Chapter 155 Chapter 155
Calum came out with Shaelan and stood to the side as the van pulled in. Blair was ten feet from him but still felt the anger radiate from him as he cursed under his breath and stomped toward the van.
The door opened and instead of a medic getting out, it was Devin Addison. Why was the prince here? Blair closed his eyes and hoped it was a quick visit, just to drop off Kobie’s brother. When Rayne climbed out next, he knew it wasn’t. Now he understood why Calum was pissed. They already had nine females to protect from Tomas—and now the future king and queen of the entire shifter world were here.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Blair heard Calum, despite him saying it low and quiet.
“I wanted to meet the woman that saved the rest of her clan,” Devin said, but there was no missing the smirk he was trying to hold in.
“Fine. Go home, we’ll bring her there next week.” Calum said bluntly.
Shaelan moved over and opened the back of the van to help get Kobie’s brother out. Blair’s nerves were zinging. He didn’t know what to expect in her twin. He was the last male of their clan at this point, and Blair didn’t want to have him feel like he was moving in on their territory and taking over. No shifter, male or female, would handle that well.
Kobie came running across the yard toward them. Shit. Moving quickly, Blair went over to help get the stretcher out. There was an IV pole with two bags hanging from it, a monitor with vitals blipping across it. He couldn’t see most of his body, but if his bandaged head and battered face were any indications of what the rest of him looked like, Blair didn’t want to see the rest of him.
“Jay?” Kobie leaned over the stretcher as it cleared the doors.
“He’s sedated for the trip.” The man told her.
Blair’s cat didn’t like him standing beside Kobie, stepping closer, he put his arm around her and pulled her against his side. “Let’s let them get him inside, then you can sit with him.”
Shaelan was reading through the folder that had been sitting on top of the sleeping man. Her brows furrowed, and Blair really hoped it wasn’t for bad reasons.
Kobie was shaking but made no move to step away from him. Blair walked slowly behind them, all while keeping Kobie steady. The man on the stretcher resembled her in that their hair was the same color, but there were too many stitches and bruises to tell beyond that. Actually, now that he was seeing him, he was shocked they’d transported him at all.
He glanced over at Calum, his expression matched Blair’s feelings.
Blair pulled Kobie to the side of the kitchen as they moved her brother into the room right off it.
Rayne came over, with an amused expression she noted Blair was still holding Kobie. A gentle smile appeared on her face, then she inclined her head to Kobie, “I’m Rayne, Devin’s mate.”
Kobie stiffened, then inclined her head and kept it down until Rayne touched it softly. Kobie looked at her, “thank you for escorting my brother here.”
Rayne glanced over at Devin for a second, “Devin was hoping to talk to him, but that may have to wait for a few days.”
Blair rubbed his hand over his hair but didn’t say a word. They were staying a few days? Shit. He glanced to Calum, who had also heard them, and motioned to the man that had just come from the guardhouse.
He spoke to him quietly, but Blair caught the ‘oh shit’ look when he’d glanced at Devin and Rayne. With a nod, he rushed from the house. Security was about to be ramped up.
Blair wasn’t sure if he’d slept the night before and he’d already patrolled twice today, and it was barely nine in the morning.
He checked again to see Kobie was sitting beside her brother. He’d only stirred once and then would go back to sleep since he’d arrived. The way the man looked; Blair was glad he was sleeping through the healing. It didn’t matter what part of his body Kobie’s brother would want to move, it was going to hurt. Eight broken bones, three fractures, multiple areas too bruised and swollen to be certain of injury, and stitches on five other areas of his body. All Shaelan had said on it was he was a strong man to have survived this far.
He looked at Kobie, she was speaking softly to her twin. He didn’t want to hear what she was saying, but the expression on her face told him she was giving the man every reason to hang on and fight through it. The link between twins may be the reason he survived, Devin or Rayne had said that—he couldn’t be sure because his head was too full of Kobie’s distress at that point, but now he had to wonder if it was her will that had brought her brother this far.
Rubbing a hand over his chest, he nodded and decided he needed to get out of here and grab some air.
He made it three feet outside and spotted Devin on the phone. Shit. He was supposed to call Gage yesterday. Fuck. Pulling his phone out, he brought up the call list as he walked. He had no particular destination in mind, just hoped to be out of earshot of any shifters because this was going to be a hard conversation. For him mostly. He’d bailed on the team at the shop and took off to lick his wounds—if he hadn’t, Cooper probably wouldn’t be miserable and laid up in bed right now. He also wouldn’t have met Kobie…
He was just about to hang up after five rings when Gage barked a hello into the phone.
“Bad time?”
“No. Yes, give me a second.” He heard the phone hitting what could only be one of the tool trays. “Noah, you push from that side.”
Blair closed his eyes and tried to picture what they were doing.
“Stupid, son of a…” There was a loud clanging sound of something large and metal hitting the floor. Gage was laughing. “After you pick Noah up, Jake, go give Gary a hand.”
“Hello.”
Blair smirked, “they jammed the conveyer return again.”
Gage chuckled, “second time this week.” He cleared his throat, “have you been avoiding me?”
Blair shook his head like the man could see him from there and started walking again, “no, not on purpose, it’s just been a fucking adventure here.”
“Yeah, got a text from Calum saying Devin showed up yesterday. He’s not impressed.”
Blair looked back toward the house. “Yeah, he’s even less impressed that Devin won’t stay in the house.”
“We’re doing well here, Noah is back, plus we have Kelsey wreaking havoc and making everyone look bad in the shop now—you’re needed there, especially now that Calum has to shadow Dev.”
Blair stared at the ground at his feet, he hadn’t even thought of that in days. He continued to stand there; hearing Kelsey was in the shop hadn’t hurt like it would have a week ago either. Shaking his head, “some of the guys they have as guards here aren’t very good at it.”
“How’s that? Did you tell Calum? I’m sure he could get Dev to pull some from somewhere else…”
“No. I’ve got it covered. I know we’re spread thin right now.” He clenched his jaw recalling, “Kobie strolled right past the entire watch. I almost had a heart attack,” he shrugged, “I thought Tomas’ guys had found us.”
“Everything all right?”
“Yeah—she went fishing, or more accurately caught a half dozen trout with a spear—to clear her head…”
Gage started laughing. “It makes sense now.”
“What does?”
“Cal said you were having female issues or troubles or something,” Gage chuckled again, “I thought he meant because you were running herd on nine females, but it’s one, isn’t it?”
Blair blew out a breath and rubbed between his eyes with his thumb, “yeah. Kobie is mine and I don’t know what the fuck to do with that.”
“Your mate?”
“Yeah.”