Chapter 3
Vasily bowed his head in supplication baring his neck. “No, Alpha, we’re yours. Whatever you decide to do, we will go with you. I just wanted you to have options.”
“I’m taking an option. I’ll be Fifth and grateful for the consideration. I’ll leave the politics to Armand. Obviously, he’s better at it than we are. Although there has been some resentment, miraculously gay bashing is now a hate crime in the United States, against federal law, and gay marriage has become legal.” 1
Central Park
Sunday, last day in February, 5 A.M.
Vasily and Grigory accompanied Alexei on his regular early morning jog through Central Park. He was trying to rebuild his strength to where it was before his imprisonment. Alexei was almost there. Now he didn’t get winded after running fifteen miles and was able to lift four times his weight, not great for a wolf, but getting there. However, the depression had not disappeared. His soul was still in the gulag. About halfway through his regular run along the jogging paths, the scent of oranges overwhelmed him. Oranges, in the park in February?He thought it was strange and took a detour.
He stopped and looked around, his wolfen nose picking out the muted scent. He followed it down the jogging trail to a lone park bench hidden behind a black cherry tree. On the bench under some newspapers lay a young man dressed like a prostitute, barely breathing. He wore a black net shirt and tight ripped jeans totally unsuitable for the cold of the late February morning. Alexei had to help. He couldn’t let a fellow creature suffer. His memories of cold and hunger were all too recent. He removed the newspaper and stared.
He looks no older than Gabriel’s mouse, but he is dirty and unkempt and looks…Wait, there is a needle hanging out of his arm. Alexei sat next to the boy. He reached out to remove the needle. As soon as skin touched skin his wolf cried, Help him, now, Mate, mine, sick, dying.
Alexei panicked. He called Vasily and Grigory, who were about one hundred yards behind him, over the Alpha Link. “My Mate, I have found my Mate. He’s dying. Call Armand. Get Dr. Artis. Someone…I need a doctor to treat an overdose, now!” Vasily and Grigory scrambled to do Alexei’s bidding.
Alexei picked the boy up and ran out of the park. He stopped once to give him mouth to mouth, cursing his inability to run faster. He held him close to his body, in an attempt to share his body heat. Fifteen agonizing minutes later, Alexei reached the park entrance near the zoo just as Artis pulled up in a Navigator. Alexei continued to check to see if the boy was still breathing while Dr. Artis jumped out of the SUV.
* * * *
“I have everything with me to set up at your townhouse. This way you can be with him during the detox.”
Alexei’s Betas, who had accompanied him on his run, and the Enforcers who hurried from the house, when Grigory called, helped load the boy into the Navigator. Alexei rode with Dr. Artis and the boy. His Betas and Enforcers ran behind the SUV to the expansive seven-floor townhouse Daurensbourg had found him on East Sixty-Fourth Street, two blocks from the park.
He held his Mate’s cold hand. Dr. Artis took out what looked like a small crayon box and placed it over the middle of his boy’s outer thigh and pushed. “I am administering naloxone with a handheld auto-injector called Evzio to mitigate the effect of the overdose. I may need to do this once more before we get to the house.” His Mate’s body spasmed, but he didn’t respond. Alexei began to panic.
A loup garou nurse was in the Navigator with Artis and watched her patient’s vitals.
“Dr. Artis, another injection of Evzio, stat,” the nurse said in a calm, steady voice.
Dr. Artis took another box like the first, held it over the boy’s thigh, and plunged. His jade green eyes opened and he moaned.
The Navigator stopped in front of the townhouse. His Betas opened the Navigator’s door. The first rays of morning light bathed the inside of the SUV. It was then that Alexei noticed the remnants of a severe beating. There were contusions, both new and old, everywhere but his face. Alexei gritted his teeth in anger and consternation. Who would do this to another human being? I thought I left these horrors in the gulag.
Grigory, Pierre—Armandmrsquo;s driver, and Dr. Artis removed his Mate from the backseat. They carried him into the basement rear entrance and onto the elevator of Alexeiersquo;s new home. mldquo;Where is your suite?irdquo; Artis snapped.