"Then I am just as culpable here too," Dayton interjected, his tone pragmatic. He raised a hand to halt Freya’s automatic denial. "No, if you’re intent on applying blame, Freya, then let’s look at the big picture. How did Reasa get access to the phone? What diverted your attention enough that she could take it in the first instance?"

Her angry gaze bore into his, her expression turning hard. "Don’t try to manipulate me, Dayton. The error occurred because I didn’t stop to consider that she would even try to get access to a phone. It has nothing to do with you arriving home and distracting me. You didn’t leave your phone out and you didn’t overreact to the situation."

"When you guys have finished beating yourselves up over who is responsible, do you think one of you could give me a hand here?" Mallen asked dryly, interrupting the volatile situation. "I need someone to brace Reasa so I can pop her shoulder back in." Three heads turned to survey him, but it was the vampire who moved first.

"I am the strongest." Freya swept past her mate and Alpha, moving into position as Mallen relayed his needs. She supported the other woman against her body, listening intently to the doctor’s instructions.

As they worked together, Rafe turned to Dayton. "Do we know where Liam is?"

His Beta let out a sigh, his gaze never leaving his mate’s rigid face. "He went for a walk with Elina earlier. I think they took off into the forest. With any luck, he’ll be out of hearing distance and none the wiser." A loud popping sound filled the room as he finished speaking, followed a split second later by a harsh scream. Reasa’s body went rigid with pain, her eyes rolling back in her head, the colour draining from her face.

Liam increased his pace to enable him to catch up with his cousin. His wolf was unsettled, urging him to return to the compound quickly. There was no real reason for it, so he was perplexed by his animal’s behavior. It appeared he would be struggling with his wolf the entire time it would take him to claim his mate. He wasn’t used to that, having always been in harmony with his wolf from a very early age.